I have never done anything like this before, so I decided to use it as an opportunity to experiment. I knew that I wanted to speak to both staff and students to gain different viewpoints. I planned to collate my data using a variety of resources, to see what the difference was and if some methods would prove to be more successful than others. I therefore decided to use mixed methods to conduct my research.
Initially I tried to think of ways to collate my data efficiently. I asked my course leader if I could conduct my student facing workshops during the break of a session when I knew that they would be in college, with the hope that this would mean attendance would be good – this worked well. It meant I didn’t have to ask students to attend outside their usual timetable or have the difficulty of finding and booking a room to conduct my experiments, which I had seen other members of staff in my team struggle with. I created two workshops for my student facing investigations – the first used arts-based methods and a questionnaire, The students were asked a few questions about the workshop ‘Analogue Tuesday’ that they had attended in year two, they were then asked to draw what they had made and write about what the felt during that experience. For the second student workshop I had six participants. I conducted an informal discussion via the focus group using ten prompt questions I had written to help guide the conversation. I recorded this dialogue on my both my iPhone and used the microphone feature in Microsoft Word, which gave me a typed document I could amend to correct grammar and spelling, to then use as the data to analyse for my research.
Workshop 1 I started by inviting 8 participants (who were all students on GB&I) to answer 5 questions and create visual responses by drawing their answers to a question I asked.
I provided A3 paper and a thank you bar of chocolate to each, along with pens for them to use. I asked the following questions.
Did you participate in ‘Analogue Tuesday’ workshop in year 2?
How did you find it?
Can you draw what you made on the paper provided?
How did the experience of making something physical (an object) feel?
What question could you pose to yourself about sustainability & design?
Workshop 2 I created an informal setting with my 6 participants and myself sitting on 2 sofas in our GB&I studio space. I handed out chocolates while we talked. I used the same set of questions I posed to staff to guide the conversation and help gain responses that I could use for my data to analyse. See below for a selection of the questions I posed.
To get feedback from staff I sent out questionnaires with the hope that I would get written feedback to the questions I posed, which would save me the time it would take to type all of the documents up. This did not work – I only had one response for the four I sent, a 25% success rate and on seeing the feedback I received, I realised that this method would not work. In reality I needed to spend time with the participant, talk to them, get them to relax and feel comfortable to share their thoughts, discuss and exchange ideas to get the data I was looking for. I then opted to create semi structured interviews – these were informal conversations where I had ten questions to help guide the conversation with themes we could discuss more generally. I conducted two interviews and in the end I received two questionnaire responses. These were more formal in their content, but it was interesting to have this mix of qualitative research to investigate and dissect.
What do you think are the 3 most important things as arts practitioners, we should know about sustainability?
How do you think reusing resources can aid creativity?
Is it important to ‘make’ away from the digital experience?
Can you say something about the importance of ‘play’ as part of the design process?
How can design benefit people and communities by limiting its environmental impact?
Can graphic design connect humans and particularly future generations to the natural world?
In conclusion I conducted mixed method research, which included;
2 staff questionnaire responses
2 staff semi structured interviews
1 student workshop with 8 participants completing a questionnaire and arts-based drawing experience
I student workshop with 6 participants focus group with a semi structured discussion
1 student questionnaire response
On reflection, where I put in the most effort, organising the interviews and group discussions, with planned questions to ask, within a set time frame. I received the most useful responses, full of brilliant and interesting points that I could then use to analyse. However, I feel that the initial drawing exercise and getting the student participants to relax, helped with the second focus group activity. With the staff, my first interviewee encouraged my second as he had initially felt overwhelmed by the questionnaire I had sent and again, the informal meeting where we could talk to each other, helped him to relax into the process and formulate his points for discussion and dialogue. My research and methods explored proved to be an interesting experience, with the opportunity to try things out and learn what was more successful. All of the in person, informal conversations gave the most useful, content heavy data for me to analyse.
In trying to save the time it would take to type up any interviews I conducted. Initially, I decided to engage the staff I wanted to speak to by sending them a questionnaire, This didn’t work, I received only 1 of 4 responses I sent which is a 25% success rate. The reply I did receive wasn’t as in-depth or rich as if I had spoken in person. It was only through experimenting with this process did I recognise, that meeting and a genuine conversation and discussion were required for me to collate the best quality data that I could. This experience made me rethink this part of my data collection. I then contacted the staff I wanted to speak to and arranged to conduct interviews instead.
This was a positive experience, the students I wanted to speak to were already in class when I introduced my project and selected 8 of them to participate during their afternoon break. They had all taken part in the ‘Analogue Tuesday’ workshop. We talked, I asked them some questions via the document below and I asked them to draw their experience of the workshop and describe how it felt. I provided paper, pens and thank you bar of chocolate for their help. Reminding them that I would be back next week for a focus group discussion.
This was an incredibly insightful and useful lecture, where we were introduced to the idea of arts based research as a methodology and using the experience of drawing to create data. Something which many of us are now thinking about how we can apply this to our own Action Research Projects.
Francesco asks at the end of the session where we could consider trying to get our research published. Lindsay recommends the following as a starting point.
