The Critical Pedagogy Congress was held in Ankara between November 29 and December 2, 2024 with the support of Eğitim Sen, Sivil Düşün, Birarada Association, ODTÜ Alumni Association and Töz Publications. The rich program, which included presentations from local and foreign academics who have been working in the field of Critical Pedagogy for a long time, as well as academics, social workers and researchers who work through the lens of critical pedagogy in different disciplines such as history, sociology, art and religious education, was met with great interest from participants from different cities of Turkey, especially Ankara
The congress, whose stakeholders were brought together by Prof. Kemal İnal, began with the opening speeches of doyen academics in adult education and critical pedagogy such as Peter Mayo. During the conference, presentations and workshops were held on many different topics that have gained importance worldwide in recent years, such as migration pedagogy, anti-racist pedagogy, feminist pedagogy, ecological pedagogy, queer pedagogy, and gender equality.
What emerged from my observations in all these presentations and workshops was the intense need and interest in competent actions, discussions, and exchanges of ideas on the above-mentioned topics. During the congress, the common or different problems, institutional support or obstacles encountered by local and foreign speakers while working from a critical pedagogy perspective, their approaches to solving problems, while providing inspirational and educational experiences for both colleagues and participants, reminded them of the importance of solidarity in the local and international context.
I also contributed to this process with a body-focused introduction event on critical thinking practices at the opening of the congress and a workshop called Developing Critical Thinking with Creative Dance. The basis of both workshops was to prioritize the knowledge gained through experiencing the body, which has long been ignored in traditional education systems. In order to reveal this knowledge during the application process, I used exercises that will enable the individual to establish a dialogue between their body and mind, awaken their awareness of the body and space within the moment and space they are in, carry the thought or theme they focus on forward by feeling their bodily sensations within the movement research, help them see from different perspectives and gain new dimensions, as the source of creative dance pedagogy.
Bell Hooks emphasizes the importance of the body, body awareness and holistic approach in education regarding the education processes that she sees as a practice of liberation as follows;
“Beyond the field of critical thinking, it is equally important that we learn to enter the classroom not as a “disembodied soul” but as a “whole”.”
In this context, I have been organizing similar workshops and writing on the subject for a long time so that the art of dance can actively take place as a learning tool in education-training application processes in a way that serves inclusive and holistic learning. These efforts reach academics, art educators and social workers who are interested in the field. In the practices I conducted at the Critical Pedagogy Conference, I understood from both my observations during the workshop process and the feedback they gave at the end of the workshop that the workshop participants experienced the supportive relationship between dance, movement, learning and critical thinking with both enthusiasm and amazement. This reminded me once again of the importance of including courses such as creative dance, embodied consciousness and somatic pedagogy in teacher training institutions, especially in faculties of education. All these practices are possible with the transition to new curricula and the establishment of democratic, participatory learning experiences by the power holders who manage the relevant institutions.
In Turkey, the spread of dance art to different areas in society as well as in the field of education will be possible with the structural support of national and local art and education policies, as well as social units and dance field experts being able to communicate with an egalitarian perspective, learning from each other, mutually shaping each other, and being able to engage in social, pedagogical and artistic joint creations that sprout from local culture and reach society.
After working as an instructor for a while at the Mimar Sinan University State Conservatory Modern Dance Department, she continued to transfer all her professional knowledge to the Dance undergraduate program she opened in 1998 within the Yıldız Technical University, Faculty of Art and Design until she retired due to age.
On this occasion, I would like to commemorate my teacher Geyvan McMillen, who first introduced the interdisciplinary approach in dance education to our country’s academy and passed away on October 29, 2024. McMillen graduated from the Hacettepe University State Conservatory Ballet Department in 1960 and worked as a dancer, instructor and choreographer at the Ankara State Ballet between 1960 and 1970. Thanks to her curiosity for learning, desire to create and determination, she was accepted as a scholarship student at the leading dance schools of the time in England and the USA, then continued her career as a dancer in various companies abroad and participated in the world tours of these companies. After returning to Turkey, she staged classical works as the chief choreographer at the Istanbul State Opera and Ballet, while also giving lessons on the Graham and Cunningham technique, which she had received training in and outside the institution; dancers and choreographers such as Mustafa Kaplan, Mehmet Sander and Ziya Azazi, who have international success in contemporary dance today and who have created their own unique styles in the field, took their first dance lessons from her. She was instrumental in bringing important modern and contemporary dance companies of the world to Turkey and producing in Istanbul. On the other hand, she produced her original choreographies inspired by Anatolian culture and exhibited them in different venues, primarily in Ankara and Istanbul, and was invited to and participated in different festivals and biennials abroad with her works.
According to Geyvan McMillen, a dancer should be nourished by different movement techniques, take regular technical lessons and stretches every day, and in addition to all these, know a foreign language and have knowledge of social sciences such as history and philosophy; in this context, the structure and functioning of the YTU Faculty of Art and Design at that time was quite suitable for Geyvan Hoca’s vision. We would leave dance classes and take compulsory and elective courses such as visual arts, affective design, new media, and art history; In addition to these, we would continue to take courses such as dance history, composition, improvisation, and anatomy within the department.
During her time at the school, Geyvan McMillen supported the realization of many different projects and founded the Cemal Reşit Rey Dance Theater in 2002 upon the invitation of CRR Artistic Director Arda Aydoğdu. The group, which hosted various productions until 2005, included professional dancers and choreographers within its structure, while at the same time becoming an area where students in the school gained stage experience and stepped into professional life. During its active period, its shows were watched with great interest by dance audiences.
Unfortunately, in the following years, both institutions were silently closed down and rendered dysfunctional within the changing political power dynamics of the country, and it was up to us students to learn from these experiences and keep the memory of dance education in Turkey alive. Today, many of our graduate friends work and teach in the field of dance with students of different ages in different parts of the country, a few of us work in the academy, and some of us work as dancers and choreographers in the Modern Dance Group.
In our geography where destruction and creation are quite dynamic, it is possible to develop by taking root and protecting the memory and moving away from educational systems that try to objectify students, who are the subjects of education, from many different perspectives, as suggested by critical pedagogy. The necessity of a fair, egalitarian, independent, polyphonic, multi-colored, dialogue-based, interdisciplinary, ethical, inclusive, open to change, experiential, accessible system in line with the principles of critical pedagogy in both mainstream formal education and art education, where students can question and shape the educational process and participation, is increasing in the age of predictable and unpredictable changes and crises that the approaching artificial intelligence revolution will create.
This writing has been originally published in Mimesis Portal in Turkish ; https://www.mimesis-dergi.org/2025/01/elestirel-pedagoji-konferansi-ve-dans-egitiminde-donusumun-hafizasi-uzerine
