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We discuss how making the influence of late capitalism overt not only better enables the integration of academic literacies support and strengthens the development of critical analysis skills, but better enables students to actively participate in the construction of both knowledge and a vibrant, joyful learning community. Drawing on the work of the social theorist, Theodor W Adorno, enables students to challenge the treatment of anything--whether a word or a person--independently of its context. Adorno's approach explores an object's multiple connections to context by experimenting with varying combinations (or 'constellations') of concepts and discourses. His technique, applied in the analysis and critique of readings, whereby students using wall-to-wall whiteboards draw (and re-draw) constellations of their interpretations of those readings, enables them to actively engage in the construction of contextualised knowledge, and to develop their learning and professional identities, in playful, promising, creative ways.

This article considers how students, reflecting on a pedagogy combining academic literacies and critical analysis, emphasised the importance of the learning community it promoted. The pedagogy drew on insights from the work of Theodor Adorno. Through qualitative research, the students confirmed their experience of a vibrant, productive learning community. They wholeheartedly accepted the invitation to be a part of the creation of this community, a community they reported ownership of. They felt responsible for each other, gave and received support and encouragement and developed trust; enough trust to push past their comfort zones and certainties and experiment, drawing on their own knowledges and experience. Their view of the pedagogy highlights the significance of relationships as the key to building strong learning communities that enable effective learning. Significantly they argue, the pedagogy itself was instrumental in fostering these relationships and countering repressive liberal ways of being, which idealise decontextualised, value-neutral knowledge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We developed a pedagogy addressing both academic literacies and critical analysis where students would, with limited facilitation, actively engage with texts and each other. In this article we reflect on what the students who engaged with the pedagogy taught us: that teachers need to be much more than facilitators—we need to 'meddle in the middle'. In developing the pedagogy we found the key obstacles were the liberal concepts of independence and objectivity—they led students to search for discrete objective ideas and to ignore the context shaping them. Drawing on the ideas of Theodor Adorno and of socio-cultural approaches to literacy, the pedagogy prompted students to sketch constellations on whiteboards of their understanding of the learning materials, drawing on lectures, readings, and their pre-existing knowledges. This article, reflecting qualitative research with students, reports their view that the pedagogy succeeded because of their interactive, engaged, relationship with their teachers. Considering those findings, we discuss how liberalism operates to repress students' pre-existing knowledges and how this can be countered by teachers' passion, care, and close engagement. What the students taught us was combatting liberalism requires more than well-scaffolded activities, but active, authentic, enthusiastic, relationships of trust that value both the contributions of students and teachers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]