DESCRIPTION OF THE UNIT:

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Student teachers are given a brief PowerPoint presentation on the theory and practices of the Dérive - a critical form of walking. They are then invited to form small groups of 3-4 and to explore their immediate outside environment. The groups come together at the end of the dérive, after about an hour or so, to discuss what they have experienced and to test out the theoretical ideas. They are provided with a framework for reflection in the following questions which they share with one other group: Where did you go? What did you see? What did you think about? What discussions did you have? How did you feel? The small groups feed back into a whole group discussion on the usefulness of the dérive as a pedagogical tool.

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OBJECTIVES:

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• Enabling students an encounter with a different way of looking at and interpreting their immediate environment

• Students critically reflect on their own ways of observing and interpreting the world around them in dialogue with others.

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EXPECTED LEARNING OUTCOMES:

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At the end of this unit the learners will have...

• been prompted to reflect on their relationship with the external environment and the ways in which they interact with it

• been freed from any directives to look for something in particular and thus they allow their attention to be guided by their instinct and by the psycho-geographical features of the landscape

• stimulated their curiosity about dériving and will have been prompted to find out more

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APPLIED METHODOLOGIES:​

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Participants are made aware of the theoretical roots of the dérive: from Baudelaire’s concept of the ‘flaneur’, a detached observer of urban life and its effect on the individual to Debord’s Marxist critique of consumer society and the absence of authentic experience in modern life. Links are also made with the idea of ‘mindfulness’. It is a lesson in the art of noticing, of being open to seeing that which might easily be overlooked.

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REFERENCES:

• Debord, G. (1958) Théorie de la dérive Internationale. Situationniste #2:Paris

• Richardson .T (2015) (Ed.) Walking Inside Out: Contemporary British Psychogeography

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WORKING MATERIAL: 

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• Electronic Presentation

DOWNLOAD POWERPOINT PRESENTATION: