Reviewing our Teaching Practice

How do I teach and why? For whom do I design a course, for whom not? What does discrimination-sensitive practice mean? Can I integrate it into my teaching?
In the current winter semester, the event series "+dimensions dialogues" will continue in a workshop format. The workshop series invites teachers from all departments at weißensee school of art and design berlin to explore the invisible norms in the teaching context, and to reflect on their own position and practice in the face of inclusion and exclusion. Three workshops serve as an introduction to the thematic complexes in order to actively act against one's own myopia. For the necessary openness in aesthetic practice is not automatically transferred to teaching practice. The goal is to examine normalizations and apparent neutralities, to question our roles and attitudes, and to expand scopes of action for discrimination-sensitive practices in our own teaching.

The workshops are aimed at teachers. Previous knowledge is not expected. A willingness to reflect on one's own position is required. The workshops can be attended individually. Places will be allocated according to the time of registration: first come - first serve.

Critical Whiteness

With Jule Bönkost
Tue Nov 8, 2022, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., online, in german
Registration until 1.11.2022 by mail to plusdimensions@kh-berlin.de

From a white position, good intentions are never enough to have an anti-racist stance. This posture requires ongoing self-criticism and reflection. In the Critical Whiteness workshop, we will look at the possibilities that a white position offers for anti-racist action in the context of our teaching. In doing so, we will address pitfalls and challenges as well as opportunities and possibilities. We will also question the meaning of our emotional experiences, and will have space to reflect on felt insecurities.

Dr.in Jule Bönkost, Americanist and cultural scientist, long-time trainer and author in the field of discrimination and critical education with a focus on critical whiteness. The speaker is positioned as white. 

Unconcious Bias

With Angelo Camufingo
Tue Dec 6, 2022, 10 a.m., online, in german
Registration until 29.11.2022 by mail to plusdimensions@kh-berlin.de

Feminist and postcolonial studies in particular have highlighted how universalist ideas are anchored in specific experiences. In this context, decolonial critiques have examined, among other things, the canon of aesthetics. They reveal how our senses are locally, positionally, and historically conditioned. Thus, not only are aesthetic experiences subjective, but aesthetic categories are historically and culturally biased. This makes universalist notions of what is good or bad art untenable.
What does this mean for the practice of teaching art and design? And what happens when we have to judge students' work in admissions or final projects? How can we become more aware of our unconscious biases so that we don't judge students' work according to our own tastes?
Angelo Camufingo is a freelance anti-racism and education consultant, certified diversity, equity, inclusion, and social justice trainer and consultant. He also publishes on racism, racialized emotions, and European colonialism. He is the founder of STUBBORN Consulting and currently a member of the Diversity Audit Steering Committee at the University of Potsdam as well as an education consultant for Each One Teach One (EOTO) e.V.

Anti-Ableist Practices

Workshopleader to be announced
Tue Jan 17, 2023, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., online, in german
Registration until 10.1.2023 by mail to plusdimensions@kh-berlin.de

During pandemic times digital infrastructure enabled forms of coming together independently of location. Restrictions of movement were relaxed so that students and teachers could continue teaching to some extent. It is easy to confound these possibilities with a complete pluralization of the classroom, however, these platforms carry their own excusion mechanisms. What barriers are there for differently abled persons, and how do we go about creating inclusive hybrid and digital classrooms? How can teaching and learning spaces be designed to enable self-determined work for disabled students and teachers? The workshop provides insights into possible formats and practices that constitute an anti-ableist stance.