A conference paper presented at the Widening Participation Conference 2012 'Discourse of Inclusion in Higher Education' 24-25 April 2012, UK

1. Open University
Widening Participation Conference 2012
Discourses of Inclusion in Higher Education
Critical pedagogy and its place within an
undergraduate Education Studies curriculum
Iain Jones
Newman University College, Birmingham
24 April 2012

2. Aims of presentation
• To present methodology and methods
used in a pilot study of critical pedagogy
• To reflect on methodology , methods and
initial findings
• To summarise questions raised and
identify next stage of research
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3. Core focus and argument
Evaluation of critical pedagogy and its ‘place’ within a
specific higher education curriculum.
Inspired but not fixed by Freire.
Debates and practices need to be understood by analysing
conditions that such a transformative discourse of higher
education is developed within and
How these conditions work on the concepts and practices
of ‘authentic dialogue’ and ‘creative spaces’ that are central
to critical pedagogy.
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4. Structure
Aims of pilot study • Context
and research • Methodology
question • Method
• Emotion and the affective
Findings • Performativity
• Questions raised by pilot
Activity and study
plenary • Your reflections
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5. Aim of pilot study
Situate the theoretical principles of critical
pedagogy
(see Freire, 1985; Giroux, 1985; Freire and
Macedo, 1999; Canaan and Singh, 2008)
in relation to specific aspects of practice.
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6. Research Question
The main question that guided the design of
pilot study:
‘What is the place for a critical pedagogy
within a specific higher education
curriculum?’
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7. Principles of critical pedagogy
Curiosity
Critical
Creative Pedagogy
learners Voice and
and authentic
creative dialogue
spaces
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8. Context. Pilot study: November 2011
and February 2012
Explored the principles, conditions, and practices of critical
pedagogy through a small scale ethnographic study within
a specific undergraduate module
The emerging research problem in the pilot study
concerned with the experiences of a group of students and
their teachers
The potential and limitations of a critical pedagogy within
practices developed in a specific module in a specific
curriculum set in a specific time and place.
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9. Conceptual framework: temporal and spatial
Not a ‘description’ of an institution, course or
module (although these provide a context) but
how to capture ‘moments’ within a module
and across a period of time (the temporal
dimension) and
how these experiences shaped by identities
within the institution, course and module
(the spatial dimension).
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10. Conceptual framework : Iterative –inductive
approach
My analysis and interpretation informed by
O’Reilly iterative –inductive approach
Moving ‘back and forth iteratively between
theory and analysis, data and interpretation’
(2011:105)
The preliminary findings I present remain
permeable and incomplete (Amsler and Canaan,
2008).
10

11. Conceptual framework: Inter-relationships between
performativity, authenticity and modes of time
Performative self is a fabricated, socially constructed self,
created and confined by our respective social and institutional
laws and rules
Authenticity refers to an inner self that can recognize
performative demands and act knowingly and mindfully
in response to them (Mac Kenzie et al, 2007:47).
Three modes of time and classroom ethnography
(Jeffrey and Troman:2004)
• Compressed
• Selective intermittent
• Recurrent.
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12. Advance Notice ! Discuss in 40 mins.
Reflections on the pilot study:
Qs raised by methodology , methods and findings
First thoughts
You and your perspectives
How does performativity work on ‘authentic
dialogue’ and ‘creative spaces’ for you and your
learning and what is your ‘knowing’ and ‘mindful’
response?
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13. The module that formed basis of
pilot study
The Politics of Education module is a Level 6
module
38 students took the module
Two modes of assessment
• 8-10 minute group documentary on an issue of
their choice
• 1500 word essay analysing issue
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14. Aims of the module that formed basis
of pilot study
• Develop understanding of the political nature of
educational policy and practice.
• Analyse the organisational and ideological
factors that shape the making of policy.
• Use a range of methods to investigate an area
of policy and practice relevant to your own
personal , academic and professional
development.
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15. Introduction to a module:
Politics : Keywords and images
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16. Definition of policy (Ball, 2008)
big –P policy that is ‘formal’ and usually
legislated policy…. But we need to remain
aware that policies are made and
remade in many sites, and there are
many little-p policies that are formed
and enacted within localities and
institutions
(Ball, 2008:7)
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17. Two issues chosen as starting point:
Internet safety and Looked After Children
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18. Policy texts and questions designed
Byron Review ( 2008)
How does the Byron Review aim to advise schools
around making the internet safe for pupils and why is
this a political issue?
White Paper Care Matters: Time for Change
(2007)
How have developments in education policy regarding
‘parental choice’ impacted on the educational
outcomes of looked after children?
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19. Methodology and methods
My reflection on the module, within this specific
setting, draws on Mc Arthur (2010), and her
argument:
To understand critical pedagogy its possibilities and
place, and to then conceptualise how it can be applied, are
questions of
• what is meant by diverse forms of knowledge ?
• how those forms can be exchanged and developed ?
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20. Why ethnography with a political
intent?
The critical ethnography enabled me to understand
and conceptualise the complexity of the
experiences of students and teachers: the
trajectories, contingencies and un-
predictabilities marked out in a particular
time and place
Critical ethnography ‘is an inherently political
enterprise; it is ethnography with a political intent’
(Cohen, Manion and Morrison 2011:243).
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21. Carspecken’s model of critical ethnography
(1996:41-42) in Cohen, Manion and
Morrison (2011)
Stage 1
Compiling the primary record through
the collection of monological data
Stage 2
Preliminary reconstructive
analysis
Stage 3
Dialogical data collection
Stage 4
Discovering system relations
Stage 5
Using system relations to explain findings
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22. Methods in design of pilot study
• Participant observation and field notes
• Survey
• Focus Group
• My reflexivity as insider researcher
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23. O’Reilly’s iterative –inductive approach
The preliminary findings I will present remain
permeable and incomplete (Amsler and Canaan,
2008)
The analysis and interpretation is informed
by O’Reilly’s iterative –inductive approach of
moving ‘back and forth iteratively between
theory and analysis, data and
interpretation’ (2011:105).
23

