The British Sociological Association

Toward a Dialogic Pedagogy of Liberatory Teaching and Learning in HE: Definitions, Issues and Implications for Practice
Kevin J Brazant (Progression and Attainment Project Manager at University of the Arts, London)

Given the stark difference in attainment between BAME home students and their white counterparts, and the impetus to address these differences in the sector, recent studies reveal that a particular emphasis has been placed on the curriculum content of teaching, focusing on diversifying and decolonising reading lists and increasing representation of BAME scholars and academic voices (Campbell, 2022). However, the ‘doing’ of teaching and facilitating learning, which includes classroom practices, 1-2-1 interactions that facilitate learning both face to face and online, warrants significant investigation also. Especially where the student experience of racialised groups reports feelings of being alienated by the curriculum and overall teaching process (Alexander and Arday 2015). Recent studies in ‘silence in academic talk’ (Engin 2017) and ‘ideas dying’ (Marjonovic-Shane et al, 2019) have revealed worrying insights into how students have felt alienated and not given due care as part of facilitated classroom interactions and teaching processes, often feeling ignored with failure to acknowledge culture, difference and the colonial history that our students carry into the classroom (Brazant, 2023).

In response to these dilemmas and challenges, this paper proposes a six stage ‘dialogic framework’ for educators seeking to facilitate inclusive and liberatory practices within the neoliberal and neocolonial University (Asher, 2022). This approach intentionally disrupts traditional teaching methods, defined as ‘monologic’ or ‘banking education’, where teaching is seen as transmitting ideas from lecturer to student (Freire, 1970). The paper considers the opportunities through the liberatory practice of ‘dialogic teaching,’ which adopts a co-creational and collaborative approach. Considerations are made for teaching practices in higher education that are cognisant of the increase in international students with language barriers. The paper foregrounds these studies to help understand and improve inclusive practices to narrow degree awarding gaps outcomes for respective groups, centering the use of ‘dialogic’ teaching or pedagogy. The literature review suggests a promising outlook for improving the student experience while fostering critical dispositions among students as part of a collegial learning community. In conclusion, the findings do not correlate ‘dialogic’ teaching practices to the successful addressing of differential degree outcomes between international, BAME and home white students. However, it does distil significant themes and recommends steps as part of a ‘dialogic framework’ for a conducive learning and teaching environment where all students are enabled in classroom interactions and formative assessment practices as part of an inclusive pedagogy.

Education for liberation: challenging the deficit discourse through informal adult learning

Fiona Chapel (Communities and Partnerships Manager at the Lifelong Learning Centre, University of Leeds - top) and Lisa Matera (Teaching fellow at the Lifelong Learning Centre, University of Leeds - bottom)

When adult learners arrive in the classroom, they bring with them huge amounts of both lived experience and capital. In our delivery of informal adult education at the Lifelong Learning Centre, University of Leeds, we see that when learners are given the opportunity to consider these assets in relation to key sociological theories and concepts, they can quickly apply these theories to their own lived experience and employ them to critically explore the world around them.

We offer a range of informal learning opportunities to groups of adults traditionally underrepresented in higher education, whose highest qualifications are usually at level 2/GCSE. Our offer includes community-based informal courses co-created with communities; bespoke one-off sessions negotiated with specific community groups and an informal on-campus taster course aimed at adults who are interested in HE but do not have the knowledge or confidence to apply.

The session will explore or practice and aims to engage people through their lived experiences and help build their confidence as learners to critically analyse the world and their individual and collective power within it. We combine a strengths-based approach with theories of radical adult education: notably the ideas of Freire (1996). Using critical pedagogy, we provide learners with opportunities to examine power structures and inequality within society, and the possibilities of challenging and transforming them through reflection and action or ‘praxis’.

In our experience, when introducing sociological theories such as Gramsci’s theory of hegemony and the social constructs of motherhood: concepts that are intellectually demanding and that may not normally be considered entry-level topics; adult learners engaging in informal learning are not only able to grasp these concepts and apply them, but use them to reflect on their own experiences and to consider alternative futures for themselves and their families. We find that students can use sociological theory to challenge the way they view themselves and significantly, how society views them too. We hope that as Mezirow (1998) wrote, some “significant personal and social transformations may result from this kind of (critical) reflection”.