[SSC] Workshop: Ritual Analysis of School, 16th April

[Joss Winn]

Hello everyone,

Below are details of a free, public workshop with the SSC next month in 
Lincoln. Do share with your friends!

http://bit.ly/21mwIIH

The Social Science Centre is pleased to be hosting a workshop with Dr. 
Robert Hamm on ritual and education. This is a free, public event and 
everyone is welcome. It will be of particular interest to teachers, but 
also anyone with an interest in education. If you intend to join us, 
please let us know (info at socialsciencecentre.org.uk). Please bring food 
to share for lunch!

Venue: Croft Street (St Swithin’s) Community Centre, Lincoln, LN2 5AX 
(map: http://www.stswithinscroftstreet.org.uk/contact-us/)

Time: Saturday, 16th of April 2016, 10 a.m. – 4 p.m.

A lot of activities in educational institutions can be seen as rituals, 
or ritualised activities. In this workshop we will look at ways to 
understand these activities by using the tools offered in the Toolbox of 
Ritual Analysis of School.

The term ritual here is not restricted to religious activities. It 
refers to the entire range of everyday understandings of the term, 
including everyday rituals, grand ceremonies, habitual interactions etc.

In the workshop we will start with stories of our own experiences with 
rituals in school (education). We will use them as platform for further 
engagement with the tools offered by ritual analysis.

A rough plan for the workshop:

Part 1

1. Rituals as you see it – experiences, stories, understandings

2. Opening the toolbox: an introduction into theory of rituals in 
schools – concepts, typology, aspects of rituals in schools

3. Referring back to our own experiences, stories, understandings

Break for lunch

Part 2

4. The crocodile and circle time – An example of ritual analysis applied

5. From ritual to ritualisation – Overcoming the conceptual limits of 
ritual analysis

6. What is it good for to know all this … ? Institutional Guerilla, 
Counter Rituals or (not so) subtle consciousness raising?

The aim in the workshop is to provide an opportunity to gain some new 
ideas of “how to understand what we actually do” … as teachers, 
students, pupils, classroom assistants, supervisors, teacher educators, 
really anyone involved in institutional education. In sociological 
jargon we could say: We will look at conceptual ways to dissect some 
elements of the microphysics of power in the context of educational 
practice. In doing so we will always try to stay as close to practice as 
possible, hence starting and ending with our own experiences.

In facilitating the workshop Robert will draw on his work on theories of 
ritual in education, and particularly on a comparative study with 
teachers in mainstream schools and free alternative schools (for an 
overview see: http://www.schoolandritual.com ).

There is no need to have read anything particular as preparation for the 
workshop.

Robert says:

“I am really looking forward to this workshop. I have done a lot of work 
on the topic in Germany and in Ireland. However this will be the first 
time that I am going to offer the workshop in the UK and I am quite 
curious to learn about your experiences.”