PG Cert

Reflecting on a chapter on :

From Safe Spaces to Brave Spaces : A new way to frame Dialogue around Diversity and Social Justice by Brian Arao and Kristi Clemens 2013

I am often tasked with delivering sessions on inclusion and diversity specifically for students on the performance programme. I feel this as a privilege and responsibility, though often feel under qualified to do so. As a department everyone has worked hard to integrate the awareness and knowledge that we have gained through training and our own experience and learning into our teaching. I know how important these principles are: essential ethically, but also practically. Our students need to be aware of potential injustices in quite complex ways – understanding their own perspective and biases, the responsibility to represent and relate diverse stories, to respond to texts that require them to gain an understanding of other cultures and positionalities, and to work empathetically with performers from lots of different backgrounds. This is a much discussed topic currently in the performance industry.

There are many of companies to encourage and enable theatres to cast actors ( though not so often craftsmen) who need more support, and welcome diverse audiences into their auditoriums. This has resulted in innovative new work that has built on the legacy of companies such as Graeae, Candoco and producers like Ramps to the Moon. The phrase “safe space ” has built up traction ( Equity has a statement that uses this term that many theatre comapnies read at the first rehearsal) as we are more aware of the need to be sensitive to the impact that conversations around difficult work can demand.

“We often describe such environments as safe spaces, terminology we hope will be reassuring to participants who feel anxious about sharing their thoughts and feelings regarding these sensitive and controversial ideas “ Aoro/Clemens ( 2013)

In my teaching, the challenge is often to relate all this with case studies in a short (average 3 hour) timespan, in an appropriate way, while acknowledging my own white privilege and facilitating discussion with the students. I temperamentally try to avoid conflict or discomfort and I find it difficult to navigate awkward moments in sessions where mediation is called for. So, it was very helpful having the idea of a “safe space” reframed as a “brave space” Aoro/Clemens ( 2013).

“we question, however, the degree to which safety ia an appropriate or reasonable expectation for any honest dialogue about social justice” Aoro/Clemens ( 2013)

I need to understand how to get comfortable with being uncomfortable, and to help the students do that too. The chapter talks through the ground rules, often established to create a safe space, set a context and enable challenge. The commentary on each one is enlightening and a common themes emerge around talking through every element with the students :

” such discussion is a potentially fruitful investment of time that can prevent students from automatically experiencing……challenges from others as acts of disrespect” Aoro/Clemens ( 2013)

Slowly as I read the uncomfortableness I felt is put into context and strategies emerge in line with the ground rules shared by Aoro and Clemens. For example, it strikes me that I could explore questions of positionality in sessions with the first year in the first weeks of university, discussing the group culture we want, as a course community, to establish. Creating together a brave bill of rights that we all subscribe to.

“brave space is more congruent with our understanding of power, privilege, and opression, and the challenges inherent in dialogue about these issues in socioculturally diverse groups” Aoro/Clemens ( 2013)

I can also see how the emphasis on co-authorship fosters community and ownership of the terms on which collaboration – a fundamental bedrock of our industry- can happen. On this basis, I think it is fundamental to have an artist with lived experience of difference speak in sessions. An vibrant authentic voice who is passionate about their work is simply inspiring, and shared understanding in terms of creative work is made. This is exactly what happened when the creative director of Drag Syndrome, Daniel Vais, talked to the students. With such practical guidance on how to structure a session, I will be brave and make this part of our teaching of Introduction to Performance for our incoming first year.

Bibliography

Aoro B. / Clemens K. (2013) ‘From Safe Spaces to Brave Spaces : A new way to frame Dialogue around Diversity and Social Justice ‘ in The Art of Effective Facilitation London : Stylus Publishing LCC ( 2013) Ch.8

Dragsyndrome.com Available at https://www.dragsyndrome.com/ ( accessed March 2025)

Ramps to the Moon available at https://rampsonthemoon.co.uk/( accessed March 2025)

Candoco available at https://candoco.co.uk/ ( accessed March 2025)

Reflecting on reflecting

Our lecture given by Leslie Raven, Senior Lecturer in Fashion Art Direction at Manchester Metropolitan University, was both thought provoking and immediately relevant to both my teaching and development.

We ask our students to do a lot of reflecting, and in the first year that involves establishing the difference between a summary of things that happened and analysing and generating actions from the things that happen. So far, so good, but I realised that I am not that confident when it comes to saying what counts as reflection and being able to suggest a good range of credible next actions. It was very helpful, therefore, to explore different interpretations and forms that reflection can take.

Initially we were asked to draw/map our own teaching and practice identities – this relatively simply exercise, guided by Leslie, was a bit of a revelation.