Unit 3 ARP notebook page planning Wednesday 1st November
Extra tutorial Monday 30th October
We discuss participatory research principles to support a live project, working with your participants when ultimately, it’s for them. Participatory – define a core, designed participatory activity with one block to complete a project. We are advised to offer the students a choice – you can be involved. Then analyse all the data and give feedback. There are different layers of participation, respect whatever someone can bring in their capacity. If you’re the leader, you need to organise the details, for me that is to consider what is the best way to do the research in relation to the subject of sustainability. I want to work with students to get feedback, but I don’t want to use their studio time for my experiments. If we co-design the experience, I need to be the researcher. Be organised, let them know we have eg. two, four or six weeks to do this – I am advised to be as honest as I can. In relation to sustainability – how best can I organise this event? To think more critically about what sustainability is. I am also one of the participants but a subject expert in my field (Graphic Branding & Identity) use that experience with students who will also know what they want, they are participants meeting with their own expertise. I will take charge along WITH my students hopefully, creating a balance in the power dynamic.
Peripheral participation ‘Legitimate peripheral participation (LPP) describes how newcomers become experienced members and eventually old timers of a community of practice or collaborative project (Lave & Wenger 1991). LPP identifies learning as a contextual social phenomenon, achieved through participation in a community practice.’
Peripheral participation is a methodology for sharing the power, for research, recording conversations and what happens in the workshops I create for my ARP. I must use appropriate methods to document what happens, collecting feedback as a reflection. The reflective task – I can share my critical reflection… I thought this went well, next time we can… Working with students I have to map their diary, asking ‘can you meet up three or four times, do you have availability? If I do sign up sessions, people will invariably drop out. I need to make sure they are aware of their role and what is expected of me. As a matter of urgently I need to ask the students as soon as possible to sign up, firstly I need to ask my course leader Sunita for permission. Consider the Action research cycle, in the time that I have I may not complete all of it but aim to achieve so much, document this & my next steps for the project.
In a more traditional research format, the researcher has more power. Consider sustainability & use of resources, refine my data collection as a methodology. Decide how to collect my data – a survey, interviews, diary, videocast or podcast. The topic affects the data collection. I have tried to make my workshops and activities as participatory as possible; document – these are the methods I have used. If I become short of time, this is what I have decided to do.
Consider the following.
The gatekeeper – my line manager, get permission to run workshops & student activities.
Promote the benefits of my ARP to my course leader for the course I teach on.
The making and testing in spaces engaging in social issues.
My question – how can we embed the use of materials in the studio beyond relying on the digital?
For me – ask my colleagues and students, are you happy to stay back? See how it goes.
Time to analyse my data – this will take time.
The methods I use, such as an online survey with open ended questions 2/3/5?
Qualitative data will take longer to analyse.
Thematic analysis – draw themes from my colleagues’ data, look for commonality and ask – what can I do with this?
List the books I read in relation to this subject – what does the literature say? What are the big themes? What themes can I add?
What is my contribution to the field?
Be aware that I may run out of time but consider my next steps.
Look at others work in relation to these subject areas such as the graduate’s sustainability game presented during my Carbon Literacy training.
Plan – I am on the second step of the ARP cycle, I’ve managed… it’s OK whatever stage I am at.
ASAP – Send staff emails this week and ask students this Friday to participate on both the 3rd and 10th of November.
Design with professional boundaries
Talk about different possible methodologies eg I chose this one because McNiff cycle
I need to figure out a methodology for working with my research & working with students My question & research will be co-produced
Co-construct my collected research & design with my co-participants
consent form
Justify what happened – what are my next steps
All part of the process
You can repeat the Action Research cycle in your project
Present my methodology – I looked at this, I chose this because it sits better with the aims of my research
Also consider the notion of success, how do we measure success? This is a learning process for all students (me included)
Our tutor today – Mallikas’ advice is very helpful. My fellow Pg Cert participant, the first person I met online during our very first session back in unit 1 – Joel’s advises me to look at the work of the Ual climate and environmental Action Group, they have lots of subgroups doing lots of work – some of which might be useful. I also need to look at climate literature, consider whatre the big themes I need to be aware of to help me pose my questions for my interviews.
I am encouraged to read Situated Learning Legitimate peripheral participation by Jean Lave and Etienne Wenger – community of practise, to gain understanding in the sense of the various roles my participants and I will inhabit. Social anthropologist Jean Lave and computer scientist Etienne Wenger’s helped to change the fields of cognitive science and pedagogy by approaching learning from a novel angle, choosing to look at learning not as an individual process, but as a social one. Also look at David Cross, a reader at Camberwell, Chelsea and Wimbledon Colleges of Art. ‘I am a Reader in Fine Art at the University of the Arts, London. Informing my research, practice and teaching is a critical engagement with the relationship between visual culture and the social-ecological crisis.’
Tue Register on Orb as staff / a student to be able to book faciliites at LCC
Tue Orb – book Risograph printing induction workshop
Tue Visit Print Finishing to find out If I can cut curved edges on my prompt cards once finalised
Tue Book time off from teaching to work on my ARP, let my CL Sunita know
Tue Visit digital printing
Tue Make a visual plan, mark up timeline – colour coordinate
Wed Create questions and e-mail staff + an introduction e-mail and consent forms
Thurs Put sheet together for SIP students who participated in Analogue Tuesday
Fri Ask Sunita if I can drop off students’ questionnaires on Friday for next week?
