[SSC] teach-in

[Terry Wassall]

Dear All

I've hesitated to get involved in this discussion for the same reason that I think others have alluded to; that email exchange is not always conducive to a free flowing and empathetic exchange of views. In addition I think it is fair to say that my involvement with the Lincoln SSC is somewhat peripheral as the main focus is on face-to-face and I live in Bradford. However, I have been a keen supporter of the idea from the start, even putting my money where my mouth is, and hope to be able to make an occasional contribution to the programme when it is up and running.

I have never been to one of the formally organised setup meetings for the SCC but I have had a number of discussions with founder members in the very early days. My understanding, then at least, is it is a political project. This may of course be a misunderstanding and I would be happy (or rather, unhappy) to be corrected. Things have moved on since then no doubt. What I saw as political is the explicit critique of the marketisation of HE, the construction of students as customers and academics as purveyors of goods and services (and the implications of this for student/lecturer roles and relations), the attack on the arts, humanities and social sciences, the embroiling of HE in the neoliberal ideology and project, and much else besides. This critical stance manifested itself in discussions around who the students would be, what the pedagogy would be (loosely speaking a critical pedagogy), what the curriculum should consist of, what would be the appropriate relationship between 'academics' and 'students', what sorts of assessement and accreditation, if any, would be appropriate, and so on. Much of this was to be negotiated with the students on the basis of their existing knowledge, their ideas and their needs. I never had the feeling that the project was ever about producing a free and partial clone of existing universities. If this was the case, it would still be political of course, by default.

Maybe this has changed in the face of discussions and realpolitik. Whatever the case, I am happy to be involved, happy to help to 'deliver the curriculum', happy to spread the word, as I have been doing energetically from the start. On the latter, I'll pause until I'm clear what the 'word' is! 


Best wishes

Terry


Dr. Terry Wassall
Principal Teaching Fellow
School of Sociology and Social Policy
University of Leeds


From: ssc-bounces at lists.aktivix.org [ssc-bounces at lists.aktivix.org] On Behalf Of Edwin Bacon [edwin at baconweb.co.uk]
Sent: 11 November 2011 17:11
To: ssc at lists.aktivix.org
Subject: Re: [SSC] teach-in


Thanks for this Richard,

How much of what you blogged is what we have agreed as a cooperative? Do we have a position that students become revolutionary, and that we aim to demonstrate the precarity of capital?

Does the SSC aim to understand how we can create meaningful criteria for learning and teaching that are not alienating or symbolically violent? Has the SSC decided that what we are doing is an act of political refusal?

I’m not primarily asking to instigate a debate on the substance of these issues – in fact, I’d rather like to avoid one.  More mundanely, I’m asking to get clarity on whether they are agreed positions of the SSC.

I joined to teach students who don’t want to get into debt. I didn’t know that we had much beyond that in terms of a political position, but it always possible that I’ve missed something, having only been able to get to one meeting so far.

Edwin




From: ssc-bounces at lists.aktivix.org [mailto:ssc-bounces at lists.aktivix.org] On Behalf Of Richard Hall
Sent: 10 November 2011 17:21
To: ssc at lists.aktivix.org
Subject: [SSC] teach-in

Hi,

I spoke at a teach-out for Tent City University yesterday about the Social Science Centre. I blogged about it here: http://www.learnex.dmu.ac.uk/2011/11/10/a-teach-in-at-tent-city-university-and-the-struggle-for-alternatives/ 

There are some issues I raised about student-as-producer and the curriculum that we need to nail. But I wanted to raise them as issues. I also blatantly ripped-off some stuff from the quality paper that Sara/Sarah  drafted.

Note that Mike spoke last week: http://www.livescribe.com/cgi-bin/WebObjects/LDApp.woa/wa/MLSOverviewPage?sid=PZ8CqlBrJ9r1 

We have some good friends and comrades at TCU. I had a good chat afterwards, before and on the march. I think they will be amenable to more engagements with us.
Best wishes, 
Richard. 
Dr Richard Hall, 
National Teaching Fellow (2009), and Reader in Education and Technology.
Head of Enhancing Learning through Technology, Department of Library and Learning Services.
DE MONTFORT UNIVERSITY.
T: +44 (0) 116 207 8254
E: rhall1 at dmu.ac.uk SKYPE/TWITTER/YouTube: hallymk1
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