Category Archives: News

Conference, News

Public Pedagogies of Location

Please note: the annual conference will now be run as a series of online seminars throughout October and November 2020.

Public Pedagogies of Location

As the smoke from the country fires permeated the city a renewed relationship arises out of the ashes.  The borders between public and personal, nature and creation, became obscured, perhaps showing ideological relationships to location that are fluid. 

In what ways might relationships to location be pedagogical? Location is critical for a number of reasons. Locations are ignored or privileged; they are positioned against each other, yet we claim our location and location claims us. Locations of protest are contested and behaviour monitored. The ecologies of location are fragile and in need of care, or perhaps attentiveness to these ecologies are strengthening?

This conference theme extends a call to reimagine relationships to location, to engage these blurred boundaries and emergent spaces of location and our relationships to concepts of localism, activism, and pedagogy.

Please email karen.charman@vu.edu.au with any proposals or to discuss ideas for the conference.

News

A Walk Through Justice

Meg Cotter and Richard Dove of Wyndham Community and Education Centre were recently awarded a  Police Community Exemplary Award at the Victorian Multicultural Awards for Excellence, for their project Wyndham Citizen’s Academy: A Walk through Justice.

The Public Pedagogies Institute would like to congratulate Meg and Richard for their great work and the recognition it has received.

The project will also be discussed in their presentation at our upcoming conference Walking and Talking Public Pedagogies, November 28-29, 2019. Details here

A video of the Wyndham Citizens’ Academy Graduation, recorded and developed by Victoria Police, can be viewed here: https://www.facebook.com/eyewatchwyndham/videos/vb.134404370080550/418695362089395/?type=3&theater

“Wyndham Citizen’s Academy: A Walk through Justice is a ground-breaking program, led by Wyndham Community and Education Centre, which provided fifteen culturally diverse community leaders, residing in Wyndham, with a first-hand of experience of Victoria’s Justice System. From Victoria’s State Parliament to the Sunshine Magistrates Court; from Wyndham North Police Station to the Metropolitan Remand Centre – and even The Age Newspaper – these dynamic leaders experienced it all.”

A short documentary outlining the project can also be viewed at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qxGwjjPxagg

Conference, News

Public Pedagogies Conference 2019

Walking and Talking Public Pedagogies
November 28 – 29, 2019
Footscray, Melbourne

The annual Public Pedagogies Institute conference features a range of presentations, performances, forums and workshops across the diverse field of public pedagogies.

Registration includes attendance at all conference events over two days, November 28-29 with lunch and refreshments provided.

Registered guests are also invited to a pre-conference event on November 27 at the Botanical Gardens, Melbourne. details here

Conference program now available to view here

Abstracts now available to view here

Keynote Speakers:

Stephanie Springgay

Tony Birch

Further details here

PRE-CONFERENCE EVENT   

Wednesday 27th November  11 am – 12 pm,
Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne

Whau Conversations: Hikoi – a walking workshop with artists from Aotearoa/New Zealand in the Royal Botanic Gardens, Melbourne.

If you would like to attend the pre-conference walk please email Mary.Dixon@Deakin.edu.au for a map and further details.

Conference, News

Conference registrations now open

Walking and Talking Public Pedagogies
November 28 – 29, 2019
Footscray, Melbourne

The annual Public Pedagogies Institute conference features a range of presentations, performances, forums and workshops across the diverse field of public pedagogies and is open to participants from many sectors.

The conference will take place over two days from November 28 – 29, at the Footscray Nicholson campus of Victoria University.

Keynote Speakers:

Stephanie Springgay

Stephanie Springgay is an Associate Professor in the Department of Curriculum, Teaching, and Learning at the University of Toronto. She is a leading scholar in research-creation methodologies with a focus on walking, affect, new materialisms and posthumanisms, queer theory, and contemporary art as pedagogy. Her most recent research-creation projects are documented at www.thepedagogicalimpulse.com, www.walkinglab.org and www.stephaniespringgay.com. She has published widely in academic journals and is the co-author of the book Walking Methodologies in More-than-Human World: Walkinglab Routledge (2018), with Sarah E. Truman; co-editor of M/othering a Bodied Curriculum: Emplacement, Desire, Affect, University of Toronto Press, with Debra Freedman; co-editor of Curriculum and the Cultural Body, Peter Lang with Debra Freedman; and author of Body Knowledge and Curriculum: Pedagogies of Touch in Youth and Visual Culture, Peter Lang.

Tony Birch

Tony Birch is a renowned academic, author, educator and researcher. In 2015, Dr Birch joined VU as the first recipient of the University’s Dr Bruce McGuinness Indigenous Research Fellowship. His research interests centre on climate change and indigenous knowledge systems. His highly acclaimed novels include Shadowboxing (2006),  Father’s Day (2009),  Blood (2011),  The Promise (2014), Ghost River (2015) and most recently, The White Girl (2019). In 2017 he was awarded the Patrick White Literary Award for his contribution to contemporary Australian literature.

More details about the conference here.

PRE-CONFERENCE EVENT   

Wednesday 27th November  11 am – 12 pm,
Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne

Whau Conversations: Hikoi – a walking workshop with artists from Aotearoa/New Zealand in the Royal Botanic Gardens, Melbourne.

Find out more about the pre-conference event here.

Conference, Events, News

Whau Conversations: Hikoi

PRE-CONFERENCE EVENT   

Wednesday 27th November  11 am – 12 pm,
Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne

Whau Conversations: Hikoi – a walking workshop with artists from Aotearoa/New Zealand in the Royal Botanic Gardens, Melbourne.

Whau Conversations: Hikoi will consist of a collective walk with artists from Aotearoa/New Zealand presenting to and exchanging insights and reflections with participants in relation to the surrounding site they encounter during that walk. The walking event will take place in the Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria (Melbourne), and focus on the New Zealand section of the gardens, where whau trees endemic to Aotearoa can be seen to grow almost like ‘weeds’ to some. The walk attempts to offer playful reflections alongside political and cultural responses to the artists’ and their participants’ current and former acts of collective walking. More than simply walking, the tactic of engaging in a hikoi will be explored. To hikoi in te reo Māori (the Māori language) is widely considered to walk with a purpose, from educational contexts, to social activities, to art practices, protest campaigns and other contexts. For all of us in this walk we also intend to metaphorically ‘walk backwards into the future’, which is a play on the common Māori proverb ‘ka mua, ka muri’ (walking backwards into the future). This is where while facing forwards in our hikoi, we walk with our tupuna (our ancestors) and our histories who are before us and in facing them and these things through our korero (discussions). We aim to develop new understandings and questions around them in relation to the site in which we are walking in.

Artists walking, presenting and sharing will include Carol Brown (VCA, The University of Melbourne), Christina Houghton (AUT), Alexandra Bonham, Saskia Schut (UTS), Kathy Waghorn (The University of Auckland), Mark Harvey (Mata Waka iwi, The University of Auckland) and guests. 

Hikoi conveners: Kathy Waghorn (The University of Auckland) and Mark Harvey (Mata Waka iwi, the University of Auckland)

This walk will also have a follow up paper session during the conference – details will be available in the conference program.

Please email Mary.Dixon@Deakin.edu.au for a map and further details of the walk.

This event is part of the Walking and Talking Public Pedagogies conference, taking place on November 28-29 at the Footscray Nicholson Street Campus of Victoria University. REGISTER FOR THE CONFERENCE HERE

Featured image: Drop Kick (collaboration with John Court and Mark Harvey) ANTI Contemporary Art Festival, Finland, 2018

News

Towards a Werribee Curriculum

The Towards a Werribee Curriculum document is now available for download on our site here.

From the authors:

We sought to find the knowledge that comes from the community. This document is a record of the knowledge that is circulating now in 2018 in Werribee, Victoria. We decided to use the term curriculum as ‘curriculum documents’, as used by educational institutions, reflect a full body of knowledge.

The authors recognize that this is not complete – the task of accessing all the knowledge of every individual and every place in Werribee is larger than our capabilities.

The ‘Towards a Werribee Curriculum’ booklet contains a brief description of each area of knowledge illustrated by photographs from Werribee. ‘Towards a Werribee Curriculum’ will be of interest to those who wish to know Werribee and to local schools and community organisations.

Download Towards a Werribee Curriculum

Events, News

Public Pedagogies masterclass

Public Pedagogies:
an educational alternative?

Public Pedagogies Institute Masterclass 2019 – Peter Alsen M.A.

September 9 and 10, 6.00pm-8.00pm
Victoria University, City Flinders Campus

Registration $40, Register here

It is not a new insight that learning does not only take place in the classroom with an educator who teaches us subjects considered to be essential for our current or future life. Learning and teaching is complex, highly regulated and structured, whether in early childhood settings, in primary and secondary school or at tertiary levels. The purpose of this kind of learning is to involve individuals in the process of skills and knowledge development in order to gain independence and well-being. Everyday experiences in formal learning contexts continually demonstrate that education has become an important discussion in politics and economics, within society and for individuals.

Given this, where else do we learn – if not in the classroom, and what – if not something that is prescribed by curriculum authorities, and from whom – if not from a teacher who is accredited by the government? Indeed, why do we learn– if not for justifiable and socially expected reasons? To address these questions, you are invited to a masterclass which focusses on the concept of Public Pedagogies. Over two evenings, the masterclass will uncover more about Public Pedagogies and discuss educational alternatives to formal learning.

Day 1: Public Pedagogies: an educational alternative?

  1. The emergence of an idea – comparative analyses
  2. Three case studies deconstructed
  3. The basic elements of Public Pedagogies education
  4. What is Public Pedagogies about, part 1 – reviewing current directions of research

Day 2: Public Pedagogies –a response to discrimination and injustice?

  1. What is Public Pedagogies about, part 2 – socio-political inquiries
  2. Public Pedagogies in the intersection of education and the promotion of human rights
  3. Emancipatory education – the impact on individuals and society
  4. The functioning citizen vs the emancipated individual

Peter Alsen M.A.
Peter Alsen is a PhD candidate and research assistant at the School of Education and the School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Deakin University. A former early childhood educator, his doctoral research focuses on the intersection of politics, law and education, entitled “Concepts of Early Childhood Education and Care in Australia and Germany.” Peter holds a Masters’ degree in political science, law and psychology with a published monograph in the field of critical legal studies “Human Rights between Universalism and Particularism” (in German).

One of Peter’s major research interests is human rights and their transfer and implementation into everyday life such as social inclusion, equality, individual freedom and political participation. Other areas of concentration are critical legal studies, human social environments, social-pedagogical approaches, various forms of learning and the concept of public pedagogy and its effects on individuals and society. Peter aims to critically re-examine current societal and political environments and to contribute new ideas and concepts for change.

Conference, News

Call for Papers

The Public Pedagogies Institute warmly invites proposals for papers/workshops around the conference theme Walking and Talking Public Pedagogies. The conference will take place on the 28th and 29th of November 2019 at Victoria University, Melbourne.

This conference is interested in how thinking is disrupted and re-imagined through the act of walking. What are the possibilities that open up when we are in the realm of streets, parks, river banks or transport hubs? As we walk through our suburbs or our towns do these spaces impact on our thinking in generative ways? Do they entail pedagogical moments and how might these be defined? Together with walking this conference is also about talking. This is the International Year of Indigenous Languages. What do languages enable? For the Public Pedagogies Institute, we ask what are the affordances and constraints of Indigenous languages in public places. How does the use of these languages effect an understanding of place and the public? 

We welcome and invite a range of submissions–informal presentations, academic papers, workshops, screenings–and encourage a diversity of sectors to participate in two days of ideas-sharing and networking on our theme.

Submissions of no more than 300 words will be accepted up until June 30, 2019.

All submissions should be accompanied by a 100 word biographical note. Please send to karen.charman@vu.edu.au

Keynote Speakers:

We are excited to announce our first keynote speaker

Stephanie Springgay is an Associate Professor in the Department of Curriculum, Teaching, and Learning at the University of Toronto. She is a leading scholar in research-creation methodologies with a focus on walking, affect, new materialism and posthumanism, queer theory, and contemporary art as pedagogy. Her most recent research-creation projects are documented at www.thepedagogicalimpulse.com, www.walkinglab.org and www.stephaniespringgay.com. She has published widely in academic journals and is the co-author of the book Walking Methodologies in More-than-Human World: Walkinglab Routledge (2018), with Sarah E. Truman; co-editor of M/othering a Bodied Curriculum: Emplacement, Desire, Affect, University of Toronto Press, with Debra Freedman; co-editor of Curriculum and the Cultural Body, Peter Lang with Debra Freedman; and author of Body Knowledge and Curriculum: Pedagogies of Touch in Youth and Visual Culture, Peter Lang.

We are pleased to announce our second keynote speaker for this year’s Public Pedagogies Conference—author Tony Birch.

In 2015, Dr Tony Birch joined VU as the first recipient of the University’s Dr Bruce McGuinness Indigenous Research Fellowship. Dr Birch is a renowned academic, author, educator and researcher. His research interests centre on climate change and indigenous knowledge systems. Dr Birch’s books includeShadowboxing (2006), Father’s Day (2009), Blood (2011), The Promise (2014) and Ghost River (2015). In 2017 he was awarded the Patrick White Literary Award for his contribution to contemporary Australian literature.

Call for PapersDownload
Events, News

The ethics and politics of research-creation with diverse publics

Presenter: Stephanie Springgay, University of Toronto

Thu., 14 March 2019
5:30 pm – 7:00 pm
Melbourne Graduate School of Education

Feminist scholars argue that we need research practices that break with ableist, racist, extractive, and settler colonial logics, and instead focus on ones that are situated, relational, and accountable. As such researchers are urgently turning to new ways of doing research and taking action, including research-creation practices that are responsive to the needs of communities and stewardship. This talk will emphasize the importance of queer feminist, anti-racist, and anti-colonial frameworks influenced by feminist new materialisms, affect theory, and queer theory. To contextualize these situated ways of doing research a number of exemplifications with diverse publics will be shared.


Stephanie Springgay is an Associate Professor at the University of Toronto. She is a leading scholar of research-creation with a focus on walking, affect, queer theory, and contemporary art as pedagogy. Her SSHRC-funded research-creation projects include: WalkingLab (www.walkinglab.org) and The Pedagogical Impulse (www.thepedagogicalimpulse.com). She has published widely on contemporary art, curriculum studies, and qualitative research methodologies www.stephaniespringgay.com

To find out more about this event and book tickets please go to:

https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/the-ethics-and-politics-of-research-creation-with-diverse-publics-tickets-57058881651