Month: March 2022

I want this final blog to be an overall reflection on the PG Cert and my current teaching practices even though they might look slightly different now to when teaching was a bigger proportion of my role at LCF.

As mentioned throughout my blog, teaching observation responses and case studies, I do not teach as much anymore due to my part time course leader role and remission given to me for planning to change the current course and/or new course.

Therefore, my focus areas on the PG Cert this term have been more towards teaching in a broader context such as planning and embedding pedagogies in the curriculum, rather than my personal teaching practice.

It has been interesting to meet peers on the course from different backgrounds and experiences, and I know a few who are in the same situation as myself, who’s been part of HE and teaching for quite some time, in comparison with maybe newer teachers and academics.

I want to reflect on the positive experience doing the first term of the PG Cert, as well as the struggling parts and have simply put it into bullet points below:

Positive

• As course leader I never find the time to do much research or staff development. Therefore, being pushed to do the PG Cert I felt I could authorise myself time off to focus on the PG Cert and this has been really refreshing and a bit of an eye opener, that maybe I can do ‘more’. I guess therefore, I am now interested in the Decolonising Arts Education Fellowship Scheme as I feel it can be doable. If I was asked last year… my response would’ve been no – no time.
• I have met some great characters on the course and looking forward keeping new friendships and colleagues at LCF.
• Some topics / questions discussed have been very useful in planning and reflecting on current course, curriculum and unit planning. Especially areas around diversity, inclusion and formative assessments.
•  I really enjoy how I have been able to discuss and reflect on EDI throughout the term as this has been my focus area this year.
• My blog is not my pride and joy… but heigh-ho it grew on me! I guess I wasn’t sure what I was supposed to do to start with so just tried things out… However, now looking back at my blog and my reflections, I start seeing how it’s useful and if we continue blogging in the other units, I think I will really enjoy it.

Struggles / improvements:

• Time is my enemy. I am working part time due to personal circumstances and care responsibilities. Therefore, outside my 3 days working at LCF I do struggle to find time and energy to study. I think this is where I fall and unfortunately, I haven’t found any magic solutions here. My husband has since September been working abroad so the luxury of finding quiet time to read and reflect has been really challenging.
  I wish I had more time to read. Saying that, I know I am a very hands-on person and I like physical sessions and interactions and reading has never been my forte, which sometimes as an academic, I guess, it’s shameful to say…
• I have preferred the smaller groups, more focused sessions, online or in-house. However, the broader Wednesday afternoon discussions, I have found a bit too lengthy. Even though the topics have been great, I personally find it hard to engage in a 3h discussions with too many people as the discussions seem to be a bit dragged out rather than too the point. But that’s just my opinion. I guess this is something I naturally embed in my own teaching planning, I very rarely plan any larger group sessions that needs interactions or discussions if possible, and if I do, they tend to be short and sharp to keep the student group engaged.
• Reflecting on my own teaching practice, I have realised, that even though I really enjoy the course and curriculum development, I do miss teaching.
  Teaching and sharing my experiences have always come natural to me even before I had any official teaching jobs. I always demonstrated and shared my practices with peers and the younger generation. This is how I naturally got into teaching.
  I miss the buzz and atmosphere being in the studios with students. However, as a course leader and taking part in new planning and course development I need to make space and time for this. Therefore, I am grateful that I have had many years of amazing teaching experiences and now having new challenges and goals keeping me on my toes.

This term has come to an end quickly, including the submission for the PG Cert! Last week I have concentrated on completing all assessment portfolio work as well as attending QAR (Quality Audit Review) panel for the school.

I was invited to attend the Course Leader and Programme Director meeting with the QAR panel focusing on the relationship of the School vision to LCF and UAL:

UAL The UAL strategy, Transformative Education for a Creative World (2015 to 2022) focused on four strategic areas that directly connect to the SMC vison and pillars. The UAL strategic areas are (written statement from the Dean Jessica Bugg before the QAR panel meeting):

1. Transformative Education (SMC pillar 2, Develop curriculum relevance, resilience)
2. World-Leading Research and Enterprise (SMC pillar 3, Extend the value of our research and KE with a focus on engagement and impact).
3. Communication & Collaboration (SMC pillar 1, Collaboration, partnership, and communication to build opportunities between communities and disciplines)
4. Building an Inspirational Environment (SMC pillars 1,2,3).

As a course leader I often find myself sandwiched somewhere between the school / UAL agenda and the students demand. We are often asked to change our curriculum or teaching approach with vision from the school, but in my experience, there is very little context to why we are doing this and how it relates to specific courses and their specific needs. The school agenda is often implemented with a broader vision ‘one for all’ and not always as easy to apply in the same way for different courses.

For example, for my course BA (Hons) Hair, make-up and Prosthetics for Performance, we have been pushed by the school agenda to consider sustainability and cost of study as two main focuses with examples how to, that does not work for our course.
Sustainability is of course of great importance but unfortunately in our area, not as easy to apply. Firstly, the specialist materials available in a very niche industry doesn’t offer much sustainable options. Secondly, the niche materials needed for the area, are extremely costly. So, when the school ask to reduce the cost of study, there is not many alternatives and this I feel, is not always considered as we are being asked ‘use cheaper alternatives, recycled materials and work small scale sampling’. We can not use recycled materials in make-up for obvious health and safety reasons. We are working on performers, meaning we can’t work small scale as wigs and prosthetics are made for, and need to fit a person. Applying to a performer is also one of the fundamental skills as students need to have an great understanding of comfort, durability, realistic designs and people skills applying to and dealing with highly demanding performers.