Email or call my teaching colleague Sandra, arranged to go in next Thursday?
Mon Spend some time on tutorial
Mon Prep student session for Friday 10th
Mon 13th Collate data and extract words
Planning this week 1st/2nd November Send out staff questionnaire 3rd November Do student survey 6th November ½ days Catchup on all blog posts & tutorial notes 13th November Distil data, extract quotes, make presentation2 20th November Make cards – design. Investigate letterpress workshop, print Risograph? 27th November Put finished cards into PPU workshop with year.2 students from across the design school 4th December Collate feedback from PPU students. End of term
Over Christmas make presentation, catchup on reading,
Requirements for student facing workshop 1
Consent form
Sheet of questions
Materials – paper to draw on and pens to draw with
Provide a thank you to each participant in the form of a bar of chocolate
Questions to pose
Did you attend analogue Tuesday?
How did you find the experience?
Can you draw what you made?
Can you think about sustainability – what is important to you?
How do you feel about not using digital resources to support your creative outcome?
How could this influence your future projects?
Next week we will have a group discussion about a similar range of topics.
My ethics form didn’t change a lot from version 1, it was just incomplete for my first submission. I just needed the time to consider what were the questions I wanted to ask and to whom. My ARP and ethics form includes both staff and students, I need to consider and decide if the questions I pose, need to differ to give me a variety of results – slightly, I feel on reflection.
October 23rd Consider the number of weeks I have and make an action plan. What am I going to do this week, next week? etc Make sure I give myself enough time to write. Bear in mind;
We are reminded that we only have one more tutorial and one more live lesson try out our presentations. We need a visually designed document to talk through for the December session in four weeks. Look at example studies on Moodle.
ASAP
Complete ethics form today / tomorrow & get signed off
Finalise data tools
Write intended questions
Contact staff re interviews – book in, consider timings
Interview using intended questions
Make a timeline of the project
Create an action plan and a task list
Find consent form in ethics folder
Continue researching and reading about topics & methods
Use my blog to think about what I have read
Dates 23rd / 24th Oct Today – Rewritten Ethics form completed
28th / 29th Oct Action Plan – Tasks list for the week ahead
30th Oct Blog
28st Nov Cross-programme event Formulate & write up questions for staff Formulate & write up questions for student Organise student workshop for 33rd Nov Email my colleagues and course leader to arrange this Prepare all materials – questionnaires, pens, paper, thank you snacks
3rd November Workshop 1 with students – questionnaire & drawing activity Send staff questionnaires with a request for a return by Thursday 16th November
6th Nov Online tutorial
10th November Workshop 2 with students – group discussion with pre-prepared questions to guide the conversation
16th November Should receive data back from staff questionnaires
20th Nov Session 3 – In person 10-4pm High Holborn
29th Nov Cross-programme event
4th Dec Online tutorial
REMINDER Blog and presentation needs to be a a minimum of 6 post for assessment requirements
Process – images & notes
Presentations
Reflections on reading
Ethics form
Questions and extracts from data
Summary & reflection of outcome
* Look at the unit brief for the list of requirements. Make sure I have done them all.
Unit 3 ARP notebook page planning Thursday 26th OctoberUnit 3 ARP notebook page planning Monday 30th October
Our second session in person, in the depths of LCC. We laugh that managing to find the room should give us points towards our grading, as it is so hidden in the building. We use the wool as an icebreaker, each choosing 3 lengths in different colours. Tying a knot and sticking it to the end of the table. This is ‘stimming’ a secondary process – psychoanalysis, look into this more. My daughters class use this a lot as part of the process of learning, pupils with ADHD are allowed to play with fidget toys and putty while they listen. It helps them to focus.
We use the string to be aware of our thoughts, trying to be present and sit in all three of our thought, feelings and sensations. Thinking about our projects, individual focus on my APR – my thoughts, feelings and bodily sensations – aspects. What do I have to do? What are you planning? Questions and ideas Which part is the most relevant and happening now? My mind races – I have lots of thoughts about what I need to do – these create lots of knot. I’m feeling both excited and nervous, the sensation in my stomach is churning. This morning I looked at a calendar and realised we already a month into this. Grounded embodiment, the ‘gut brain’ a hierarchy on the senses. Experimentation – being present in the room. It is interesting to consider: how long does it take for students to arrive mentally in the room? A lot longer than the physical. We rarely consider this when teaching, our students may still be thinking about their day so far, their worries or concerns, distractions from being present. Be still, when you need to become focused on the day at hand.
We are reminded – you are an expert in your field. Consider critical friendship as part of this process in person, asked respectful questions. Now is the time for me to finalise my methodology – how many participants will be involved in my ARP? in this tutorial we will learn from each other. Be kind to yourself, use active listening and undertake supportive responding. We are reminded to start doing things as soon as possible. Pace yourself – write a blog post after each session reflecting on the topics discussed, our feelings & sensations. We are reminded again to create a small-scale experience – expectations. Only do what you can do.
