14.7 Research Findings from First Wave Study
The interview data collected in thefirst wave illustrates that the pedagogies in the
workshop assisted teachers and students to work beyond the usual‘roles’of teacher
and student, enabling new possibilities for interaction. Liz (teacher) found that the
workshops provided a levelling reprieve from the institutionalised relationships.
She found that once onan equal footing, and freed from her confining role as
disciplinarian,amore honestexchange became possible.
...every interaction that you have with students you are in this role as the teacher and to
some degree or another you’re a disciplinarian, and then to be able to meet and interact with
them as people instead....I got a lot out of it in terms of being able to talk to them on equal
footing andfind out what their point of view was in that kind of perspective. (Liz, teacher)Thelevellingexperience interrupts the institutionalised nature of the teacher–stu-
dent relationship. Julia (teacher) points to the way in which the repositioning
permits a humanising exchange.
It is a great leveler, because it is not a power relationship that is set up...It kind of
humanised both the role of the teacher and the role of the student. And that can tend to be
de-humanised in institutions because you are so busy with your agenda. (Julia, teacher)The students found that it was an uplifting affective experience for them to be
re-positioned from student to advisor.
It’s a lot more like satisfying because it’s like—yes—I’m being listened to, my opinions are
being heard you know, and you feel really important—like—this is something that’s really
good for the community, it’s going to benefit everybody...It’s really good, it’s really
morale boosting...(Susie, student)This process of embodying the characters assists the players to create new inter-
pretive‘stories’through which to explain school relationships. Krissy (student)
points to the explanatory default whereby students ascribe negative motive to
teachers. This default is informed by the cultural discourse about who teachers and
students‘are’.
You see kind of the teachers whinging, and the student just thinks that the teacher doesn’t
care, you know...whereas the teacher is worrying about it on the other side. (Krissy,
student)The assumption that the teacher is whinging, rather than worried, arises from a
discourse that demonises teachers. Within this presumption, the teacher is likely to
beinterpretedin a negative light. Natalie (student) describes the way in which she
re-stories fromteacher is the enemytoteacher as tolerant.
I guess in a school environment you don’t normally think about, you know, the teachers’
perspectives, it is just they’re the enemy and I’m right. And, you know, it is kind of
teaching you to see the other side of the story in a way. (We saw) how tolerant they could
be to certain stuff, whereas we don’t see that side of it prior because we just assume that
they’re not (Natalie, student).14 Repositioning, Embodiment and the Experimental Space... 217