Georgina Brewis (IOE, UCL’s Faculty of Education and Society)
One possible future for Phineas is for use in teaching and learning at UCL. Over recent years UCL has developed an expertise in object based learning (OBL), drawing on items from its rich museum collections as well as archival materials from UCL Special Collections. In 2020, a new Object Based Learning Lab opened as a dedicated teaching space in the Old Refectory in the main Wilkins Building. I teach a first-year undergraduate module ‘The Worlds of UCL: Critical Histories of Education, Nation and Empire’ which was one of the first courses to pilot the space. The module critically examines the close, but often hidden, connections between British education and empire, asking what impact these imperial legacies have today. Students welcome the chance to explore these topics as part of the curriculum, and have reflected that taking part in the module has changed their perceptions of UCL as an institution.
The ’Worlds of UCL’ module was designed for the BA Education Studies and aims to introduce students on an inter-disciplinary programme: 1) to history and historical methodologies; 2) to the history of education as a sub-discipline, with particular emphasis on higher education, campus life and student culture; 3) to the institution at which they have chosen to study. Students investigate our institutional histories and how these are presented to different audiences, work with primary sources and objects from UCL collections, and explore the physical campus through scavenger hunts and museum visits. For example, students study items that belonged to prominent eugenicist Francis Galton which are displayed in the Object Based Learning Lab as part of understanding UCL’s role in legitimising eugenics in the early twentieth century. For the main piece of assessment, students are asked to work in a small group to design a public history output that illuminates some aspect of these institutional histories. Creative and insightful, group projects have included films, interactive websites and apps, online exhibitions, podcasts, board games, walking trails and choose-your-own adventure games.
Students on the module engage with the material culture of student life through object-based learning sessions using collection items that include medals, trophies, art work, student song books, gowns and historic items of clothing. Touching, holding and even wearing these objects helps today’s students connect to students in the past, and gives insights into how student identities were formed in a period when only a tiny proportion of the age group went to university. While students on the course learn about Phineas and his significance for generations of UCL students, they have not yet had the chance to engage with the actual statue. Using Phineas in class would facilitate discussion on many topics including changing student culture, social and leisure life; student rag and fissures within student communities including along gender and class lines; and London, empire and student mobilities. Indeed, students’ decision to remove Phineas as a mascot makes it even more important to preserve the statue for use in teaching and learning about the varied and contested approaches to decolonising universities.
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