Proceedings of the 7th World Conference on Research in Teaching and Education
Year: 2024
DOI:
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Disorienting Dilemmas” and Un-settled/Un-Settling Classrooms
Dr. Sara Buttsworth
ABSTRACT:
Between 2019 and 2022 I was excited to adapt of Mark Carnes immersive, active-learning Reacting to the Past pedagogy – a pedagogy that aligns perfectly with Stephen Brookfield’s concept of the “disorienting dilemma” that can underpin successful classroom strategies – to the context of a foundations history class in Aotearoa/New Zealand. We had developed a role play game around the signing of Te Tiriti o Waitangi/The Treaty of Waitangi and initially saw extremely successful results. Students were required to research the event’s historical context and their character or historical actor’s beliefs and positions. They were then required to strategize, negotiate, and persuade others in order to achieve the objectives required by their roles. The game was “played” in my class with various different iterations (in-person, online, and hybrid) as we adapted to the needs of teaching in lockdown, and was game tested with the US Consortium in 2021. The positive outcomes students experienced were many, with high levels of engagement and excitement. An actual debate in a foundations class on the difference between “governance” and “sovereignty”! Unfortunately, there were also negative responses which ultimately meant the risks ended up outweighing these rewards. And it was impossible to guard the cultural sensitivities in the context of the game test where there was no prior understanding of New Zealand history and cultural and colonial anxieties. This has lead to my interrogation of the nuances of context in the implementation of pedagogical approaches – and my own positionality and teaching practice. I would therefore like to throw out to you what the outcomes were and consider how the positives could be attained in different forms of assessment that also move us away from the traditional essay. In gauging the reactions to reacting how might we pivot to positively implement performative and creative pedagogies while weighing up risk and reward?
keywords: positionality; indigeneity; gameification; risks v. rewards; performative and creative pedagogies