I realised I have locked myself into a formulaic structure when delivering a workshop- it is very static. I begin by delivering a power point presentation with discussion points and activities to engage the students- but this is often conducted at a distance from the students near the projected images. During a teaching observation, my observer noted the shift in the students’ engagement once I left my position and moved around the students during a discussion. bell hooks writes about the illusion of the ‘immobility’ of academics in teaching settings, noting that this signifies a class distinction between academic work and other forms of labour; “part of the class separation between what we do and what the majority of people in this culture do (service, work, labour) is that they move their bodies. Liberatory pedagogy really demand that one…work with the limits of the body.”

She recalls, “I remember in my early teaching days that when I first tried to move out beyond the desk, I felt really nervous. I remember thinking, “This really is about power.”

The shift that my observer noted was this re-balancing of power in the studio.

The high volume of students however, complicates this reversal. In that physically moving around a crowded studio is hard. It inhibits the fluidity of my teaching and limits my interactions with the students due to sheer number of people in the room. In this respect, power relations are architectured into a lot of our teaching and pre determined by the lack of space.