EXPERIENTIAL EDUCATION & CULTURAL CAPITAL

A Pedagogy of Social Justice Education: Social Identity Theory, Intersectionality, and Empowerment

Aaron J. Hahn Tapper

This text ‘A Pedagogy of Social Justice Education: Social Identity Theory, Intersectionality, and Empowerment’ by Aaron J. Hahn Tapper explores the theoretical and practical aspects of social justice education through a case example of a US-based intergroup educational organisation. The article discusses the organisation’s pedagogy, which integrates Freirean thought, social identity theory, intersectionality, and experiential education to empower participants to engage in social justice activism.

One of the main aims of the intergroup educational organisation discussed in the article is to promote social justice education through intergroup dialogue, which can also be referred to as ‘intercommunal’ dialogue, and experiential, active learning. The vital point is that the students are meant to teach each other as opposed to the teachers passing a set of information onto the students which would be a more passive learning process. Therefore, the teachers take on the role of the facilitator and are there to guide rather than lead the dialogue.

Through a variety of programs and activities, the organisation intends to help students develop a deeper understanding of their own identities and the ways in which they intersect with larger social structures and how these intersections can lead to experiences of privilege or oppression. Next to the importance of active participation and reflection the organisation encourages students to apply the theories they have learned to real-world situations.

Overall, the organisation’s intention is to empower students to become agents of social change, by providing them with the tools and skills they need to engage in social justice activism and influence positive change in the world.

How could I apply the resources to my own teaching practice?

In my role as a BA Fashion Womenswear pathway leader, I develop projects, briefs, and the timetables; I am directly involved with the admissions looking through all applications and conducting interviews; and I teach 2^nd and final year students. This means I have analysed how to advance actively students’ diversity and experience and reduce the gap between privileged and underprivileged students for many years.

As a result of the new UAL strategy, the BA fashion department employed new specialists including a tutor for race & transcultural studies one year ago. This created a noticeable shift in that race has become one of our priorities including decolonising our curriculum. It is apparent that I have explored some of the techniques described in the texts in my teaching practice. 

The above text describes 3 key notions – the teacher as a facilitator, creating a meaningful experience for the students and helping students to become change makers for a better future – which represent my 3 main aims in my own teaching practice.

I intend to focus on some of the key words and methods originating from the text above and from the text ‘Retention and attainment in the disciplines: Art and Design’ by Terry Finnigan and Aisha Richards and explore possibilities of applying them further to my own teaching practice.By implementing these references, I am hoping to create a more inclusive and supportive learning environment for my students, which could in turn improve their retention and attainment.

Experiential education

Fashion in Motion at the V&A 2017

Free Lesage Workshop (company who does all the hand-embroidery for CHANEL) 2015

The text emphasises the importance of experiential education, which involves active participation and reflection. This is at the core of my teaching in that I continue taking on the role of a facilitator, highlighting to students the significance of learning from each other in our open-plan studio and initiating student-led discussions.

At this point I would like to draw a parallel between the notion of ‘experiential education’ and the idea of having or gaining ‘cultural capital’ stemming from the second text ‘Retention and attainment in the disciplines: Art and Design’. ‘Cultural capital’ refers to the knowledge, skills, and experiences that students bring with them when starting at university.

As the BA Fashion at CSM is one of the best fashion design courses in the world we do get many privileged students with a lot of ‘cultural capital’ joining our course. Being directly involved in the admission process I am aware of the disproportional distribution of ‘cultural capital’ among our applicants due to different backgrounds which can be race, socioeconomic status etc. Consequently, I attempt to create experiences on the course ensuring that students gain more ‘cultural capital’ and this is part of my experiential education.

Vitally, ‘cultural capital’ does not only mean having been exposed to cultural life from early years onwards because we can have students from very isolated places in Iceland or Norway, but they own the confidence created and nurtured by their families to utilise independently museums, archives, libraries, theatres etc. Families with different backgrounds such as race or low socioeconomic status often lack confidence and the sense of belonging and ownership. The result is that many would not enter a museum and other free available resources independently.

