Theatre of Struggle: Black Consciousness on Salisbury Island

Abstract

Most modern institutions of education, despite the apparent neutrality of the materials from which they are constructed (red brick, white tile, etc.) carry within them implicit ideological assumptions which are literally structured into the architecture itself. The categorization of knowledge into arts and sciences is reproduced in the faculty system which houses different buildings … moreover, the hierarchical relationship between teacher and taught is inscribed in the very layout of the lecture theatre with the seating arrangements … dictating the flow of information and serve to naturalise professorial authority. Thus a whole range of decisions about what is and is not possible within education have been made, however unconsciously, before the content of the individual courses is decided.