Intervention – Reflective Report

As a white Australian who grew up on the ancestral lands of the Thunggutti/Dunghutti First Nations people, I acquired a questioning mind regarding dominant voices and fictionalised histories. This has shaped my pedagogical approach to the critical studies module I teach on the Art and Contemporary Craft BA and has enabled me to diversify content by expanding reading lists and including artists from the Global South. Following the race workshop on whiteness I was reminded of my Australian childhood context as a white person growing up in an indigenous town learning local indigenous historical ways alongside the curriculum designed through the British colonialist lens. When I moved to major global cities, I was surprised by the lack of exposure to Indigenous people and learning and early in my artistic career I felt compelled to make work about the systemic racism of Australia’s historical cultural propaganda imagery, which included the representation of Indigenous people. When my work was censored owing to my being white, I was confronted with my own ‘white progressive’ racism [DiAngelo in Amanpour & Co. 2020]. A behavioural example DiAngelo offers that echoed my racism was the separation of collective systematic racism from individual overt racism, framed as “goodness”, which DiAngelo extrapolates on in Nice Racism as causing ‘the most daily harm across race’ [DiAngelo, 2021]. The complexity of my experience attempting to draw attention to systemic racism consequentially led to my interest in the frameworks perpetuating the unconscious bias of white progressives, This context and experience informs the development of my intervention aimed at BA-level students who are white mature-aged middle-class women studying in the rural environment of West Sussex (West Dean College).

While West Dean College has an Equality, Diversity and Inclusivity Policy it only recently began collating data. There is no annual data report available online, which is an indication of the insulating structures protecting self-reflection of the impact of white dominance. The 2021 West Sussex Census revealed that 81% of the community is white and the remaining 19% ethnic diversity is primarily in Crawley (38.7 miles away from West Dean). Many of my West Dean students can be generalised as white progressives owing to being affluent and highly educated professionals. They range in faiths, which led me to initially present to my peer group an intervention in the form of a collaborative painting workshop that aesthetically explored Rekis’ (Rekis, 2023) notion of granting credibility to offer integrity that expands the maker and viewer’s worldviews. I proposed a day of activities that invited students to create “symbolic alphabets” of visible or hidden aspects of their identity. These symbols would be used to develop collaborative paintings that visually demonstrate Donna Haraway’s “Oddkin” concept [Yale, 2017] of differences acting together and Anna Tsing’s “contamination concept” [Tsing 2015] to show how identities develop under and through the exposure and impact of others. While my peers responded positively, they highlighted how the first activity creating a symbolic alphabet could be the whole workshop as it enabled the students to bring their lived experiences and background influences and offered deep self-reflection and identity exploration. After my peer group had a critical discussion about how the Channel 4 clip of the privilege walk [Channel 4, 2020] perpetuates systemic racism and shared as an alternative approach, Step Inside the Circle [Horstman, 2020] I read Thomas’ Persona Pedagogy (Thomas 2022) to consider how I might avoid “Identity Threat” [Thomas 2022, p. 1] in my intervention. Seeking further insight on how to sensitively approach sharing identities to mobilise peer-to-peer learning following my tutorial, I read the Intersectionality Walk Pack [Charles Sturt University 2021] which left me feeling deeply conflicted about instigating a cohort of white students to role-play identities that are dominated by whiteness in such an insulated environment as West Dean. On a visual level, all West Dean Fine Art teaching staff are white as are the students. Based on this extreme racial imbalance the risk of stereotyping while using Persona Pedagogy is too high. With no representation of individuals dominated by whiteness, the session would lack genuinely informed feedback vital for peer-to-peer learning and potentially further insulate an environment that avoids critiquing the implications of dominating white behaviour [Haviland, 2008].

Based on these reflections, I want the intervention to respond to West Dean’s white progressive racism in the context of their own “whiteness” by developing the student’s self-awareness and strengthening their artistic authenticity. I have developed my initial one-day practical workshop to shift focus from faith to “whiteness”. In response to my peer-group feedback highlighting the depth of the first activity of creating a symbolic alphabet, I have expanded on this idea to use it to reveal and critically analyse the impact of the racial domination of whiteness. At present the workshop includes three activity phases that are punctuated by critical reflection discussions to allow for “double-loop learning” [Thomas 2022 p.12] and respond to the power distribution across the group. Rather than use personas to create empathy towards others, the session aims to mobilise mark-making and symbols to act out unconscious behavioural gestures that can be critically reflected on, discussed and changed. To instil equality across tools and materials, the same size brushes will be distributed, and pre-mixed colours will be restricted to a tonal range of one colour and white.

The first phase focuses on developing students’ symbolic language using mind-maps, and Venn diagrams to create symbols. The second phase focuses on impact (dominance and dominated) using collaborative timed exercises inviting each student to begin painting one of their symbols and pass to the left, to respond to another student’s painted symbol with a painted element of their own. The final phase focuses on changing the behaviour of gestures to evoke different symbolic interactions. Each phase risks an “Identity Threat” and students will be reminded not to disclose the symbolic meaning as “not knowing” is vital to the behavioural gestures displayed in the activities. An example of the Hobo Code Alphabet [Berensohn, 2023] will be used to demonstrate how the symbols can represent a range of private messages. Students will be asked to note the stages or interactions that evoke discomfort, which will be discussed in the critical reflection stage. The discomfort related to power dynamics revealing themselves will initiate the reflective discussions which I have structured based on DiAngelo’s method of receiving feedback gracefully, reflecting, and changing the behavioural gesture. The discussions will focus on using the discomfort and inequalities demonstrated in mark-making as metaphoric social behavioural thoughts and actions. An example of this might be guiding the students to identify where their mark-making has dominated or has been dominated owing to not valuing the mark of another’s, resulting from an attitude of “knowing” importance (being told), rather than granting credibility to offer integrity to the unfamiliar and unknown. Another example might be guiding the students to identify an overlooked mark that can be highlighted without dominating it or creating marks that support the marks of others without drawing attention to their mark-making.  

The idea of the session is partly for the students to gain knowledge of themselves, based on what they think they know, what is revealed through their gestures, how their gestures interact with others to create collective gestures, and how they adopt gestural changes to change the behavioural gesture and attitude. The outcome will include a series of collaborative paintings responding to whiteness vicariously through identity. The nature of the collaborative paintings shared authorship aims to visually protect against “identity threat” while allowing a critically reflective analysis of white identity politics by addressing and holding feelings of discomfort through the compositional techniques and methods applied. I plan to run the workshop on the level 6 programme that includes a cohort of returning deferred students joining a continuing cohort of students in October / November and run it again with the level 5 programme, including any necessary changes on reflection.

Within my practice I am interested in the power of “not knowing” and how it grants space for gestures related to unconscious or unspeakable emotions to visually surface, which are rarely verbally coherent. More specifically, I am interested in the methodologies and gestural actions that are developed by marginalised artists to counter inequality, which contribute to identity frameworks. I intend to further explore this through a reading suggested in my peer group, On Not Knowing: How Artists Think by Fischer and Fortnum (2013).

Action Plan:

I will propose the session during the August planning meeting with my West Dean Course Leader for inclusion in my 2024-25 Level 6 Theory through Practice programme. The session can be an ice-breaker for the joining groups and also a precursor to developing their attitude towards approaching their dissertations. I will also propose it be included in the Level 5 2024-25 programme within the Art & Society module, which will support and inform their independent studio project.

