Vol 5 / Issue 1 (2022) pp. 101–104 Karen Harris, © 2022 Spark: UAL Creative Teaching and Learning Journal
““You don’t leave this room,” she told us, “until you’ve said something”.
So what to do about silent, faceless lurkers? “
In a nut shell the article discusses:
Provocation 1: Might the pressure to actively participate actually be counter-productive?
Provocation 2: Do we need to recalibrate the notion of “active participation”? When it comes to learning, is “active/passive” a false dichotomy?
Provocation 3: What advantages might the online classroom offer for nurturing a profound, transformative silence?
This short article makes me think of many contradictions, difficulties and inner conversations I have with myself when teaching. Here are my thoughts
- Students who have enrolled on a performance course, who do not want to perform and show their work. Acting, and performing, is in and of itself being seen. So how do I approach a student who does not want to be seen, yet the syllabus of the course they have enrolled on, requires them to be seen. There are many ways to be seen, but during the process: the research and development of a piece, the rehearsing, the repetition, the trial and error: I need to see the student “perform”, and my time is limited in the studio with them. Sometimes there literally is no time for “I don’t feel like performing today”.
- Students who are present, and doing, but not active or proactice. They are there but not there. Going through the motions, but I can’t quite sense them. There are ways of being present. Like the muted participant in an online space, these are the students I most struggle with. I can’t sense what they are thinking, where they are at with the content, or what their thoughts about the work are. Thank goodness for the portfolios and the reflective writing, as it allows for these students to share their process in other forms, and not just in the rehearsal space where I am reliant on observing them rehearse, perform of converse with me. But I do fight the old school, conservatoire trained ballet dancer in me, as something about a student’s “muted” physical presence (by which I mean they are in the space but somehow are invisible) bothers me. Is it because, the way I was originally trained still holds a space within my practise? This of course was a training that aligned with, “if you don’t outwardly show you are interested (i.e. mask everything you feel inside with bright eyes and a masked smile), then you won’t get casted or, a choreographer won’t see you?,” or is it something about being active and not passive, in which ever form being active may take?
- Absence: the constant obstruction to process particularly on a course which is collaborative in nearly every unit. It is the art of not attending and the presence it leaves behind, almost like a political act of not showing up. The not knowing if a student will come, and the stunting of group progress. Being absent is a political act in a sense. Its saying something without saying anything at all.
- Collaboration; how can I foster a space of collaboration to include the silent members with the leaders and the hungry for attention students. On a course that requires you to be seen and to represent the under seen, how can I create an environment that nurtures the introvert performer. How, therefore can I foster learning for the absent learner, when the process and the outcome rely heavily on the act of attending.