Critical Reflection and Artefact

In paper I aim to offer a critical reflection on my teaching praxis and how transformative my experience in education has been. From the time I was a student of Philosophy and Fine Art, to the time I began my journey in education as an SEN learning assistant and care support worker, up until this point in time where I am studying on this PgCert and coming to an understanding on how I approach teaching from a critically engaged perspective. 

As a muslim woman, the first to complete a university degree in my immediate family, as a critical thinker, as a working class woman, as a woman who is ‘raced’ by society. As a woman who moves through the world, who has been conditioned to take up less space and placate whiteness as the universal standard. In all of the curriculum that I was taught, any sense of who I am was not reflected. I resorted to a form of Self-configuration as a child of immigrants who’s people were formally colonised by Britain. I am in constant reflection of the ‘unfinished conversation’ that is identity. As a researcher, I am also aware of my positionality. How I operate in this world is a political matter. In my life experience, I have seen how ignorance is perpetuated through the guise of (un)conscious bias. How it has been used by white gatekeepers to explain away racism and refrain from engaging in uncomfortable conversations around race maintaining the pale, male and stale status quo in the university environment. 

The personal is political and it is important to account for the ways in which I have encountered racism to demonstrate a real life example of how it manifests and how it should be challenged. A critical incident took place during group tutorial in a virtual room of white students. Before starting the class, I informally mentioned to the group that it is a ‘safe space’, where everyone’s opinions and thoughts should be respected and taken into consideration, where the learning happens in dialogue and through the exchange of ideas and discussion. The tutorial got off to a good start, each student was given an equal amount of time to share their work and time for their peers as well as myself to offer critical feedback. There was a point in the session where the conversation steered off topic and I attempted to bring it back to the student’s work but I kept getting cut off and spoken over by the white students.

To be in a position of tutorship, as a working class brown woman, in a room of middle-class white students and to have my voice negated and overlooked, felt disempowering. I realised that I could have advocated for myself by stating that it was uncalled for to speak over me instead of being passive. I realised in that moment, how a racist society has programmed me to shrink myself and placate whiteness. That I must take on a more active role to speak up and advocate against white supremacy wherever I see it manifest. Upon reflection, I believe that drawing out a clear netiquette and code of conduct at the beginning of each session would set up parameters for students on how to conduct themselves in the space. This could have potentially been avoided if I had mentioned that there would be consequences if this was breached. How else can I resist against systems of domination in my approach to teaching?

The inclusive teaching and learning unit and its focus on Critical Race Theory has been empowering for me, it has shown me how necessary it is for there to be a realignment of power in institutions founded on exclusivity and privilege. To be in a position where I claim my space in the classroom and take ownership of who I am and what I have to offer and share with my students is something that I am getting better at doing, and will only improve with more experience and practice as the years go by. 

I make it a priority to embody and harness practices of care in the classroom. Practicing a language of care, open ended questions and empathetic listening strategy. A learning space can also be a space of respite, healing and emancipation from the ever pervasive system of “white supremacist capitalist patriarchy.” In a climate where there is a grave uncertainty about the future of the earth and where we are going as a humanity, it is all the more important to embody a ‘love ethic’ In teaching.

I am interested in introspection and shared reflection as a healing/learning technique. From this sentiment I designed a session named “The Orb” where students and I began with a word association game. We went around the rotation four times. Everyone was instructed to form a sentence out of the words that they mentioned. Somehow, poetry emerged. Everyone was asked to actively participate by reading their poems out loud. Then each person was asked to read another person’s words two times over. By reading each other’s words and amplifying one another’s voices, the words of a peer became more familiar, felt and embodied through the repeated recitation. This exchange goes back to Frerian sentiment; 

“It is not our role to speak to the people about our own view of the world, nor to attempt to impose that view on them, we must realise that their view of the world, manifested variously in their action, reflects their situation in the world.” 