Consider the Learning Outcomes – have things in line. Develop a feasible and detailed research design (Enquiry) Researching methods to be creative in collecting data, try something out. Try something you haven’t had the chance yet. Blog – I thought about… however, as I continue thinking about my project I decided to explore my research by observing staff. Write an essay not lots of quotes. I need to find my voice – my research voice, my own legitimacy. What do I feel? The process of becoming a researcher. Try different things, research methods and why am I choosing it. Learning outcome three – Design & implement – review research methods and instruments appropriate to your question or process. Explore what’s out there – interviews, surveys, workshop, observations, making – use my practise for exploring. Look at a situation – what does it tell us? Observation – the object conveys an experience. Your blog is created organically through your research.
Intentions
Questionnaires
Analysis
Make one blog entry as a reading list full list compiled together. Look at Lindsay ‘s blog examples on Moodle. Conduct reading into research methods. The project is about trying things out, read about other methods. Use your blog to document your process.
QUESTION
How does my project map onto the Action Research Activity?
Today, rewrite my ethics form
Talk to my tutor Tim – is this OK?
Create my visual plan in Miro
Choose my methods
Plan the next two months
Focus groups with students
Interview / question staff
Workshop with students on Professional Practise unit
Gather feedback
Reflect on what I’ve learned
Resubmit ethics form ASAP – then get feedback
Get signed off ASAP
Start the project quickly
Today, decide my method – what I’m going to do
Finalise consent form today – get signed off ASAP
Consider – where are you on the cycle?
Refining question
Then collect data
Next, implement into teaching
Present quotes, collate data, make questions implement into a workshop.
Define the problem
Preliminary survey
Collect data, how can your teaching be changed?
Make question cards
Implement change – use cards in a workshop
Monitor and evaluate change
Review and reflect on change
Repeat cycle
For me;
Defined question and remake ethics form
Ask questions – e-mail / interview staff
Organise a focus group with my students
Create cards from quotes posed
Implement cards into a workshop – PPU
Get feedback on how useful these were
Decide what to do next
We are advised to not spend too long on our research, I will collate my data via
A survey
Interview
Focus group
Workshop
Through the data I collate – quotes from staff, information from the focus group I will be able to extract a set of questions to physically design and make a set of wild cards. These will be implemented into a Professional Practice unit workshop reflecting the data I collected. I will then ask participants questions on how they found the wild cards – were they useful to change their own creative thinking as an intervention? I will evaluate these changes, review, reflect and repeat the cycle.
It is important to implement change. The action is doing something different. Another action is reflection – this is also an important stage. Implement change and reflect on it – it’s enough. Think about the next steps, three months is a snapshot, a moment in time.
We do the reading exercise on citation – references. I discuss with Kat. Share a survey of key points and experiences. The eleven functions of citation. Social scientists and those who wrote on computer sciences were interviewed. They were asked about recent papers – why did they use citation? Computer people & sociological people. How they used the different functions of citation.
Signposting
Supportive
Future
Topical
Position
Building
Advertising
Competence
?
Depending on where you take your research, you can use citation to;
Support your argument in a field of debate on something
Expand on an issue
Working towards something else.
To promote the work of others
To indicate you know what you are talking about
Niche, to build something specific
The use of citation can be linked to personal interpretation. My colleagues on this unit may use citation for a different purpose to me. Always consider why a reader is reading a text – how is it useful? Should we be using these categories for our own citation in this unit? Consider why do I use citation? To show what I have read and put my teaching practise into context. I have not thought about all of these categories but perhaps I need to as a framework for my thinking to sit in. An academic framework that shows I have read texts and also shows my positionality. Through the PgCert I now know how to contextualise a workshop I have created etc. but I don’t need to share all of my knowledge with my class, it’s all in me and is implemented in my teaching practise itself by osmosis.
Use a bibliography to show common fields of research as confirmation for the person or text I agree with. A citation may not necessarily be needed but headings and a bibliography help. to map my thought process. Don’t make assumptions from a title and a bibliography, I need to actually read the texts.
I find academic text intimidating; I often have to stop to look up the words as I tried to read the text very thoroughly to gain an understanding of what is being discussed. I could approach this very differently Kat suggests I just pick out something that looks interesting.
Vernacular citation encourages us to think about everyday media from non-academic sources. Everyone in the group is encouraged to use these as part of our research – such as poems, songs and conversations. Once we have our research question, we are inspired to open up to the world in a different way – cite non-academic such as magazine articles, YouTube shorts or podcasts to support our rationale.
For me these could include;
Workshops I’ve attended at Ual on the subject of sustainability
Other events I’ve attended about the environment and creativity
Ual policies I have read on the subject
Course handbook and those of other courses
Conversations & talking to peers and colleagues
Overheard conversations as anecdotal evidence – a way to test your thinking
Cartoons or a different kind of knowledge
Other’s citation
Podcasts
TV shows
Vernacular citation
Footnotes commenting social justice issues of citation
We are reminded not to produce the same body of knowledge again & again. Draft a post about your reading from the week, discuss what you’ve heard and read, cite relevant quotes/sources as part of this. Think about your reading, how is it informing your thinking.How does your reading inform your thinking, your research, your project? Consider mind mapping as part of this process. Make sure I give myself enough time to create and host the workshop, time for the production of my outcome.
