Making space for identity, diversity and voice in a transcultural visual arts community of practice

Abstract

The call has gone out from government for educational transformation. At institutional level there are laudable activities: units have been established, policies are emerging, and colloquiums are held. Academics are required to play an active role in transforming educational practices within their disciplines, but in my experience, there is a dearth of explicitness as to what is actually expected.

My reading is that two things are entailed: firstly, that academic curricula and approaches to teaching and learning should be interrogated, in order to establish the relevance and appropriateness of these in relation to a changing dispensation, where the traditional deference to western models of thinking and to what Paulo Freire (1972:71; 1998:32) refers to as banking methodologies of teaching are being challenged. Secondly, that we should set out to critically examine our discourse communities of practice, in order to establish how these are adapting to meet the needs of our diversifying body of students.