Fostering student voice through artistic amplification: a positive hidden extra curriculum initiative

In 2024, graffiti artist Banksy unveiled a series of animal-based images around the Greater London area. This public display was enacted during a time of far-right-wing protest and violence spreading across the UK, and ongoing violence in Gaza. Banksy was reported to have shared his artwork with the public to ‘gently underline the human capacity for creative play, rather than for destruction and negativity’ (Thorpe, 2024). Artwork can be a uniquely unifying medium, even amidst horror, to inspire and evoke affective solidarity. This chapter presents an alternative view of a study we conducted that was published in Management Learning (Keshtiban, Gatto, & Callahan, 2023). In the original project, we explored student reflection and voice in two distinctly different student–staff partnership projects in a Justice, Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion (JEDI) culture change initiative. Here, we focus on the arts-based project and argue that extra-curricular visual methods and the arts offer a rich opportunity to engage students, particularly international students, in learning that can help dismantle neoliberal curricula design and subtly embed a commitment to social responsibility. Furthermore, we suggest that arts-based projects offer a more inclusive avenue for international student voice within Higher Education settings than conventional approaches (Matthews & Dollinger, 2023). The project we present was inspired by this JEDI initiative, illustrating how positive hidden curricula that centre on the ‘illustration of essence’ (Wall, Österlind, & Fries, 2019) can create spaces that empower student voice. We argue that extra-curricular collaborative JEDI projects involving both students and staff can be effective vehicles for a positive hidden (extra) curriculum outside of timetabled learning. Moreover, we suggest that the current political climate of tensions between equity and inclusion agendas and right wing, ‘anti-woke’ organising, makes it more vital than ever that universities are spaces where marginalised student voices should be protected. We suggest the arts-based project from this JEDI initiative provides an example of the type of space that can be opened up for students to have a voice for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of Gender Equality (SDG5), Reduced Inequalities (SDG10), and Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions (SDG16). This creative and inclusive initiative can contribute to achieving the SDGs by integrating perspectives from both the Global North and Global South within western Higher Education contexts, thereby addressing disparities in ongoing inequalities of resources and power. We start by exploring student voice within Higher Education and offer an overview of the concept of the hidden curriculum. We then introduce our project, which exemplifies micro-activism and a forward-thinking approach within the managerialist Higher Education