In my blog posts include everything that informs my thinking.
Why does it matter to me?
Why does it matter to the world?
What research methods am I interested in?
Blog headings to include;
Research heading and question – Link this to who I am
Rationale – Write why I chose to look at this topic – my research question. – What were my personal motivations, why is it important? – Include the context of my role with students, department, the institution, my discipline or sector. – Has anyone else written about this? Include quotes
Ethics – Upload a copy of your form with notes on feedback from your tutor and how I responded to it – Show each version and how it changed
Participant facing documents – Information sheets – Consent forms * Question – do we use the template available / do I have to create my own? – Include notes on any amends made / feedback
Research methods – Write about the research I’ve done eg interviews, the list of questions and notes on my reading research – Write about my findings not the raw data
Up-to-date Action Plan – Tasks and activities as a Gantt chart
Create my blog posts
Project findings – What have I learnt? – From interviews – From workshops with students – From feedback – Cover what I’ve learnt from my reading & research about sustainability – What have I learned from my primary research – data collection – What I have learnt from the research methods I’ve used
Presentations – Any draughts I did for class exercises / tutorials – The final presentation of the project
References
With my ethics form – we talk about social justice as being a UAl principle but how is it actually embedded into individual courses? Some must be doing this more successfully than others – find out who and how. My plan is to collect a series of questions that become creative prompts for action. The questions will come from collected data, to make a set of wild cards. These will be given these out to students for use as part of the projects they are already working on. I will then collate their feedback on this experience.
Rewrite and complete Ethics form – refer to workshop materials and ethics resources folder. Reconsider – ask Tim, is it enough to ask questions?
Blog – write up pre tasks for session one, reading & notes
Blog – write up session one
Reading on research methodologies & make notes
Blog – write up Cross programme event
Blog – write up tutorial session for today
Draw up a visual plan of the knowledge I have & that I need to gain eg. the Carbon Literacy course I attended in preparation for this ARP etc What I know and where I need to expand my knowledge – look at course I’ve signed up for from my colleague Joanna’s recommendation – https://www.designcouncil.org.uk/our-events/design-for-planet-festival/
Make a plan – what do I need to do next? Decide exactly what I am doing and who I am going to interview
Decide the questions I am going to ask – both to students and staff, will these differ?
Get consent – how and when? How do you create a consent form? Ask for advice ASAP
Plan and conduct the interviews I need to do – when and with whom?
Rachel – George -Year three students who did Analogue Tuesday workshop when in year two
Create a sustainable framework
Make a timeline of when I need to get things done – where are we already? In week three of ten!
How do I collate and document my data? – As a series of questions? Visually? Decide!
Make this into a creative process
Make time to complete the pre task for session two in person and write up.
Read ASAP – look at the reading list for the unit, get books from the library. I could use Chat GPT for a summary of texts to help me organise what to read in detail (brilliant advice from Lindsay) and more from the padlet on unit resources?
For the ethics form I need to have a clear idea of what I am doing and the steps I will take. Prepare participant facing materials and other research instruments.
Things to consider;
Is my question, OK?
What questions do I ask Rachel, George, Keir etc?
Do I need to actually do a workshop?
If so, when and with year one or year two students?
The UAL Climate Emergency Network airstream SWAP SHOP at CSM, should I go and visit? Interview them?
When should I conduct my interviews? Before or after half term?
When should I do the focus group with year three students?
When we are the students in LCC once I’ve decided who I am going to interview or create a focus group with? Find out and ask if it’s OK to talk to them one lunchtime or after a session?
When do I do I all of this?!
We are now individuals on our own projects In today’s tutorial we talk about the structure of our individual projects and how to complete them. We share our thoughts and references; we all give each other giving feedback – participants consent.
Participatory research methodologies
I sent Tim the first version of my ethics form on the 9th of October but there were sections I have yet to complete – when do we need to complete this and upload it?
Do I need to ‘do’ an activity? or if I’ve already done it eg ‘Analogue Tuesday’, does that work? – I need to decide what the questions are that I ask.
Do I need to send participants a consent form first?
What is my plan of action?
Action – workshop professional insight, reflection – intervention. Research a scenario – what do I think? My analysis of the situation – see if my students agree with me, be transparent about the activity. Participatory meeting to be inspired by. How do I make the event comfortable, inviting, inclusive, what incentives? Food & drink or a more chaotic structure – students will have options and possibilities beyond the Action Research Project. Consider things I might do afterwards: hosting the meeting is the intervention beyond.
I sent Tim the first version of my ethics form on the 9th of October but there were sections I have yet to complete – when do we need to complete this and upload it?
Do I need to ‘do’ an activity? or if I’ve already done it eg ‘Analogue Tuesday’, does that work? – I need to decide what the questions are that I ask.
Do I need to send participants a consent form first?
What is my plan of action
Action – workshop professional insight, reflection – intervention. Research a scenario – what do I think? My analysis of the situation – see if my students agree with me, be transparent about the activity. Participatory meeting to be inspired by. How do I make the event comfortable, inviting, inclusive, what incentives? Food & drink or a more chaotic structure – students will have options and possibilities beyond the Action Research Project. Consider things I might do afterwards: hosting the meeting is the intervention beyond.
