Karen Charman
Victoria University
Welcome to the second edition of the Journal of Public Pedagogies. At the time of writing this editorial in Melbourne, Australia we are immersed in a public debate on same sex marriage as the Government conducts a postal vote on this ‘issue’. It has been hard to escape the publicness of opinion and the association of the ‘right’ to marry as argued as a threat to heterosexuality and the demise of the nuclear family. Specifically, the idea that being Gay will be become so ‘normalised’ it will be encouragingly taught about in schools. The argument stops just short of the statement ‘they are going to teach you to be gay’. I would argue for strong resistance to public rhetoric designed to further ‘other’ marginalised people such as the LGBTQI community. What this debate has crystalized, among other things, is the necessity and problematics of knowledge constructions outside and inside of formal institutions. As people engaged in the theories and practices of public pedagogies we are called on to think about where knowledges reside and who is determining of what knowledges are valued. Constructions of knowledges are never neutral despite how benign they may appear.
Figure 1: Public Mural (Photograph: Karen Charman, 2017)
The learning and teaching of knowledge is of deep concern to this Journal and the Public Pedagogies Institute. The intent of the work here and in the Institute, is to shift what knowledge is valued. To this end the articles in this edition contribute to learning and teaching in the broadest possible sense.
We continue to explore understandings of ‘what is public pedagogy?’ through a series of vignettes captured at last year’s conference.
Figure 1: Video Still from Public Pedagogies Vox Pop 2016 (click on the image above to open link and play the video)
What is interesting in listening to these discussions are the words ‘connectedness’ and ‘diversity’ associated with Public Pedagogy. These two words do not have to be mutually exclusive and are in fact what might constitute the community of public pedagogues.
The articles in this edition capture the fluidity of what constitutes Public Pedagogies and alert us to urban spaces, cultural institutions, sound and movement, where diverse knowledges are made manifest. In ‘The Angklung: The Maintenance of Indonesian Cultural Heritage through Public Pedagogy’, Yayan Rahayani and Bindi MacGill write about Angklung, noting it is an instrument that is used to retain Indonesian cultural practices and also a metaphor of the hope for social harmony in Indonesia. Significantly it is an instrument that must be played collectively to generate sound. This instrument has been a critical and celebratory part of Indonesian cultural life in South Australia since migration in the 1960s.
John Fox’s article, ‘The Jewish Holocaust Centre, Melbourne: Public Pedagogies of Compassion and Connection’, describes the educational work of the Holocaust Centre. The Jewish Holocaust Centre is a transformative space, as at the heart of this space is the living testimony of survivors. The affect of the museum is essential to our capacity for compassion because, as Fox so eloquently argues, the emphasis on rationality or reason was in part what allowed the Holocaust to occur. Fox draws on the work of Adorno who located the best of our humanity in our bodily reactions. To this end the article makes a persuasive discussion of the power of the museum as enactment of public pedagogy.
In ‘Crosswalk: Performing the City as a Learning Experience’, Raffaele Rufo captures knowledge through sensory experience. His creative immersion in the city occurs through texture, sound, observation and dance. Rufo uses the Argentine tango–a duet dance form structurally based on the improvised relation between dancers and their broader context.
Debbie Qadri’s ‘Lawrence-Lightfoot, Rancière and Gemma: Reconciling the Subject Matter with Research Processes and Outcomes’ is an exploration of the community in research. Drawing on the work of Lawerence-Lightfoot and Jacques Rancière, Quadri looks to broaden and reconcile how community as the object of research can be considered more fully as contributors. This discussion is not just about the research interviews but is also about community art practices. Who is the maker of the art work, the artist or the community contributors?
‘Education Consciousness: Breaking Open the Category of Knowledge in Footscray’ is an article co-authored by myself and colleagues from the Public Pedagogies Institute, which theorises the current major project of the Institute—Pop Up School and Educational Consciousness. This project reflects a critical engagement with what constitutes knowledge. We have undertaken an iteration of this project in Footscray, an inner suburb of Melbourne. However, the entire project is not just the Pop Up School event but also the collection of responses to the question of ‘what is knowledge in Footscray?’. This article explores an understanding of knowledge relative to a geographical space. The authors have tended to think of this knowledge as educational consciousness, as all knowledge that has been learnt is brought to the fore as contributing a consciousness of what we now know.
In what we hope is the first of many articles that focus on the practice of public pedagogy, Greg Giannis describes a vibrant program that is a confluence of community, public space and children in ‘Art & Technology: A Maker Space Experiment for Children’. The self-determining aspect of the children in a space is encouraging as a site for learning beyond the formality of schooling.
Lastly in our review article, ‘Where the Wild Things are: Learning from Tunnerminnerwait and Maulboyheener’, Jayson Cooper reviews a public art installation by local artists Brook Andrew and Trent Walker. This installation commemorates the story of Tunnerminnerwait and Maulboyheener, two indigenous men who were publicly executed. This is a permanent installation (war memorial) to remember this event called, Standing with Tunnerminnerwait and Maulboyhenner.
Thank you to the peer reviewers for their work in supporting this edition and to Debbie Qadri for allowing us to use her fantastic art work. I would also like to give a big thank you to Dr. Jayson Cooper, Assistant Editor, and Claire Rafferty, Editorial Assistant, for all of their work.
Public Pedagogies Vox Pop 2016, https://vimeo.com/241816421