Here, Freire accounts for intersectionality and takes into consideration that people’s lived experience of reality aids in their understanding inside and outside the classroom. That students come to the learning environment not as empty vessels to be filled with information, but with a myriad of ideas to exchange. ‘The Orb’ highlights how students built on their own understanding and lived experience by providing words and sentences of their own accord. The session involved Co-construction amongst myself and my students. I received positive, affirming feedback from one of the students;

“I enjoyed this session. That is important. I’m a fan of free association…I find it frees up rigidity, but also sparks new connections. I think, also like free association, despite the surface absurdity each of us uses it to express direct things, which happened when you prompted making sentences of our words. The initial mindfulness focus also felt good to me, partly to set a tone and atmosphere that is different, partly for calm. Generally it felt peaceful and a ‘safe’ environment. poetry emerged. gently. The second reading out of another’s words felt important, like it solidified the words and sentences, committed to them. As far as ‘learning’, i’m not sure yet, but i don’t expect learning to happen instantly anyway. Well done Alaa.” 

Learning is a lifetime’s work. So the last point made about it not happening instantly, resonates. I think that the process of things coming together through chance and spontaneity makes the class more engaging and surprising. It enables students to collaborate together in real time and feel like they’re a part of something without being goal oriented. Toni Morrison advocates for a sustainable approach to learning; “Perhaps we should stand one remove from timeliness and and join the artist who encourages reflection, stokes the imagination, mindful of the long haul… to do the work of a world worthy of life” This contextualises teaching as transformative vocation which requires patience and looking at the bigger picture, that learning is not contingent on immediacy. 

Moving forward, I am interested in looking at slow praxis as a sustainable approach to inclusive teaching and learning. I take heed from the omission of black scholarship, how it perpetuates and maintains a colonial culture where obedience, compliance and conformity are celebrated and rewarded. Omission involves erasure, an erasure of a multitude of knowledges, i.e embodied knowledge. The body knows, the body senses. I’m interested in exploring somatic teaching praxis further in the SIP

Bibliography 

Akomfrah, J, 2012. The Unfinished Conversation, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/akomfrah-the-unfinished-conversation-t14105

Crenshaw, K, 1989. Demarginalising  the Intersection of Race and Sex: A Black Feminist Critique of Antidiscrimination Doctrine, Feminist Theory and Antiracist Politics, University of Chicago Legal Forum: Issue 1, Article 8.

Hooks, B, 1994. Teaching to Transgress, Routledge.

Hooks, B, 1952. Ain’t I a Woman : Black Women and Feminism. New York :Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, 2015.

Morrison, T, 2019. The source of self-regard. Random House.

Tate, S.A, 2018 Whiteliness and institutional racism: Hiding behind unconscious bias.

Race

Witness Unconscious Bias: Josephine Kwahili

  • Kwahili speaks about her experience as a black academic and her opinions around unconscious bias. She disagrees that racism is unconscious. What will it take for the unconscious to become conscious?
  • This brings into question the countless efforts made by black academics to educate institutions about racism. The emotional labour involved as well as the time spent in such institutions proves a further point to me, which is; the onus is not on black academics to prove that racism exists within institutions, it is the institution’s responsibility to combat the culture of indifference and silence around pressing issues around race and how the disparities manifest within the metrics of the institutions themselves (see awarding gap).
  • Kwahili remarks, “I’m not prepared to give that get out of jail card.” This relates to Shirley Anne Tate’s observations that the word (un)conscious supposes unawareness and is often used as an excuse by white people to explain away their racism rather than take responsibility and steps towards adopting an anti racist perspective. 
  • “What else do we have to do or say or write and talk about and present on in order for supposedly intelligent people who are educating the next generation of… people, who are spearheading supposedly ground breaking research, to get any consciousness?” For me, this question highlights the absurdity of explaining away racism as unconscious. The fact of the matter is that academics work in the field of research and gathering relevant knowledge to influence the next generation of thinkers so how can they be so ignorant? This brings in the perspective that ignorance is wilful in an age where so much information is at our fingertips, there is simply no excuse for it.

‘Retention and attainment in the disciplines: Art and Design’ Finnigan and Richards “(2016)

  • Discuss two things you learnt from the text and one question/ provocation you have about the text.
  • I learnt that The Group for the Equality of Minority Staff (GEMS) was set up to create space for staff of colour to connect and to support one another in predominantly white institutions. Their aims are to “…support the viability and strategic development of both staff and students of colour.” 
  • I learnt that we must continue an effort for staff members to implement inclusive practices into their teaching. These reforms to need to take shape and be included within the curriculum and in pedagogy at university level.
  • Since the publication of this report, how has the university taken tangible steps to implement the findings of this research? 