What about the Re-use. Recycle. Reduce: Re-Use units in our building? From initial questions I am not sure all our students at LCC know how to access and use these wonderful resources. UAL Climate Emergency Network airstream SWAP SHOP at CSM – social & sustainable. Participatory research – what do they have in common? If enough people are energised by an idea, it becomes something. Action Research – we are already doing the job, we already making interventions, remember to study what we have already done do something. Pedological existence – experience, socialising.
My biggest take away from this session is Tim kindly reminding me to do something of interest to me.
My tutorial group consists of myself, Rachel, Michiko and Ekaterina all of whom I have shared our learning through units 1 & 2 of the PgCert. I feel very fortunate – they are all so knowledgeable with different areas of expertise and a wonderful willingness to share.
Consider – What do you need in order to make this happen?
It can be student organised. Open all the conditions for critique, sociableness. They (the students) might come up with the solutions, friendship, collaboration. We can’t be critical reproducers – literature review, put your finger on how to engage participants and share your question. Remember the way which you shared the question is important.
We discuss my ARP
Points to consider – what is the data we are collecting? Apply a methodology such as quantitative data, what are we looking for? Not a social science model or it could be? I plan to conduct interviews in college, speaking to students as a focus group, see what happens. How could my project be more creative? Use art and design practice methods to develop educational research. Using creative methods such as craft for an educational purpose and assess its value – innovate my research method – observation is a standard method of drawing and painting what you see. Through the observational process it extends. Art and design practice as an intervention. Perhaps a sensory workshop? Does it trigger memories – students can comment with a discipline that is not their own. Someone this morning was considering process as a project – studio leftovers, what is left when a student leaves the space and what does it mean? Michiko is interested in an autobiographical Pedagogical methodology. We could interview and use the actual words as a fictional conversation – interestingly playful. Find a creative method. Read Inventive methods: the happening of the social Lury & Wakeford, Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group 2014fromthe library and reading on Contact Hypothesis – Notebooks with inspiration in them, collected data. Experiment with different methods.
We are embodied researchers because we are practitioners. We will share our findings through our presentation at the end of the unit, reflecting on the questions we have posed. Qu: how do we empower students as researchers? Each of us as students have a question – we have to do something with our findings. For me, what are the questions I want to ask? if I ask students to do something I can present what they did as a conscious decision. A shared goal and task – staff and student, a shared experiment can force the minority and majority groups to come together and share a task. Take away the power imbalance. Some students benefit more than others – try to tweak what we are doing as educators so there is less of a privileged group etc
Social justice research – student voice, make sure my project benefits the students. Values – extracurricular activities, what are we trying to recreate? We as tutors, are also part of the crisis -it is easy to be overwhelmed by what is it going on in the world. How do we deal with climate change and how it is affecting our students while struggling ourselves? The temptation to recreate a world that is better puts a lot of pressure on us as educators – it’s a big challenge. I also need to think about my positionality – social bonds, belonging, self-reflective journal data set. My self-reflection as a tutor could become a data set.
I decide to get involved in the feeling of questioning – climate/social justice? Do the opposite of what I feel – just be involved in the questioning. How do I engage in social purpose as a practitioner, an educator and as a researcher? I have three months to think about it – reading will help and talking to colleagues and students. I consider my thoughts and reflections, out of this an idea develops that I could craft something from the data I collate. I can make something. ‘What is this?’ How long can I stay with the feeling of the question – questioning, see what happens. I might make something as my outcome. Keep asking the question – that is my research see what comes up. I would like to design and make something as my ARP outcome – I haven’t made anything in a long time yet I am a creative person. This is a wonderful opportunity. I must also think about my positionality. I can make something students could participate in. It would be good for me and as a piece of work for my portfolio. I think about making a teaching resource that could be used in workshops and activities on multiple courses at Ual. I must share my outcomes with fellow colleagues such as Rachel, she could give me feedback on what I make.
QUESTION
Is it enough for me to just ask the questions and make something with my findings? I decide to make a set of cards, a list of questions and proposals to embed social purpose and thinking into my course. I plan to print them use letterpress or risograph techniques using the wonderful facilities at LCC that I encourage students to use but never have the time to explore myself. Finding out how these work will also increase my knowledge to share with my students.
Consider social, critical frameworks
What is the most interesting thing for me to do in the next couple of months? Talk to the director of Social Purpose Lab what are your ideas?
Ask these questions
How do you define social purpose?
What resources need to be made available?
Tim asks myself, Kat, Rachel and Michiko to pose questions that redefined the traditional process that delivers education. Ual is raising questions through the principles of climate and social justice – how are you going to deliver these things? Evaluate something that is happening around you. Resources and support for students – questions. Through exploration & investigation invite people in to be part of my project. For my ARP I need to research the question I am posing and design & make an outcome – crafting my response via the data I collate, evaluated and distilled into a set of creative questions that have multiple uses. The questions will become the device given to students as ‘Wild cards’ for creative development. As I haven’t had the opportunity or the time to physically make an outcome in a long time that would be a wonderful, rewarding process for me as a maker.
