Blog 3: Reflections on Racism

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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.

Intervention Plan and Bibliography

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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).

Relections on Faith and Intersectionality

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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.

Reflections on disability and intersectionality

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“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

Blog 4: Notes on ‘How Art Became a Force at Davos’.

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As part of workshop 3 on The Aims of Art Education, I read Becker’s (2019) article on ‘How Art Became a Force at Davos’. Carol Becker has been the Dean of Columbia University School of the Arts since 2007 and the article tells the story of how she first started attending the World Economic Forum’s annual event in Davos around the same time. When Carol first started visiting Davos it ‘lacked a strong arts presence’, having only a small exhbition of paintings. This was something she found puzzling so she set about trying to change things by asking lots of questions and making connections with those who shared similar interests.

Along with Gilbert Probst, Dean of the Forum’s global leadership fellowship programme, Carol set up a programme at Columbia to “help future leaders gain the skills they need to succeed in a public arena.” Over time, several of the Fellows began developing content for Davos and gradually the programming gained more of an Arts focus. By 2018 both the programming and the delegates in attendance at Davos had been transformed with a wide variety of cultural leaders sharing their expertise on stage. Carol goes on to give several great examples of large scale commissioned installations that took place and how creativity has been placed firmly on the agenda.

I loved the fact that 2018 Davos conference featured the ‘handmade’ theme as in my own practice I have a craft market business, supporting artists and makers to sell their work. This is something I feel passionate about and it’s really interesting to see how craft can be elevated in this way. However, having researched further to find out exactly how this was translated at Davos, I struggled to find much and actually found various commentators reports filled with negativity surrounding Davos 2018. As it’s such a large event with many different elements, it’s likely that different commentators will have picked up different aspects of it and of course, Carol has presented the conference through her own unique lens.

I found Carol’s proactive approach and use of networks to create change very inspiring. I really believe in the power of networks and working together with others and it’s a lovely example of positive collaboration. In my own teaching, it’s something I talk about regularly in terms of how to initiate projects and get them moving. In thinking about the position of the arts in the wider world, it’s encouraging to see that over time, the power of creativity and the creative economy has grown and can therefore contribute to meaningful change. Carol was effective in contributing content to the discussion sessions at Davos rather than just artistic sideshows. As an advocate for arts education, I strongly believe that the arts and creativity should be part of world changing discussions and it’s inspiring to see Carol’s work paying off over the years. I didn’t know much about Davos before reading this article and I shall certainly pay close attention to the arts programming when I see it reported in future years. It also makes me wonder about other world forums and what arts programming looks like in different contexts.

Teaching Observation by a Tutor

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PART 1:

What is the context of this session/artefact within the curriculum? This session represents the final week of Unit 5 (Business Models and Planning) on MA Arts and Cultural Enterprise. It is an online session with the Hong Kong cohort which totals 22 students – usually only around 50% of students attend. This course is partnered with Hong Kong University, so I teach both a ‘UK’ cohort and the Hong Kong cohort. They are taught mostly online with around 4 face-to-face sessions delivered by a tutor in Hong Kong.

How long have you been working with this group and in what capacity? This was the final session of 8 weeks with this class. Each online session lasts 1.5hrs.

What are the intended or expected learning outcomes? For this session, I remind the students of what we have covered in the unit – in particular so they can go back and watch the recordings of any sessions they may have missed. I also cover some content on ‘value creation’ with the learning outcome being that they can recognize what ‘value’ means beyond the financial in the context of cultural enterprise. We also discuss the upcoming assignment and there is an opportunity to ask questions.

What are the anticipated outputs (anything students will make/do)? This should be useful content for their Unit 5 assignment in which they need to discuss the business model for their cultural venture.

Are there potential difficulties or specific areas of concern? As it is an online session, it can be difficult to get students to engage in the content. Attendance is often lower than I would like at these sessions. Also there is the challenge of the students all having very different backgrounds and therefore some have greater knowledge of the content than others – it can be difficult to find the right level for the content at times. In general the Hong Kong cohort don’t directly engage much with the online sessions, often leaving questions unanswered.

How will students be informed of the observation/review? I will tell them at the beginning.

What would you particularly like feedback on? My delivery, clarity of content, design of slides and engagement with students

How will feedback be exchanged? Via email or perhaps on a teams call.

PART 2: Feedback from Lyndsay

Sinead, there was so much you did well here. Your slides are very clear and utilise an attractive, fresh design. You speak well and clearly as you talk through the content. You ‘ve said that your primary objective with this session is to remind students of what’s been covered on the unit, so that they know what content they need to revise. In that sense it functions somewhat like a retrospective contents page.

You made the most of the little feedback/participation you received, e.g. when Gary asked a question about the Unit 5 assignment, you signposted back to this when you went through the brief. This is great practice and will encourage further participation.

You encouraged the use of Google and brought it into the activities, e.g. “find a B-Corp based in your area and put it in the chat.”

There is absolutely nothing wrong with what you’re doing, and it would have been great to see it working with the UK cohort; I’m sure you get more back from them.

With this cohort, I notice you say ‘hopefully’ a lot… as in:

“Hopefully… this makes sense”
“Hopefully… you have a reasonable grasp of this now”

Hopefully! All you can do is hope!!

I’ve had a think about what might help to achieve the kind of engagement and/or feedback that you’re seeking with the Hong Kong cohort, and it might well make things even better for your UK cohort as well. Here are my ideas:

Move away from a linear presentation – you could experiment with using tools like Miro or Prezi, which enable you to zoom in and out and move around a body of content. This can help communicate the whole picture to the students and its constituent parts or stages.

Make the visuals interactive – Collaborate has simple options like the whiteboard and drawing on slides to encourage participation that is anonymous and therefore allows students to contribute while ‘saving face’. With a Miro board there are many more possibilities. Take a tour around the TPP online group’s Miro workspace: https://miro.com/app/board/uXjVN8d4u_I=/ . Look at how they’ve set up the same activities we did in class (on paper and cards) using virtual sticky notes and group boards. Your Hong Kong students might really take working in this kind of format, especially as it looks like there is a translator option: https://miro.com/marketplace/board-translator/.

Move from simple to more complex activities – like many universities our student evaluations highlight a lack of intellectual stimulation. The challenge is obviously working through language barrier without dumbing down the content. This is another way in which Miro can work for you (although it’s possible to do it by drawing on slides too); ‘find a B-corp’ could become ‘sort this list of companies into B-corp and

not B-corp’. Your poll on ‘have you started yet?’ (no response 7, 2 yes, 1 no) could become a selection or prioritisation activity from a range of next steps.

Finally – Thank you for including me in the breakout rooms! That was an experience I’ll remember forever. I have a fab article about Chinese students and linguistic racism that I’ll send you. Hope some of my suggestions are helpful 🙂

PART 3: Reflection on comments

This was really thorough and helpful feedback with plenty of food for thought going forward. In some ways it is validating in terms of my delivery being clear and organised. Lyndsay’s observation of my overuse of the word ‘hopeful’ is astute and something that I will keep an eye on in the future!

In terms of content and increasing the intellectual rigour, I think that’s definitely something I can work towards and it seems that even small tweaks can make a big difference here. In some ways, the session wasn’t a great example of my usual content as it was more of a summary but even with that constraint I think it will be worthwhile for me to reassess the questions / challenges I set for students to see if they can be tweaked in any way to make them more intellectually stimulating. As I mentioned in my introduction, a challenge with the cohort is that students come from a very wide variety of professional backgrounds which means their existing knowledge can vary hugely too.

The suggestions on interactive activities are really helpful too. I will do some further research on this and speak to Tim, the learning technologist on my course is very helpful in this regard. I lack confidence in using some of these digital tools which is currently where the challenge is but it’s definitely something I can overcome.

Having read the article by Dovchin (2020) on linguistic racism, it provides lots of food for thought, particularly when working with the Hong Kong cohort as I realise language can be a barrier to students speaking up in class. I’m glad I have been introduced to this terminology as I wasn’t aware of it before and will continue to ponder this in relation to my students and what their experiences may be.

Reference: Dovchin, S. (2020) Introduction to special issue: linguistic
racism, International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 23:7, 773-777. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13670050.2020.1778630

Teaching Observation by a Colleague

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The task was to arrange for a colleague who is also taking the PgCert to observe my teaching practice. I worked with Xunnan Li as he also teaches on the same course and is familiar with online teaching. As my ‘live’ teaching for the year had already finished, I exchanged recorded sessions with Xunnan for feedback purposes.

PART 1: Completed by Me

What is the context of this session/artefact within the curriculum? This session is week 4 of Unit 5 (Business Models and Planning) on MA Arts and Cultural Enterprise. It is an online session with the UK cohort.

How long have you been working with this group and in what capacity? When this was recorded I had completed 3 weekly sessions with the students and an in-person face-to-face teaching weekend.

What are the intended or expected learning outcomes? For students to have an understanding of some of the different business models which exist. I also discuss not for profit models and the differences between charities and social enterprises. I use case studies to bring the examples to life.

What are the anticipated outputs (anything students will make/do)? This should be useful content for their Unit 5 assignment in which they need to discuss the business model for their cultural venture.

Are there potential difficulties or specific areas of concern? As it is an online session, it can be difficult to get students to engage in the content. Attendance is often lower than I would like at these sessions. Also there is the challenge of the students all having very different professional backgrounds and therefore some have greater knowledge of the content than others – it can be difficult to find the right level for the content at times.

How will students be informed of the observation/review? As it’s pre-recorded there’s no need to tell students.

What would you particularly like feedback on? My delivery, clarity of content, choice of content and engagement with students

How will feedback be exchanged? Via email or perhaps on teams call

PART 2: Completed by Xunnan Li

The session is about different business models in arts and cultural sectors. It firstly introduces various types of business models, providing their history and clear definitions. Then, it proceeds with a more critical analysis and evaluation of these models. One of the most intriguing aspects is the next part, where real-world examples are linked to the models to enhance students’ understanding.

General thoughts:

This session is very thought-provoking! I learned a lot. The categorization of types of business models is very clear, with a strong logic behind it. The incorporation of numerous real-life examples and detailed case studies is very impressive. As an observer, I can truly connect it with my industrial experience.

Content of the session:

1. The housekeeping at the very beginning of the session is very thorough and thoughtful.

2. Almost all examples are provided with contexts, which gives students more real-world experience.

3. Your approach of engaging students through typing is highly inclusive and effective.

4. You also check with students whether they have questions or comments, which is so considerate for students.

5. It is also nice to give students a chance at the end of the session to ask questions, with a very warm ending to the session.

Things to think about:

1. I’m wondering if it would be helpful to provide a content page for students to better understand the learning outcomes of the session.

2. There could be more time or chances for students to work during their group discussions.

3. It may be helpful to give a bit of time after each model for students to think about it before we go into detailed case study analysis.

PART 3: My Thoughts

This was really helpful and encouraging feedback. I am fairly new to teaching so I find this to be confidence inspiring and I’m really glad to hear that Xunnan found the session informative and interesting.

Although I focus a lot of learning outcomes at the start and the end of my unit, perhaps they could appear more thoughout the sessions – making it very clear what the students are learning and how it ties into the wider outcomes for the unit. I will review my teaching materials for this session and think about how I can make this more explicit.

I will also consider timing and whether group work and greater thinking time can be afforded. It’s always tricky to know where the balance is with this as I’m conscious also of not losing student’s attention if I give them too long to complete a task.

In relation to Xunnan’s third point, I will endeavour to slow the pace of the sessions a little and allow more time for questions / discussion in general.

Teaching Observation of a colleague

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Observation of teaching practice for the purposes of a PgCert assignment.

Observee: Xunnan Li

Observer: Sinead Koehler

Context:

I watched a recording of Xunnan’s 2nd session on the MA Arts and Cultural Enterprise – a course which is largely delivered online via Collaborate. This was a session delivered to the UK cohort of students. As I have previously been a student on this course and am now a tutor on Unit 5, I have a good amount of background knowledge. 

General Thoughts:

The session was interesting and well attended by students who engaged with the content and contributed when they were asked to. I really liked the introduction and how the session was framed. It’s interesting to observe the break-out session and how that worked. I noticed that you mentioned some students left the call when you were setting up the groups. I have also had this experience which can be frustrating. Those who did stay were clearly engaged with the question and gave useful feedback. You were warm and engaging and it felt very genuine when you said you were really looking forward to meeting students in person at the intensive weekend. 

Content of session: 

  • I liked how you provided an opportunity for students to ask questions and really encouraged this. It felt very student-centered. 
  • I also liked how you linked your points back to academic reports and texts. I feel this helps with authority and builds trust. 
  • You made good use of polls and questions and also added a break-out activity which is particularly useful with this particular topic. 
  • It was interesting to see how you selected students to contribute at times rather than awaiting volunteers and how this seemed to work well. It has inspired me to do this more in my own teaching! 
  • As Bourdieu’s concepts are fairly complex, perhaps you could have spent more time on this. It felt more heavily weighted towards the other theorists. 

Things to think about: 

  • When providing an introduction, could you include a slide which sets out what the session will cover. This may help those who are more visual learners rather than relying on the verbal. 
  • I wondered whether it’s an option to use automatic subtitles for these sessions. It’s also something that I think could be useful for my own sessions. This may be particularly useful for the Hong Kong students or those who have English as a second language. 
  • There was a lack of imagery on your slides and at times, the quotes selected were a little long. In general you could revisit the visual side of your teaching to make it more engaging. I feel this is particularly important when teaching online as the students lack visual cues otherwise. 
  • When creating breakout groups, is it possible to give them a name so that students know which group they were in when it comes time to feedback? 

Case Study 3: Assessing learning and exchanging feedback

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Background

As part of Unit 5 on the MA Arts and Cultural Enterprise, there is an element of formative feedback based on a presentation that students give to the group. This is delivered as part of the in-person intensive teaching weekend (the remainder of the teaching is largely online). The topic of the presentation is:

“Provide 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 practioner concept in your personal and professional future.”

Unit 5 is approximately at the mid-point of the course so the topic enables students to look back over their journey with the course, thinking about what their goals were when they started, whether anything has changed and where they might aim for professionally in the future as a result of taking the course. It provides a good opportunity for student reflection plus it enables the students to get to know one another on a deeper level.

A key challenge is whether the feedback provided is sufficient to allow for learning / progress.

Evaluation

The presention is described as ‘formatively assessed’. Currently this consists of feedback / questions from the student cohort plus brief commentary from the tutor. As the topic is a personal one, it can be difficult to provide feedback on the actual content which can be of any real value. In my opinion, the learning mainly takes place by virtue of actually taking part in the task as it forces the students to take a reflective approach.

Feedback can be provided on the mechanics of the presentation (eg. use of slides, length, mode of delivery etc…) which may be of practical use to the student for furture presentations. Currently this type of feedback is only given to students where there is something obvious to comment on. I have found that in a group setting it can be challenging to deliver this type of feedback without sounding overly critical.

A further challenge is that not all students attend the face to face weekend in person so some will submit a recorded presentation which makes delivery of useful feedback more challenging. Perhaps in these situations, it would be appropriate to provide informal written feedback.

Moving Forwards

In terms of moving forward, I think the framing of the task will be imporant so rather than simply stating it as an assignment that factually needs to be completed, it should be presented in context of the mid-point of the course whith a narrative around why it is a useful activity to engage with and why it is relevant to the unit as a whole.

The task brings to mind the theory of constructive alignment whereby it’s not what the teacher does that produces learning – it’s what the student does (Biggs, 2003). Deeper engagement with the task will lead to greater outcomes for the student. From a practical standpoint, it may be worthwhile to introduce the task in the first lesson the unit so that students have more time to prepare and to more deeply engage with the task.

As the tutor charged with providing formative feedback, it might be useful for me to have some clear outcomes to feedback to the student on rather than a vague holistic feedback. For example, have they actually answered the question and referred to ideas from within the unit, could their presentation skills be improved and have they taken an appropriately reflective approach. It could also be useful to provide these questions to the students to aid effective peer feedback. I have been reading the ‘reducing referrals and resubmissions’ document which is helpful and suggests providing a clear check-list of what is expected of students.

The next iteration of this unit isn’t until November but I will write up thoughts on the task along with a list of actions so that I am prepared and can recall the planned actions when November comes.

Actions:

  • Introduce the presentation at an earlier stage and provide greater context so that students have a greater understanding of how the task fits into the overall course.
  • Produce a check list for students to make clear what is expected of them.
  • Provide brief written feedback to those who don’t attend the session in person.

Reference:

Biggs, J. (2003). Aligning teaching for constructing learning.

Finnegan, T. (unknown). UAL: Reducing referrals and resubmissions. Accessed on 15/03/24 at: https://www.arts.ac.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0021/190155/AEM-Reducing-referrals-PDF-304KB.pdf

Blog 3: Assessment and Feedback Workshop. Notes on Reading.

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As preparation for workshop 5, I was tasked with selecting a reading from a list with a synopsis provided of each. I chose Nicol & Macfarlane-Dick 2006 – Seven Principles of Good Feeback Practice as it was described as a ‘seminal work’ so it seemed like an important one to read.

As I am fairly new to teaching (less than 2 years), assessment and feedback is something that I have found both interesting and challenging. Currently I am responsible for marking around 20 – 25 end of unit assessments (a 2000 word report) as well as parity marking a further 4 assessments for the Hong Kong cohort. I also mark around 8 dissertations each year, each around 12,000 words. My unit also includes a presentation element which is formatively assessed.

The article puts for the idea that “while students have been given more responsibility for learning in recent years, there has been far greater reluctance to give them increased responsibility for assessment processes (even low-stakes formative processes).” It goes on to talk how the university learning experience should provide students with the ability to take responsiblity for their own learning to prepare them for life beyond university so therefore, they need opportunities to “develop the capacity to regulate their own learning” (Nicol & Macfarlane-Dick, 2006).

This makes me think of the formative assessment in my Unit and how formative feedback on the presentation element could be improved upon. I haven’t always been clear of what is expected with me as a tutor with regards to formative feedback so this is something I will discuss further with the course leader.

Another point that I found interesting was; “there is strong evidence that feedback messages are invariably complex and difficult to decipher, and that students require opportunities to construct actively an understanding of them (e.g. through discussion) before they can be used to regulate performance” (Ivanic et al., 2000; Higgins et al., 2001). On my course, with the dissertation there is an opportunity for students to gain comprehensive feedback on a draft which is then discussed in a follow-up tutorial. It’s useful to know that this is an effective and evidence backed approach. Although comprehensive written feedback is provided on the end of unit 2000 word report, further verbal feedback is only available on request.

“Sadler (1989) identified three conditions necessary for students to benefit from feedback in academic tasks. He argued that the student must know: 

1. what good performance is (i.e. the student must possess a concept of the goal or standard being aimed for);
2. how current performance relates to good performance (for this, the student must be able to compare current and good performance);
3. how to act to close the gap between current and good performance…. Therefore teachers need to strengthen skills of self-assessment in their students.”

I tend to start my unit with the learning outcomes and at the end of the unit, I bring the students back to these learning outcomes again and we discuss how these relate to the assignment they have been set. The particular assignment brief for my unit also has the option to submit a ‘digital artifact’ in place of a written report. It is a bit of a vague brief so requires some further explanation. This year, in contrast to the previous year, 3 students submitted a recorded presentation rather than a written report. In terms of students having a clear expectation of what is expected of them, I could definitely go further in providing examples and inspiration so that they are clear on what an ‘excellent’ submission should include. From what I have read, simply presenting the learning outcomes may not be enough – it is important to ensure that students have a clear understanding of what they mean and how they relate to the course content.