For instance, to create more ‘cultural capital’ in students I organise trips to the V&A Clothworkers (archive of the V&A, now moving to Stratford) and Print and Drawing Rooms (unfortunately, I couldn’t find any photos of those archive trips). Usually, I choose a few leaders from the student year group who take some of the groups to the archive independently because I am unable to be part of each group. At the archive students present in small groups what they had researched together about the chosen garments followed by student-led discussion about the meaning and relationships of the garments. By doing this the students engage with the material in a more meaningful way. This form of workshop also links back to the idea of exploring wellbeing through interacting with objects (in this case garments) which is explored in Kador and Chattergee’s work ‘Object-Based Learning and Well-Being: Exploring Material Connections’, (2020).      

Up to now I always had made a selection of garments designed and cut according to a Western, white ideal and designed by Western, white couturiers such as Dior, Schiaparelli, Alexander McQueen etc.. and consequently, we had discussed gender, socioeconomic status and sexual orientation but never race. For the next visits I will focus on a variety of different cultures when selecting the garments and designers and encourage a discussion with emphasis on race especially looking at the different construction of the garment.

Through my own connection with the V&A I was able to establish the students’ participation in the renowned, live fashion in motion event several times. This is an absolute unique and transformative opportunity for any 2^nd year BA fashion student as usually only well-known designers present their work at such high-profile event. Often the show happens in conjunction with a current main exhibition at the V&A. For the first time we will actively initiate anti-racism thinking and action for the next fashion in motion event in that our new member of staff who focuses on race and transcultural studies wrote the brief together with us inviting students to think about what is happening now giving the example of the police killing of 17-year-old Nahel M.

Intersectionality

Further the text highlights the importance of intersectionality, which recognizes the interconnectedness of different forms of oppression and privilege. In the context of fashion design, this could mean encouraging students to consider how their designs might impact different groups of people, and to think critically about issues such as cultural appropriation and body diversity.

Having attempted to decolonise our curriculum for one year now we continuously have focussed on encouraging students to incorporate cultural elements into their designs in a respectful and appropriate way. Our efforts begin to show positive results in that especially students from different backgrounds have begun integrating their cultural identities into their designs and garment constructions independently.

For instance, our last sustainability project was a client group project consisting of menswear and womenswear students collaborating with LVMH which is the largest luxury goods company in the world owned by the wealthiest person in the world. One group had a menswear student of Nigerian origin exploring Nigerian pattern cutting and a womenswear student of Indian origin exploring the Indian saree. Significantly, juxtaposing those students’ culturally diverse designs with recognisable Louis Vuitton bags designed by a Korean student from the same group meant investigating the relationship and opening up a dialogue of white privilege and inclusive design, aesthetic, and construction.

LVMH decided to select the group of students next to other diverse groups. The students’ designs will now be shipped to Paris and exhibited in LVMH’s acclaimed exhibition space promoting and celebrating diversity and sustainability.

Empowerment

Additionally, the text emphasises the importance of empowerment and responsibility in education, which involves giving students the tools and skills they need to create positive change in the world.

As we have run sustainability and group projects for many years, we have encouraged students to engage with activism in the past however, this tended to remain quite individual, sporadic journeys. My most recent aim is to tackle empowerment through designing community-based projects in collaboration with a member of staff who currently, has been establishing suitable community groups.

The text ‘Retention and attainment in the disciplines: Art and Design’ talked about peer mentoring which again we have explored in the past mainly because we used to have only one student of colour per year group and those students would talk to me about their great discomfort of having to work in a studio where nobody looked like them. Therefore, I had introduced peer mentoring and paired up the students of colour if they were happy to explore this option. As this worked well, we could re-engage with this technique again.

For around 40 years we have exercised a similar method where the first- and second-year fashion students help the final year fashion students with their final year project. This constitutes a successful technique because it does not just mean that the 1^st and 2^nd year fashion students work for the final year fashion students but that the final year fashion students do act like mentors in that they train the 1^st and 2^nd year students in certain skills, show them their portfolios, explain their concepts and ideas, share their industry experience, and help with industry contacts etc. Further the 1^st and 2^nd year students can have real influence on the final year students’ work resulting in a proper student-led collaboration.