A Pedagogy of social justice education: social identity theory and intersectionality. Hahn Tapper (2013)

I learnt that Hahn Tapper’s research into Social Identity Theory and intergroup encounters aimed to unpack the dynamics between what causes conflict between groups and what variables are at play when it comes to how people identify themselves to a larger group identity. 

They unpack Allport’s Contact Hypothesis which is that “individuals identifying with particular groups in conflict interact with one another in a positively structured environment, they have an opportunity to reevaluate their relations with one another” (pp.415) This points towards the reasons why people might aversions towards others are rooted in negative stereotypes. Hahn talks about the (Amir 1969) criticisms of Allport’s Contact hypothesis which found that “relations between groups can actually worsen as a result of contact.” (Pp.416)

Social Identity theory is an alternative to explain how people identify and interact within society. “SIT maintains that human beings are social by virtue of their relation- ships with one another, an existence embedded within a vast web of net- works that are constructed based on identity-based associations. Everyone, to one degree or another, is a member of a multitude of social groups that are shaped in relation to ethnicity, gender, nationality, religion, socioeconomic class, and other categories.” (Pp.418)

Resource I Don’t Want to be a Boring Academic, Nor a Boring Artist. -Anonymous 

https://shadesofnoir.org.uk/i-dont-want-to-be-a-boring-academic-nor-a-boring-artist/

The title of this think piece caught my attention because this is a sentiment I share as well. As an artist and as an educator, there is a danger of becoming complacent within the comfort of an institution. Personally, I am and always want to be in and amongst the world, I do not want to slip into a state of vacuousness and insularity which can be the case if you seclude yourself from the world. Or if you only sit with like minded people. I mean, where will the challenges come from? If everyone is agreeable and has a similar taste. It links back to elitism and the institution. What conditions necessitate growth? 

In the article the anonymous writer states: 

“I don’t want to be a boring artist who is proud of perplexing their viewers and who despite everyday experiences, awes and intuitions… I don’t want to partake in proliferating dull pieces of art in art-critic elaborations.”

Art institutions can be a circle jerk of ego stroking, white dominated discussions. I don’t want to be absorbed into this cold culture of stiff upper lipped-ness and “good taste” Instead I want to add some sauce, some seasoning, some flavour to the pale, male and stale environments we make art within. London is a myriad of cultures converging. Why can’t the arts encompass and embody this? 

I resonate with this thought: “ I guess questioning the formalism and foundation of ‘what art is’ is worthy of being documented in human HIStory. But God, am I bored.” Art institutions have a way of excluding an array of people. Not only frequenting the spaces but also it has a way of canonising white artists and heralding them as the pioneers of innovation and creative experts. The emphasis on HIStory is a comment on the white male canon which is often prescribed as the ideal. There needs to be a shift in the way arts education is disseminated. There needs to be a remedy to this.

Faith

Reflections on Religion, Belief and Faith Identities in Learning and Teaching at UAL

When exploring the resources around religion, belief and faith identities in learning and teaching, I came across an array of resources which aim to foster space in the learning environment where students can talk about their beliefs without shame. 

As a Muslim woman, my faith plays a part in the way I see humanity. To see humanity as a unified body helps me connect with people. My faith also teaches me to coexist with people who do not have the same beliefs. In the Qur’an there is a verse which states “You follow your religion and I follow mine” for me this verse highlights the importance of feeling affirmed in your values and beliefs but also being aware of the fact that not everyone shares your worldview. The learning space is a place of exchange and dialogue where students should be encouraged to share and challenge each other’s perspectives, respectfully and compassionately. 

I am interested in the occult and ritual as a means of healing. When students talk about their faiths/ beliefs, I employ an empathetic listening strategy to hear them out firstly and reflect what they’ve said to me in my own words. I like to find points of connection where the foundational elements of faith intersect as well as acknowledging the differences. 