24. Stage 1 and monological data
Collected a primary record based on monological data :
Described existing situation and engagement with students and
colleagues in the module and pilot study.
Three methods used to gather monological data:
• my field notes
• perspectives of the students
• those of my two other colleagues who taught module with me.
I wanted to capture the mood of the moment using
• ‘head’,
• ‘scratch’
• ‘ full’ fieldnotes (O’Reilly, 2009:72) .
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25. Extract from scratch notes
22 November: Staff Student Consultative
Committee
Single student at meeting. Meeting went ahead.
She represented her views and claimed they
were views of others. This exchange was a
precursor to what was then a focus on the
module. Yet again she presented her views as
if they were representative of the group-when
they were not. I felt as if I was being placed in
the spotlight (Scratch note recorded on 24
November and emphasis placed on 2 April)
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26. Extracts from survey: How would you
describe your experiences of the module?
One of five open questions 23 students
responded to anonymously on 24
November.
Responses included ‘highly helpful’, ‘interesting’,
‘extremely interesting’, ‘On a whole positive’(sic),
others were ‘confused’ , ‘frustrated’ or ‘Stressful
and confusing over ideologies’ and ‘Some of the
lessons were effective as I learnt a lot around
the politics of education whilst others were not
of as much use as it was used to discuss others
groups work that doesn’t effect me’ (sic).
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27. Extracts from focus group
• Contrast between issue each group identified and then their
development of framework for analysing why it was a political
issue.
• We felt disconnection between their experiences and what it
is that makes an issue political.
• Our dilemma :whether students, particularly at Level 6,
should be taking more responsibility for their learning
• Our conclusion :re-structuring of sessions within the
module. Preliminary ideas to include
Greater use of case studies
Student diaries: what is a political event
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28. Stage 2 :Preliminary reconstruction and
findings
Woods (1996) Critical Events
Methodologically ‘it is difficult to study critical events as they are happening’
(1996:119) but the meanings and context of an event can be explored and
understood in retrospect.
Mercer (2007) Insider research
By reflecting on and understanding the significance of critical events the ‘subtle
and diffuse links between the situation and events’ (2007:11) can be identified.
Jeffrey and Troman (2004) Time and classroom
ethnography
• Compressed
• Selective intermittent
• Recurrent
O’Reilly (2009) Iterative-inductive approach
28

29. Theory: Performativity as
a technology, a culture and mode of
regulation that employs judgements,
comparisons and displays as means of
incentive, control, attrition and change
based on rewards and sanctions (both
material and symbolic) (Ball, 2003: 216).
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30. Performativity and authenticity
The performative self is a fabricated, socially
constructed self, created and confined by our
respective social and institutional laws and
rules.
Authenticity refers to an inner self that can
recognize performative demands and act
knowingly and mindfully in response to them
(MacKenzie, 2007:47).
30

