Category: Theories, Policies and Practices

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!

A belated post… Wanted to reflect on the micro teaching straight after but days have just flew by!

I really enjoyed the micro teaching session last week. Even though I am quite used to plan teaching around objects due to the nature of what we do. However, it made me realise how much more in depth you can go with just one object. Sometimes maybe we try to teach too much in one session and therefore miss the deep analysis and discussions resulting from the object.

I choose to focus on hair in my session. Mainly because this is probably an ‘item’ or material that most peers might not be used to touch and analyse. I also wanted to challenge myself to focus on the object only, not using visual slides or other sources of information that I guess we are used to back up our teaching with.

Even though my time plan was OKish, I didn’t factor the spark of interest the participants showed and therefore run out of time getting everyones feedback.

The really interesting outcome I think was the debate around ethical issues dealing with human / animal / synthetic hair. I am used to have these discussions with students that are maybe used to hair so for them it might not be as ‘shocking’ or provocative as a material to use in a practical field. However, discussing the ethical issues with ‘non hairy’ peers there were interesting thoughts on consent using both human and animal hair and how hair can give away your DNA with quite serious consequences if falls into the wrong hands.

The feedback I received was all positive and maybe typically ‘peer’ feedback so would’ve been nice to have something more constructive as well.

It was a very engaging session. Great use of objects and really engaged students as a result!  

The use of the hair enabled a good conversation about ethics – a good example of object based learning. 

You were very present in the room – no tech – made it more engaging. 

Fascinating discussion and a great way to explore wider issues ranging from ethics to environment to future use. Really enjoyable and surprising. Loved being able to touch all the hair! 

Impressive you immersed us in the world of hair so quickly. 

The introduction of your own human hair was really shocking and brought the ethical considerations of hair into the room, and made the stakes more personal. I won’t forget the conversation as a result! 

This is truly Object-Led. I like how you lead us to think about cultural and ethical aspects. The reveal moment at the end is great and does make the whole session more performative and memorable. 

COVID RECOVERY

So, been a bit out of the game last week due to Covid and still struggling a bit with energy and head fog. Therefore, todays session felt quite hard, especially as I have also been trying to catch up with my general Course Leader role work.

The topic and discussions today felt quite ‘big’ so difficult to conclude what I really got from the session. But the main points of discussion I found interesting and close to my own practice are:

• The disconnection between technical staff and academic staff. There seem to be a current practice where technicians do a lot of the teaching, and the academic staff plan and prepare assessments as well as conducting the assessments. Technicians are not usually involved at all in the planning or the actual assessments. This is an ongoing debate which we have already tried to improve the gap by inviting the technical team to the formative assessments. However, this ‘trial’ got a bit backlash from ‘higher up’ as too many staff (2x academics and 2x technicians) were present in the students formative assessments and we were criticised for having too many staff in the same sessions. This is interesting as this would obviously be needed for technicians and academic staff to work alongside and not as separated.
  This topic also relates to a comment from someone about the lack of time, sharing and planning time between academics and technicians.
• Learning outcomes – and how students / staff interpret them. Discussions about measuring achievements and the positive / negative aspects around this, especially within the create arts teaching and learning.
  I’m finding this topic interesting as when I started my role 5 years ago and during the revalidation process, we were as a programme steered towards a very ‘measurable’ way of writing the LOs. However, since last year and with a change of PD, we are not steered to the opposite, where the LOs need to be very ‘open for interpretation’ which causes a lot of question marks for students and staff and the parity in what we are asking them to do. I guess this relates well to the Allan Davies article discussing ambiguous vs unambiguous LOs.
• We discussed the importance of experimentation and processes as part of assessments rather than ‘a final outcome’. This is again something close to my heart as been unit leading and writing the assessment brief for specifically ‘an experimental’ unit.
• We also discussed Pass / Fail units and the impact it may have on the students learning and experiences. Since last year we have trialed pass and fail units in our first years and it has caused a lot of debate in the programme team regarding students self understanding of achievement and when then being asked to submit a measured assessment, what impact does this have?
  
  
  TASKS TO DO:
• Book in peer observations
• Print this units assessment brief
  
  QUESTIONS:
• Are we meant to read a lot of books? Some colleagues in the sessions seem to have read many books/resources, and referring to their styles or approaches and I feel a little out of the loop of ‘famous authors’ within teaching pedagogies…

I feel slightly exhausted after the first week of PGCert sessions mixed with my normal CL role. However, I also feel slightly relieved and excited after meeting my peers and realising they all have the same worries and feelings about maybe slightly dry content as well as finding the time. As this is my first blog, I am not really sure yet how I want to write or organise the posts, but it feels naturally to use it as my ‘safe space’ to gather my own thoughts and reflections. I guess as a personal diary (public though) so no Laura Palmer confessions.. From the Mondays session we naturally started a discussion about teaching practical content in a new digital evolution. This is an area where I have a lot of personal interest as well as both the issues and possibilities that’s directly related to my course and area. I am not going to reflect too much today, just want to get started. It was interesting putting myself in a student perspective and I did find after Mondays session vs today (Wednesday), that I much prefer the smaller groups to the big, wide ‘involve everyone’ kind of sessions. I find myself way too easily disconnecting and spacing out…

My name is Cecilia Pritchard and I am the course leader for BA (Hons) hair, makeup and prosthetics for performance.