Conditions for learning: partnerships for engaging secondary pupils with contemporary art.

However, adult teams recognise that it is important for pupils to ask questions and
listen to others as a pre-condition for developing critical skills.

2/artist 1: ... they are able to express their opinions too and be able to defend their
position and ask questions. We, as a society, tend to try to dampen a lot of that down
because ifyou ask too many questions then you’re a troublemaker!

Pupil ownership

Lack

Responses by pupils indicate that they accept aspects of the given power relations
within schooling, albeit reluctantly in some instances. This acceptance can be seen to
be generational in its formation, simulating familial relationships where guidance,
support and boundary setting characterise interactions. However, it is evident that
pupils want their voices to be taken seriously appreciating a space for equitable if not
equal relations. As a consequence, within formal pedagogic situations, pupils are
unlikely to make personal meaning unless adults recognise them as both subject to
and agents of learning.

2/live-wire: We were going there [gallery exhibition ofpupils’ work] expecting like to
be able to do our own thing and then we were given photos and told to arrange them
and it was just like ‘well this isn’t what I was expecting’.

10

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