Reference List:

Amanpour & Co. (2020) Excerpt from Robin DiAngelo’s 2018 interview with Michel Martin about White Fragility [Online]. Youtube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qx-gUfQx4-Q [accessed May 23 2024]

Berensohn, R. (2023). The Hobo Code: Their Secret Symbols Explained. Available at https://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/a25174860/hobo-code/ (accessed July 20, 2024)

Brown, A. D. (2021) Identities in and around organizations: Towards an identity work perspective. Human Relations 75 (7), pp.1205-1237.

Channel 4. (2020) The School That Tried to End Racism. [Online}. Youtube. 30 June. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1I3wJ7pJUjg 

Di Angelo, R. (2019) White Fragility (London: Penguin Random House)

Di Angelo, R. (2021) Nice Racism (London: Penguin Random House)

E-flux Readers. Issues. Contamination. Available at https://www.e-flux.com/readers/330686/contamination  (Accessed May 23 2924)

Fisher, E and Fortnum, R (2013). On Not Knowing: How artists think. Black Dog Publishing: London.

Haraway, D. (1998). Situated Knowledge: The Science Question in Feminism and the Privilege of Partial Perspective. Feminist Studies Vol. 14 No. 3 (Autumn 1998) p. 575-599. Available at: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3178066(Accessed 21 Mar 2024)

Haviland, V. S. (2008) ‘“Things get glossed over”: Rearticulating the silencing power of whiteness in education,’ Journal of Teacher Education, Vol. 59, No. 1, January/February 2008.

Thomas, C (2022). Overcoming Identity Threat: Using Persona Pedagogy in Intersectionality and Inclusion TrainingSocial Sciences 11: 249. Available at: researchoutput.csu.edu.au/en/publications/overcoming-identity-threat-using-persona-pedagogy-in-intersection

Thomas, C and McKinnon, C.M. (2021). Seeing and Overcoming the Complexities of Intersectionality. Charles Sturt University, Australian National University. Available at https://www.researchgate.net/publication/349068774_Seeing_and_Overcoming_the_Complexities_of_Intersectionality (accessed June 18 2024).

Tsing, A. (2015) The Mushroom at the End of the World. Princeton University Press.

Rekis, J. (2023). ‘Religious Identity and Epistemic Injustice: An Intersectional Account’, Cambridge University Press, Issue 38, pp. 779-800, Available at: 10.1017/hyp.2023.86

Yale University (2017). Donna Haraway, Making Oddkin: Story Telling for Earthly Survival. Available at: youtube.com/watch?v=z-iEnSztKu8 (Accessed 20 Nov 2023)

Wells, C. (2023) West Sussex County Council. JSNA. Public Health and Social Research Unit. Census 2021: Ethnicity, language and religion. Available at chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://jsna.westsussex.gov.uk/assets/pdf/census-briefing/WSX-census-21-ethnicity-briefing.pdf (accessed June 13 2024)

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Unit 2 Blog Post 3: Race

The School That Tried to End Racism (Channel 4, 2020) depicts school children enacting ‘Privilege Walk’ to demonstrate the impact of racial inequalities, which reveals colour blindness. Those who are disadvantaged understood immediately the unfair implications, yet the most advantaged white male child redirected responsibility to the structural enquiry determining positioning. This child failed to comprehend how the multiple oppressions of others enable white privilege, rather than the questions. A relationship could be drawn between deflecting racism and ‘colourblind’ legislation (Bradbury 2020) – as Bradbury explains, policy structure can make inequality absent, which the child’s revisioning of questions suggests – to relieve discomfort and responsibility while maintaining “winning”. Bradbury claims that structural and systematic racism is authored by those who benefit from others’ disadvantage and the progress of minority groups is seen only when it is to the advantage of white elites. This correlates with Garrett’s article (Garett, 2024) that interviewed 22 racialised minority PhD students to reveal no one felt academically supported, yet all felt racially exploited to support institutional diversity. While many students considered academia as neurotypical spaces failing to support intersectionality, the challenge focused on the spatial relations of colonial perspectives that determine “whiteness” and did not explicitly define these spaces as masculine and heteronormative. Garrett cites Fanon (1952) and Andrews (2023) to posit race as a constructed colonial imaginary to maintain Western authority and labels whiteness as a psychosis that engenders delusions. While Garrett cites Rose’s Feminism and Geography(1993), she does not apply to “whiteness” Rose’s significant recognition of ‘multiple identities’ (class, sexuality and non-exhaustive man/woman binaries) to include academic inequalities owing to it being foundationally male and heteronormative, as are most Western authoritative forms of knowledge, which problematically situates race (whiteness) as eclipsing intersectionality (sex, gender, disability, age, faith).

As a white male English journalist reporting on diversity, James Orr (2023) exemplifies the kind of systemic blindness Bradbury’s line of questioning attempts to dismantle –how those advantaged is perpetuated, and the effects of who is speaking. Orr (2023) attacks AdvanceHE for pressuring institutions to enact systemic change through the Athena Swan and Race Equality charters. He refers to Ahmed to claim the reality of AdvanceHE abstract principles have oppressive effects and offers implicit bias training failing as an example, which Sadiq (2023) also believes fails owing to it being nonexperiential, or safe for group questions. Confusing Orr’s argument, the Cambridge students interviewed cite the training as helping them navigate and understand each other, and student protest footage demanding Cambridge decolonise contradicts Orr’s claim that students are becoming less tolerant of opposing viewpoints and controversial ideas. Ahmed stipulates that the institutional role is to remain neutral on controversial matters however this is precisely the systemic secularism that Rekis (2023) believes polices knowledge, which ultimately results in the reduced opportunity for understanding non-singular diverse experiences. Orr defers to Dr Harinam who disputes institutional racism at Cambridge based on a low reportage rate, which is a statistically reductive claim that is reflective of Bradbury’s insight on policy structuring to enable the absence of inequality. While the resources reveal inherent systematic, endemic and unrecognised racism, the Channel 4 clip does so by performing it, which does not “end racism” as the title suggests, it exposes the inability to absorb the implications of racism by those with the most to gain from it, which is also evidenced in the Telegraph online report. Where Sadiq’s presentation calls for diversifying and localising content through experiential learning that is group-led but contradictory self-led, Bradbury’s article offers practical approaches to shaping anti-racist thought that can be applied across disciplines.

I commented on Michael and Dayna‘s posts.

Reference list:
Bradbury, A. (2020) A critical race theory framework for education policy analysis: the case of bilingual learners and assessment policy in England, Race Ethnicity and Education, pp. 241-247.

Channel 4. (2020) The School That Tried to End Racism. [Online}. Youtube. 30 June. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1I3wJ7pJUjg 

Garrett, R. (2024). Racism shapes careers: career trajectories and imagined futures of racialised minority PhDs in UK higher education. Globalisation, Societies and Education, pp.1–15. 

