Task: write about primary research.
Add comments on secondary research reading about Research Methods.
Write about the findings from it on this page but don’t include raw data with participant info (unethical)
First Notes on Draft ARP :
Research Principle is to enable West Dean students agency and choice.
Consider what is meaningful and what matters for West Dean students
Research to effect change.
Ask myself:
1. What bearing does my research have on the lives of the West Dean students?
2. Are the perspectives or needs of the West Dean students at the core of the research?
3. How can West Dean students experience not being the majority and dominant race to comprehend how it feels and what is lost when your race/gender/voice is not included.
4. How can I enable them to experience how it feels when the artistic and theoretical references do not resemble them, to experience how it feels when a point of reference is not their own and someone else, and to experience how it feels when their voice minimised and how it can enable a wider perspective by having other voices in the room and in their own research and thoughts.
Further considerations:
Consider my role as a cis white female teaching majority cis white females. Draw attention to the risks of gendered dynamics – the risk/challenge of how a gendered majority/minority/gatekeeping can impact research.
Consider the de-personalising effect of anonymity or generalising groups, for instance the shift from BAME to being specific.
Planning in Knowledge Translation is vital early on.
Q: What is it I am trying to change?
A: Diversify West Dean student references. Enrich their practices by broadening the scope of their references / thinking beyond their white middle class sphere.
Q: How can I translate the knowledge discovered from the research into meaningful change?
A: Develop a resource for students and tutors to use. Compliment their research within the lecture series by introducing key concepts on learning as ontological (lived experience).
Q: What are the wishes of the West Dean students?
A: To develop studio experimentation towards a professional artistic practice.
Indigenous PR Feminist PR (or Action Research)?
- Identifying the needs of knowledge.
Target – West Dean Students
Need – West Dean College environment needs diversity as this lack is impoverishing knowledge, research, methodologies and community. Non-white voices are missing from student references despite their inclusion in my lectures and presentations (perhaps not enough are included?).
Goal – Foster racial inclusivity and equality to amplify the presence of black/brown artists and theorists that are missing from the college. Increase the racial diversity of research references. Increase students’ non-white references in essays and art projects.
Literature – Look at articles that demonstrate how other institutions that are dominated by white students have actioned diversity in student work. What ways have they worked? What methods can be included? - Group
Theory groups across Levels 4,5,6. Using Level 6 as my focus group.
Use the written assessments as the activity and scheduled tutorials as meetings
Define and share with the group in the early sessions that it is a shared responsibility (as a student/ teacher exchange / support / learning)
Build a common understanding of the value and implications. - Realisation
Plan together with the group how observations, reflections will be gathered and discussed individually (in studio) and together (in class).
Plan the inclusion of Padlet sections encouraging diverse research and reflections
Implement the activities
Celebrate by sharing them (exhibitions etc) - Evaluation
Observe and feedback as a group on the results
Analyse the research material and select inclusions for future lectures
Share suggestions for any improvements to the activity to make it better
Write a developmental narrative as a report.
Secondary Research: Unique Methodological Indigenous Approach
Reading Re-imagining student success: Integrating strategy and action through an Indigenous lens was of interest to my project as it comes from New Zealand and focuses on the inclusivity of Maori students. I wanted to research what may be the opposite scenario to mine to understand how teachers in New Zealand approach the inclusivity of Indigenous students within a colonised context. I was also keen to understand what the authors considered a “unique methodological indigenous approach” (p.210), as this seemed unclear. I found the article challenging to understand what “Maori” knowledge meant, which the authors separated as a knowledge system different from Western knowledge. While I agree that it is different knowledge, what distinguished it was unclear. The authors distinguished it by ‘Mahitahi’, meaning “working collaboratively”, which differs from Western collaboration owing to Matauranga (knowledge basket). Matauranga unpacks Mahitahi in the sense that a Matauranga consists of a Maori view, Purakau (stories/philosophical thought, cultural codes), and Whakatauki (proverbs). A teacher could engage Maori students by using Matauranga so that Maori students can connect key concepts with their symbolisms. While I understand Maori Knowledge differs from Western, the idea of collaboration seemed the same, and perhaps an example of a unique philosophical approach or cultural code concerning collaboration could have made the difference more visible so a unique methodological indigenous approach could be determined (and valued).
