Abstract

D'AMANT, Antoinette. Visual methodologies as effective tools in reflecting on aspects of identity as an educator for inclusion and social justice. Journal of Education [online]. 2022, n.88, pp.127-143. ISSN 2520-9868.  http://dx.doi.org/10.17159/2520-9868/i88a08.

As an educator for inclusion and social justice, it is essential to be self-reflective about all aspects of identity that relate to diversity and differential power relations. As part of this commitment, I am part of a group of critical academics and practitioners who comprise the South African Education Research Association (SAERA) Special Interest Group on Self-Reflexive Methodologies. In this paper, I include reflections on two artworks I created during self-reflexive exercises using visual methodologies. The first artwork led to my interrogating aspects of meaning and identity as a white person in post-apartheid South Africa. What emerged was, first, the need to confront my privileged racial identity that had been fashioned in a divided and exclusive past and second, I needed to reposition myself beyond my white socialisation, recognising the possibility of new frames of understanding and new identities, new social spaces, and new communities beyond the historical differences that keep South Africans separated and alienated. Critical reflection on the second artwork reveals embedded commentary on the need to challenge patriarchal articulations of the professional identity and dominant discourses of learning and teaching in academia. What emerged was the possibility of how lost feminine aspects of knowledge could inform teaching and learning strategies. These strategies could then contribute to a critical pedagogy that challenges the prevailing system of social relations and disrupts and unsettles the stereotypical assumptions of a dominant masculine discourse in academia. Here, I highlight the effectiveness of using visual methodologies to explore various aspects of identity, especially relevant for educators as transformative agents educating for inclusion and social justice.

Keywords : self-reflexive methodology; visual methodology; educating for social justice; racial identity; challenging patriarchal articulations of professional identity in academia.

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