Basically, I agree with the school and UAL vision. However, I do think there is more room to discuss individual course needs and how this vision might look flexible depending on the area of specialism.

Going back to the QAR panel meeting, it was overall a positive dynamic and the questions we were asked was focused on KE and research, assessments and staff wellbeing.

The Decolonising Arts Education Fellowship Scheme

Throughout the PG Cert and in my role as a course leader, I seem to be naturally drawn to conversations about diversity, inclusivity and how to decolonise the curriculum. I think the interest have sparked through my personal observation of under representation of diverse bodies within the performance industry which I have been working in for 25 years now.

I also have a personal interest, and experience working and teaching globally, having lived, and worked in the Far East in as both practitioner and teacher within the arts and performance for many years. This experience has expanded my view on cultural and social distinctions working with students and productions from all over the world.

Only last week an opportunity – The Decolonising Arts Education Fellowship Scheme, was emailed out; This Fellowship scheme for academics – who are responsible for curriculum design – will enable them to embark on the work of curriculum development free from the pressures of day-to-day teaching and administration. The ambition of the Decolonising Arts Education Fellowship Scheme is that UAL curricula grow in their diversity and relevance to all students, whatever their cultural and social backgrounds. It is envisaged that over the long term this work will contribute to eradicating inequality in students’ degree outcomes.
Link to UAL webpage: Call for applications: Decolonising Arts Education Fellowship Scheme

Once this PG cert work is submitted I have only one week to apply and send my proposal as deadline is already 28^th March! I feel strongly this opportunity would suit me. However, my concerns are around stepping down from my course leader role for a year as I obviously feel committed and so much work have been input from myself and the team… I do feel ready to take on another challenge though.

The below link is helpful thinking about what can be done and actually is highlighting what we are already doing on the course.
Debunking decolonization: https://www.arts.ac.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0039/294699/Debunking-Decolonisation-PDF-128KB.pdf

What can you change in your course, studio and classroom? Here are some questions to think about:

• Are your reading lists diverse? Do they include non-Eurocentric perspectives?
• Are the examples used in class diverse and global?
• Can all students bring in diverse examples from history and global flows that would make learning more dynamic and exciting?
• Can all students bring in perspectives that are not strictly seen as ‘academic’? These may include social media resources, oral history, and life experience.
• Can all students choose to do research and creative projects that are not Eurocentric and that engage with diverse resources, identities and research questions?

I believe our course is already doing all of the above and examples mentioned in my response to the tutor observation; “We are now, using less Eurocentric texts for our units and examples have been in the last couple of years; My Life in the Bush of Ghosts, a novel by Nigerian writer Amos Tutuola, Monkey, a Chinese novel published during the Ming dynasty by Wu Ch’eng-en (Author), Arthur Waley (Translator) and Of Love and Other Demons, by Columbian writer Garcia Marques.
We have also for our 2^nd years collaboration unit used influences from the Studio Ghibli collection for their performance outcome bringing in Japanese culture and history”.

The reading Emily recommended below has also helped to think about my focus area in my proposal:
Decolonising pedagogy and curriculum: https://www.arts.ac.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0035/228986/AEM-Decolonising-pedagogy-and-the-curriculum-PDF-224KB.pdf

I am excited to continue my research and working on decolonising the curricilum, either as a course leader or if accepted, part of the Decolonising Arts Education Fellowship Scheme.

Case studies.

I started drafting this blog after the Case Study session at JPS on 28th Feb but never completed it.

After reading the assessment brief, I always felt it was the case studies that I wasn’t sure what was asked of us. However, after attending the session it became much clearer and actually one of the easier submission elements. The challenge is to only write 500 words as started getting quite into writing them.

The 1-1 tutorial with Emily helped to clarify I was on the right track and she gave me some guidance to reference or link my case studies with policies or agendas to strengthen my knowledge.

The book she recommended for my case study 3 was Designing effective feedback processes in higher education by Winstone & Carless.
To my surprise, we didn’t stock this book at JPS library and I felt it was too expensive to purchase myself, so I found a few articles based on the book / author online which helped, especially the section on paradigm feedback practices.
The good news, I have asked our course library officer to stock the book so will be available at JPS library in the near future.

For my case study 1, I have linked this to UALs inclusivity agenda on Cost of study which is high priority for my course. This is linked to students feedback in NSS – where cost of study is what always brings our overall satisfaction rate down. It is frustrating as we are working with costly materials, so unless the University covers these costs, it will unfortunately fall on the students cost.
The cost of study is part of the inclusivity agenda; “the new UAL strategy is announced next week and I’m sure there will be more in there about levelling up and making sure that we are a university that offers opportunities to all” Kelly Dearsey, Associate Dean School of Media and Communication.

My case study explains a bit more in details what we are currently planning to improve the cost of study.

Link to UALs current Cost of Study Guidelines:

https://canvas.arts.ac.uk/documents/sppreview/16e2edfc-5b67-436b-816f-0f31ca3c622b

This week was focused on the case studies we need to submit as part of our portfolio. I feel better after this session as this was one element that I wasn’t sure about and now finding it quite straight forward.

It hit me suddenly how close we are to submission date which makes me a little bit stressed as I am just so busy with my course leader role and personal life. I wish I had the time to go more in depth in my research and writing but days are just not long enough and when I think I have time, or planned to, something ‘urgent’ always comes up and steals my time.

I want to have finished my 3x case studies by this week and send of the observation form. I’m gonna keep this blog short and use the time this evening to finish and send my observation feedback!

Over and out!