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Building a pedagogy of the alliance

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Brief description

The BRIDGES project aims to combat racial discrimination and structural racism in higher education institutions in the European Union. To do so, it starts from the idea that any possible solutions will only be possible thanks to a series of alliances between dissimilar organisations. Taking this framework as a starting point, this workshop draws on the experience of political organisation of the PAR Barcelona and proposes the idea of a Pedagogy of the Alliance as a means to explore the importance of establishing connections and carrying on care politics in anti-racist work within universities. To this end, work will be carried out at two different levels. On the one hand, during the preparation of the activity by the teacher, through the creation of connections with relevant social agents outside the higher education institution where the course is being held. These “allies” will be co-dynamizers and participants in the activity that will take place in class — the second level of work in the workshop. This 1.5-2 hour exercise, explained below, is aimed at reflecting in small groups on alliances building as a pedagogical tool. You will do this through 3 levels.

The first level of reflection (“We are already made of alliances”) aims to reflect on alliances from the point of view of our own composition as persons. Alliances are inherent to us throughout our life cycle, we are made of them. This part draws on the broad legacy of feminist literature to think of ontologies as relational, trying to make visible the networks, inter-dependencies and care work that make it possible for us to exist, to gestate an idea, or to act politically.

The second level of the group work (“The life cycles of alliances”) the group will work on the learning that is possible thanks to alliances. Knowledge is something that is made possible thanks to partial connections that generate situated knowledge, knowledge that is collectivised remains localised to that time and place. The alliances we refer to go against extractivism and seek a horizontal way of doing things, they are based on respect, on creating and sustaining relationships of mutual support over time. The alliance teaches us to work on the basis of respect, to face and value the discomfort and tensions of building a common front; alliances are finite, they are built and deconstructed like all links to enrich the parties. In other words, we do not have to essentialise and romanticise them, but rather generate a practice of listening in relation to issues that occupy us and are common to us.

Finally, the third level (“Strategic alliances and possible futures”) will be aimed at working on the political and proactive dimension of alliances. Initially, this may refer to how alliances are intentional and strategic. Some are chosen over others for political agency. An example of this is the construction of political identities, formed through alliances of groups united in difference. At the same time, the construction of alliances refers to the construction of a particular political horizon, also offering fictions about the worlds we would like to build.

The BRIDGES project aims to combat racial discrimination and structural racism in higher education institutions in the European Union. To do so, it starts from the idea that any possible solutions will only be possible thanks to a series of alliances between dissimilar organisations. Taking this framework as a starting point, this workshop draws on  the experience of political organisation of the PAR Barcelona and proposes the idea of a Pedagogy of the Alliance as a means to explore the importance of establishing connections and carrying on care politics in anti-racist work within universities. To this end, work will be carried out at two different levels. On the one hand, during the preparation of the activity by the teacher, through the creation of connections with relevant social agents outside the higher education institution where the course is being held. These “allies” will be co-dynamizers and participants in the activity that will take place in class — the second level of work in the workshop. This workshop, of 1,5 hours of recommended duration for its online modality, is aimed at reflecting in small groups on the creation of alliances as a pedagogical and transformative tool. They will do this through 3 thematic blocks or levels of reflection.

The first level of reflection  (“We are already made of alliances”) aims to reflect on the alliance from the point of view of our own composition as individuals. Alliances are inherent to us throughout our life cycle, we are made up of them. This part draws on the broad legacy of feminist literature to think of ontologies as relational, trying to make visible the networks, inter-dependencies and care work that makes it possible for us to exist, to develop an idea, or to act politically.

At the second level of group work (“What do we learn with alliances?”), the group will reflect on the kind of knowledge that alliances enable. Knowledge is something that is made possible only thanks to the partial connections that generate situated knowledge, a knowledge that is collectivized and located at a given time and place. The alliances to which we refer go against extractivism and seek a horizontal way of doing things. They are based on respect, on creating and sustaining relationships of mutual support over time. Alliances teach us to work based on respect, to face and value the discomforts and tensions implied in building a common front. Nevertheless, alliances are also finite. They are built and deconstructed to enrich the parties. That is, we should not essentialize and romanticize them, but rather generate a listening and revision practice in relation to issues we share a concern for. 

Finally, the third level (“Strategic alliances and possible futures”) will be aimed at working on the political and purposeful dimension that alliances carry with them. At first this may refer to how intentional and strategic alliances are. They are chosen one over the other to get together politically. An example of this is the construction of political identities, formed through alliances of groups united in difference. At the same time, the construction of alliances refers to the construction of a specific political horizon, also offering fictions about the worlds that we would like to build. Based on this, in this last level of the workshop the small groups will try to formulate a draft of concrete proposals for alliances that can help build a more anti-racist university. 

