Context & positionality

I teach a unit on MA Arts and Cultural Enterprise (CSM) which is delivered largely online (November – February) and paired with Hong Kong University. I typically teach 25 students in Hong Kong as well as the “UK” cohort of between 10 and 20 students. What is described as the UK cohort is actually an international group with around 40% of students based in the UK and the remainder coming from a variety of countries worldwide. My unit includes an intensive 3-day face-to-face teaching weekend at CSM for the UK cohort. Students will travel from their home countries to attend these sessions. Teaching takes place from 4 – 7pm on the Friday, 10 – 6pm on the Saturday and 10 – 4pm on the Sunday so the days are fairly long and intense. I plan to focus on the in-person element for this intervention and to focus on the online learning environment for my Unit 3 intervention. It will be my third time delivering the intensive teaching weekend this year which takes place at the end of November (week 2 of the 12 week unit). 

In terms of positionality, I am a white female in my early 40’s, originally from Northern Ireland and fairly new to teaching. For the past 14 years, I have been running a successful craft market business and creative community so am able to draw on my own practical experience as well as an extensive network of creative professionals in my teaching. I am also an alumni of the course, having graduated in 2020, therefore I also have my own student experience to reflect upon. 

Background to Intervention

Students are tasked with delivering a ten minute presentation to their classmates with an opportunity for questions and feedback at the end. The question they are addressing is:

“Present an outline of your own specific strategy for personal career development, to enable you to use the ideas of this Unit and the course as a whole to support your continuing use of the reflective practitioner concept in your personal and professional future.” MA Arts & Cultural Enterprise, Student Handbook. 

In researching feedback methodology, I discovered how important peer to peer feedback is for effective learning. Nicol et. al (2014) said, “If feedback processes are to enhance learning, we must move beyond a view of feedback as transmission and acknowledge the active role that students must play in such processes.”

In thinking about how the student experience could be improved, I have been reflecting on the diversity of the cohort and how the intersectionality of their various characteristics may impact their learning experience and their willingness to contribute to peer feedback.  Identity characteristics are often discussed by the students in the context of their own interests and their ideas for the end of unit assessment. Race, social class and disability tend to be discussed in the classroom by the students but it is likely that less obvious factors such as faith may also be relevant to individual experiences. One of the challenges I would like to address through my intervention is how to create a sense of community amongst the students when they have limited face to face time together. The other challenge is how to increase engagement in peer to peer feedback. My expectation is that better engagement in the feedback exercise will help to increase connectedness and community amongst students although I recognise that this is just one small part of the wider picture when it comes to creating community for this group. 

Intervention
There are two parts to my proposed intervention. 

Introduce a range of resources in advance: the students are currently briefed verbally on the task at the online session the previous week. They are encouraged to think about their experience with the course, looking at their motivations for applying, their journey so far and future aspirations. Although they have covered reflective practice models (eg. Gibbs, 1988) by this point in the course,  I plan to introduce further reference materials. Providing both verbal and written instructions including video references will help students with varied learning styles. 

The two resources I plan to provide are the Student Voices website (UAL, 2024) featuring recordings of students discussing their experiences.  This could help to inspire students to tell their story from a point of authenticity. This resource features a diverse student body, providing important representation across a range of characteristics. The second resource I will provide is the UAL Teaching Exchange guidelines on reflective writing which contains practical tips on the types of topics they could cover in their presentations (UAL Visual Directions, 2018). By providing several points of reference, my aim is to increase the quality of reflection in the student presentations. 

In terms of the actual presentation, students have the choice of using slides and doing a traditional presentation or presenting in an alternative format. There are usually some students who can’t physically be in the classroom. They often use a tool such as Loom to create a recorded presentation with slides and a voice-over which can be played to the group. Sometimes these students will join the class live via video link but it can be a challenge to engage them fully in the feedback element. 

The second part of the intervention is to introduce a digital feedback mechanism to sit alongside verbal feedback and discussion as a way of encouraging greater participation. At present, feedback is given verbally and often led by me as the tutor with a small number of student questions. In thinking about why this is, I have questioned my lack of experience as a tutor and whether I am keen to fill any silences following a presentation with my own thoughts rather than allowing the silences to exist which may then solicit more feedback from the students – a point of development for me to consider. 

I have observed that it is often the same students posing questions to their peers. Although it is a generalisation, I have also observed that those who speak English as a second language are less inclined to ask questions, presumably due to lack of confidence. By providing a written option and better guidance, I anticipate that international students will feel empowered to participate more fully. The presentations take up most of the day so I am conscious that where students are not actively engaged in the feedback mechanism, it can be a long day for them once they have completed their own presentation. The main reference I will be using for this is Freire (2006) and his “problem-posing” model which emphasises the importance of dialogue in teaching, moving away from the ‘banking’ model whereby knowledge is imparted ‘top-down’ from teacher to student. 

I have chosen to utilise the familiar tool of Padlet with a column for each student – see the example below for layout. I will set it up so that comments are anonymous with the aim of encouraging students to speak more freely. The presenting student can then select at least two of the questions to respond to verbally with the option to also take further questions verbally from the class should they wish to.  In their work entitled ‘The Power of Feedback’, Hattie and Timperley (2007) emphasise the importance of a clear structure when instigating peer feedback for maximum effectiveness (p.96).

I plan to provide students with a series of prompts:

• Ask curious questions, eg: what happened next? what if you tried to…?
• Did you find any part of the presentation unclear?
• Give a specific example of something said during the presentation that resonated with you. Explain why it stuck with you.
• What did you think of the presenting style? Do you have any observations or constructive suggestions?
• If visual prompts were used, do you have any specific comments on their slides or choice of imagery?
• Is there anything you particularly loved about the presentation? 

Figure 1: Padlet Example 

Data & Feedback
In looking at the UAL active dashboards for my course, I was surprised to learn that 100% of the 11 students I will be teaching in November are female and only 3 of them are ‘home’ students. For the previous year, there were 19 students (65% female). By delving deeper into the statistics, I learned that 25% of the home students are categorised as B.A.M.E across both year groups. There are no declared disabilities in the incoming group according to the statistics. However, I acknowledge that there may be neurodiversity present amongst the student group. For the comfort of all students, we take regular breaks and I take consideration of the classroom environment, for example, asking students if they would rather have the main lights on or off allows for anyone with particular sensitivities to state their preferences.  Taking this unit has made me reflect more on the intersectionalities which may be at play when thinking about student experience (Crensham, 1991). Having looked at the profiles of the students I will be teaching this November, I can see that several come from countries where they will have English as a second language, (eg. China, Saudi Arabia). I will ensure I use simple language in my instructions and as someone with a regional Northern Irish accent, I will endeavour to slow my speech and enunciate clearly.  As there are fewer students than in previous years, it presents an opportunity for a more in-depth peer feedback exercise.

I have not had an opportunity to test this intervention as the intensive teaching weekend for my unit is in November. However, I have spoken to the digital learning technologist for the course, Tim Morgan, to get his input and feedback and he has assured me that it will definitely work from a technical point of view and he also supports the idea as a way to improve student learning. I look forward to testing it in November and continuing with it as a piece of iterative action research. 

References:

Cook,J., Hull, L., Crane, L. & Mandy, W. (2021). Camouflaging in an everyday social context: An interpersonal recall study

Crenshaw, K., (1991) Mapping the margins: Intersectionality, identity politics, and violence against women of colour. Stanford Law Review, 43(6), pp.1241-1299

Freire, P (2006) Pedagogy of the oppressed. New York, Continuum. 

Freire, P. (1985) The Politics of Education: Culture, Power, and Liberation. London: Bergin & Garvey

Gibbs, G. (1988) Learning by Doing: A Guide to Teaching and Learning Methods. Oxford: Further Education Unit, Oxford Polytechnic.

Hattie, J., & Timperley, H. (2007). The Power of Feedback. Review of Educational Research, 77(1), 81-112. 

Nicol, D. J., Thomson, A., & Breslin, C., (2014). Rethinking feedback practices in higher education: a peer review perspective. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 39(1), pp. 102-122.

Oliver, M. (1990). The Individual and Social Models of Disability.

Teaching and Learning Exchange, UAL, (2024). Visual Directions. [online] Available at: https://teachingexchange.arts.ac.uk/visual-directions/index.html [Accessed 25 June 2024]

Tien, J. (2019) Teaching identity vs positionality: Dilemmas in social justice education, curriculum enquiry, 49:5, 526 – 550

UAL, (2024). UAL Student Voices. [online] Available at: https://www.arts.ac.uk/study-at-ual/ual-voices [Accessed 25 June 2024].

UAL Active Dashboards (2024) Student Profiles: Characteristics. Available at: https://dashboards.arts.ac.uk/dashboard/ActiveDashboards/DashboardPage.aspx?dashboardid=5c6bb274-7645-4500-bb75-7e334f68ff24&dashcontextid=638564012752403054 (Accessed: 12th July 2024).

UAL Visual Directions (2018) – Reflective Writing. Available at:  https://teachingexchange.arts.ac.uk/visual-directions/index.html (Accessed 12th July 2024). 

Inclusive pedagogy in the context of a 3-day intensive teaching weekend.

Context & positionality

I teach a unit on MA Arts and Cultural Enterprise (CSM) which is delivered largely online (November – February) and paired with Hong Kong University. I typically teach 25 students in Hong Kong as well as the “UK” cohort of around 15 – 20 students. What is described as the UK cohort is typically a very international group with around 40% of students based in the UK and the remainder being from a variety of countries worldwide. My unit also includes an intensive 3-day face-to-face teaching weekend at Central Saint Martins for the UK cohort. Students will travel from their home countries to attend these sessions. Teaching takes place from 4 – 7pm on the Friday, 10 – 6pm on the Saturday and 10 – 4pm on the Sunday so the days are fairly long. I plan to focus on the in-person element of the course for this intervention and to focus on the online learning environment for my Unit 3 intervention. It will be my third time delivering the intensive teaching weekend this year which takes place at the end of November (week 2 of the 12 week unit).

In terms of positionality, I am a white female in my early 40’s, originally from Northern Ireland and fairly new to lecturing. For the past 14 years, I have been running a successful craft market business and creative community so am able to draw on my own practical experience of being a company director as well as an extensive network of creative professionals in my teaching. Another factor which is relevant in terms of my positionality is that I am also an alumni of the course, having graduated in 2020. This is helpful in that I also have my own student experience to reflect upon.

Intervention

In thinking about how the student experience could be improved, I will reflect upon diversity amongst students and how the intersectionality of their various characteristics could impact their learning experience (Crenshaw, 1991). Identity characteristics are often discussed by the students in the context of their own interests and their ideas for the end of unit assessment. Race, social class and disability are the more obvious characteristics which spring to mind but it is also likely that less obvious factors such as faith may also be relevant to the student’s classroom experience. Some of the challenges I would like to address through my intervention are how to create a sense of community amongst the students and how to facilitate the sharing of their own diverse skills and experiences.

I have been thinking about this specifically in the context of the student presentation element of the face-to-face weekend. Students are tasked with reflecting on their journey with the course and how it may help them with their future career by delivering a short presentation to their classmates. Currently peer feedback is given verbally and generally led by me as the tutor. I would like to introduce a digital feedback mechanism to sit alongside the verbal, not only to encourage everyone to engage in the feedback process but also to enable those who may not be so willing to speak up in class to partake fully in the exercise. The main reference I will be using for this is Freire (2006) and his “problem-posing” model which emphasises the importance of dialogue in teaching.

References:

Cook,J., Hull, L., Crane, L. & Mandy, W. (2021). Camouflaging in an everyday social context: An interpersonal recall study

Crenshaw, K., (1991) Mapping the margins: Intersectionality, identity politics, and violence against women of color. Stanford Law Review, 43(6), pp.1241-1299

Freire, P (2006) Pedagogy of the oppressed. New York, Continuum.

Freire, P. (1985) The Politics of Education: Culture, Power, and Liberation. London: Bergin & Garvey

Oliver, M. (1990). The Individual and Social Models of Disability.

Tien, J. (2019) Teaching identity vs positionality: Dilemmas in social justice education, curriculum enquiry, 49:5, 526 – 550

Critical race theory is a set of ideas that sets out how racism is inherent within many of the societal structures that we exist within, whereby policies have been designed by white people in power and create unfair disadvantage for people of colour. Several of the resources provided serve to highlight structural disadvtanges which are present from an early age as evidenced in the Bradbury (2020) article as well as the video resource showing the privledge walk exercise featuring children from diverse backgrounds (The School That Tried to End Racism). The Bradbury article specifically focuses on those who have english as a second language and the way in which this creates disadvantage in the context of primary school attaiment tests. These resources demonstrate how children from non-white backgrounds can be negatively impacted educationally at the earliest stages which continues throughout the educational journey as evidenced by the very real attainment gap in university awarding within the UK (Richardson, 2018). I was also shocked to read that only 0.7% of professors in UK Universities are black compared to their white counterparts at 90.1% (Garrett, 2024). This is clearly a problem which the sector needs to address. There were lots of excellent points included Sadiq’s (2023) Ted Talk which are beyond the scope of this word count to discuss in depth but they include the fact that a lot of diversity training is based on stereotypes and that it is not the responsiblity of someone of a particualar background or faith to educate others and represent an entire identity grouping.