It introduced me to a few previously mysterious words such as:

Ontology: in this instance I understood this to classify the nature or material of our world. I have since seen this in academic papers and am less freaked out by it.

Epistemology: what is considered valid knowledge in our world and the source of that knowledge

and

Reflexivity: considering how our perception of the world shapes our perspectives on teaching.

The questions we were asked and the act of visualisation represented to me what the roots of my teaching are – why I think teaching is important, where that belief came from and what has been influential in my sense of what good teaching looks like. This had a dual effect: looking at my colleagues’ representations, I felt quite moved by everyone’s various journeys and perspectives, the similarities and differences. I also felt very grateful for the various people, good teachers, I had been inspired by.

After reading ” From Safe Space to Brave Space” by Brian Arao and Kristi Clemens, I realised that in constructing this map I hadn’t considered my inherent privileges in the context of my teaching. ( I reflect on this chapter more fully in my fourth reflection ). This made me think about potential blind spots and biases I might have when it comes to understanding other perspectives. It reminds me to check in regularly with my students to understand their views on what student ship looks like, and what their expectations and experience are in the learning conversation. ( I expand on this a little in my second case study) This kind of analysis should inform co-teaching or planning as a department, and we do all try to consider everyone’s differing needs and perspectives. Until this excersise, I hadn’t considered how this process would be facilitated by a better understanding and reflection on ones own placement. No one has ever asked me about my positionality before, and I hadn’t contemplated it myself, so I was surprised how illuminating it was.

We were then all asked to contribute our own definitions to a Padlet:

I was relieved to see a number that related to my own definition of reflection and intrigued to see variations on that theme. The green box in my screenshot reminded me of a habit, now widespread, in acting companies where the stage manager would bring the company together to “check in”. This might manifest in a variety of ritualised ways- for example, using a phone battery metaphor to share how charged your battery was “I am at 80% today”. Looking inwards to be more outwardly aware of those around you.

This demonstrates that a reflective practice can be more than the essential review, analyse and develop cycle, but can also be a mindful activity that re-connects you with your self and your students, giving you a sense of perspective. I am resolved to give active reflection of this kind a specific moment of focus  in my workflow in the week  after each unit’s assessment is completed.

P.S You can find some check in exercises here:

Bibliography

Arao and Clemens ( 2013) From Safe Spaces to Brave Spaces : A new way to Frame dialogue around diversity and Social Justice The Art of Effective Facilitation Stylus publishing ( 2013) Chapter 8

In response to reading

Drawing laboratory: Research workshops and outcomes

by Michelle Salamon, Associate Lecturer, BA (Hons) Graphic Communication Design,

Central Saint Martins

In my time teaching design to costume, hair, make-up and prosthetic students in the performance programme, drawing has steadily been given more focus as a teaching tool. It is essential to my practice as a teacher and theatre designer, so I was fascinated to read this paper by Michelle Salamon which recounts a pilot scheme setting up a Drawing Laboratory at Central St Martins in 2015. This

“explored the relationship between the physical act of drawing and the making and storage of experiential memory. The intention of the project was to informally pilot a co-curricular space in which drawing might extend beyond traditional expectations. It aimed to use drawing as a research tool for developing thinking, improving concentration and enhancing memory. “Salamon M (2018)

Teaching drawing sessions has elicited mixed reactions from the students. Some are confident and others immediately declare that they can’t draw at all and are reluctant to do it. To encourage everyone to participate and to try and open minds to a broader definition of what drawing can be, I often emphasise the many ways it manifests in our industry as a tool. To regard drawing as functional and therefore having currency beyond its looks can be helpful, especially when a student is feeling that their drawing is inadequate aesthetically. It can shift their perception of the value of drawing into another area – another way of thinking, an accessible, non-verbal way of exchanging ideas, or an act of recording for example. Their skill then resides in communicating a concept or encounter for example, to each other or back to themselves

As the article notes:

” The purposes of drawing are broad and in the context of creative education, often highly individual, ‘private work related only to the artist’s needs’ (Berger, 2012, p.4). This project set out to demonstrate another function of drawing, as a scientific, forensic tool used for probing and searching for answers” Salamon M (2018)

This approach often bypasses the inner critique that is making the student doubt their ability. It also gives the student permission to seek out different styles of drawing that suit the task – expressive lines for a character sketch, something cleaner and more graphic for a technical drawing or a simple short hand sketch to note down a pair of shoes seen on the tube.