Orr, J. (2022) Revealed: The charity turning UK universities woke. The Telegraph [Online]. Youtube. 5 August. Available at:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRM6vOPTjuU

Rekis, J. (2023) ‘Religious Identity and Epistemic Injustice: An Intersectional Account’, Cambridge University Press, Issue 38, pp. 779-800, Available at: 10.1017/hyp.2023.86

Sadiq, A. (2023) Diversity, Equity & Inclusion. Learning how to get it right. TEDx [Online}. Youtube. 2 March. Available at:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HR4wz1b54hw 

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Intervention Outline

As a white Australian who grew up on the ancestral lands of the Thunggutti/Dunghutti First Nations people, I acquired a questioning mind regarding dominant voices and fictionalised histories. My early educational experience of watching BBC documentaries of the British discovery of Australia alongside fellow indigenous students shaped my pedagogical approach that looks for systemic colonisation. As a foreigner and migrant, I connect with my students through the lens of the visitor and the homeland.  Leading on Critical Studies at West Dean College has enabled me to address problematic content focused on the Global North by expanding reading lists and rewriting lectures to include the Global South. 

While my references attempt to decolonise and my essay writing seminars are designed to support neurodiversity, the concept of intersectionality is in the background.  I would like to foreground it in a way that highlights the richness that intersectionality brings, in a way that echoes Rekis’ (Rekis, 2023) notion of granting credibility to offer integrity that expands the maker and viewer’s worldviews. I want to test how this can be done aesthetically, owing to students revealing their faith through their work, and allowing for students to choose not to disclose aspects of their identity such as a hidden disability, non-visible faith or sexuality. Within the Art & Society project, I want to develop a collaborative session that can mobilise individuals’ intersectionality by inviting them to paint/draw a symbolic representation of a hidden aspect of their identity. This would be timed so the object/image remains in a state of ongoing metamorphosis to mirror how each artwork is shaped via each interaction with a different individual. Through visually sharing authenticity I hope to invoke a discussion related to persona pedagogy and Haraway’s notion of “oddkin”. 

References:

Crenshaw, K. (1990.) Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics, and Violence against Women of ColorStanford Law Review 43 (6), pp. 1241-1299.

Friere, P. (1970.) Pedagogy of the Oppressed. Reprint. Penguin Random House: London, 2017.

Haraway, D. (1998). Situated Knowledge: The Science Question in Feminism and the Privilege of Partial Perspective. Feminist Studies Vol. 14 No. 3 (Autumn 1998) p. 575-599. Available at: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3178066(Accessed 21 Mar 2024)

Hooks, B. (1994). Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom. New York, NY: Routledge.

MUMAmonash (2021). Dale Harding: Through the lens of visitation, Artist Interview. Available at: vimeo.com/560267928 (Accessed Nov 2023). 

Thomas, C (2022). Overcoming Identity Threat: Using Persona Pedagogy in Intersectionality and Inclusion TrainingSocial Sciences 11: 249. Available at: researchoutput.csu.edu.au/en/publications/overcoming-identity-threat-using-persona-pedagogy-in-intersection

Rekis, J. (2023). ‘Religious Identity and Epistemic Injustice: An Intersectional Account’, Cambridge University Press, Issue 38, pp. 779-800, Available at: 10.1017/hyp.2023.86

Yale University (2017). Donna Haraway, Making Oddkin: Story Telling for Earthly Survival. Available at: youtube.com/watch?v=z-iEnSztKu8 (Accessed 20 Nov 2023)

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Unit 2 Blog Post 2: Faith and Intersectionality

All four resources offered individual concerns relating to religion at the intersectionality of academia and sport. Kwame Anthony Appiah is a gay American British philosopher who grew up in Ghana. Simran Jeet Singh is an American Sikh professor, writer, and activist. Jaclyn Rekis is a post-doctoral fellow at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem and philosopher at the University of Western Ontario, Canada and Haifaa Jawad is an Iraqi Muslim scholar of theology and religion at the University of Birmingham, U.K.

Rekis (Rekis, 2023) and Jawad’s (Jawad, 2022) articles resonated with Crenshaw’s (Crenshaw,1991) in highlighting how women are vulnerable to violence within and beyond religious groups. Rekis’ analysis of Sojourn Truth exemplified the variations of violence, from discrediting knowledge to dehumanising through rape. The case study of Truth demonstrated the inseparable strength of intersectionality across faith, race and gender, which effectively supported Rekis’ argument for including religion in Crenshaw’s list of suppressed groups. Rekis example of women understanding workplace sexual harassment emphasises how reducing opportunities for knowledge can render a woman’s experiential understanding unintelligible. Disempowerment via knowledge control related to Jawad’s observations of Muslim women in sports, where clothing regulation obstructs and prevents inclusion, which fosters misunderstandings about the Muslim faith, women and sports.

Rekis historical definitions offer depth to religion as a ‘conception of reality’(Rekis, 2023: 789)  that brings together social identity and worldview in ways that Appiah’s lecture (TED, 2014) scratches the surface. Appiah’s preference for charisma means, his argument for a non-existent religion resulting from the separation of religion and science dating back to Darwin overshadows his nuanced list of faiths showing differences within each one eg Muslim, Sikh, and Shia. Appiah’s proposition of a world with ancestors and contemporary life existing together is articulated in more depth by Rekis when she suggests ‘granting credibility’ to other’s beliefs as a means of offering integrity to other ways of being, (which does not necessarily mean agreeing to an entire set of beliefs), and allows for the hearer and the knower to expand and enrich both their worldviews. (Rekis, 2023: 793)

Singh’s (Trinity, 2016) teaching approach proactively responds to what Rekis described as dominant voices such as white Christian Nationalism acting as obstacles to knowledge and influencing religious and non-religious communities to disempower and discredit other voices. (Rekis, 2023: 794)   Singh invites difference into the classroom to engage constructively with arguments rather than destructively. Singh’s academic approach contradicts Rekis assertion that the secularism of academic environments fosters negative prejudices, real or anticipated however this relates to my previous post concerning how identity categorisation can lead to destructive effects of “othering”. Both these aspects could relate to UAL’s Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion Annual Report showing a decline of students declaring a religion or belief, which falls from 34% to 29% between 2019/20 and 2023/24. (UAL, 2022) Teaching studio practice and theory means I am well positioned to grant credibility to other beliefs which include Muslim, Christian and Buddhism. In decolonising the theory module I’ve found students making relationships between their faith and Australian First Nations beliefs however I find students are generally reluctant to reveal their faith for fear of prejudices, which makes Rekis’ article apt. Students’ faith is often revealed through their work, which appears a space to test safety, and could provide an excellent platform for my intervention to invite difference as Singh does.

Reference list

Crenshaw, K. (1991) ‘Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity politics, and Violence against Women of Color’, Stanford Law Review, 43(6), pp. 1241–1299. Available at: https://doi.org/10.2307/1229039.

Jawad, H, (2022) ‘Islam, Women and Sport: The Case of Visible Muslim
Women’
, LSE, 22 September. Available at: Islam, Women and Sport: The Case of Visible Muslim Women | Religion and Global Society (lse.ac.uk) (Accessed: 26 May 2024).

Rekis, J. (2023) ‘Religious Identity and Epistemic Injustice: An Intersectional Account’, Cambridge University Press, Issue 38, pp. 779-800, Available at: 10.1017/hyp.2023.86

Swim England. Guide to engaging Muslim women in swimming. Accessed 26 May. Available at: swimming.org/assets/frontier-two-resources/Guide-to-engaging-Muslim-women-in-swimming.pdf

TED (2014) Kwame Anthony Appiah: Is religion good or bad? (This is
a trick question)
. 16 June. Available at: Kwame Anthony Appiah: Is
religion good or bad? (This is a trick question) (youtube.com)
 (Accessed:
26 May 2024.

Trinity University (2016) Challenging Race, Religion, and Stereotypes in Classroom. 1 December. Available at: Challenging Race, Religion, and Stereotypes in Classroom (youtube.com) (Accessed: 26 May 2024).

UAL (2022). Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion Annual Report 2022/2023.
UAL. Available at: UAL Equality Diversity and Inclusion annual report 2022/23 (arts.ac.uk) (Accessed: 10 May 2024)

University of Birmingham, Jawad. H. Dr. Accessed 26 May. Available at:.birmingham.ac.uk/staff/profiles/tr/jawad-haifaa

I have commented on Michael, Sid and Dayna’s posts

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Unit 2, Blog Post 1: Disability and Intersectionality

Crenshaw’s article highlights how identity politics can ignore intragroup differences. (Crenshaw, 1991) To explore qualitative differences, I selected 3 interviews with individuals of diverse race and sexual orientation with hidden and visible disabilities. 

Christine Sun Kim is an American German deaf artist with Korean parents and cisgender mother (Art21, 2023). Sunaura Taylor is a queer American artist and scholar in the Division of Society and Environment born with arthrogryposis and uses a wheelchair.(Examined Life, 2010) TextaQueen is a queer disabled South Asian Australian diasporic artist with chronic pain. (Gupta, 2020) For a comparative analysis, I have examined the structure of professional artists, citizenship, and visibility to mirror Crenshaw’s divisions of structural, political and representational intersectionality. Likewise, qualitative differences pertaining to social, cultural and economic privilege are revealed when disabled artists seek freedom from the effects of their impairment, as Crenshaw evidenced when battered immigrant women seek shelter from abuse. 

Independence was highlighted as incorrectly equated to ableism, and how all individuals are interdependent upon social ethos and Governments. Taylor and Sun Kim exemplified how geographically relocating can ease ontological and financial experiences owing to different governed systems enabling a freer existence. (NYC to LA, and U.S. to Germany). Taylor exemplified how identity freedom was tethered to social disability in the way San Francisco’s systemic social and physical structures allowed her impairment not to disable her. Sun Kim’s freedom was similar and intersected with her deaf/parental identity however her relocation demonstrated how national citizenship also determines access to supportive governed systems. TextaQueen’s impairment impacted on mobility for social interaction, their economic privilege enabled establishing a global artist residency from their Victorian inner-city property. Collaboration was a shared aspect and individuality determined organisational and conceptual focus. Sun Kim’s heteronormative family exchanges determined her art-making approach through collaborative drawings and sound; Taylor’s philosophical corporeal exchanges with Judith Butler respond to navigating social and built environments; TextaQueen’s online support residency is for “crazy & crip” artists of colour. 

“Othering” was a key concern. Taylor makes the internal and external effects of “othering” distinct when describing the difference between the disabling effects of society and impairment as embodied effects. Crenshaw makes the dehumanising violence of “othering” explicit in the 48 Hours episode, which correlates with Sun Kim’s artwork Degrees of Deaf Rage in Everyday Situations. Taylor’s qualitative ease in an environment depended upon the visibility of disabled people and accessible design. While Sun Kim made disability “writ large” by creating large-scale captions on Manchester City to equate deafness to scale, TextaQueen’s aversion to visibility developed from patronising institutional othering of brown, Queer, feminist, and disabled identities under the guise of intersectionality. TextaQueen exemplifies how institutional categorisation can perpetuate othering, yet offering academic support for inclusivity can paradoxically depend on disclosure, and some students’ prefer privacy or are unaware of their disability such as dyslexia or dyspraxia. Only 17% of UAL students declare a disability, 22% declare LGBT+, and 23% declare B.A.M.E.* and these categories will surely intersect. Teaching art theory and studio practice, I adapt my approaches across digital, visual, sonic, and analogue in the hope of enabling students to choose methodologies suitable to their individual needs, without disclosure if they choose privacy. I have found alternative submissions are key to supporting diverse students and students often require examples of them and encouragement to invent their own.  

* UAL categorisation term 2022-23.

References

Art21 (2023). Christine Sun Kim in Friends & Strangers – Season 11 | Art21. 16 October 2020. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2NpRaEDlLsI (Accessed: 25 April 2024).

Crenshaw, K. Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics, and Violence against Women of Color. Stanford Law Review, Jul 1991, Vol 43, No.6 pp. 1241-1299.

Examined Life – Judith Butler & Sunaura Taylor (2010). Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k0HZaPkF6qE(accessed 5 May 2024)

Gupta, Nila. Me And TextaQueen Final Edit Copy. Disability Arts Online, 2020. Soundcloud. Available at: https://soundcloud.com/user-475703944 (accessed 5 May 2024) 

Mahmood Martin, Haneen. Interview 182 – TextaQueen. Liminal. 6 July 2021. Available at: https://www.liminalmag.com/interviews/textaqueen (accessed 5 May 2024)

UAL Equality, diversity, and inclusion report 2022-2023. University of the Arts. Available at https://www.arts.ac.uk/about-ual/public-information/equality-objectives-and-reports(accessed 5 May 2024)

I have commented on Sid, Michael and Yasi’s posts.

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Observation Report 3.

Session/artefact to be observed/reviewed: One-to-ones
Size of student group: 13
Observer: Karen Mathewman
Observee: Michelle Ussher

Part One: (Observee to complete in brief and send to observer prior to the observation or review)

What is the context of this session/artefact within the curriculum?
The session is the 7th lecture within the 1st Year Critical Studies module of BA Contemporary Art and Craft. The session description is as follows:

Bauhaus: Continuing the ethos of the Arts & Crafts movement that art should meet the needs of society by reconciling mass production with artistic vision, the Bauhaus style – also known as the International Style – is distinguished by the principle – ‘form follows function’. Focusing on the German art school known as the Bauhaus, this session examines their creative approach to materials, techniques and processes seen through painting, performance, weaving and industrial design.

The morning lecture will be followed in the afternoon with the Bauhaus practical experiments such as Albers papercuts and colour squares, Kandinsky’s colour game and Itten’s texture/contrast collage making.

Reading:

  • Excerpt Bauhaus Women – A Global Perspective, Elizabeth Otto and Patrick Rossier, Bloomsbury, 2019. Introduction pp. 1-14.

The module’s written submission deadline of a 2500 word essay meant the students requested an extra exercise involving deconstructing an artwork and opted to shorten the afternoon workshop session. This meant the morning session included the lecture, followed by a seminar of the reading in the library reading room, which involved students working in pairs to select a female artist from the Bauhaus Women book and sharing a key aspect to the group.

The afternoon session involved a group exercise deconstructing Pavel Tchelitchew ‘s oil painting portrait of Edith Sitwell for students to practice using concrete nouns to support abstract concepts. Different coloured cards were used to differentiate between objective descriptions (concrete nouns) and subjective descriptions (abstract concepts) that were laid out to create sentences. (This is an adaptation of the exercise used for the micro-teaching session)

After a break the group participated in the Albers paper cut exercise to experiment with creating 3D forms from 2D using only folds and cuts, and Albers colour exercise using colour paper.  

How long have you been working with this group and in what capacity?
Since Oct 2023 as their Critical Studies Subject Tutor. They study part-time and have completed 1 x 700 word written submission which I design and assess. I design and deliver a monthly lecture and workshop on Theory through Practice.

What are the intended or expected learning outcomes?
Understanding and application of subject knowledge, and underlying principles
Identification and investigation of varied visual, academic, ethical and cultural sources 
Skills to enable the realisation of ideas, appropriate to creative practice 
Solve problems and adapt to unforeseen challenges in the realisation of creative practice 
Management of own learning and progress through active reflection, negotiation, planning, self-direction, subject engagement, and commitment   
Communicating a creative, individual or collaborative personal practice

In this lesson all learners will:
Participate in a lecture on the Bauhaus.
Consider the specificities and differences of the Bauhaus in relation to other art schools, and the further global impact of the Bauhaus pedagogy.
Discuss and capture skills acquired on the course so far, and consider how these support the development of conceptual and practical ideas relating to their studio practice.
Participate in a seminar on Bauhaus Women – A Global Perspective
Select 2 of 3 exercises from the menu of Bauhaus activities
Participate in a group activity to visual deconstruct and describe artworks.

In this lesson some learners will:
Take a leading role in discussion on Bauhaus Women – A Global Perspective.
Develop language skills to differentiate between concrete nouns and abstract concepts, and comprehend how to organise these words in a sentence to describe individual understanding of an artwork.
Develop a series of experiments in relation to Bauhaus practical experiments.

What are the anticipated outputs (anything students will make/do)?
Students should have read the required reading and recognize the basic understanding of the Bauhaus to value their influential style.
Students will be able to describe at least one aspect of their understanding relating to the Edith Sitwell portrait. They will make at least one paper form and identify at least one behavioral change in colour from the Albers exercise.

Are there potential difficulties or specific areas of concern?
As the session requires group participation in a various group activities, some students may dominate and intimidate learning of less confident students.

How will students be informed of the observation/review?
They will be told during the session

What would you particularly like feedback on?
Possible ways to understand student learning/engagement from a 2 hour lecture

How will feedback be exchanged?
Follow up email or meeting.

Part Two: (Observer to note down observations, suggestions and questions)

Our discussion

Michelle had originally prepared for me to observe in person, but because I was not well we talked through the session and how it had gone in a Teams online discussion. First of all I was delighted to spend time looking through what was a really engaging and motivating set of materials. I would call it a day of ‘immersion’ for the students into Bauhaus and particularly Bauhaus women.

We talked about the context more holistically. These were mainly mature students who have a lot of life experience but less academic and technological knowledge. They like talking and have lots of opinions! It is a residential course so we talked about some if the difficulties of setting boundaries, and Michelle said that even with such a long day students ere coming to find her while eating or resting to ask questions.  Michelle asked if I had any suggestions. It can be very hard in my experience to set boundaries in such a context- there is no chance to head home like we would do in a more traditional setting. I suggested that Michelle be honest about the way the day was going t work, that it was very intense, and also honest at the beginning of the session about her need to recharge and spend time alone thinking planning and resting. I also suggested that she encourage students to form small support groups and work together on things so there was time for that support and questioning. Perhaps a more informal session at the end where students could get to ‘talk to teacher’ as some so love to but still in a semi structured way so it does not impinge on their leisure time.

We focused primarily on the lecture stage of Michelle’s day, while also touching on the more creative ‘making and doing’ parts of the day. Michelle said she had nearly 100 slides for a 2- hour lecture. When I first heard this alarm bells started ringing because that is a lot of slides for a single lecture, but all of these slides were very visual – often with just one image on each slide. They were beautiful and engaging and told a story. I am sure the students were captivated.

However wonderful the slides and lecturer, listening for two hours can be a lot, and attention can wane. We talked about ways to make what is more ‘passive listening’ into ‘active listening’. Perhaps before starting the lecture say something like- ‘I’d like you to listen for three things that really resonate with you from the lecture and be ready to share them at the end’. There could also be short break ‘moments’ during the lecture where students discuss a single very focused question or do a poll (e.g. through Mentimeter) to check understanding. With this particular cohort we discussed the fact many are slight technophobes who may not be up to working with apps and different online resources, and equally if the lecture is stopped for discussion they do like to talk so it is hard to get on track. It is still something we left for Michelle to think about as she said it could sometimes be hard to see what the students had learnt.

I also suggested making reference to the different parts of the day at other times, so that the students could really see a line through and how and why those different parts and activities linked together. Often as teachers we have those links in our head but don’t always make them explicit so helping students understand the connection is always good. ‘Remember we saw A in the lecture. We are now going to do an activity that links it to B’.

It was a really engaging discussion for me and I felt like I had entered the Bauhaus world too. Michelle’s knowledge and enthusiasm for the subject was infectious and I imagined the students had an intense and wonderful experience.

In summary

A great lesson and day of learning for the students.
A few things to think about:

  • How to be more explicit in setting boundaries for the wellbeing of the teacher and the students in what is a really intense and tiring residential experience
  • How to encourage active learning and more student responsibility for learning even in the more traditional form of a lecture
  • How to make sure students understand the line through from one activity to another, so again their learning is deeper and with a greater understanding of the learning objectives.

Part Three: (Observee to reflect on the observer’s comments and describe how they will act on the feedback exchanged)

Thanks for your thoughtful feedback. Having guidance on setting well-being boundaries and how to encourage students to lead on their own learning for greater understanding is useful. 

Action Plan from feedback:

  • As the course is “Block” delivered once a month for each year level, I plan to adopt the suggested approach of “being honest” at the start of the sessional block with a disclaimer. This will include communicating that I need time to recharge between teaching in order to be at my best during the contact hours (9:30-12:30 and 2-5:30). This means I need to take breaks from teaching-related concerns and have “down-time”. This will hopefully encourage the students to be mindful when they see me early at breakfast and later in the eve outside class.
  •  To balance the scheduled “lecture” duration of 2 hours, I regularly divide the delivery into 2 x 45-minute sessions with a 30-minute break in between. Responding to the advice on 20-minute attention spans, I plan to divide these 45-minute sessions into 2 x 20-minute sessions with a 5-minute “question time”. The suggestion of a “quiz” is appealing and I can imagine it heightening engagement while allowing me to monitor depth of understanding. This could be initiated by giving the students specific questions at the start of class or asking “pop” questions. 
  • I like to follow Aristotelian logic, which values visual knowledge over written explanations to communicate ideas. Visual knowledge is known to support diverse learners, and this is why my lectures often contain many images. I always include a visual map at the beginning of a lecture for the student to visualise the lecture’s structure and content. In future, I plan to use this “visual map” to show the map of the day to enable the student to see how the different activities relate to one another. The same images could be used at the different activity points to trigger which point in the day the student is at and deepen an understanding of how the moment they are in relates to another. 



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Case Study 1: Knowing and responding to your students’ diverse needs. 

Contextual Background

Within the BAACC course, I teach an essay planning seminar supporting dissertations for students specialising in textiles, ceramics, painting, performance, digital, sculpture, woodworking, musical instruments, and horology. The 35 students have individual character and range in neurodiversity and gender identity across the ages of 22 to 76. 

Evaluation:

The challenge is to respond to diverse creative practices of different mediums and industry expectations. Teaching Craft Practices is a new terrain as I usually specialise in Contemporary Art. This meant gaining relevant knowledge of craft workshop practices, specialist skills and techniques, historical and contemporary makers, and industry knowledge. My objective was to enable each student to use diverse visual and theoretical research for developing their dissertations to inform their unique studio and workshop practices. 