A resource that really spoke to me is the Race, Religion and free speech conference and the point made around Religious Literacy.

http://shadesofnoir.org.uk/race-religion-and-the-influence-of-media/

Firstly, framing faith alongside the intersections of race ensures that both are not seen as mutually exclusive and that both feed into a person’s positionality in society. When tabloids spew the narrative that brown skin equates to terrorism and the British government specifically targets muslims with the Prevent Programme, it breeds a sense of distrust between students and the institution. In my positionality as an educator of Arab linage with Islam in my spirit, I aim to dismantle this skewed narrative by leading by example. 

Reflections on Religion in Britain: Challenges for Higher Education By Tariq Modood and Craig Calhoun

The Public Sphere (Religious literacy)

Modood and mentions the need for Religious literacy in Higher Education to accommodate the increasing demographic of students who have non western faith backgrounds. He draws the link between a decline in public religion in Britain and how key decision makers have little to no foundational understanding of the importance religion may have in a person’s life. I think this an important term to embody because faith functions not just as a private belief but as a way of living life for many people. Modood goes on to highlight that religion can shape the structures of family and social life, that it is gives people a sense of community and solidarity with groups in other parts of the world. (Pp.12) The way religion manifests in people’s lives plays out in how they live in public and in private so it needs to be accounted for somehow in the educational realm.  

Religion and Dissent in Universities

Calhoun begins this chapter by stating that free speech is being threatened and that this is concerning. Gag orders against religious speakers, specifically muslim thinkers, in the university setting are becoming commonplace due to being labelled as extremists by people who don’t share the same worldview. The importance of free speech is rooted in article 19 of the human rights declaration under the inalienable right of freedom of expression where “This right shall include freedom to hold opinions and to receive and impart information and ideas without interference by public authority and regardless of frontiers.” (Equality and Human Rights Commission) The fact that universities are banning these speakers is a ‘betrayal to the commitments of free speech’ (pp.16). The muslim community is been marginalised and labelled as extremist which is a denial of free speech while benefactors to universities and lobbyists with monetary power can set the terms of who gets to speak and who doesn’t. This is how cronyism and censorship go hand in hand. 

Reflection on Kwame Anthony Appiah

This lecture was refreshing and very informative. Appiah uses personal narrative as a way of highlighting his positions around religion. I found the distinction between orthodoxy (latin for correct belief) and orthopraxy (latin for correct action) compelling. He made a poignant point that often times we view religion as a set of beliefs held by and individual but that in actuality religion takes a more tangible form and is held by dietary, hygienic practices, rituals, public and private and forms of dress. The case and point here is that there are outward signifiers and indicators of faith which have a standing in the way people choose to lead their lives.

Reflection on SoN Faith Case Study

Aalimah’s Tutor did not possess religious literacy and alienated her from her peers by allowing students to pose questions around the nature of extremism. The burden on Aalimah to be a spokesperson for a her community is one that involves a lot of emotional labour and extraction. It was not Aalimah’s responsibility to educate her peers about terrorism. It was the responsibility of the tutor to accommodate Aalima’s beliefs into a fair discussion. In disclosing his atheism he did not leave space for a difference of opinion or faith. The power dynamic between Tutor and student should be taken into consideration here. Because her tutor shut down and negated the idea of a personal God from the onset, Aalima was left on the the margins in the classroom and was the target of a barrage of islamophobic comments and questions. This was incited by the tutors lack of balanced judgment. 

Disability

Having a teaching practice which is rooted in working with children with SEN over the past three years has given me the opportunity to broaden my perspective on different ways of teaching. It has enabled me to become a more patient and empathetic person overall. Moreover, it has shown me that in order to reach my students and aid in their growth, understanding and development, I need to do the work keep myself informed of their needs and requirements.  

When watching the clip about Christine Sun Kim’s art, I felt very moved when she stated, “I want to explore sound without a mediated interpretation of what sound is. I want to find its meaning through my experience.” There are issues that need to be addressed concerning how information is prescribed by the preexisting curriculum and how it is mediated through the educator to the student. I am asking the question; How I can help empower my students and give them space to generate meaning from their own experiences? Christine’s praxis is about reclaiming and embodying sound through experimentation with different materials that react to the movement of the vibrations. Where sound is translated into movement, shape and colour. There is ‘felt’ quality to her art. It made me think about how teaching can be very prescriptive/ directive when it could be explorative/ reflective. I want to adopt somatic learning approaches into the way I teach. 

