Reimagining our relationships in the university
Using Play-Doh to hold generative community gatherings for co-creating meaning
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.15173/ijsap.v9i2.5988Keywords:
Student-staff partnership, critical pedagogy, creative methods, power, higher educationAbstract
Inspired by our dreams of transformation for higher education and bell hooks’ (1994) vision for the classroom, we have attempted to move away from traditional learning and teaching methods, which often mirror the imbalanced power dynamics in universities. To do so, we have experimented with different methods of creating space and holding community gatherings to reimagine our relationships in the institution. We argue for using creative and generative methods, such as Play-Doh, to develop the foundation of student-staff partnership programmes and centre student-staff partnership relationships on trust and care. In this article, we conceptualise the phases of the process we follow in community gatherings, and we present the values that shape them, as well as the practical elements we consider. Finally, we present three examples of how we co-produce outputs and visions for transformation. We conclude by offering what we have learned about these methodological choices and what using them means for our work towards transformation in higher education.
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Copyright (c) 2025 Kyra Araneta, Jennifer Fraser, Fatima Maatwk, Moonisah Usman
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