Recognising the students’ required initial concept support was key and resulted in delivering research methodologies lectures based on a guide to Visualising Research in Art and Design (Gray and Malins, 2004). Organising 1-2-1 tutorials in their individual workshops, effectively enabled me to analyse their practical projects, understand the different workshop cultures and gauge their individual needs before the seminar. I’ve previously found visual and oral presentations excellent for accommodating diversity with artists, so I applied this to the Craft students, despite it being an unfamiliar format for them. Combining the disciplines across 2 seminars was effective for encouraging transdisciplinary research and the generous group feedback enabled me to create bespoke draft essay plans using resources across the students. These proved so effective the Head of the School requested dissertation presentations alongside written assessments. 

Moving forwards 

By recognising the difference between each student’s unique needs I was able to mobilise their diversity as a resource for each other. Going forward I would like to build on the transdisciplinary exchanges that the combined student groups offered one another in the seminars to establish a network for the students to support each other’s projects. 

Lectures:
Opening my Critical Studies lectures to Craft students will enable them to independently choose subject areas of individual interest for their practical projects and physical exchange with Contemporary art students. While I have included craft examples in some of my art lectures, I intend to include more diverse objects and practitioners in every lecture. 

Workshop introductions:
To encourage cross-pollination of disciplines similar to the Bauhaus I would like to introduce the students to each other’s workshops during Orientation week. This would allow them to gain knowledge of available resources beyond their departments that might trigger initial making ideas and support project development.

Seminars:
In the future, I would like to combine the disciplines during essay planning seminars and presentations. I believe this is possible by arranging with the different Course Leaders allocated sessions scheduled in the individual programmes. 

References 

Gray, C and Malins, J. (2004). Visualising Research: A Guide to Research Processes in Art and Design. Hants, Ashgate Publishing.

The temporary bauhaus-archive museum, available https://www.bauhaus.de/en/ (accessed Feb 7 2024)

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Case Study 3: Assessing learning and exchanging feedback 

Contextual Background:

I assess Studio, Professional Practice and Theory on the BAACC course. Feedback tutorials are post-assessment and to effect improvement I have scheduled “draft” submissions for the Theory component prior to assessment. Accidentally, draft essay feedback tutorials were scheduled alongside the Professional Practice assessment, which was advantageous in combining in-person and written feedback. 

Evaluation:

The challenge is to offer feedback that supports students across practical, professional, and theoretical areas. After reading Mark Barrow‘s Assessment and student transformation: linking character and intellect (Barrow, 2006), I wanted to try the Foucauldian “confessional” approach for self-development. The draft essay tutorials and Professional Practice Presentation question time was a perfect opportunity.

Writing feedback is time-consuming, especially draft dissertations internal comments. For time management, I created a guide developed from Davies’ Writing Learning Outcomes and Assessment Criteria in Art and Design (Davies, 2000) to write “live” feedback during the presentations and focus on how understanding, originality and imagination are evidenced. This effectively enabled active listening for assessment, and notes were finessed later with grading. (see Doc-A attached). This informed the draft essay feedback, which could be discussed in-person with the online written feedback (see Doc-B attached). I used the “confessional” approach to understand the deeper obstacles for improvement. A key area identified was the historical experience of students previously working in corporate environments which influenced the aesthetics of their presentations and caused conceptual generalisations in their essays. Another area was related to cultural appropriation owing to a student’s understanding of “human life” from a Buddhist perspective that informed her sculptures and writing.

Moving forwards: 

Scheduling cross-module feedback

Feedback across written and in-person discussions was incredibly effective for improving understanding across multiple modules prior to crucial assessment points. Moving forward this is something I will request my Course Leader schedules purposively for the following academic year and check if it is something we can do for the upcoming final studio and theory projects across all BA year levels.

In-person tutorials

I want to implement the “confessional” approach regularly to capture conflict areas pertaining to previous professional experience at West Dean as the students are predominately mature. This will be applied to forthcoming feedback tutorials prior to the final essay and studio assessments. I will continue to monitor the effectiveness of this to ensure it functions as an “individuating tool” and not therapy however, I can also see its pastoral care uses. I also tested its use in recent CSM Foundation Painting Pathway Part 3 Progress Tutorials to gauge how it might apply to young adults and it effectively revealed illnesses and diversity creating inconsistent working patterns, which will be supported by ISA’s and student support. 

Guide for live assessments

Writing live feedback during presentations was a time-saver. I believe I can apply this to graded studio presentations. The guide I developed included the list:

  • originality – within practice / within history / within peer group
  • Imagination – purposeful decisions towards an idea
  • description – process, methods, materials
  • explanation – appropriate uses/interpretation
  • analysis – reflection and problem-solving

This correlates to the assessment matrix which means I can use it for forthcoming final assessments in April/May/June.

References

Barrow, Mark (2006) Assessment and student transformation: linking character and intellect, Studies in Higher Education, 31: 3, 357 — 372

Davies, A. (2000) Writing Learning Outcomes and Assessment Criteria in Art and Design. ADC – LTSN Learning and Teaching Fund Project: University of the Arts London

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Observation Report 2.

Session/artefact to be observed/reviewed: One-to-ones
Size of student group: 1
Observer: Michelle Ussher
Observee: Jazmin Hodges

PART ONE (Observee to complete in brief and send to observer prior to the observation or review)

What is the context of this session/artefact within the curriculum?
The observer will be sitting in on my one-to-one block. In one hour I will have two twenty minute appointments. One-to-ones are appointments that can be booked via the website up to an hour before the session. They are for students in their final term of study or graduates up to five years out. The topic they can select to talk about must be careers related and often cover subjects such as CV reviews, cover letter help, application guidance, interview prep, identifying career options or where to look for work, portfolios etc.

How long have you been working with this group and in what capacity?
The one-to-ones can be booked by any student or grad from any college. So most times I only see them for that 20 minute slot. However, it is common to see the same grad perhaps 4 times in a term, while they work on different areas that they would like to develop.

What are the intended or expected learning outcomes?
They should have a clearer understanding of the query that they came in with and be able to orally tell me what their next steps and actions will be after the session.

What are the anticipated outputs (anything students will make/do)?
They should have begun to work on their action plan during the session and give me some indication that they have inputted reasonable goals with time frames.

Are there potential difficulties or specific areas of concern?
As the sessions take place online sometimes tech issues can be a disruption that eats into the very limited time.

How will students be informed of the observation/review?
They will be told during the session

What would you particularly like feedback on?
I think the action plan and the way the graduates demonstrate their understanding.

How will feedback be exchanged?
Follow up email or meeting.

PART TWO (Observer to note down observations, suggestions and questions)
Below is a list of observed interaction between Jazmin and 2 student/alumni. At the end of each list is a summary including positives and areas of suggested improvement.