Somatic derives from the greek word Somakitos which translates to “of the body” hence somatic learning involves the whole body as an intelligent vessel and engages all the senses in the learning process as opposed to models that are fixated on the mind as the penultimate decoder of knowledge. The framework for somatic learning begins with attentive focus from present participants. A physical sensation is stimulated which evokes an emotion, bringing together the mind and body. There is a chance for deep empathic listening and discernment then words follow to describe the learning experience. 

(https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Framework-for-Somatic-Learning-through-Mindfulness-Mediation_fig1_320063454) 

If a student disclosed their disability status to me it would be a duty to refer them to UAL’s Disability Service where they will be better supported throughout their course. Even before any disclosure, it is best to share the knowledge that there is a specialised team of UAL staff (i.e Disability Advisors) that are solely there to support the needs of disabled students. Sharing this resource would mean that students with disabilities have the means to identify the barriers to their education and action forth adjustments and support needed to remove said barriers. They could also be eligible to receive funding as well as identify the necessary equipment/ assistive software to better support them during their time of study. Being transparent about the avenues of help and support is integral to me because it leads back to a fundamental guiding principal to the way I operate as an educator, namely that there is a duty of care towards the people I work with and teach. 

https://www.arts.ac.uk/students/student-services/disability-and-dyslexia/disability-and-dyslexia-what-to-expect

While reading Disabled People: The voice of Many, I picked up on the ethos of The New Radical Model 

“If the disability movement doesn’t recognise and prioritise the experience of disabled people of colour, working class, refugees and asylum seekers and so on, then it is not truly a movement concerned with justice. Justice for all groups, therefore, is bound up in the same struggle.” https://issuu.com/shadesofnoir/docs/disabled_people (pp. 14-15)

This statement considers the intersections of a person’s identity. To be an advocate for the disabled is to take into consideration all of the nuances and multitudes that inform a persons idea of selfhood and not see them as mutually exclusive. This form of activism is embodied by the creator of the DisabilityTooWhite hashtag, Villissa Thompson who called out the whitewashing of disability. Who saw a lack of representation of disabled people of colour in media and decided to elevate marginalised voices by speaking out against it. By bringing awareness to an ableist society which does not account for people of colour in its narrative of history, she is advocating for critical reforms in attitudes which serve to disempower and erase.

Reflections on the Microteaching Sessions

B’s Micro-teaching session utilised the chat function. Our group was asked to imagine a room and describe it. He prompted us to think about particular elements in the room such as a cube, a horse, a ladder and even a storm. Each of us were given a minute or so to describe each element in our imagined rooms. We shared at the same time.

While typing out my answers to the questions, I found myself in a very imaginative and introspective state of mind. The task asked of the imagination which is a place I personally like to live inside of and entertain a respite from reality helps with coming to terms with it. The task brought pleasant feelings and I really enjoyed it. After sharing each of our imagined rooms, Babak mentioned that each of the prompts symbolised different things.

The meanings of these symbols are as follows: The room is your lifeworld; the cube is your ego; the flowers are your friends; the ladder is your ambition; the horse is your lover and the storm question is how you respond to a crisis. 

Unpacking the symbols revealed alot of meaning and helped me recognise some personal truths. The process and its revelatory nature helped me reimagine reality and instilled hope in my spirit. I want to incorporate more of these methods of introspection and mindfulness within my teaching practice as I think they provide a teachable moment as well as one of healing. I liked the silence of the task and how the prompts in the chat forced us to think on or feet and engaged us in real time. The task could be improved if we had time to share and talk about each of our rooms in more depth extracting and exchanging more meaning.

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Reflection on My session: I began the session by asking the group to focus on one point on the screen for a minute. We played a game of word association using the chat starting with the word ‘Orb’. The game went on for four cycles. After the game ended, I asked each group member to make a sentence for each of the words they specifically mentioned and to post in the chat at the same time. Then I instructed each member of the group to read another specific member of the group’s words in a particular order. This happened two times. The second reading was done with an image of refracted light in the sky.

Feedback from group members:

“Easy to follow along, words association, first thing comes to mind, then the words once read back are unrecognisable in the voice of another for me, took me a while to be jolted that those were my words!”

