I have been asked to research, design, run and document an ‘Open’ workshop that teaches an aspect of my practice to a group of peers. I’m not sure what a ‘practice’ is, or if I have one! How can I figure this out? I’m also unsure about what ‘teaching’ this in the ‘Open’ might involve.  If I do have a practice, how might I support others to learn it in an open way?

When I first came across practice, I was confused about the concept, but Jake gave us the example of toast to help us better understand what practice is, and combined with Miro’s diagram of practice routines and rhythms, I have gradually developed my own understanding of practice as a process of learning something from the outside world, understanding it, internalising it and then transmitting it to the outside world for externalisation. As the book Practice Theory Perspectives on Pedagogy and Education: Praxis, Diversity and Contestation puts it, “Practice is a ubiquitous – and perhaps even a taken-for-granted – process. -and perhaps even a taken-for-granted, idiom found in descriptions of everyday social life.”

Practice is everywhere in our lives and according to the above book, “Practice theories are fundamentally social theories bound by a core interest in the conduct and shape of practices in all dimensions of everyday social life.” So finding a practice is actually quite simple, as long as it involves the act of propagation and acquisition, which can be anything that happens anywhere.

In class I thought about what practice is for me, and in doing so I focused on the process of exposure to knowledge from the outside world – internalising it – externalising it. The first thing that came to my mind was reading. I am a storyteller, so I like to read novels, where I am exposed to the author’s stories, ideas and thoughts. When I don’t know what to read, I also search for readers’ recommendations and reviews and read them, so I am exposed to readers’ ideas and opinions about the content of books. In this practice process, I am exposed to both the author’s and the reader’s thoughts, and I internalise these as I read the novel, forming my own ideas. When I finish a novel, I choose to write a book review to externalise my personal thoughts. And when a new reader reads my review, they also internalise my thoughts into their own understanding and continue to pass them on. It’s a practice cycle for me, and what makes reading so enjoyable.

If you want to share a practice and support others in learning it in an open way, a good way to do so is to codify the practice as an open toolkit. As we have learnt before, a toolkit is a collection of guidelines and resources that people need to learn, which can assist them in learning more efficiently and facilitate the dissemination of knowledge. I was asked on the course to recodify my practice as a modifiable open toolkit. Instead of continuing to choose reading as my practice, I chose knitting as the basis for the toolkit. When I was a child I used to receive hand-knitted jumpers from my grandmother and when I grew up and got into knitting myself I found it to be a very relaxing activity. But these days very few people get their hands on knitting anything, so I decided to make knitting my practice, making it into a toolkit to share with others. I need to be as open as possible about making kits, and the materials needed for knitting are easy to obtain and usually available in some shops. The venue is also usually not restrictive, so it is easy for participants to use my toolkit anytime, and anywhere. I then need to survey as many people as possible about what they think of my toolkit so that I can refine it for better dissemination and openness.

Reference:

Grootenboer, Peter, Christine Edwards-Groves, and Sarojni Choy. Practice Theory Perspectives on Pedagogy and Education: Praxis, Diversity and Contestation. Singapore: Springer Singapore Pte. Limited, 2017. Print.

Learning Sprint 3 | Inhabiting Practice: Reflective Analysis / Yushan Zhao / Contemporary Art & Open Learning (2022-2023)[SEM1] by blogadmin is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution CC BY 3.0