This reflection addresses the influence of Michel Foucault’s theories on education. Mark Barrow (2006) deploys Foucault’s technologies of the self to argue that education contributes to self-construction and that this is especially prominent in creative degrees, proposing that ‘design assessment is an individualising technology’ (2006, p. 367). This differs from models of knowledge transmission and reiteration in examinations, because creative degrees promote learning through iteration and reflection, documented in a ‘learning journal’ (Barrow, 2006, p. 364). Further, there is ‘an overt expectation that…the design student would display a personal connection with the work’ (Barrow, 2006, p. 363), while assessment is ‘a confessional tool’ that incites ‘students to disclose themselves to their lecturer’ (ibid., p. 364).
My teaching is neither exclusively iterative nor transmissive. It is creative and developmental, but not in the same ways as design/art. My students rarely directly centre themselves in their work, but free topic choice and discussion of positionality, invites them to reflect on their subjectivity and its relationship to their research.
I am resistant to confession because of its association with social control, which is not addressed by Barrow (2006). In my work, I have moderated a dissertation about anorexia and been tasked with asking students to share a moment when they have felt uncomfortable because of their appearance. I am dubious about the appropriateness and ethics of such cases and given opportunities, would re-direct topics.
Unlike Barrow (2006), Stephen Ball (2013) outlines Foucault’s interest in the way education has constructed and maintained social divisions, in what Ian Leask describes as ‘the grim truth of the education process’ (2011, p. 59). In later research however, Ball elaborates that ‘Foucault does not intend that his analyses produce a horizon of absolute subjection and domination, but rather…a horizon of freedom’ (2019, p. 133). This horizon may consist of unending development and potential rebellion, or ‘oppositional micro-politics’ (Leask, 2011, p. 57). My aims are not revolutionary, but this reinvigorates my encouragement of student critical thinking and the destabilising of purported truths.
Reviewing Ball (2013), Richard Niesche notes that the ‘ethical formation of the subject, truth-telling and subjectivity emphasise the productive side of power’ (2016, p. 114). This refers to Foucauldian concepts summarised by Paul Rabinow (1997), which Barrow (2006) uses to conceptualise a process by which the design student is reflexive in self-critique. Here, telos is defined as ‘the act of disassembling the self’ so that the student can finally ‘err from the norm in a deliberate and considered way’ (Barrow, 2006, p. 367). Ball (2019) suggests ways in which this Foucauldian ethical self can be constructed by fostering an environment conducive to experimentation, student self-awareness of context, and critique. He notes that ‘[t]he “classroom” is reconceived as a space of freedom, the “curriculum” as curiosity, and “pedagogy” as a parrhesiatic [bold, free speech] encounter’ (Ball, 2019, p. 137).
This reminds me of the importance of establishing a supportive teaching environment and offering opportunities for students to voice thoughts and debate topics, while empathetically negotiating aspects of the personal. As an HPL in a neoliberal system, pedagogic boldness remains within boundaries. However, I am newly aware of my role in guiding student-subject critical awareness, experimentation and development, which is important for their work, as well as their understanding of themselves as a social subject with agency.
Bibliography
Ball, S. (2013) Foucault, power, and education. London: Routledge.
Ball, S. (2019) ‘A horizon of freedom: using Foucault to think differently about education and learning’, Power and Education, 11(2) pp. 132-144.
Barrow, M. (2006) ‘Assessment and student transformation: linking character and intellect’, Studies in Higher Education, 31(3) pp. 357-372.
Leask, I. (2011) ‘Beyond subjection: Notes on the later Foucault and education’, Educational Philosophy and Theory, 44(1) pp. 57–73.
Niesche, R. (2016) ‘What use is Foucault in education today?’, Journal of Educational Administration and History, 48(1) pp. 113-118
Rabinow, P. (1997) ‘Introduction’, in, P. Rabinow (ed.) Michel Foucault ethics: subjectivity and truth: the essential works of Foucault 1954–1984, Volume one. Harmondsworth: Penguin. pp. xi–xlii.