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Paper short abstract:

Trying out and making mistakes are crucial for academic knowledge production in teaching and learning. But there are often inhibitions. Formats in which the participants tinker together and silence serves as an accomplice, make such processes transparent, dynamic and change the notions of academia.

Paper long abstract:

Academic teaching and learning occur collaboratively and through material environments. What Science and Technology Studies have shown regarding research is also valid for knowledge production in teaching and learning: it is a sociotechnical, material practice. Over time, dominant ways of teaching and learning have emerged, such as standing in front of a class, using a PowerPoint, flipchart and pens. But through a reflexive pedagogy as participatory practice (Ingold 2018) which also includes things as actors, academia on the level of teaching and learning can be also negotiated, shaped (Künzler 2021) and rearranged.

Experimenting with various (new) teaching-learning formats and with the particular seminar situation in situ sets off reflections and discussions, which have a productive impact on academic knowledge production. Joint tinkering (with the surrounding materiality) makes power relations tangible, discussable and even undermines them. A core element of such actions is the “trial and error” approach, which stimulates intrinsic curiosity and leads to unexpected insights. The focus of this paper is therefore on trying (things) out and making “mistakes”.

In this interplay, silence can be productively included as a multidimensional pedagogical accomplice: for example, silence to gain access to one's own thoughts, to let non-verbal things speak, or to silence dominant notions of academia. These dimensions will be bundled analytically in the paper.

All findings are based on my empirical research, especially on two seminars (“Artistic Knowledge Practices” 2020; “moving” 2023) which are part of my project on the emergence of Cultural Studies through teaching and learning (https://kulturwissenschaft.philhist.unibas.ch/de/forschung/standard-titel/standard-titel/).