Beginning the PG Cert feels like arriving at a much-needed point in my teaching journey. I have been teaching BA Architecture since 2020, within the design studio and the ethical practice unit. This has allowed me to guide students in shaping architectural projects that intersect their experiences, interests and the world around them. I find great joy in this: getting to know the students, witnessing their discoveries and supporting them in their growth as critical spatial practitioners.
However, over the last couple of years, I have felt a growing lack of inspiration. My teaching has started to feel monotonous and repetitive, where I lack time for reflection and renewal. It is slightly ironic that this shift aligns with acquiring a more permanent role within the institution. As I learn about the internal structures and power dynamics of the institution, I notice how they can flatten the joy I once felt for the subject I teach. Contributing to this feeling/shift are increasing student numbers paired with decreasing contact hours, limited self‑development opportunities, unclear ‘objective’ assessment frameworks, and limited space for experience sharing and confrontation. Furthermore, growing pastoral responsibilities highlight gaps in my capacity to support students adequately.
Conversations held during Workshop 1 reminded me that I am not alone in navigating these systemic pressures. We discussed the pandemic’s lasting impact on students, including disconnection and weakened social skills. Within a neoliberal context affected by rising tuition, evolving expectations and institutional legacies, both students and educators face increasingly contested terrains.
As hooks (2003) argues, institutional structures can diminish the joy, purpose and relational richness of teaching, making it essential for educators to cultivate practices of hope and sustain meaningful connection in their classrooms. Building on this, two ideas from our Workshop 1 readings helped me reflect on and reframe my teaching practice in response to these complexities.
Firstly, moving from “safe” to “brave” spaces: Arao and Clemens argue that “safety” is too often conflated with comfort, while genuine learning requires risk, challenge, and discomfort, honestly acknowledged and scaffolded (Arao & Clemens, 2013). This inspires me to reframe my motherly instincts to be a ‘caring teacher’, to being able to name and welcome discomfort in studio, inviting challenge, and co‑create norms that enable respectful but probing dialogue (Arao & Clemens, 2013).
Secondly, our discussion of the reading “The Charismatic Lecturer” (Macfarlane, 2004) helped me recognise both the possibility and the responsibility of being openly political in the classroom. The text reassured me that taking a political stance can be important and valuable. What I would add, however, is that inviting dialogue and creating space for students to reflect, respond, question, and offer feedback are fundamental to shaping a ‘political space’, one in which we can host “controversy with civility”, thereby cultivating both a safe and a brave space for learning (Arao and Clemens, 2013).
With these two learnings in mind, what remains most rewarding for me is not teaching architecture per se, but supporting students in learning about themselves and the world they inhabit through architectural exploration, space‑making, and critical thinking. I value helping them trust themselves, believe they can succeed, and feel able to express their views and experiences openly, both in the classroom and beyond.
References
Arao, B. and Clemens, K. (2013) ‘From safe spaces to brave spaces: A new way to frame dialogue around diversity and social justice’, in Landreman, L.M. (ed.) The Art of Effective Facilitation: Reflections from Social Justice Educators. Sterling, VA: Stylus, pp. 135–142. Available at: https://www.anselm.edu/sites/default/files/Documents/Center%20for%20Teaching%20Excellence/From%20Safe%20Spaces%20to%20Brave%20Spaces.pdf (Accessed: 10 January 2026).
hooks, b. (2003) Teaching Community: A Pedagogy of Hope. New York: Routledge
Macfarlane, B. (2004) Teaching with Integrity: The ethics of higher education practice. London: RoutledgeFalmer, pp. 101–105 (‘The Charismatic Lecturer’).