The article’s main takeaway was the Maori learning process through Titiro, Whakarongo, and Korero: observe, listen, act (speak). This seems similar to learning through watching, done through demonstrations and workshops. Another aspect of interest was peer mentoring to foster togetherness and collaboration. It made me think about how to use the research project to mentor and support other students (and tutors – including myself). This sense of building confidence and belonging through a supportive community that shares experiences aspires towards professional development that uses deep learning between the students and the educator. This could be done by sharing the padlets across groups and with fellow tutors who also need a resource of diverse artists. The article had further relevancy in that the authors suggest that for this level of peer-educator collaboration, a dedicated context involving several days or overnight stays, which West Dean mimics in that it is block delivered and the students and teachers stay on-site together. I appreciate the value of this in-depth learning as “family” and “community” orientated, yet the reality of it is also problematically exhausting in that there are no boundaries, and the teacher-student dynamic does not dissolve out of class time. The focus on a “whole-of-experience” curriculum seems to fall short of considering the educator’s life beyond the student, who may have other community demands outside the learning community. While I appreciate the holistic learning approach that the article encourages, on a practical level, I’m less inclined to find it helpful for my project beyond the concept of peer/tutor development by sharing the padlets.
Reference:
Re-imagining student success: Integrating strategy and action through an Indigenous lens
J. FIONA PETERSON, TANIA KA’AI, VALANCE SMITH, KATHRYN MCPHERSON, Auckland Art, Design & Communication in Higher Education Volume 22 Number 2 University of Technology © 2023 Intellect Ltd Article. English language. https://doi.org/10.1386/adch_00075_1 Received 5 December 2022; Accepted 6 April 2023
Secondary Research: Embodied Knowledge Methodologies
Dall’Alba and Barnacle’s article, An ontological turn for higher education, explains an approach to learning from the “lived body”, embodied knowledge, rather than approaching knowledge acquisition as an unproblematic transfer. The relevancy of this article to my research project relates to how I might enable mature white learners to understand their knowledge is limited by their “lived body”, and that knowledge exists beyond their own experiences that are conditioned as “universal”. This notion of the lived body originates in philosophy, which Dall’Alba and Barnacle refer to Heidegger’s concept of being as “dwelling” from Being, Dwelling, Thinking 1978. In the context of the visual arts and my project, Maurice Merleau-Ponty’s concept of a global body from The Phenomenology of Perception as a philosophical development of lived knowledge may be more helpful in extending learners beyond their “dwelling”. I found myself thinking of Merleu-Ponty often while reading Dall’Alba and Barnacle’s article and wondered why specifically they referenced Heidegger as the concept is grounded in phenomenology and originates with Husserl, and thinking of my previous post on citations they could also have referenced Simone de Beauvoir, who writes more specifically on bodily knowledge through the female experience. I have become increasingly aware of how citations and references perpetuate canonical white Western hetero-patriarchal thinking and this is something I aim to challenge through my teaching and project.
Where Heidegger relates lived knowledge to dwelling in the world, Merleau-Ponty relates it to a texture that opens onto the world, which is synesthetic and interconnected. The “openness” that Dall’Alba and Barnacle’s article refers to relates to Heidegger’s notion of “gelassenheit”, which translates as “releasement” and basically means how we bend or give way to knowledge. I recently used this in the second session with the Level 4 (1st Year BA) following the introduction to my Find 30 research padlet. Key to Dall’Alba and Barnacle’s argument that is most significant for my research is their perspective of learning as ontological development, which is dependent on this kind of releasement as an openness. I can use references to this in my lecture series across the different year Grades to encourage the openness of a global body. I tested it on Level 5 (2nd Year BA) in the context of a lecture on ethical relations and Donna Haraway’s notion of “lived knowledge” by asking students to consider a previous life experience that shaped who they have become, then consider everyone’s unique experienced knowledge in the room, then beyond the room. During a Level 6 (3rd year BA) lecture on Deleuze’s Habit and Repetition and Plasticity, I asked students to consider their sense of being in Level 4 (1st Year BA) and the one they have now to gauge how learning is ontological. Dall’Alba and Barnacle’s encouragement to consider learning as a way of thinking, making and acting as a way of being, opens the possibility of students understanding de-centred knowledge inclusive of cultures beyond the stereotypical Western European white male model taught in traditional art programmes.
To shift a student or teacher from a position of “knowing” towards a position of “being in the world” opens the possibility of shared being-ness that makes for collective learning and knowledge sharing. This is the aim of my research project. I particularly appreciated Dall’Alba and Barnacle’s statement that considering knowledge as created, embodied and enacted allows learning to be understood as a development of embodied ways of knowing and, thus, ways of being. Most importantly, this situates knowledge as being in flux rather than fixed and acquired. On a practical level, Dall’Alba and Barnacle argue for learning and its enhancement rather than on knowledge itself, which de-centres “knowledge” as known and unknown but in a state of perpetual becoming. This is aligned with my approach of allowing students to make research mistakes without shame, which seems to be the most potent fear and obstacle for white students – in getting it wrong. Using openness to expand being as a form of learning can hopefully capture students and fellow colleagues at different levels of openness to diversity. Dall’Alba and Barnacle emphasise this does not imply simply learning by doing – which is still of vital importance – but in the diversities of genders, ethnicities, kinships, and classes that are revealed through doing and being able to raise awareness of the interrelationships between these amongst the students. A way of doing this is highlighting the rich knowledge across a student cohort with diverse lived experiences and helping them recognise how difference can be a resource for making.
Reference List:
https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/phenomenology/
Merleau-Ponty, M. (2012) The Phenomenology of Perception, Oxon, U.K and New York, U.S.A: Routledge
Heidegger, M. (1971) Being, Dwelling, Thinking from Poetry, Language, Thought , Harper Collins, New York.
An ontological turn for higher education Gloria Dall’Alba and Robyn Barnacle, Ontology in higher education. University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia; RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia, Studies in Higher Education Vol. 32, No. 6, December 2007, pp. 679–691, ISSN 0307-5079 (print)/ISSN 1470-174X (online)/07/060679–13 © 2007 Society for Research into Higher Education
Secondary research: Why Citation matters: Ideas on a feminist approach to research. Christina Templin (SoSe 2021)
The succinct description of citation purpose was helpful to focus on what citation makes possible. Beyond my ARP I intend to use this in teaching sessions on essay writing with my Level 4,5,6 Fine Art and Craft students.
‘to thoroughly reflect on the work that has already been done on a specific question, to be able to draw new conclusions from enquiring, criticizing or highlighting new aspects of a problem. . . to distinguish the authors ideas from someone else’s while acknowledging the impact of previously published work’ (1:2021)
A key topic was the emphasis on the non-neutrality of citation dominated by what bell Hooks describes as “white heteromasculine hegemony” (1:2021 cited Mott/Cokayne 2017, p. 955). Using Sara Ahmed’s Living a Feminist Life (2007) as an example made clear the sexism and racism within academia, which regards the gathering, documenting, analysing, evidencing of information within personal spaces as outside the academic field. My tutor group and I discussed this in relation to Linda Tuhiwai Smith’s book Decolonizing Methodologies, which the 3rd version comprises of an introduction using multiple forms of correspondence between readers and the author. We agreed how the effect of Tuhiwai Smith’s introduction decentres the voice of the author and in pluralising voices allows for communicating the rich diverse ontological experiences resulting from reading the book – something no one author can ever offer. This seemed to expand the notion of citation towards a community of voices and challenge traditional citation purposes. Ahmed’s reference to feminist theory as ‘world building’ (2:2021) echoed this form of introduction, which genuinely felt like building a new world of how knowledge can be communicated and the form of citation itself. My tutor group and I also discussed the obstacle of ‘Research’, which is a colonial term and white heteromasculine discipline. Collectively we began sharing podcasts as forms of research resources such as Stuff the British Stole and Empire in relation to the policing of what isn’t considered research that becomes what Templin describes as ‘subjugated knowledge that often stands in contrast to traditional epistemologies’ (2:2021). We were struck that the podcast sites were blocked using UAL wifi but accessible using phone data, which raised the question whether UAL blocks podcast sites in general or these sites specifically. I particularly enjoyed thinking of citations in the mode of Judith Butler’s performativity, especially as I try to teach my own students to use quotations and citations actively and to speak back / with them. I appreciated being made to consider how using citations can be a radical form of ‘dismantling and deconstructing dominant power structures’ (3:2021) by giving voice to those less visible and marginalised. Tuhiwai Smith’s introduction does this and is the equivalent to a social gathering like a protest in presence. It was disappointing however that Templin concludes with a vague citation to an ‘Australian teacher’ who offers a citation checklist, which derives from a checklist found in Donna Haraway’s Staying with the Trouble that isn’t cited. In Templin’s bibliography a link to a blog by the ‘Australian teacher’ clearly identifies the author as Dr Deborah M Netolicky.
Reference:
Why Citation matters: Ideas on a feminist approach to research. Christina Templin (SoSe 2021)
Secondary Research: Bell hook’s Talking Art as the Spirit Moves Us
Bell hook’s Talking art as the Spirit Moves Us describes three significant things relevant to my current thinking. The first communicates how seeing is an act of thinking. This relates to how white critics (or generally the white art scene + market) only seem to see black or brown aesthetics when it serves to reinforce a purpose for whiteness. hook’s example is the blanket conceptualisation of black art as “Revolt” and the 1993 Whitney Biennial Exhibition. This narrow notion of identity politics against mainstream culture reinforces whiteness at the centre of culture while other cultures are outside through being against, a minority, or marginalised. Whiteness as the point of departure means the aesthetics of black and brown artists are recognised but not “seen”, which hooks explains is only evidenced by critique that engages with the cultural hybridity, border crossings and constructive cultural appropriations represented within the artworks. This inclusion does not disrupt the status quo – whiteness remains dominant and central and is the voice of what constitutes meaning and beauty in art. This leads me to the second significant issue hooks highlights essential to my thinking. When hooks states, ‘white supremacist bias continues to inform critical reception of work by artists from marginalised groups’, she emphasises how the concerns of these works ‘do not directly reflect the interests and concerns of the conservative white majority’. (p.105). The key here is the difference of concerns and interests, specifically how black/brown aesthetics are overdetermined by white aesthetics and remain unseen. Recently, in a tutorial supporting a student writing an exhibition review, the student remarked how “beautiful” the paintings were in their chosen exhibition, which was contemporary but resonated with the colours and vibrancy of post-impressionist artists like Monet, Vuillard and Bonnard. I probed why the student thought a contemporary artist would want to represent the aesthetics associated with white European men from the 19th Century in our current climate of decolonisation. The student responded with “escape, “prompting my question, “From what exactly?” We spoke about the loss of power that comes with decentring whiteness, which led to a further analysis of the power of “beauty” and what constitutes the concept of “beauty” the student was overwhelmed by. The student agreed this beauty was a white and dominant notion that was powerfully seductive and blinding to other cultural forms of beauty. The third significant issue hook’s article raised is about engaging in critical dialectic, which does not undermine the value of a reference. hook’s exemplifies by critiquing Lucy Lippard and further reiterates her point through critiquing Sylvia Ardyn Boone’s text Radiance from the Waters, which she uses to open the article focused on the cultural inability to recognise the complexity of African-American Art that cuts across boundaries of race.
