This workshop is developed as part of the Teaching to Transgress Toolbox programme by the working group Questioning the Notion of Neutrality in educational settings. The workshop was facilitated and tested in May 2021 at Paris College of Art in France.
Read more about the context of this workshop and see the related series of interviews that we recorded. Read also about Workshop I, held at the art school, Villa Arson, in France.
Workshop outline
Presentation and workshop
2 hours – online
For 25-30 participants
Download the presentation slides as PDF
Input
[20 min]
❶ Introduction
Names and pronouns
❷ Presentation of the project
What we have been doing and how we have been doing it.
❸ Sharing the findings and topics emerging from the interviews visualized in a series of eight slides that illustrate the four main areas explored during the interviews (institutions, knowledge, teachers, students).
The slides serve as a critical and visual exercise aimed at deconstructing the abstraction that tends to surround the concept of neutrality. How can we represent neutrality? How are our bodies shaped by their invisibility and abstraction?
Mind-map around the word neutrality (seven slides with illustrations used during the workshop
A teaser video of the interviews [5 min]
Working in groups
[40 min]
❶ Introduction to the workshop and invitation to attendees to turn on cameras and write their names and pronouns.
❷ Check-in round with the voting question:
“How do you feel about the word 'neutrality'?” Participants choose smiley, frown or neutral face from the following illustration.
❸ Create break-out rooms with five people each.
Deeper introduction round
[10 min]
- What is your motivation for joining this workshop?
- How confident do you feel about discussing the topic / how familiar are you with it?
- If you wish, feel free to share your own experiences around this topic.
Small group discussion
[15 min]
Do you see these problems in your environment?
Sharing and collecting real-life examples from different contexts
Collective writing exercise
[15 min]
Technical note:
prepare one pad for each group
- What could be done about the problems discussed?
- Inspired by the question “Five things that all institutions, people in power, teachers could do starting tomorrow to begin moving in the right direction.”
Reconvening in the big/full group
[20 min]
Sharing from the small group discussions about real-life examples and/or the five things from the pad
Wrap-up
[5 min]
Feedback with a voting system:
- thumb up = it was great!
- thumb middle = neutral
- thumb down = not so good.
See here Workshop I, Questioning the Neutrality of Art Education
Back to the project page Questioning the notion of neutrality