31. Analysis of scratch notes and extracts:
March and April
The conditions that research was developed
within and how those conditions worked on principles
and practices of student voice that is a principle of
critical pedagogy.
Restricted practices and extended possibilities of
‘voice’ were suffused with emotion and the
‘affective’ (see Leathwood and Hey, 2009). However,
they not in binary opposition but were inter-
related. These relationships were mediated, in turn,
by performativity
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32. Interpretation: Grim ?
32

33. Or contradictory , permeable and
incomplete?
Amsler and Canaan (2008) emphasise that
linguistic representations of a process or
condition as a totalising, inevitable and
completed script have a performative function:
they potentially depict as ‘complete’
processes that are often incomplete,
contradictory and more permeable to other
forces and practices than their
representation suggests (2008:4, my
emphasis).
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34. Reflections on pilot study
‘Voice’ in a restricted form, limited to formal
module evaluations and staff: student
consultative meetings, may act on and
marginalise the capacity for an alternative and
extended forms of voice and authentic
dialogue within creative spaces in higher
education
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35. Conclusion: Reflecting on pilot study on
place of critical pedagogy
Used an iterative – inductive approach and
Jeffrey and Troman’s work (2004) on time and
classroom ethnography as basis for analysing
how conditions work on a critical pedagogy.
Preliminary findings suggest contradictory,
permeable and incomplete practices (Amsler and
Canaan,2008).
Exploratory pilot study forms basis of an
understanding, and further research, on inter-
relationships between performativity and
authenticity (MacKenzie et al, 2007) and modes
of time. 35

36. Discussion. Design of the pilot study:
Methodology , methods and findings
First thoughts
You and your perspectives
How does performativity work on ‘authentic
dialogue’ and ‘creative spaces’, for you and your
learning, and what is your ‘knowing’ and ‘mindful’
response?
36

37. Questions raised by the pilot study
Critical pedagogy, performativity and
authenticity
The complex inter relationships and
how can they be understood
37

38. References
• Amsler, S. and Canaan, J. (2008) Whither critical pedagogy in the neo-
liberal university today? Two UK practitioners’ reflections on constraints and
possibilities, ELiSS, 1 (2), November 2008.
• Ball, S.J. (2003) ‘The teacher’s soul and the terrors of performativity’,
Journal of Education Policy, 18(2), 215-228.
• Canaan, J and Singh, G. (2008) The Neoliberal University, Critical Pedagogy
and Popular Education Part 1 (Podcast) Available at:
http://criticalpedagogywm.wordpress.com/resources/podcasts-and-
videos/(Accessed: 26 July 2010).
• Carspecken, P. (1996) Critical Ethnography in Educational Research: A
Theoretical and Practical Guide, Routledge: London.
• Cohen, L, Manion , L, and Morrison, K. (2011) Research Methods in
Education, Seventh edition, Abingdon: Routledge.
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39. References
• Freire, P. (1985) The Politics of Education: Culture, Power and Liberation. New
York: Bergin and Garvey.
• Freire, P. and Macedo , D. (1999) Pedagogy, Culture, Language, and Race: A
Dialogue in J.Leach and B.Moon (eds) Learners and Pedagogy. London: Paul
Chapman Publishing.
• Giroux, H. (1985) Introduction in P.Freire, The Politics of Education: Culture,
Power and Liberation. New York: Bergin and Garvey.
• Jeffrey, B. and Troman, G. (2004) Time for ethnography, British Educational
Research Journal , 30(4), 535-548.
• Leathwood, C. and Hey , V.(2009) Gendered discourses and emotional sub-
texts: theorising emotion in UK higher education, Teaching in Higher
Education,14(4), 429-440.
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40. References
• McArthur, J. (2010) Time to look anew: critical pedagogy and disciplines within higher
education, Studies in Higher Education, 35(3),301-315.
• MacKenzie, H, McShane, K, and Wilcox, S. (2007) Challenging Performative
Fabrication: Seeking authenticity in academic development practice
International Journal for Academic Development Vol. 12, No. 1, May 2007, pp. 45–54.
• Mercer, J. (2007) The Challenges of Insider Research in Educational Institutions:
Wielding a double-edged sword and resolving delicate dilemmas.
https://lra.le.ac.uk/bitstream/2381/4677/1/Justine_Mercer_Final_Draft_Insider_Resea
rch_Paper.pdf (Accessed: 9 February 2012).
• O’Reilly, K. (2009) Key Concepts in Ethnography, London: Sage.
• Woods, P. (1996) Researching the Art of Teaching: Ethnography for Educational Use.
London :Routledge.
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41. Contact details
Iain Jones
iain.jones@newman.ac.uk
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