My cards will be made in letterpress or risograph printing as a set of questions using students’ words, thoughts and phrases linked to social justice. I plan to also look at my competitors such as the Brian Eno and School of life sets of prompt cards as inspiration.
For my own understanding ‘Quantitative data is numbers-based, countable, or measurable. Qualitative data is interpretation-based, descriptive, and relating to language. Quantitative data tells us how many, how much, or how often in calculations. Qualitative data can help us to understand why, how, or what happened behind certain behaviours.’
Dr. Frania Hall is a Senior Lecturer & Course Leader of MA Publishing at LCC, she went from industry into academic research as a teacher. She talks about the evaluative mindset – tools and practises for evaluation. How to apply these ideas to your Action Research project She recommends using evaluation as a way of understanding what works.
Evaluation as a starting point for research. The process of themes – research and evaluation cycles help build evidence to lead you to the next step. A force for positive good. Evaluation can be embedded into your process, becoming part of your practice.
Cite what is it you are evaluating, interventions, justice actions, embedding social purpose. Use pedagogical thinking, how are we monitoring whether these are working? How do we report on them and share best practise? Evaluation is about monitoring. Consider how can you drive change through the pedagogy you undertake. Who’s responsibility is it to evaluate? Typologies for evaluation. Educational enhancement. Evaluation if properly communicated can enhance your argument.
Evaluation
Structured, objective
Emphasis taking action and sharing
Formalised for reporting
Change narrative
Evidence – Knowledge – Sharing
Cycle of ‘what works’ model of evaluative practices. Interlinks with teaching, learning and design. Evaluation should be a part of my experimentation. Concerned with the quality of my teaching. Choose methodologies to collect appropriate data – for me that is via both staff and students.
Learning – Testing – Capturing information – Setting targets
A starting point to this cycle is experimentation
Evaluative mindset
Formal ways of capturing, reporting and sharing
Develop a critical cycle of improvement
Create a framework
Primary research – interview staff, pose five or six questions
What are the benefits and barriers?
Have the data to prove it
Quotes from staff
For students – relevance and value, being empowered, experiments
Create a padlet as a trusted record
There are lots of ways to collect data
Activity
Is there information you need in order to plan your intervention?
Are there tests you need to do to start your action?
What baseline information do you need to structure it?
Do you need to carry out a few interviews?
Conduct a pilot survey?
How could this support the decisions you make about your intervention?
I attend a breakout group with Kevin and Jackie online, we discuss my ARP.
What do you hope for the students to gain? (As a first question).
A physical workshop as a starting point.
Ask for feedback at the end of the workshop.
Use a survey (confidential)
Ask – What have you gained from this workshop?
Sustainability / craft used to embed a sense of social purpose
How can we craft to embed a sense of social purpose into my course?
Next – fill in the ethics form, that will help define the questions we need to ask.
The question & Analysis
How can I use craft to embed a sense of social purpose into my course?
Consider ‘Analogue Tuesday’ GB&I final year students did a workshop I helped design and organise last year making mock-ups of their creative concepts out of cardboard and Lego. They have to use physical resources and avoid using anything digital.
Interview the second years who did that mock-up session – how did they find it?
Interview Rachel Climate Justice course leader
Interview George Carbon Literacy trainer
Plan
Documenting and evaluating that action – what next, evaluate again and again.
How could I use craft to embed essential social purpose into graphic branding and identity? –
Making
Sustainability
Materials
Don’t confuse action – do something different with your teaching practise, then see what happens – that is the evaluation.
I can plan third year interviews on a Friday afternoon at some point when they are in the studio and I’m not teaching. This is research that can be evaluated to help me develop my next steps.
What is research or evaluation? make the recording of this session again and make notes
Next, print the ethics form tomorrow in college and fill it in over the weekend
Monday start writing up what I’ve done so far, then reading and draw a plan of my actions for the coming weeks.
Capturing information
Doing interviews, seeing which to progress
Work out what works
Evaluation is a positive thing
Response to stakeholder concerns
Lots of methodologies for collecting data
Doing an evaluation involves the students – inclusive, what might they need. Help students to know where they are in their learning journey. Formative assessment is a piece of data. Evaluation -pre, post and pro speculative.
Data
Mixed methods
Inclusive
Ethical
A reflective moment, a padlet
All of it builds a picture
Audio, captures comments
Photography and draw the making
Find out if Analogue Tuesday is being repeated as a session this year? If they doing this in SIP (Final year students Self-Initiated Project) can I come in, conduct interviews and take photos? I am reminded that the evaluation process can help development. Create a partnership with students. Through my ARP students will reflect on their learning. Staff assess effectiveness, what words, adaptive as a process. Students have shifted from passive to learning.
I need to design a quote, question – identify an issue. Plan how you are going to do it – try something based on collected data and assess it. Share your findings, feed forward.
Tools
Designed to collate research
Design an evaluative sheet
Evaluation short term and longer impact
Acknowledge data you actually have – interview students who did analogue Tuesday last year
Visual mapping
A padlet 3 quotes 5 minutes
Progress wheel
Audio capture
Observation – engagement in class
IMPORTANT
I need to speak to my teaching colleagues Sandra and Joanna to find out if they are teaching analogue Tuesdays in SIP this year?