1st meeting: LG, 2nd year BA Textile BA student graduating DPS student. (3rd year is in industry) and 3rd year spent back in CSM.
Outline: Use of form for personal reference / columns. Referred to Student Team as it relates to student work rather than graduate work.
Graduate query / intention: cover letters, project unit 6 brief assistance. Looking for cover letter help for placements (would like a textile artist Australia, Sydney) and future applications.
Suggested Action Plan: Advised on a general approach to cover letters to include the course studied and achievements. Key to a cover letter is it should complement your cv not mirror it.
Advised to highlight your research of the organisation. Select a few things about them and tie it in to something you have done in the past that you couldn’t include in your cv. Include specific responses to the role. Regarding CV positives were affirmed (clear, thoughtful and tidy layout) while improvements were suggested such as: Remove face image from CV to make anonymous (no bias) Use an image of your work instead and a hyperlink to website/instagram.
Include location – if you’re willing to relocate. Use single font rather than multiple
Add more details on significant subject learning. (live briefs, group work, client work)
Change “expertise” to “skills”. Rather than combining “hard” skills (training required/sewing etc) with “soft” skills (communication), separate and evidence your “soft” skills through examples not claims. Narrow down your bullet points to focus skills advertised. Look at their desirable aspects in job advert and include these in your CV list. Don’t end bullet points with commas. Use Capital letters, run through an app to check Grammar Lose 1st person. Write in 3rd person without pronouns. Include the dates of work experience and list your Responsibilities and Achievements.
Graduate Understanding: Concluded with the highlighted important areas and mentioned time left.

Summary:
Your personable and relaxed tone makes the interaction welcoming and supportive. Your ability to reassure while weaving through shared information to ground the student is very good. Your strengths are in clarifying the purpose of the appointment and focusing support on the areas requested while advising on other UAL areas for learning support. This kind of clarity could be used when concluding by asking the student/alumni what notes they have taken (knowing they haven’t) which will prompt them to make a list on the call outlining an action plan so they have a written list of your good suggestions. This can make for a more “concrete” outcome that will evidence to the student the usefulness of the meeting, which they can refer to for guidance once off the call.

2nd meeting: CF graduated in 2023. Media Communications
Outline: pre-appointment form, advised to take notes outlining goals and dates (For your own purposes). Time. Pre-sent places to find work.
Graduate query/ intention: Wanting to find work. Obtained job in Sept advertised as a Junior Marketer and Website development however actual job was outsourced to India and role was project management. Contract received a few days after training, which specified that they were not allowed to work in a similar role within a 30km radius. Completed training and wasn’t comfort signing contract. Applying for jobs and engaging in phone interviews prior face-to-face interviews. Checking usual creative industries site, linkdin and cold calling based in London and Essex. Struggling with entry level jobs want 1-2 year’s experience. Has a clear vision of working in celebrity PR.
Suggested Action Plan: Advised to apply to companies advertising for experience anyway as they may not get exactly what they wish for. Recommend joining a few recruitment agencies at once. Encouraging the proactive cold calling. Considering other networking opportunities associated with training, seminars or human connections. Considering working in associated areas to celebrity PR like Luxury PR. In the next month
– attending seminars, film festivals, red carpet areas, networking events
– contacting recruiters to have more than one workng for you
– hitting associated areas like Luxury PR.
– continuing with your same proactive energy knowing it isn’t personal.
– keep being varied as possible
– knowing you have interviews which means you are doing something positive, and follow up for feedback on what is working and can be improved.
– if you receive any interviews be in contact for further support
In a few months
– if no success come back and we can reassess strategy.
Graduate Understanding: Lean into when the upward projection happens.
Questioning the interviewee about culture to gauge the company’s values and how they are recruiting people.
Attend CSM Alumni networking events advertised online (2 x month letter)

Summary: You establish an excellent clarity of allocated time, and what is possible, make clear what information has been provided by both yourself and the student and gain further background information to establish an understanding of character in a short period of time. This initial interaction seems crucial for advising on successful outcomes. Shifting the meeting from conversation/advice towards an “action plan” had more clarity than the previous meeting by announcing it – “OK so in terms of an Action Plan”. An understanding can be strengthened further by asking the alumni based on the advice given what they think the next steps are, and the “action plan” could be written in the chat for both to see while acting as a record of suggested outcomes from the meeting. This might allow you to look over what you have suggested to give you a moment to consider anything you would like to add. The follow-up could include booking an appointment that could be cancelled at a later date.

PART THREE (Observee to reflect on the observer’s comments and describe how they will act on the feedback exchanged)

Thank you for your detailed feedback. It’s useful to gain an understanding of how someone outside of the careers team views these one to ones.

How I will act on feedback (Action Plan)

  • The first appointment was with a second-year student, who booked on to the session by mistake. As the service is primarily for graduates (and students in their final term) when this happens, I will continue with the session, but just take a more relaxed approach to how the session is structured. However, I think your points about still ensuring they complete an action plan will be good practice going forward. As although they likely won’t use the service for a while it may help to begin to set the tone of what the expectation will be when they get to graduate level. It is a simple enough tool for them to get to grips with and implement during the session and hopefully after too.
  • To mirror my strengths on clarifying at the beginning I want to adopt the approach I observed you taking with your students. Around 10 minutes into the tutorials I noticed you often asked them what their intended actions were. I will adapt this slightly, as I need a little longer to introduce myself, the structure of the session and gain context about them, so I think I will aim for around the 12-15 minute mark. I will try doing this, with the hopes that it will allow them to begin taking ownership of the outcome of the meeting and help shift anyone who is being passive to a more active role in the outcome of the session.

Note Taking

  • Another point I intend to adopt is your way of drawing attention to when they haven’t taken notes. If for some reason a student or grad is unable to access or edit the Action Plan that has been sent to them ahead of time, I think gently asking them what notes they have taken or if they want to note this part down will help make sure they have their own record of next steps.
  • I also like the idea of asking them to write their action plan in the chat. I’ll likely incorporate it into my intro, so they are aware that that will be the expectation at the end of the session. It will also be useful as a backup in case there are any technical issues with them accessing the Action Plan sent over. This will mean that they can still fully participate in the written portion of the one-to-one.



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Observation Report 1.

Session/artefact to be observed/reviewed: 1-2-1 Tutorials.
Size of student group: 3 out of 68
Observer: Jazmin
Observee: Michelle

PART ONE (Observee to complete in brief and send to observer prior to the observation or review)

What is the context of this session/artefact within the curriculum?
Tutorials relating to Part 3. Personal Project Proposal (PPP) and development and “Up & Running” project. 3 students prioritised owing to outstanding PPP information (relating to Section 2 concept development and title)

How long have you been working with this group and in what capacity?
Since Part 2 Oct/Nov 2023 (specialist) and some beforehand in Sept 2023 (diagnostic)
as an Associate Lecturer 2 days pw.

What are the intended or expected learning outcomes?
Learning outcome(s): 
 In this lesson all learners will: 

  • Make site visit to Kings Cross Roof Terrance to view space for Up and Running’s Thursday “Happening”  (AM)
  • Introduce the territory their PPP explores to small peer groups 
  • Introduce initial source material (archival, digital, physical, or sensory) that they will engage with for first ‘doing’ actions 
  • Produce an action plan for this week 
  • Begin creative actions in relation to their PPP 
  • Use reflection (PPP) to review experimental work produced 

    In this lesson some learners will: 
  • Engage in high level discussion with their peers and tutor in relation to their own ideas, creative ambitions  

What are the anticipated outputs (anything students will make/do)?
First making actions towards Up & Running
Consider what is challenging / interesting about responding to the KX terrace
Finalise PPP

Are there potential difficulties or specific areas of concern?
Some students have not completed PPP

How will students be informed of the observation/review?
By word at introduction of session

What would you particularly like feedback on?
How to improve student engagement

How will feedback be exchanged?
By email

PART TWO (Observer to note down observations, suggestions and questions)

Context: observed one-to-ones
One-to-ones take place in a classroom environment – doesn’t allow for complete privacy but overall students are respectful and allow for the students to have the time undisturbed.

