Fostering Spaces and Systems Which Value Diverse Ways of Knowing: A Path Towards Inclusion and Belonging

By Jeff M. Poulin

When I was two and a half years old, I followed my older sister into my local dance studio during their summer program. I absolutely loved it, danced my heart out, and promptly fell asleep for my nap on the couch in the studio’s lobby. That fall, my mother enrolled me in a tap class; and in that dance studio I stayed for some 15 years, until I graduated high school and pursued a career in the arts.

A Story of Inclusion & Belonging

When I was a teenager, the director of the studio—a true mentor of mine—brought me into leadership roles as an assistant teacher. In this space, I truly thrived—it fostered a space for me to stretch my leadership skills, try new pedagogical approaches, and hone my artistry.

Some years later, I learned of the strategic choice the director took by placing me in this role as her counterpart in many circumstances: she told me that we approached the teaching of tap dance, to children and adults alike, in different ways. We had different ways of knowing… she valued my way of tapping!

This was my first experience as a learner where an adult sought to cultivate my way of knowing, rather than having me change course to match their way of knowing.

In the arts, too, that is unique. Typically, we follow the master teacher-apprentice pathway and emulate our elders. But I wonder, what might happen, if we cultivated the spaces where we valued divergent ways of knowing—what might happen to our artistry and crafts? Would they evolve? Perhaps we might include more and different folks? Could our field include more belonging as a result?

Exclusion Built Into Our Systems

In my role as the managing director of Creative Generation, I have experienced a lot of firsts. Throughout all of them, I have tried to embody the lessons I have learned throughout my career in the arts—from way back to my tap dance days through the years working as a policy professional—to foster the best environment for my colleagues and our work.

In 2020, during the height of the multiple pandemics, I experienced a real first. A structural barrier in academic publishing, which systematically excluded those who needed to be heard from most.

I’ll spare the details, but—in short—a colleague and I curated a list of authors and contributors to share their perspectives about the impact of the pandemic on their work: this included young creatives, teaching artists, community organization leaders, scholars, and more. After submission, the editorial board determined that some of the authors lacked the ‘necessary’ skills to contribute—reasons like insufficient sophisticated language or qualifications or unique perspectives. When, in fact, these folks were youth describing youth perspectives (in their youth-appropriate language) or teaching artists describing their own perspectives (through their unique qualifications), etc.

This fueled a fire in me! Why did we bar these folks from being able to contribute? Because of the systems we have constructed? No, rather, because the systems didn’t value their ways of knowing.

I was determined to change that.

In 2024, Creative Generation will roll out a new method, which we have been piloting for over a year: Constructive Peer Review.

Constructive Peer Review values diverse ways of knowing and cultivates an environment of mutual knowledge exchange, skill-building, and respect through our values:

  • Valuing Process over Product: We recognize the process of editing can construct an even stronger piece through mutually reinforcing activities and evolution of ideas.

  • Operating Transparently: We know that professionals benefit from collaboration built in trust and respect, so this method operates transparently to encourage this environment for collaboration.

  • Recognizing Our Privilege: We understand the immense privilege many of us have in our academic and research training; we hope to share  and evolve this knowledge by learning with and from our collaborators.

  • Honoring Diversity and Enabling Radical Inclusion: We know that this process encourages greater participation and increased diversity of perspectives and ideas.

I can’t wait to share this process with our community!

Valuing Ways of Knowing

Over the last few months, the Collective at Creative Generation have thought deeply about valuing ways of knowing, as part of our Campaign for a Creative Generation 2023: Intergenerational Collaboration. 

This evolution in thinking has informed our projects and certainly informs these internal processes that we have and will continue to institute throughout 2024. As a result of this thinking, I have curated together this brief synopsis of the contributions from the team–be sure to dig in, learn more, and think deeply along with us! In short here is what we learned:

  • Engaging in critical reflection about our own experiences knowing and experiencing others’ ways of knowing;

  • Taking the risk to value our own way of knowing when empowered to teaching and share it; and

  • Committing to fostering environments which resist problematic barriers and encourage new and diverse ways of knowing.

Several members of our team reflect on their recognition of others’ ways of knowing and focusing on what they could learn from these divergent approaches. See these blogs below:

Many of us have experienced the same value of our way of knowing through being empowered to teach. See my story above and also the blogs below:

Through our work (and beyond) several members of the Collective share their experience fostering environments which truly value ways of knowing—resisting the dominant cultures of dissuading this. Check out these blogs below:

A Closing Thought

I view this as a real challenge for our sector in artistic, cultural, and creative education. I hope that we, as practitioners, heed this concept and construct new ways of collaboration which value diverse ways of knowing.

In a recent conversation I had with Dr. Antonio Cuyler, where he discussed his framework for scaffolding access, diversity, equity, and inclusion. I can’t help but draw parallels from this work to his.

For me, this is essential to value diverse ways of knowing if we intend to constitute access, diversity, equity, and inclusion. Further, it is essential to value diverse ways of knowing to foster inclusion and belonging. For me, it is essential to the longevity of our work.

Are you with me?