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SUMMARY:DJs and MCs in the classroom: perhaps a glimpse of justice for dis
 affected inner-city youth? - Pete Dale\, University of Newcastle
DTSTART:20120206T163000Z
DTEND:20120206T180000Z
UID:TALK36264@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Ewa Illakowicz
DESCRIPTION:Abstract: In deprived inner-city localities\, where disaffecti
 on from the school learning environment can be epidemic\, encouraging chil
 dren to use DJ decks and to MC over the ‘tunes’ can allow the most ext
 remely low-achieving boys to re-engage with the classroom situation in an 
 extremely positive way. Dr. Pete Dale has been facilitating such affirmati
 ve moments for close to ten years as Head of Music at a North East seconda
 ry school in a locality facing the most serious socio-economic deprivation
 . In this presentation\, he will show film footage of mid-teenage\, educat
 ionally-‘unsuccessful’ boys MCing and DJing with a remarkable degree o
 f skill. This skill is notable in their linguistic contortions\, despite i
 mmense and chronic ‘delays’ in their literacy\, but also in their sign
 ificant musical abilities on the DJ decks and within the rhythms of their 
 rapping. Dr. Dale’s theoretical interest\, as both a musicologist and an
  educationalist\, is in the ethico-political moment in which a group of 
 ‘failing’ learners suddenly become a success as collaborators in music
 . Could this perhaps offer a glimpse of justice for a group of young peopl
 e who are educationally and socially disadvantaged? Employing the philosop
 hy of Derrida and his work on justice\, aporia and the ‘Spectres of Marx
 ’\, Dr. Dale suggests that we can not quite affirm that justice is ‘pr
 esent’ within the classroom moment under discussion. Nevertheless\, scho
 ols concerned with ‘closing the gap’ might do well to consider the pos
 sibility that boys disempowered by the school environment would appear to 
 be able to empower themselves in ways which are clearly significant for le
 arning. Perhaps such a moment of empowerment within the classroom environm
 ent could offer a glimpse of a justice ‘to come’ or\, as Derrida would
  say\, ‘à venir’.\n\nBionote para: Pete Dale has been Head of Music f
 or many years at a highly challenging inner-city school in the North East 
 of England. During this time\, he has used DJing equipment to very success
 fully engage low-achieving and disaffected boys\, in addition to providing
  the more traditional elements of the school music curriculum. Before taki
 ng up teaching\, during the 1990s Dale performed in numerous punk undergro
 und bands and ran the influential DIY record label Slampt. His more recent
  PhD study\, undertaken at Newcastle University’s International Centre f
 or Music Studies (ICMuS)\, has been adapted for a monograph entitled Anyon
 e Can Do It: Empowerment\, Tradition and the Punk Underground  and is due 
 for publication by Ashgate in July 2012. He is also developing several edu
 cation-orientated journal articles at present.\n
LOCATION:Faculty of Education\, 184 Hills Road\, Cambridge\, room GS1
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