Visualizing the Power and Privilege of Failure in Higher Education

Abstract

Learning from failure is a core component to education, however it is not often deliberately taught in university courses. In addition, while the rhetoric around taking risks, embracing failure, and bouncing back is pervasive in higher education, the corresponding structural supports are lacking. The purpose of the current work is to explore ways we can visualize and illustrate the power and privilege involved with embracing and learning from failure in the context of higher education. We offer three approaches to visualizing the same set of research data exploring student and instructor experiences of failure. The first figure is structured using a Venn diagram, the second uses a mobius strip, and the third draws on both puzzle imagery and the structure of a kernmantle rope to offer a more complex rendition of power and privilege in higher education. These illustrations are intended to serve as introductory guides to this topic. This work emphasizes that power is diffuse and mutable, and we underscore the critical importance of recognizing that each person will experience power and privilege differently in different circumstances. This exploration of illustrative concepts is a place to start theorizing about how students and instructors experience, resist, or wield power as they navigate academic institutions and engage with failure. We note that each instance of struggle, failure, or recovery exhibits specific configurations of power as multiple vectors contribute more or less strongly to the situation. The exact topography of power will change as different people, areas of the institution, or social policies and values enter the equation.

Can instructor feedback and failure dialogues reduce the stigma of failure and encourage help-seeking? An interdisciplinary undergraduate perspective

“…The critical next step is to turn these suggestions into tangible changes in the culture of university classrooms. Although some faculty may feel resistant to implementing such changes (Ross et al 2023), one must consider that there is no expectation to implement all of these suggestions at once. Instructors can challenge their discomfort and begin with small steps in implementing one or a few suggestions they feel are within their capacity.…”

“…In interviews with university faculty, Ross et al (2023) identified a hesitancy to incorporate failure-based interventions in the classroom, specifically in the provision of opportunities for failure and desirable difficulties. This suggests a disconnect between the known pedagogical value of failure and institutional expectations and policies.…”

“…As we explore the pedagogical value of learning through failure, it is critically important that we also acknowledge the power and privilege of being able to embrace and bounce back from failure. Prior work has shown that there are several core intersecting themes of power and privilege and learning through failure including resources and support, status and rank, positionality, and institutional policies (Ross et al, 2022). These factors need to be considered within the broader socio-cultural contexts that situate the institution and learning environment, including stigma of failure, stakes of failure, resilience discourse, and social inequality.…”