Twenty-sixth International Conference on Learning

Abstract

From the moment an applicant arrives at an open day, the Art School presents itself as an opportunity. It is an opportunity that reaches beyond the potential of the creative processes that might make you a better artist. It is an opportunity to fundamentally change you and your habits, and to prepare you for a wonderful and often daunting and competitive future in the creative industries. This will be liberating and this will be transformative, in many cases even creating who you will go on to become. Something therefore about the ‘self’ will be developed through the experience of your degree. You will be changed. How? Through teaching you how to cultivate an “independent practice.” This paper interrogates how factors of esteem impact on attainment within the art school. It identifies and problematises independent learning as a significant area in which inequality is foregrounded. In the recent higher education white paper ‘The Future of Higher Education’, lifelong independent learners are highlighted as the solution to meeting the needs of the economy and to addressing the ‘productivity gap’ at a time of rapid social and technological change. This paper asks: Who is able to self-crown and who stays behind? The author suggests a rethinking of the individual focus within independent learning to instead focus on networks and communities: dependencies, in other words, that can support rather than isolate the student. It draws on the relevant theorists in this area: Morwenna Griffiths, bell hooks and Carole Leathwood.