Cultural transformation within the Visual Arts Agents of change Terry Finnigan Aisha Richards University of the Arts, London

Critical Pedagogy The educator must engage in critical thinking with the students in the quest for mutual humanization. They must be partners with the students in their relations with them. (Freire 1970)

Critical pedagogy There is no such thing as a neutral education process: is it an instrument to encourage integration and conformity OR is it a process by which men and women deal critically and creatively with reality and discover how to participate in the transformation of the world (Friere 1970)

Our Need for Change The theoretical framework of critical pedagogy (Friere 1970) is grounded in the concept of social justice. Students and educators engage in dialogue and discuss their views in order to generate systemic change where culture and cultural capital can positively be present within everything we do.

Cultural Capital Certain kinds of art can only be decoded, and appreciated by those who have been taught how to decode them. The cultural capital of the working classes, and certain ethnic groups, is devalued and delegitimated dominant groups make inequalities seem just, and natural, through notions of meritocracy - the idea that economic and educational ‘rewards’ are the natural result of ability and hard work, resulting in the misrecognition of the effects of class as the causes of class (Bourdieu 1984). Extracts from Burke & McManus (2009)

Cultural Capital Task One: Read the student’s reflections on her course in pairs Make some comments Task two Read and reflect on the students quote from Any room at the Inn Discuss in pairs

Whose Culture has Capital: An Alternative Construct? Community cultural wealth is a critical race theory challenge to traditional interpretations of cultural capital. Critical race theory shifts the research lens away from a deficit view of communities of colour…and focuses on and learns from the array of cultural knowledge, skills, abilities and contacts possessed by socially marginalised groups that often go unrecognised and unacknowledged. (Yosso 2005) Yosso 2005

The Transformative Power of Art Why in so many instances of global imperialist conquest by the West, has art has been appropriated or destroyed…all the African art I first saw was in museums and galleries of Paris. It occurred to me then that if one could make people lose touch with their capacity to create, lose sight of their will and power to make art, then the work of subjugation, of colonization, is complete. Such work can only be done by acts of concrete reclamation (hooks 1995)

Inclusive Learning Unit in Art & Design Critical pedagogy Social justice Community cultural wealth Curriculum innovation projects

In pairs read and comment on the four course interventions that staff on the inclusive learning unit created. They were directly linked to their own art and design teaching practice and were transformational in understanding about how to work with difference

Shades of Noir Staff, students and alumni curating an exhibition of the work of Black UAL Alumni, Kings Cross exhibition space Talks, discussions and debates A catalogue and resources Curriculum interventions

Task beyond the ‘norm’ Write a list of BME creative's within your own practise Share them within your groups of 3s Add them to or

Our Possible Future Students as globalized citizens Inclusive Challenging Diverse Open Pedagogies of social justice Inclusive Challenging Diverse Open