Now I have more evidence to share with them from this active research, sharing the way drawing aids memory-

“The experience of making a drawing becomes part of the experience of remembering and so, combines the act of remembering with the raw memory.” Salamon M (2018)

I will use the exercises that are generously shared in this report the next time I either look at research methods or visit a museum or archive with the students. The remote viewing and muscle memory exercises are straightforward to use and make the most of what is unique in being in the room with an object as opposed to simply harvesting an image online. To encounter and remember through drawing feels a richer experience, that will support slow looking, and sense of being in the moment with an object, open to everything it can tell you.

Bibliography

Salamon M ( 2018) Drawing laboratory: Research workshops and outcomes Spark: UAL Creative Teaching and Learning Journal Vol 3 / Issue 2 (2018) pp. 131-14

In response to reading

Lewis, L and Leigh Ross S (2022) Home sweet home: achieving belonging and engagement in online learning spaces (2022) Spark: UAL Creative teaching and learning Journal

I found this article both engaging and inspiring in several ways.

Firstly, it took me back to teaching during the pandemic, and the steep learning curve that introduced us and the students to various online platforms. As a design tutor my sessions were seen as least reliant on a specific physical space, action and demonstration, and therefore easiest to move online. What followed was a terrifying and exhilarating rapid learning of platforms and re-forming of units and materials to deliver to students. In that time I felt, as everyone did, the need to connect, reassure and establish student communities alongside my teaching in this new (to me) medium.

Some of this new working practice was interesting and fun – and a lot of it has endured in my teaching now even as the novelty has waned Miro, the platform used in this article, is one that we still use in our planning, and I have also adopted a similar one called Mural in my design practice to communicate with directors. This article reminded me how useful online platforms can be as a gathering space for large student groups, especially as there isn’t an equivalent notice board in our building for our course.

 More recently, however, I have found it harder to create collaborative online spaces that the students will take on and make into their own resources. I am keen to gain some guidance and encouragement to try again. It is an ephemeral and ultimately magical thing, facilitating a sense of ownership and belonging in a space, but in this paper Lee Lewis and Stacey Leigh Ross talk about specific relationships and interactions that help foster ownership and belonging:

“ a connection to place and the people within it is key to understanding what makes some virtual environments flourish more than others” ( Lewis/Leigh- Ross 2022) 

Secondly, it spoke about digital teaching spaces in a way I recognised. It felt related to in my thinking on ways to extend and disrupt classroom configurations, informed by my practice as a theatre designer.  Could there be any transferrable learning from digital to actual spaces?

The tutors discuss the nature of the tutor’s role – how much they may contrive and control the space and student engagement seeing as independence and autonomy is a factor they identify as fostering a sense of ownership. It had struck me that maybe I had misjudged how much and when to control proceedings when teaching. As a theatre designer there is a delicate balance between manipulating a space and the atmosphere and interaction between audience and actor, striving to produce an effect while understanding that there is a point where you relinquish this effort. Then the audience must take over and anything can happen. Similarly, Lewis and Leigh Ross identify a moment of transition

“ the teacher nurtures the teacher-student, student-student and student-space relationships until they become self-sustaining. A strong teacher-student relationship ensures some ability to control, guide, or steer the learning experience. I’m wary of the word ‘control’… though this does play into the idea that teaching is performance in some ways (Lahey,2016) “ Leewis & Leigh- Ross (2022) 

In another performative moment, Leigh Ross describes revealing new elements on the board during a session – a “ta da “moment that surprises and provokes the students. By doing this I think the student feels valued – someone has engineered a surprise for them, and thought about how it might entertain and educate them.

 “If you don’t have both astonishment and content, you have either a technical exercise or you have a lecture.” Lahey J. quoting Teller (2016)

This is evidence of care and forethought like a host setting the table for you. By arranging a space for students and inviting them to interact with it in a particular way you evidence respect for them. The authors talk about three elements connection, ownership and co-creation that need to be present for a space to be inhabited in this way, facilitated by strong teaching relationships.

“ You showed them who you are, and they felt safe to engage with you and everything you put forward. Another teacher might not use music or personal anecdotes, but if their approach is just as genuine and authentic, our theory should work.”

Leewis L & Leigh- Ross S (2022) 

They describe spaces to meet, spaces to store information that everyone can build on, centres of discussion , news feeds, all arranged in interesting visual ways. I am going to consider both my online sessions and my on campus spaces next term  from this perspective : striving again finding that delicate point where ownership is handed over and a conversation catches fire.

Bibliography

Lewis, L and Leigh Ross S (2022) Home sweet home: achieving belonging and engagement in online learning spaces (2022) Spark: UAL Creative teaching and learning Journal

Lahey J. (2016) “ Teaching: Just like supporting Magic”  The Atlantic (2016) https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2016/01/what-classrooms-can-learn-from-magic/425100/( Accessed 16.04.25)