Principles for a pedagogy of unlearning

ABSTRACT

In this article we make the case that ‘unlearning’ is an important dimension of professional reflective practice that can offer new insights when done collaboratively. We do so as an interdisciplinary group of academics interested in ‘undoing’ the conventional and individualising norms of reflective practice in academic settings, particularly when it comes to planning and reflecting on group processes for research. In the process of planning a project to investigate mentoring in the professions of social work and teaching, we reflected on our own collaborative academic practices through co-facilitated discussion, the creation of visual ‘d/artaphacts’, written reflections on our perceptions of ‘unlearning’ and academic collaboration, and reviewing how our diverse disciplines have engaged with unlearning in research literature and practice. These responses generated insights into the intricacies of the collaborative practice of unlearning in a professional research environment. We draw on these conversations, d/artaphacts, and reflections to compose five principles for a pedagogy of unlearning that can be applied in mentoring and professional practice settings. The principles highlight the importance of approaching unlearning as a collaborative activity for sustainable professional practice and for supporting the development of professional identities in fluid and complex relational work environments.

KEYWORDS:

• Unlearning
• reflective practice
• interdisciplinary collaboration
• arts-informed
• professional practice
• mentoring

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Supplementary Material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed here.

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the University of Tasmania under the College of Arts, Law and Education Hothouse Grant scheme.

Notes on contributors

Kim McLeod

Kim McLeod is a Lecturer in Sociology in the School of Social Sciences at the University of Tasmania. She explores contemporary health issues in novel ways by combining social theory with creative qualitative research methods. Kim brings an interdisciplinary approach to her research practice. She collaborates with researchers from the Health Sciences, Humanities and Social Sciences on health-related research projects, and her research draws on Science and Technology Studies, Continental Philosophy, Health Sociology, Medical Anthropology and Health Geography. Kim’s approach to understanding health as ongoing processes of change is presented in her single authored book Wellbeing Machine: How Health Emerges from the Assemblages of Everyday Life (Carolina Academic Press, Durham, 2017). Kim is currently a Board Member of Reconciliation Tasmania and an Associate Editor of Health Sociology Review. Twitter: @k_i_m_mcleod

Sonam Thakchoe

Sonam Thakchoe (Ph.D., University of Tasmania) is a Senior Philosophy Lecturer at University of Tasmania, where he teaches Asian philosophy, coordinates the Asian Philosophy Program, and directs the Tasmanian Buddhist Studies in India Exchange Program. His research focuses on Indo-Tibetan Madhyamaka philosophy, with a particular emphasis on ontology, epistemology, ethics, and Buddhist philosophy of mind. His publications include two dozen referred articles and four scholarly books: Dignāga’s Investigation of the Percept; Moonpaths: Ethics and Emptiness (New York: Oxford, 2015; coauthored with the Cowherds); Moonshadows: Conventional Truth in Buddhist Philosophy (Cowherds 2011); and The Two Truths Debate: Tsongkhapa and Gorampa on the Middle Way (Boston: Wisdom Publications, 2007). Thakchoe has two more collaborative volumes (Critical Study Volume and Translation Volume) co-authored with the Yakherds, Knowing Illusion: Bringing a Tibetan Debate into Contemporary Discourse coming out from Oxford University Press (2020).

Mary Ann Hunter

Mary Ann Hunter is Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Education. She teaches and supervises in the fields of arts education, applied arts, and peace and conflict studies. Mary Ann’s research interests focus on the role of the arts and creative practice in education and applied settings. She is interested in interdisciplinary enquiry and her experience is in qualitative and arts-based methods of research and evaluation in school, industry and community contexts. She is co-author of Education, Arts and Sustainability: Emerging Practice for a Changing World and co-editor of Education in the Arts. She currently coordinates the IMPACT Learning Exchanges with international colleagues creating a university-based infrastructure for supporting arts, culture and conflict transformation.

Kate Vincent

Kate Vincent is currently completing a PhD within the School of Social Sciences at the University of Tasmania. Her PhD project explores Whiteness within the social work profession, focusing on the practice of white social workers who work with people seeking asylum and people of refugee background. Kate is deeply interested in Critical Whiteness Theory, the critiques of how Northern framings of knowledge are privileged and adopting a decolonising lens in relation to practice, research and education. In recent years, Kate has been involved in teaching within both the health and social work spheres, including units focused on intercultural social work practice, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health and wellbeing, and responding to diversity. In addition to involvement in research projects focused on mentoring, Kate is also a Director on the Board of the Tasmanian Refugee Legal Service. Her most recent publication is a co-authored chapter in the recent text Critical Multicultural Practice in Social Work (S. Nipperess and C. Williams (eds), Allen & Unwin, Australia, 2019).

Ann Joselynn Baltra-Ulloa

Ann Joselynn Baltra-Ulloa (Jos), is a lecturer of social work at the University of Tasmania. Originally from Chile, she came to Australia as a refugee and has dedicated her professional life to working with the refugee arrived communities. Her work and research passions relate to Whiteness in social work, Decolonising social work and learning from Southern Theory. She is involved in community based projects aimed at building capacity within the refugee arrived communities, exploring the role of mentoring, leadership and relationships of mutuality as core parts of social work thinking, learning, teaching and practice in the 21st century. She has recently published two co-authored chapters in innovative social work texts, including Critical Multicultural Practice in Social Work (S. Nipperess and C. Williams (eds), Allen & Unwin, Australia, 2019) and the second edition of Our Voices (B. Bennet & S. Green (eds) Red Globe Press. London, UK, 2019).

Abbey MacDonald

Abbey MacDonald is a Senior Lecturer in Arts Education at the University of Tasmania, where she specialises in visual art curriculum, pedagogy and practice. Dr MacDonald is a qualitative researcher with an interest in the applications of storying and Arts-based methodologies to support participant, researcher and teacher engagement in and with relational art inquiry. Her research contexts include professional learning collaboration, teacher embodiment and enactment of curriculum, interdisciplinarity and exploration of the intersections and spaces between practice, pedagogy and methodology. Her classroom teaching experience includes secondary visual arts, media arts and English, as well as residential education leadership. While her area of teaching and practice specialisation is grounded in visual and media arts, she has taught into, designed and developed units across the five Arts in Australian tertiary education contexts. Dr MacDonald is a curator and visual artist, working in oils and cross media. She is Vice President of Art Education Australia (AEA), and Councillor of the Tasmanian Art Teachers Association (TATA). Email: [email protected], Twitter: @abbeyjmacd.