“The use of the image to focus on made me search for an “answer” that may not have been there which informed my approach subliminally to my responses.”

“I enjoyed this session, that is important. I’m a fan of free association anyway, but I find it frees up rigidity, but also sparks new connections. I think, also like free association, despite the surface absurdity each of us uses it to express direct things, which happened when you prompted making sentences of our words. The initial mindfulness focus also felt good to me, partly to set a tone and atmosphere that is different, partly for calm. Generally it felt peaceful and a ‘safe’ environment. Poetry emerged. Gently. The second reading out of another’s words felt important, like it solidified the words and sentences, committed to them. As far as ‘learning’, I’m not sure yet, but I don’t expect learning to happen instantly anyway.”

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U asked us to look for items around our household and instructed us to take 2-3 objects randomly from our desks. The objects became characters and the desk became the background. We were then instructed to take 4 photographs to document 4 moments in the story which was prescribed as follows:

  1. presentation
  2. development of story
  3. something happens
  4. conclusion

The task allowed me to utilise whatever I as my disposal and offered a new way of indulging the creative imagination. It was simple and direct in its instruction and delivery which helps take the pressure of students. I think this is important because the pandemic has meant that many students are working from home with limited resources and an increase in mental health struggles so it’s up to educators to encourage and engage students in the online class environment.

I think there was too much time given to the making part and not enough time given to sharing and discussing our stories with one another. Moving forward, it would better is more time was given at the end to share.

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I.I’s session involved the group in a realtime drawing tutorial. We began with a loose grip warm up. We were asked to draw an object in it most simplest form using the loose grip technique. All the tasks were set out step by step in real time as I.I went along. We were then asked to redraw it with one change. I.I’s iterations were “keep it simple” and “it shouldn’t take much time to do” and “we’re not being very precious” which I found quite comforting and reassuring while taking part. These prompts took away the anxieties around wanting to get it right and immersed my in the active process of drawing. Automatic drawing. The drawing felt less cerebral and more embodied which was a tactile way of sharing space.

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D’s session was centred around the psychological phenomenon of Paredolia. Which is when people see faces in objects around them. We were shown a series of pictures of inanimate objects (such as a door, buildings, postbox) attached to the whiteboard functions and asked to write down the emotions we associate with what we see. After this task we were then asked to take photos of examples of facial compositions in our surroundings and then share them on a the file section on bb. D asked us “What are the minimum gestures that communicate the idea of a face?” and to draw this out quickly.

I enjoyed content of the session and how it was centred around a phenomenon that is shared amongst many people. It felt sublime and gave insight into what is noticed and how learning can happen in the mind on a neurological bass level.

Overall the micro teaching experience, both delivering and partaking, was a great learning experience. It was interesting how, given the time, technological and social constraints, all members of the group responded to the tasks. It showed me that alot of quality learning can happen in a short amount of time depending on what tasks are designed. The use of interactivity and play in each task was really engaging. I felt that there were similarities between my approach and B’s approach when it comes to mindfulness and reflexivity.

Feedback and Feed Forward

  • Enquiry : How you explore, ask questions and research the subject matter.
  • Knowledge: How you gather relevant information pertaining to your area of interest and relate it to a wider context.
  • Process: risk taking, experimentation, demonstrating how you have developed your idea through making process from start to finish.
  • Communication: telling the story of your learning by talking about/ explaining your work to others
  • Realisation: looking at the work you create and how it embodies what you have learnt throughout the process. What the work reveals and speaks on.
  • What do you identify as feedback and feedback forward?
  • Feedback is (constructive, honest, specific, supportive) information given to students to contextualise where they’re at in relation to the learning goals. It helps students reflect on their progress, identify and subsequently fill gaps in understanding.
  • Feedforward looks ahead to how the student might develop on what they have already accomplished and offers them progressive guidance on how to do better moving forward.
  • How is this useful in a teaching setting
  • It is useful because it allows the student a space to reflect on their learning and encourages problem solving and a willingness to improve without becoming complacent. It helps keep the creative momentum going when you receive constructive feedback and unlocks different paths to venture into when it comes to the creative process.
  • Can you provide examples of ways you may use this style of feedback?
  • 3 weeks into a project, the students communicate the crux of their group projects and how they’ve begun to develop on their initial ideas and have started to make samples. After hearing them out i would offer the opportunity for them to feedback to one another on what they think (peer to peer feedback) then I would give them feedback on how they could possibly further develop and refine their process. The feedback would not be instructive in nature but would point towards reflection.
  • Have you looked into so and so’s work, they deal with similar themes?
  • Moving forward, what do you think you could improve on?
  • What worked in the process, what didn’t work?
  • How can you refine and rework what you have researched/ made?