After these three moments of work in small groups, participants will come back to the large group. At this point, facilitators will bring the discussion on the added value of that invited facilitators from civil society organisations brought to the discussion on a pedagogy of the alliance. They will have participated in the group work as yet another together with the students of the course, thus contributing with their experience on the subject. Moreover, they will have also contributed, in situ, to generate possible plans for alliances to transform racism inside and outside the university. In this way, the workshop seeks to show performatively the implicit value of alliances between different organizations, at the same time as contributing de facto to establish and reinforce these links.

 

Objectives

  • To create and strengthen alliances between higher education institutions and other relevant social agents to combat racism in the university through an invitation to participate as co-facilitators of the workshop.  
  • To make visible the importance of alliances and caring relationships in the daily life of people and organizations.
  • To reflect on how the alliance can be a source of knowledge through the collectivisation of knowledge and the tensions that are implicit in it.
  • To reflect on the political dimension of alliances and the horizons for change that are implicit in them.
  • To reflect on the value of alliances through the experience of exchange with organisations outside the higher education institution.

Procedure

Previous work: search for social agents to create alliances.

See some guidelines on this in the complete BRIDGES Course document, available in the BRIDGES Virtual Lab.

Online workshop

A possible structure for its dynamization in its virtual modality is detailed here. In order to avoid screen-fatigue, we recommend it to be of no more than 1,5h of duration.

Summary

  • Part 1: Introduction: 20 min.
  • Part 2: Work in smaller groups: 40 min.
  • Part 3: Final plenary and final conclusions of the workshop: 30 min.

Part 1: Introduction

20 minutes

  • Explanation of the general framework of the activity and its structure.
  • Presentation of the co-facilitators who are with us

Part 2: Work in small groups

40 minutes

The class is divided into groups of 3-5 people. At least one CSO representative joins each one of these groups and participates as one more member. About 40 minutes are dedicated to reflecting on some of the questions collected here. Far from having to answer all of them, the list below is a resource box that can guide the group’s conversation. The objective of this part is for the participants to come up with an idea sketch of how alliances can contribute to generating a more anti-racist university. . It may be useful to read all the trigger questions and start from a specific experience of the invited facilitators or other participants.

Guiding questions for the levels of reflection of “We are already made of alliances” and “What do we learn with alliances?”

  • On the presence of alliances throughout our lives:
    • What relationships have kept us alive? What alliances have been important to the political work we have done?
  • On care, interdependence, mutual support and reciprocity:
    • Human relationships require care for their maintenance. What kind of care does building alliances require? What do we mean by mutual support and how would it translate into an alliance?
    • In a context where we increasingly know that we are interdependent: how do we manage our differences within alliances to generate counter-hegemonic responses (anti-racist, anti-patriarchal…)? What would reciprocity practices imply in an alliance? Would they have to be bidirectional, or can they circulate as a chain of support between groups, without the need to go back and forth?
  • On how learning is a collective effort:
    • Think of an experience where you have learned from leaving your everyday place or have encountered heterogeneous and divergent knowledge. Tell the group about it.
    • How do we recognize the different genealogies that make us up? In these connections, the limits and mutual respect for the work and the knowledge and experience of each group are managed.
  • On the value of discomfort as a source of learning:
    • What factors make an alliance work or not work? One way to think about the value of alliances is to think about those that are kept in tension. Why is that relationship worth saving? Why maintain that link? What value is there in those links that challenge us and question our positions? What kind of knowledge can we find in discomfort?

Battery of questions on the third level “Where do alliances take us?”

 

During this last part, the small groups will work to formulate a concrete proposal on how alliances can give us a more anti-racist university.

  • What possible alliances can be made between the university and other social agents to combat racism in the latter?
  • What image of the university does this vision give us through alliances?
  • How can alliances help us create a more inclusive university?

Part 3: Second plenary and final conclusions of the workshop

30 minutes

The smaller groups share their ideas on possible ways alliances can transform university. The intervention of the facilitating team can go along the lines of underlining how the joint work has been a performance on the same alliance. The presence of civil society organisations serves as a concrete reference on what an alliance looks like in antiracist struggle because they are in the very same room with us. What is the value of this joint work? How does your experience add new lines to anti-racist work at the university?

Necessary Materials

Online modality: For the realization of the workshop in online mode can make use of a video conferencing application that allows working in smaller groups in separate rooms. Although the online modality may change the social dynamics of the workshops, it also opens the door to invite civil society organisations that are far from their physical headquarters of the higher education institution. To replace the support of a blackboard, online platforms such as Miro can be used.