Martin
Robinson writes in favour of ‘gatekeepers’.
I’ve written elsewhere of the need to recognise when communities of
enquiry are operating as gated communities of enquiry and to be able to
identify who is gatekeeping.
How are
these ideas related? Are we using the same term to mean different things?
Martin’s
example of the art gallery ‘gatekeeper’ sounds more like a curator to me.
Certainly the people responsible for selecting which works of art are displayed
in a gallery often go by this title. Perhaps this person, who appears to act as
a tour guide is also a curator? By coincidence I’ve recently been reading a
book, the title of which goes some way to describing its content – Curationism– How Curating Is Taking Over The Art World And Everything Else by DavidBalzer. The book takes particular aim at the rise of the celebrity curator and
I mention it only because it may be of interest.
Denis
Lawton’s description of the curriculum as ‘selections of a culture’ seems relevant
to Martin’s post. I agree with Martin’s point that selections are not neutral.
Selections imply omissions so perhaps ‘gatekeeper’ is apt. However I think not.
And here are two reasons - aim and focus.
Aim
The
gatekeeper’s role as I understand it is to maintain order by allowing entry
only to that which is in keeping with what is already present. At the risk of
being glib, the best-known gatekeeper in the Western world may be St Peter. His
job is to ensure that only those who meet pre-ordained criteria are granted access
– heaven is eternal, and I suggest, unchanging.
The
curator’s aim is to provide rich content. That content will reflect or perhaps
establish a tradition but gallery curators will also attempt to disrupt
traditions and put works into conversation with each other. Taken as analogy
for the curriculum, this comes close to a quote Martin and I both seem to like
– Michael Oakshott’s ‘conversation of mankind’. But how do we establish a rich
conversation and not simply what my good friend Jason Buckley (aka The
Philosophy Man) terms ‘a distributed monologue’ where the same sentiments are
expressed but from different mouths?
Focus
The
gatekeeper is focused on the space he (for it usually is he) guards. He need
not, in fact must not, venture too far but rather waits till approached and
then makes his decision –to what extent does the would-be entrant resemble that
which is already present. Kafka’s gate may well be open but curricula, conference
spaces rarely are. (I was once told I was ‘pushing at an open door’ by a
colleague. A year later, they conceded the door wasn’t quite as open as they
had first perceived.) I associate gatekeeper with gated communities, which are
established usually to keep the Barbarian’s at the gate. Actual gated
communities have been described as ‘cognitive shelters’ which limit
access to the unusual, the unfamiliar and the markedly different. My sense is
that gated communities are actual and metaphorical ‘safe spaces’ – but that as
they are established and maintained by the relatively powerful in society, they
needn’t declare themselves as such.
The curator
also has an eye on the space – assuming there is a space. (We can curate
mixtapes and spotify lists, but I don’t think we can gatekeep them.) However
the curator is required to be outward focusing and inquisitive for her role is
actively seek inclusions not merely wait for them to present themselves for
consideration.
I think
Martin misunderstands ‘colonial epistemic injustices’ when he asks ‘should the
colonial past be ignored?’ – I think what is at stake is not include or ignore
but how the selections add to the conversation.
To take a well used example from my own university education, when we
study Conrad’s ‘Heart of Darkness’ but are not made aware of Achebe’s ‘An Image
of Africa’ we are initiated into an impoverished conversation.
I’m not sure
the ‘don’t complain about hearing jazz
at a jazz club analogy’ holds up. My university, UCL describes itself as
‘London’s Global University’ not a ‘European Education University’. The analogy
then would be of claiming to be a Music Venue and then only playing jazz, acting as if it was the only genre of music. But
even then I’m not sure. A music venue is where I go to experience or perhaps
consume music. But isn’t education about something far broader than that? A
liberal education is about encountering a rich variety of ways of being and of
developing autonomy to make educated choices isn’t it? Martin’s notion of
Eurocentric education seems rather parochial by comparison and seems to be
justified by a cultural relativism that I’m pretty sure he does not usually
favour.
Martin ends
by suggesting “set up alternative
curricula, telling alternative stories and become a gatekeeper yourself.” I’m
pretty sure he’s aware of the rich tradition of these very things in this
country. But again, I would argue that whilst we can become curators ourselves,
in order to become gatekeepers we must have authority over ‘a space’ of some
kind. Which returns us to questions of who is gatekeeping which space and how
does this relate to history and power.