Seminar on Feedback and lack thereof.

Performitivity: we arent just talking about what we are saying we are thinking about the actual words spoken, the tone of delivery.

Eventedness: Creating an event by personal adding touches.

Who gets to embody the institution?

Do institutional demands mitigate against open reflection?

Max was opinionated in his views and lacked balance. He was openly critical of other people’s views.This attitude has the potential to undermine the evidential research driven approach prioritised in a university setting.

Does Max position himself deliberately outside/inside in order to be political?

Is charisma gendered? Would a woman communicate in the way Max does? If she did would she be seen in the same light?

S. is a well regarded academic, her ego demands respect to her own methods, how could she manage this?

Her approach is disparaged by the students due to the way the materials are presented, what could she do about this?

Are these two different ways of being an ego driven teacher?

Stephanie is dismissive of the small number of students who claim not to understand the assessment process, what could she do?

How to balance student-centered learning against teachers centering themselves in the learning?

Does neutrality exist? (Empirical evidence finding also constitutes a discourse) Implicit bias, positionality statements in research, Race and Class.

Do the feedback tools available influence what it is possible to say?

Stephanie embodies the institution via conferences, academic papers – she operates within that field of research work and this is where she feels valued, her self interests. Her teaching isn’t actually what she sees as a priority. She values the affirmation of the institution provides her as her position, knowledge, and accolades. She is not investing in the dramatic friendship the same way as Max.

Do the ways in which Stephanie embodies the institution serve her? She is not getting the respect she perhaps thinks she should get. Her positionality determines where her age and gender are not rewarded the same way by the institution, as Max might be able to use his positionality to confront the institution or gov policy.

Stephanie’s approach might be collapsing into sectarian self interest (Paulo Friere)?

Play and Measurement

We looked at the different ways that learning is measured.

The metrics of what it is that we are looking for when assessing and feedback

When we are measuring, there will always be things that we focus on and things that will inevitably miss out.

Broad criteria of assessment invites nuances and different things to pick up on from various courses and course leaders.

All About Love & The Ethics of Care

Things to consider:

  • How do the sources relate to each other?
  • How do they relate to your own teaching context?
  • Summarise the content’s take-home points.

Bell Hooks, All about love:

Bell Hooks states that a Love ethic is born out of the scarcity of love in the world. In the context of the world today, where social media and the internet mediate the bulk of communication between people. The context of today, where we are emerging out from a global pandemic, which has seen a rise in loneliness, anomie, and mental health crises on a global scale, it can be argued that love is in short supply, therefore the need for people to embody a love ethic is more crucial now.

Hooks is interested in the metaphysical meaning of love in everyday life. How is it embodied in our daily intentions, interactions with people? What does this look like within the context of a global pandemic?

I think for me in general and my teaching praxis in particular, a love ethic has been a force of transformation. When providing wellness checks before staring a tutorial, I aim to break down the stuffiness of the learning environment (especially within the context of online learning) I aim to create a safe environment where the identities of the students I teach are respected and there is a sensitivity towards difference. Where differences are acknowledged instead of assuming that everyone is coming from the same circumstances.

Cynicism is the great mask of the disappointed and betrayed heart. With the rise in polarity of opinion and politics in our society, a love ethic moves from a space of kindly interrogating what it is I consider to be true and the positionality I embody as a teacher and researcher. A love ethic looks like an openness and willingness to learn from the student as well as facilitating learning.

What are we, the agents of love, up against?

Nihilism, Apathy, anomie, bitterness, indifference, depression, isolation, intimacy without risk (dating apps), humans as expendable/ dispensable resource (social media), symptomatic of capitalism, hyper individualism, insularity, selfishness, laziness, fragmentation.

