Encountering a Pedagogy of the World in a University Setting

Taking up Biesta’s (2019) notion of a pedagogy of the world, we ask: How might participating in an arts-based educational program with/in a university enable young people from schools with low Index of Community Socio-Educational Advantage (ICSEA) values to encounter the world of higher education differently and become different in that encounter? This chapter comes from our engagement with empirical material generated during a (post)qualitative inquiry into the pedagogy of The Art of Engagement-a multi-arts studio program involving relational pedagogy and a/r/tography as curriculum located in SPACE, 1 whereby secondary school students from schools in less socio-educationally advantaged communities came together with undergraduate university students for a five-day intensive within a University of Melbourne breadth subject. The program’s rationale was to connect with secondary school arts students completing their schooling in lower ICSEA value schools 2 through the design of authentic university encounters with/in site, practices and communities. It welcomed the secondary school students into the world of our university and enhanced their capacity to “be at home” in this world, creating the conditions for considering and potentially living different post-school futures.