Reference:
Bell hook (1995) Talking Art as the Spirit Moves Us
Secondary Research: Tjora. H Arsel (2006) Writing small discoveries: an exploration of fresh observers’ observations
The relevancy of this article for my project was to reassure myself of my observation method used for analysing the students Padlets to gather data. I was curious about breaking observations down into 10 approaches. I found the deliberate naive approach odd. It seemed counter-intuitive to my project but I guess it can reveal suggestions and assumptions. Reading about Observation as a method reminded me of when I am teaching students how to write analytic reflections on their work, which is a form of observation analysis. What seems to contradict Tjora’s report is an approach we use at CSM that is not to diarise but to look at what is working – as in what is doing the work – to understand what is active and passive in a work. I seemed to naturally use this approach while observing the Padlets, rather than writing a timed entry list of activity as suggested as one of the methods used in Tjora’s report. What I did find useful was considering the “stages”, when students engaged with the Padlets, found research, which occurred only when prompted at the start, before a tutorial or when emailed. 1/5 students in Level was very active and independent and it seemed to result from previous fine art training in understanding the use value – how the research impacts the quality of their work. I was also interested in the way Tjora suggests an intervention, to garner a response from participants which can be observed. This is something I would like to use in the future, and may take the form of “looking” at individuals to pair them up to exchange research, as is done in regards to Tjora’s example of 2 workers responding to a job.
Secondary Research: Savage. P (2023) ‘The New Life’: Mozambican Art Students in the USSR, and the Aesthetic Epistemologies of Anti-Colonial Solidarity.
This was a particularly interesting article owing to it addressing how aesthetics are influenced and shaped. I have been thinking a lot about the conditioning of white Western aesthetics, what is considered good, valuable and skilled, compared to what individuals don’t register because they don’t recognise the aesthetic value outside Western conditioning. On a simple level I can relate to this coming from Australia, which has a different art / style aesthetic to the UK. I remember being at Frieze for the first time in 2008 and looking at works peers remarked were fantastic that I struggled to see as worthy. It took some time to gain an understanding and knowledge of this new UK aesthetic, and it is difficult to explain but I am very aware of the difference of value. I recognise when it happens with fellow UK tutors who look at immigrant students from Nigeria, Columbia etc and they struggle to value the different aesthetic references and what might make these works good – when they appear so differently to UK aesthetics. Savage’s article articulates this process of colonising aesthetics through value very clearly, in the way the home country admires or respects another countries aesthetics above and beyond their own. The result is a mimicking of the other aesthetic, yet with a taste of the home country – as individuals often never fully erase their own home sensibilities they’ve acquired over childhood/youth. This article has impacted my way approach to student engagements when they respond positively or negatively to certain images. I am able to probe them on their aesthetic choices and encourage them to question why they consider something “good” or what it is the aesthetic they are aiming for. This article chimed well with the Level 4 Aesthetic Colonisation lecture I introduced the Find 30 activity alongside.
Secondary Research: Allport, G. Contact Hypothesis. Facing History & Ourselves
This was very interesting owing to how it proposes good outcomes, and contact being necessary to resolve conflict. It made me think of mediation to resolve student conflicts and how it is necessary for both to have a shared positive goal insight as opposed to a competitive destructive one. The key point of significance was the area that mentioned equality, that the individuals must come from an equally shared background either of education / class etc. This seemed to lack addressing the racial inequalities that effect income and education, which makes the contact hypothesis problematic. Regardless, it seemed to offer insight for my project on why / how students identify with aesthetics akin to themselves, and selected exhibitions that relate to their own backgrounds. Ultimately this seems to suggest a bridge can only be built when the focus is indirectly related to the individual themselves, rather than an openness to others. The point being a bridge between the white middle-class mature West Dean students must be found for diverse references to make a meaningful connection for change. This bridge could come in different forms of stories about the artists or artworks, or some kind of aesthetic similarity for them to make a connection.