Dialogic pedagogy in creative practice: a conversation in examples

Abstract

This paper surveys examples of dialogic pedagogy in creative practices in the areas of Visual Studies and Creative Writing at universities in Hong Kong and Macao. The authors describe their own participant-observer experience of evolving pedagogy for creative practice through on-site and remote interaction, with colleagues and with and between students. The creative writing practices discussed refer to extra-institutional translation and publishing activities of a Macao non-governmental organisation – the Association of Stories in Macao. Samples of published output are positioned within its history of poetry translation/publication activities. The practice of workshop translation is situated as an apprenticeship for bilingual poets, to explain how dialogic activities (face-to-face and virtual) catalyse the co-evolution of collaborative learning and publishing strategies. The visual arts practices refer to a series of collaborative drawing projects that use conventional mail for the transmission of works-in-progress between collaborators. We describe the history and rules of one of these collaborations, provide examples of its output and consider feedback from participants. We draw on the literatures of play, dialogue, pedagogy, community and gift economies (Huizinga, Freire, Bakhtin, Mauss) to theorise a common framework for understanding the role of purposive dialogue in collaborative and cross-cultural arts apprenticeships.

Keywords:

• pedagogy
• dialogue
• poetry
• visual arts
• collaboration

Notes

1. For an account of the characteristics of the Confucian Heritage Culture learner see Watkins and Biggs’ (1996) book, The Chinese Learner – Cultural, Psychological and Contextual Influences.

2. See, for instance, Hillevi Lenz Taguchi’s (2007) article ‘Deconstructing and Transgressing the Theory–Practice Dichotomy in Early Childhood Education’, Stephanie Springgay’s (2005) ‘Thinking Through Bodies: Bodied Encounters and the Process of Meaning Making in an E-mail Generated Art Project’ and Catharina Dyrssen’s (2011) article ‘Navigating in Heterogeneity: Architectural Thinking in Art-based Research’.

3. That is to say, the poems (in English and Chinese on facing pages) relate to each other but not typically as translations of each other, more in the form of a conversation across languages.

4. A complete video archive of the Bundanon workshops from July 2010 has been deposited with the Australian National Library in Canberra. Poets on video in this collection are Chris Wallace-Crabbe, John Bennett, Andy Kissane, Martin Langford, Ron Pretty, John Mateer, Beth Spencer, Carol Jenkins, Philip Salom, James Stewart, Jane Gibian, Anna Couani, Chris Mansell, John Tranter, Les Wicks and Christopher (Kit) Kelen.