I find this article fascinating as it resonates with my views and value as a practitioner, social designer and educator.

I found this article laid out a lot of ideas or concepts, I had difficulties formulating. One of the teaching angles I try to apply regularly is to my lessons but also when writing new projects.

I was particularly interested in the questions of power and position of power and how education can be a tool to challenge and deconstruct this dynamism. 

For this reason, more often than not education plays a major role in perpetuating the status quo, especially in terms of power, something he thinks needs to be challenged and transformed (Freire and Faundez 1989). In his own words, “It is impossible to think of education without thinking of power . . . the question . . . is not to get power, but to reinvent power” (cited in Evans, Evans, and Kennedy 1987, 226) 

Being familiar with the theory of Freire and his book Pedagogy of the Oppressed,  I also understand that it is important to also consider the external and societal forces that play in the classroom, and consider the intersectionality when it comes to the subject of identity, race, class, faith and background.

These forces, “They should not be approached as if everyone in the classroom, including the teacher, is starting from the same place in terms of social status and identity”. 

No one can ignore these factors when interacting with students and pretend, inequality does not exist in classrooms or studios.

This given situation allows the teacher to recognise that they are not here to perpetuate a pattern but to try to deconstruct them by 

creating a social justice educative experience:

“Educational experience exists between a teacher and students rather than emanating from a teacher to students. A teacher needs to create experiences with, and not for, students, integrating their experiences and voices into the educational experience itself (Freire 2006). Teachers’ and students’ identities are thus tied to one another in an interlocked relationship (Rozas 2007).”

I do agree with Hahn Tapper that Freire “Freire does not merely critique the field of education; he also offers ways to transform it. He asserts that one way to move students toward

freedom is to create an educational structure whereby both teachers and students engage in habitual, critical reflection, a model that takes into account their identities”

And that an authentic social justice educative action should aim to transform the status quo and to leave room for the students to safely teach each other supported by teaching staff through critical thinking and methods.

I was particularly curious about the SIT Trapper’s theory and how this could lead to more conflict than resolutions considering the membership of facilitators or students to one or another group.

It is important to evaluate that bias can (or will) exist in intergroup activities and encounters. “The reality outside the room cannot be

controlled, which will inevitably shape power dynamics within any given experiment for the worse. Societal inequalities linked to participants’ social identities play a role within the confines of any intergroup trial, something that is impossible to regulate or ignore (Lieberson 1961).

I would like to read more about this and how to navigate the undeniable influence outside the classroom/studio when working with a large societal diverse group of students while making sure to maintain the best inclusive standards