First student
Immediately complemented the student – this made the atmosphere relaxed and warm. As they may have been a little uncomfortable with me observing. Checked if Workflow entries were in correct setting to avoid issues. Wellbeing- remembered details about student e.g. sickness as a reason for gaps in entries. Checked what exhibition the student had been to lately, as there wasn’t a recent record of one on their Workflow. The student stated they had been to one recently, but they hadn’t enjoyed it. You made it a point to still encourage them to include it, stating that it is sometimes easier to write about what they don’t like. Gave them room to explain their plan of action, didn’t interrupt even when there was a gap. This allowed the student space to form their ideas and articulate their thoughts. You then asked for clarification after: E.g., when student described something as ‘minimalist’ you asked in what way ’shape or colour?’In the middle of the session, you very clearly shifted the focus to next steps. Asking the student what they were going to do. The initial answer lacked a timeframe, so you casually asked them if it would be done on Tuesday or Thursday, to make use of staff and space. You then asked to view their action plan. Where you gave them more concrete actions that they could achieve that afternoon. Looked at own check list to be sure you didn’t forget anything you wanted to cover. Conversation naturally flowed, so student ended up developing a new idea for their performance piece. Also introduced a new concept ‘Relational Aesthetic’ so the student had a new area to research. Wrapped up by re-checking they knew what their priorities were for the afternoon. Double checked if they had a title. When student stated they considered not having one. You didn’t challenge them, but instead suggested one that would work well with their project.

Second student
Student started off by saying they had no idea what was going on with their PPP, you both laughed, which made the atmosphere easy going. Student didn’t have their laptop. You asked rhetorically, why didn’t they have it, but made sure to accommodate them by getting yours so you could still view their work on Workflow. Made sure to compliment their Workflow and them choosing a title. Guided them to rework their title due to its connotations. Acknowledged the student was feeling a little lost so kept encouraging them to take notes as they didn’t naturally do so. You stated that having things written down can ground them and help them feel as though they are making decisions. When explaining a new concept you checked in that they understood. They said yes. However, I can’t be sure, but you seemed to pick up on something from the student’s demeanour that made you explain it further and in a slightly different way. Prompted them to take notes throughout to ensure they didn’t forget anything. Began to discuss timelines of when what was discussed could be achieved, student was unsure, so you helped them narrow it down. The student had an idea for their project come to them that they were reluctant to share. You were firm but playful to encourage them to share it. Once they described it, you told them to go to the shop that afternoon in order to get all the necessary materials. Brought up another student that had a different working style, to let them know that not everyone needs to work in the same way. By the end of the tutorial student didn’t need to be prompted to take notes. Concluded by re-establishing expectations for the rest of the afternoon. Used humour, checked if they felt better and if they knew what they were doing.

Third student
Checked their knowledge of Workflow, as there was something that needed to be reformatted. Asked them to ensure they were uploading their work in the correct format. When student wasn’t taking notes gave gentle prompt by touching their laptop. When reviewing their work made the distinction between a truth and your truth. Explained it by using real life examples which was nice to see, as it made it very clear. Framed the students work differently – challenged them to see if they can prove themselves right or wrong. When you noticed an absence of imagery in their work and the student stated they hadn’t been to any exhibitions recently you googled some together. You then incorporated this into their Action Plan, asking them to list going to an exhibition as an action. They still weren’t taking notes, so you directly said they should be writing this down. The student said it was all in their head, so you didn’t push it further. You did get them to recap the actions to conclude though, by way of affirming what was agreed.

Conclusions, questions and suggestions
I really enjoyed observing your tutorials and the way you interacted with your students. You’ve got a great relationship with each of them and it was lovely to see the respectful and good natured way you guided them.

A few things I noticed worked really well were:
You’re great at giving them ideas on what they can achieve that afternoon! So, they don’t get a chance to get stuck in the planning stage. If students didn’t naturally take notes you made sure to tell them to do so. You tied things back to earlier learning. A couple of times you referred to Part 2, so students can see how everything relates. Maintained great eye contact. Good at meeting the students where they are and checked in with them regularly. Asked clarifying questions. Loved the Padlet that allowed students to get an oversight of free exhibitions on at the moment.

A couple of suggestions/ questions to improve engagement:
This may already have been said, but perhaps tell all students how to prepare for a one-to-one- Take notes, have laptop, show action plan etc. Are students aware of what you will be checking for during this tutorial? Perhaps if they’re not put the checklist on the board, so they know what the expectation is? Perhaps ask each student if there is anything in particular, they want you to check for them? Noticed you went into some of the student’s space and with others you found somewhere neutral in the classroom, was this intentional? Or just due to practicality?Could it be easier if you were to find a space in the classroom and have them come to you? Slightly away from their friends so they’re not overheard, but so it also allows you to have a base. Perhaps there could be a short buffer time between one-to-ones worked in so other students don’t need to interrupt a one to one of their classmates, if they need assistance?

PART THREE (Observee to reflect on the observer’s comments and describe how they will act on the feedback exchanged)

Thanks for your considered feedback. Having insight on how 1-2-1 tutorials are viewed by someone outside a teaching framework and from a Careers perspective is useful.

How I will act on feedback (Action Plan)

  • The diversity of the 3 students observed out of 68 in the room required flexible teaching to approach the focused tutorials (PPP and Up & Running). As the expectations for the tutorial were to support idea development of first making actions, the “checklist” I referred to in the tutorial with Student 1 relates to where the student’s thinking might be evidenced, rather than something the student is expected to provide. However, I would like to adopt your way of introducing tutorial expectations as despite it being Week 25 and tutorials occurring every week, alongside Moodle notifications of expectations and daily whiteboard written expectations, students regularly forget their laptops and sketchbooks. As their PPP initiates their final project that is graded in Week 30 and the Up & Running KX event is an ungraded “one-off” activity that week, the importance of the 2 focus areas differs. If this combination happens again, I will begin the tutorial by clarifying the first 5-7 minutes will be dedicated to finalising their PPP’s on Workflow and the last 5-7 minutes will focus on their Up & Running ideas. To bookend the tutorial I will consistently incorporate reaffirming their action plan at the conclusion, and ask if there is anything they would like checked. If their enquiry cannot be accommodated within the timeframe I will arrange a follow-up tutorial with another tutor in the end-of-day handover email.

  •  It is helpful knowing the space/time needs are identifiable even if I’m unable to actively respond to the issue owing to logistics beyond my remit as an AL. As you witnessed painting students require more physical space than most students, which is a challenge in a culture leaning towards “hot-desking”. 70-80 students are designated to one room per year. The contextual studio culture of the course (Fine Art Painting) means student 1-2-1 tutorials occur within the student’s dedicated studio space to enable the student to discuss direct relationships between their practical work (walls and table) and Workflow. If a student indicates a need for privacy or there is prior knowledge of anticipated sensitivity, I move the tutorial to the desk area designated for the 2 teachers, or outside. These areas are negotiated in flux with the 2nd teacher according to student necessity.

  •  The student-teacher ratio determines tutorial timing. Ideally, 2-3 mins would exist between tutorials. The student volume necessitates aiming towards a minimum of 8/10 students a day within a 5-hour contact period and on this occasion, the number of tutorials per day remained (owing to the PPP deadline) and the buffer was adjusted responsively to accommodate the one-off KX site visit (for Up & Running) in the morning.

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