By way of contrast, the video resource from the Telegraph (Orr, 2022) presents a different view, arguing against the existence of structural racism and platforms two academics from Cambridge University from diverse backgrounds. The first, Professor Arif Ahmed, puts forward the idea that anti-racism training is “worse than a waste of money” and fundamentally doesn’t work. His view is that universities should be neutral on any matters on which there is controversy. Since this film was made Professor Ahmed MBE has been promoted to Director for Freedom of Speech and Academic Freedom of the Office of Students. His view is that freedom of speech should be held as the highest priority and that an institution should not take a position on what could be described as ‘culture war’ topics. The second academic featured is Dr Vincent Harinam who says that the evidence points to there being no issue with instutional racism at Cambridge University based on there only being an average of one report of racism annually within the institution. It could be argued that this is an issue with the reporting mechanisms or perhaps that stuff and students feel that there is no point in reporting incidents when the insitition believes they have no issue with racism. The Telegraph is a right wing media outlet which supports conservative viewpoints, evidenced in the concluding statement by the white male presenter, also a Cambridge academic, that “Britain won’t hold onto it’s position in the world if if it stops prizing excellence over idelology” and he goes on to say that he believe “diversity beurearcary” has a corrosive impact on freedom of speech within Universities. The title of the piece uses the descriptor ‘woke’ as a perceived negative characteristic – a dangerous and key characteric of the ‘culture wars’ which have been a feature of UK media in recent years (Akala, 2018).

In my own context as a lecturer on MA Arts & Cultural Enterprise, I found the article by Sally Everett (2023) on ‘Decolonizing the Business School Curriculum’ insightful. Sally puts forward the idea that we if we want to truly create meaningful change, simply diversifying reading lists, using inclusive imagery and choosing language carefully isn’t enough. We need to actually look at the theories and ideas we are putting forward to students and critically question them with an understanding of how “plantation economy” led to wealth creation and capitalist theories, particularly within the UK. I really like how Sally puts forward a list of practical steps which can be taken to broaden perspectives and critically question existing theories. Although I have taken several of the recommended steps already including inviting a diverse range of external speakers, there are definitely practical steps which I can implement further including inviting diverse students voices to contribute more to the class content. My students are from a range of international backgrounds and contexts including 25 students from Hong Kong University (taught online) so there is an ample opportunity to draw more formally upon student experiences.

References:

Akala. (2018). Natives: Race and Class in the Ruins of Empire. London: Two Roads.

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, 23(2), pp.241-260. 

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

Everett, S. (2023) Decolonizing the Business School Curriculum. Available at: https://www.aacsb.edu/insights/articles/2023/02/decolonizing-the-business-school-curriculum (accessed on 13/06/24)

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. 

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 

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

Richardson, J. T. E. (2018). “Understanding the Under-Performance of Ethnic Minority Students in UK Higher Education: The Role of Socio-Economic Status and Educational Background.” Studies in Higher Education, 43(5), 487-504.

The topic I wish to focus on for my teaching intervention is the experience of autistic students and in particular female students. I have chosen autism as it’s a topic I am particularly interested in and one where I believe small changes can make a big difference to the student experience. I was inspired by a podcast by Roger Saunders called the L&T Chat Show (2024) in which Hannah Breslin talks about her experience of teaching as a person with autism. Hannah does a brilliant job of describing some of the challenges she faces and talks about how small changes (eg. the option to have the lights dimmed in the classroom) can make a really big difference to her ability to stay focussed. She also discusses how every neurodivergent person’s experiences will be unique but that there are often common threads, for example, sensory issues to contend with. I would like to look at this topic through the lens of the female experience as the majority of my students are female (usually upwards of 75%) and academic research suggests that autistic females are more likely to use strategies to mask autistic features than males (Cook et al. 2021).

I was also inspired by Oliver’s (1990) desciption of disability a long-term social state” rather than a medical state which locates the problem with the individual when in reality it is society at large which needs to change. There has also been a lot written about how this ‘social model of disability’ has evolved over the past 30 years which I look forward to digesting as my research continues.