Design a process for evaluation
How might you develop an evaluative process in your daily practise? A cycle of data. In a Workshop breakout room I meet with Monica, she support students and wants to evaluate how well the international students are engaged, settled in and integrated with European students. Attendance, if it isn’t good / drop out / why? With first year students evaluate how they are enjoying the courses, digital learning – loan a laptop etc. I give my GB&I first year students a tour of the building at LCC, they see all the amazing facilities available but I wonder if students actually know how to book these?
Think about evaluation throughout our practise, building positive, inclusive partnerships with students, making evaluation meaningful and relevant. Be open with students, ‘let’s try something if it doesn’t work let’s try something else’ I love this, it’s incredibly freeing to feel that something doesn’t have to be successful when it is experimental with a desire to facilitate change.
The starting point for my Action Research Project, in relation to the Ual Social Justice principles was a Branding, Design & Innovation School staff away day in Spring 2023. One of the speakers was Laura Knight, who at the time was working for the Teaching & Learning Exchange as the Educational Developer for Ual Climate, Racial and Social Justice principles. She gave a talk about these principles and the importance of embedding them at every level across the courses we all teach on. We were asked to think about this at every level from the course overview description, our handbooks, unit and project briefs and specific lectures and workshops we could create and run in alliance with these principles.
As a team we discussed this during the session as on Graphic Branding and Identity BA (Hons) as staff, we all contribute to the curriculum that is taught and embedded on our course. My takeaway from this session was that we talk about the importance of these values in our course handbook, we also mention them in some of our briefs and certainly we mark against these in our defined Learning Outcomes for each unit but what do we actually teach on a day-to-day basis about graphic design and branding in relation to issues such as sustainability or socially responsible design? When I marked my students work not long afterwards, I really started to think about what these words and their value meant in reality for students. I also asked myself, how do I grade these students if they haven’t shown evidence for PU002671: Major Project (Route A&B) (Mandatory) Unit. Level 6. Learning Outcome 4Showcase design, technical and craft skills that reflect the principles of responsible design practice applying critical and analytical skills, and the synthesise of ideas from research in the realisation of project work. (Realisation)
What have we actually taught them that needs to be reflected in their sketchbook work, process documents and final outcomes for their projects? What do we teach them about printing processes, digital storage and its cost the environment or designing with a circular economy in mind? These are all important issues but are they valid to our students? Do they those to come to Ual because of the importance we place on them and how do we get students to go out into the world and take their learnings into their professional lives? We hope that our students will be change markers who take their values and principles with them into the industries they choose to work in but I wanted to know more about how my students and the staff I work with feel about this.
I decided to explore this through my ARP with a hope that I could learnt from talking to both staff and students and think about ways to make these grand statements into some tangible our students could apply to their projects while in college and become their values in their future careers. Looking at the Ual principles I was particularly interested in exploring the following as part of my ARP;
Ual Strategy 2022 – 2023 Guiding policy 3 To change the world through our creative endeavour. Creating a better world.
Climate injustice. Disinformation. Structural racism. Regional and economic inequality.
At home and abroad, society is beset with deep-rooted social, cultural, environmental, and economic problems.
Through our research and partnerships, and by targeting the sectors that matter, we can help solve them, and in doing so create a better world.
Ual Climate, Racial and Social Justice principles
1. Move with urgency to become a community that has the capabilities to address the social, racial and environmental injustices of climate emergency using creativity and resourcefulness. We offer hope through action, committing to the decolonisation and decarbonisation of our education and creative practices.
2.Cultivate systems thinking and practices that meaningfully acknowledge the interconnections and complexity of life on earth.
4. Design for human equity, social and racial justice by mobilising critical thinking, humbly questioning the norms, practices and biases embedded in our societies and cultures. We recognise and reflect on our individual actions and societal values through self-awareness and reflective practice.
5. Accelerate activism and advocacy by participating in co-creation and actions that realise change in solidarity with those within and outside of our community. We advocate for justice for nature and humanity through our creative practices.
Alongside this thinking, I also wanted to include a practical workshop we created for our second and third year students last year. I was tasked with writing, designing and running a series of workshops to help reduce the attainment gap with our students on GB&I BA (Hons). As a starting point for these I based each session on one the five Ual assessment criteria Learning Outcomes: Enquiry, Knowledge, Process, Communication and Realisation. For ‘Realisation’ we tasked our students with bringing the project they were currently working on to ‘Analogue Tuesday’. The students were asked to make mock-ups of their outcome from physical materials such as cardboard, Lego, Fimo, fabric or paper rather that having the ability to rely on their technical skills with a computer to produce a polished outcome. The students really enjoyed the session and gave feedback that this helped them to think about and develop their work in new and different ways.
Both these experiences were the foundation for my Action Research Project posing the question… How can I embed a sense of social purpose (through making) into the course I teach on – GB&I BA (Hons)?
The case studies feature projects spanning a wide range of disciplines, and explore a variety of themes including waste, wellbeing, social enterprise, design activism and corporate social responsibility.
Workshop Analogue Tuesday part of the Attainment Workshop series.LO5 reflect the principles of responsible design practice.LO4 Skills that reflect the principles of responsible design practice.LO Process – understanding of the implications of responsible practice.