What does a love ethic look like in the current climate of lovelessness? Willing to move from a place of care as much as wanting to receive it.

What does a love ethic look like in an educational context? Nettiquette: establishing a code of conduct where respect grounds the conversation. Taking time for respite and grounding as an educator. Checking in with students, not putting too much pressure on them to be exceptional but to gently guide them to improve the quality of their research and their work. Making sure that the intersecting needs of the students are prioritised.

I ironically think about love more when witnessing the deaths of friends and loved ones. CONFRONTING own mortality as a motivator to find the meaning of love and its place in life. On an existential level love grounds me in purpose and is something I am constantly trying to harness.

“Profound changes in the way we think and act must take place if we are to create a loving culture.”

What changes need to be made? Changes in policy which take into consideration the multiversal needs of students. Closing the attainment gap between students of colour and their white counterparts. Highlighting racist institutional policies.

How do we create a loving culture, broadly speaking and more specifically within an educational context? Transparency and confidentiality, confronting implicit bias, willingness to lead by example, holding space for others, inclusivity, respect for student’s race, faith, ability status and further intersections.

How is love as a transformative force?

Love as “the will to extend one’s self for the purpose of nurturing one’s own or another’s spiritual growth.” M Scott peck

“Love is as love does. Love is an act of will-namely, both an intention and an action. Will also implies choice. We do not have to love. We choose to love.” M Scott peck

This definition brings in volition, agency, free will, choice, intentional, pro active, embodied, transformative, a doing, put into motion/ in practice.

Laura D’Olimpio, Ethics of Care:

Previous ethical theories purported by white men emphasised morals virtues and justice, i.e Kantian ethics.

Care ethics emphasises connection to others. Where women’s nurturing relationships are taken as a model for care. Care ethics stems from the idea that everyone has a responsibility and obligation to care for others. This in turn helps people meet their basic needs, develop and sustain basic capabilities and alleviate pain and suffering in an attentive, responsive and respectful manner. An ethics of care calls out the presumption of universality of current codes of ethics.

Crits:

X Are values inherently feminine or masculine?

X Feminist ethics are biased towards females, they focus on the social and bilogical differences between men and women rather than on a universal human being.

In order to be ethical we must take the perspective of someone with a different gender, race, nationality, educational background, being open to feedback, be self reflective and critical of our own biases, listening attentively to seek an understanding with students.

Object based Learning TW Workshop

Subject

  • What object-based learning is and how it can be beneficial in Art and design setting?
  • Object based learning is a learning approach that uses objects to facilitate thinking and learning in a way that is multi sensory (sight, touch, smell, sound, taste) 
  • The objects are used to stimulate the learner’s imagination and to help them apply their understanding to other contexts and issues. (Romanek & Lynch)
  • Questions and questioning, spark curiosity and generate dialogue and critical discussion.
  • Constructivism (process of knowledge construction), learning is an active process that takes into consideration the experiences and the mind of the learner. Wealth of experience
  • Bring forth what is already known 
  • Learners must be able to associate their past experiences (personal and poignant) with the material presented
  • It can be beneficial to an art and design setting as learning is usually visual and sensory. 
  • When learning in an art context we are learning about objects from our subjective lenses (richness of personal experience)
  • The dialogue produced from the object as the focal point leads to a spark in ideas (snowball, hive mind, web, brainstorm)
  • Centres a posteriori knowledge (knowledge with experience)
  • We are constantly learning.
  • We take new information, apply it to our past and construct new meaning from it.
  • Informal education, free choice (freedom to ponder) learning encourages independence (think for yourself)
  • Makes more abstract concepts real to the learners.

Questions:

Can we group the types of questions together?

Materials, Historical Implications, Aesthetic Value, Environmental Relevance, Complementary information, Object’s history, Value, Relation to other objects, Social implications, Use.

What is it used for? USE

Where did it come from? HISTORY

How was it made? PRODUCTION

Who put it together? HISTORY

What’s it made of? MATERIAL

How old it it? HISTORY

Thinking around the object, where the learning happens.

Next step, putting the objects in context (framing the bigger picture, subject, theme)

We don’t always have to know the answers. It’s about the discussion and dialogue generated.

How can students relate and bring themselves to the discussion?