Little Publics Stimulating Systems Reflexivity on Gender Equality in Music Education in Nepal

Abstract

This article explores how the idea of public pedagogy could stimulate systems reflexivity on complex issues in schools. More specifically, it focuses on the issue of gender equality in the context of music education in Nepal, where women’s intersecting identities, such as age, (dis)ability, economic status, and race, lead them to experience variable degrees of discrimination. To support students contributing to the debate on gender equality, we used the idea of public pedagogy to design an intervention in the form of a two-day series of workshops. We drew on Gert Biesta’s (2012) theorisation of public pedagogy and Hickey-Moody’s (2014; 2016) idea of “little publics” to create an arts-based (Leavy, 2015) research intervention. This article describes and critically reflects on the resulting two-day series of workshops and their activities, which related to viewing, art-making, and dialogue. It then considers three aspects that influenced the emergence of little publics and the ways these publics contributed to stimulating systems reflexivity: the composition of the group, the shifting educative agent, and the process of artmaking. Overall, the article demonstrates how public pedagogy as an idea can support the design of research that aims to enhance social change through participatory and reflexive action.