In terms of my own positionality, I am a neurotypical lecturer on MA Arts and Cultural Enterprise (CSM) with an undergraduate degree in Psychology completed in 2002 which included the topic of neurodiversity. The course I currently teach on is delivered largely online and paired with Hong Kong University so I also have typically 25 students in Hong Kong alongside the UK cohort. My unit also includes an intensive 3-day face-to-face teaching weekend at Central Saint Martins. I plan to focus on the in-person element of the course for my intervention.

Bibliography

Cook,J.,Hull, L., Crane, L. & Mandy, W. (2021). Camouflaging in an everyday social context: An interpersonal recall study

Oliver, M. (1990). The Individual and Social Models of Disability.

Oliver, M. (2013). The Social Model of Disability 30 years on. Available at: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09687599.2013.818773

Saunders, R (2024). ‘Hannah Breslin on Teaching with Autism’ – L & T Chat Show. Available at: https://open.spotify.com/episode/2JHL7BsC3RiqOY3Sstiv7Y?si=3bwpoDzkR6eSAtQVM5yVhw (Accessed on 20/03/24).

Out of the resources we were presented with, I found the article on Islam, Women and Sport (Jawad, 2022) particularly interesting in terms of intersectionality as it presented a range of issues and challenges faced by muslim women. Representation of different religions in sporting activities is highlighted as being an important way to encourage more diverse representation in sport. The same could also be said of an educational environment and similarly to this article, certain adjustments may be required.

The author talks about how polarisation is often based on a lack of knowledge and understanding which is a useful reminder of the importance of taking the time to understand and consider the views and challenges of others. I noticed the use of the term ‘visible muslims’ meaning those who choose to dress modestly often wearing a hijab – this wasn’t terminology I had come across before and serves to highlight that within the ‘female, muslim’ grouping, there will be a wide variety of experiences and challenges at play. 

Both of the video resources (Appiah, 2014 and Trinity University, 2016) discuss the need to break down stereotypes and steer away from assumptions about certain groups based on religious belief. Appiah (2014) discusses the topic of what ‘religion’ actually is as a characteristic and whether beliefs should be grouped under the title of ‘religion’ at all which is more of a philosophical pondering than a practical one. Rekis (2003) discusses the negative effects which can occur when assumptions are made about a religious person’s beliefs and practices based on their gender and dress, in this case discussing veiled muslim women. 

In my own context at UAL, as someone who has been teaching largely online for 2 years on the MA Arts and Cultural Enterprise course at CSM with students in both the UK and Hong Kong, I haven’t yet encountered any instances where faith has directly had an impact in the classroom. I haven’t been made aware of any faith based considerations from students and it isn’t something that has featured or been relevant in any of the teaching materials that I use. As the teaching is largely delivered on online and sessions are recorded, it is very flexible and suits those who may have other commitments. For example, if religious obligations were a consideration in attending class, the student has the option to watch the recording at a later date.

Having digested the materials presented, I am now more attuned to the potential impacts that faith, particularly when intersecting with other identities, may have on a student’s experience. As a teacher it is important to make all students feel comfortable and welcome in the classroom regardless of their background or beliefs. For example, my course runs over December with a break for Christmas. I am conscious of the wording I use around this Christmas break – taking care not to centre language on the Christian experience. Chinese New Year is often celebrated by my students and as a major holiday in Hong Kong, it is important to acknowledge during online classes.

As part of my student’s final submission, they can choose to work on a culture or enterprise project or dissertation of their choosing based on a topic of importance to them. I could foresee a situation where a student could select a project linked to their faith and this would provide a useful opportunity for discussion and visibility of issues linked to faith in the classroom.

Jawad, H. (2022) ‘Islam, Women and Sport: The Case of Visible Muslim Women’, Religion and Global Society, 22 September. Available at: https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/religionglobalsociety/2022/09/islam-women-and-sport-the-case-of-visible-muslim-women/

Kwame Anthony Appiah: Is religion good or bad? (This is a trick question) (2014). Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X2et2KO8gcY

Rekis, J. (2023) ‘Religious Identity and Epistemic Injustice: An Intersectional Account’, Hypatia, 38(4), pp. 779–800. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1017/hyp.2023.86.

