Towards a pedagogy of practice-as-research

Abstract

In this essay the author reflects on the pedagogic choices he made when teaching in the MAIPR programme: how to teach practice within a programme designed to develop researchers not practitioners, the discoveries that emerged from those choices, how his approach changed over time and whether the international nature of the programme (his coming from Africa in particular) affected this in any way. It is the author’s contention that, while much has been written about Practice/Performance as Research (PaR) from a theoretical perspective - what the particular ontology of PaR might be, the methods of engaging in PaR - little to his knowledge has been written about how to teach it to potential practitioner-researchers. His objective therefore is to begin to think about the pedagogy of PaR in the contemporary university in a global context.