“Inspired By Our Own Desire to Learn”: Answerability in a “Mini-Museum” University Assignment

• In Event: Applying Theory to Student Experiences: Understanding the Various Social Contexts of Higher Education

Abstract

This paper focuses on the “mini-museum” assignment of two students, Cameron and Lauren, in a university course taught from a liberatory educational approach. It suggests that rather than a focus on accountability (e.g., predetermined learning outcomes) that characterizes higher education environments, we extend Patel’s (2016) conception of answerability in educational research into the classroom, crafting assignments that are answerable to contexts, learning, and knowledge. In their mini-museums, Lauren and Cameron put their learning stories into conversation with societal forces, including poverty, white supremacy, familial violence, and fatphobia, and advocated for transformational learning. “Nontraditional” assignments can be answerable to helping students interrogate the contexts of their lives and society, to learning spaces as a refuge, and to encouraging knowledge as transformation.

Author

• Shannon McManimon, Viterbo University