“Intersectionality is a metaphor for understanding the ways that multiple forms of inequality or disadvantage sometimes compound themselves and create obstacles that often are not understood among conventional ways of thinking.” (Crenshaw, 1989)

For this task, we were presented with three resources representing a wide range of intersecting identities with the common theme of disability. The identities presented by Ade for the purposes of the interview were; black, male, wheelchair user and paralympian. Christine positioned herself as a deaf artist and mother who lives in Berlin but is from America. Chay described himself as a white trans man who is probably nerodiverse, has mental health challenges and is gay. He is the director of operations at an organisation called TransActual. Each of the three represents a range of intersectional identities at play.

Ade made the excellent point that society curtails the potential of disabled people rather than their actual disability. The same could also be said of race whereby the systemic racism that exists in our society prevents people of colour from achieving their full potential. Ade talked about how black people have suffered hundreds of years of oppression and therefore it’s a slow process of reform. He pointed out that society has to really WANT to tackle inequality which needs to be backed up by action rather than simply words. In talking about how society has changed in the last 30 years, he agreed that overt racism has declined but that structural racism and discrimination still very much exists and is considerably harder to change. He gave the example of employers being unwilling to offer work to a disabled person due to the percieved challenges this would bring for them in terms of access.

Christine spoke about her life as an artist and how the experience of being deaf is represented in her work. She made the point that it is the responsiblity of the hearing community to learn sign language. She also spoke about living in Berlin and how it is affordable with free childcare options. This is compared to life elsewhere which involves large amounts of debt with the associated workload required to service the debt. Free childcare is an intervention by the government which has enabled Christine to continue her work as an artist. It got me thinking about how impactful government interventions can be for society as a whole. I have no doubt that Christine would have found her working life as a mother much more challenging if she was based in the UK.

Christine also spoke about how easy it is the become ‘trapped’ in the deaf community, not venturing into the hearing community as it’s is simply easier to be around those who she can commuicate with. Through time spent living in New York, she describes how her confidence increased massively as she had no choice but to engage with the wider world. She talks about how remaining within any one community can become like an echo chamber and how important it is to take up space and be visible as a deaf person in the wider world as without visibility, society will never change.

Chay has centered his working life around his identity as a trans man and he seemed very self-aware in terms of the intersectionality of his identity. He talked about how he can ‘pass as a cis-man’ and how, combined with his white skin and hidden disability, he is afforded a number of priviledges in society. The concept of ‘hidden’ disability is very thought provoking, particularly in terms of teaching students who may also have hiddent disabilites to contend with. Chay offered some excellent practical advice for organisations or those who are running events. He advised that access requirements should always be asked for in advance and crucially that there should be budget allocated for this. He points out that if organisations plan for the disabled then the event will be better for everyone. In terms of his neurodiversity, he also spoke about how events can be overwhelming in terms of noise and in particular when they are centred around alcohol.

Some recurring themes which come up in the three resources are the fact that society needs to change to centre the experiences of least advantaged, thus making it better for everyone. However, there needs to be a genuine desire for change rather than simply ticking boxes – it needs to involve specific interventions and crucially budget at all levels. Having said that, there are smaller interventions which can be made without lots of cost which simply require awareness and consideration – for example, including captions on anything recorded and making sure everyone is able to physically access spaces. Visibility was another central theme with each making the point that disabled people need to be more visible and ‘take up space’ in society. This can be assisted by those in power by simply asking for requirements and proactively making necessary adjustments.

In my own teaching context, I can see that there are a number of considerations in terms of intersectionality – some are already in place and some require improvement. For example, on my unit (MA Arts & Cultural Enterprise), students have the option to submit their assessment as a 2000 word report or as a ‘digital intervention’ which could take a variety of formats. This choice can work well for neurodiverse students or those who have english as a second language. I teach largely online and alongside the UK cohort, I have 25 students who are based in Hong Kong as the course is paired with Hong Kong University. Currently we don’t add subtitles to our recorded sessions but this is something that I plan to do going forward. Having asked about how to do this, I realise that it not straight-forward as it’s not built into the Collaborate teaching platform. It will inovle a work-around using powerpoint which I will need to practise with. This also means that subtitles will only be available with the recorded version rather than the live classes. In our taught sessions, we learnt about the 14% awarding gap which exists at UAL between home students based on race. This was a suprising and shocking statistic which really highlights how much work is still to be done in our society and institutions as a whole.

References:
Crenshaw, Nicole: (1989) Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex: A Black Feminist Critique of Antidiscrimination Doctrine, Feminist Theory and Antiracist Politics