15th January
On a beautiful, sunny winter’s morning we find ourselves as a cohort at Chelsea School of Art. We meet in the most incredible wood panelled meeting room; I join my colleagues and friends for their final presentations of the Action Research Projects. It’s a pleasure to hear them speak and see the diverse range of subjects that they cover in their ten-minute talks. We are reminded that this is a summative assessment, to make sure our blogs are live and to complete the feedback form as a project summary. Ten colleagues present, they have ten minutes each, five minutes for the audience to consider questions and ten minutes in dialogue with us. We are reminded to try and enjoy the process, the PgCert is coming to an end. Be supportive and ask questions with kindness, to help the presenter talk about anything they may have missed in their presentation, for example background reading, evaluation methods or peer assessment process. The first speaker Denise adapted a time management tool the Eisenhower Matrix for students with ADHD, this is a social justice issue about disability. Affective pedagogy, sensory integration – how to embed this in relation to the growing number of students on all courses? Joe talks about a non-hierarchical collaborative exercise, embodied analysis (Bury 2018) He talks about traditional education as being hierarchical, whereas contemporary education is more about learning together. I find this fascinating. Francesco’s project is about decolonising fashion and textile brief, the mass displacement of people, the hostile environment the UK government promotes for refugees. His students work with refugees in a collaborative process, Francesco is an educator and activist, using his lived experience of migration, to challenge his positionality and privilege. His project is stunning, using qualitative data analysis involving
- Participant observations
- Evaluative questionnaire
- Thematic analysis
Michiko’s project ‘Surviving I, surviving we’ explores using self in creative and intellectual practice. She interviewed her colleagues about the ethics of using self, as an art historian writer and teacher on the BA honours performance making course, students use their lived experience, cultural backgrounds, over sharing then other students get triggered. She asks – what extent do we ask students to over share? Collaborative ethnography, an interpretive and immersive approach. Boundaries in a pedagogical context. A framework, objective, objectivity, perspective, detachment, recontextualization, reframe, rewrite, design.
Lucy’s ‘Waste not, want not’ project is more connected to my own, she looked at sustainability and materials within the curriculum, social enterprise projects. Her project was based on the core values of sustainability, her question came from an observation. As a educator she champions material circularity with her students. Encouraging them to create socially engaged designs with the hope of embedding social principles into her students. Learning by doing – the transformative power, empowerment. Students as active participants, use them involve them in the project as a methodology. Participatory Action Research, an approach that engages the participants to be involved and want social change.
PAR methodology
- Workshop
- Focus group
- Participant observations
- Social change by empowering groups
She created a framework, collected discarded materials – these became her data set, a physicality. Lucy wanted equal partners with the students (James Bury) Using collected materials to make something that everyone would benefit from – a cleaning kit for participants to use in the studio space they worked. This was an outstanding presentation that I really enjoyed. Particularly the idea of using physical objects, the discarded as a data set.
In the afternoon Eleni presented ‘the leftovers’ she introduced herself as a studio space, my name is D305. It is a huge studio space but not very welcoming. ‘Find a place you trust and try trusting it for a while’ Immaculate Hearts College Arts Department. Corita Kent 1962. How do we belong together? Celebrate diversity and difference. The leftovers in a studio space is not what’s put in the bin, it has value but it’s not valued enough to take home. Richard Serra – leftovers contextualised. ‘Oblique approaches to knowledge’ Anti-ethnography, indigenous cosmologies. Method as intervention. Data analysis, agency, access as a support, display. Her conclusion was that other things that happened, people started to put things on the wall as a communication method.
The experience reminded me to add to my presentation.
- Introduce myself and show my ARP question.
- Show my starting point – the Away day, how social purpose is mentioned in the course handbook. I asked how do we embed this into the course?
- Show the workshops ‘Analogue Tuesday’
- Tim reminded me to do something I wanted to do – to make something
My data collection - 2 Staff questionnaires
- 2 Staff interviews
- 2 Student workshops
- 1 Drawing session and a questionnaire 8 students
- 1 Focus group discussion with key questions asked 6 students
- 1 Student response questionnaire
- I collected data based on… show some of the questions I asked and the responses.
- What was my intervention? I collected feedback from staff and students, using it to implement a plan at Ual.
- I hosted my student facing activities during classroom sessions, a strategic decision so that they would be in college to participate.
- For final presentation add in academic reading.
Key points to remember in my presentation mention - My positionality.
- Social justice principles strategy.
- Consider the colour & legibility of my prompt cards.
- Introduce how I used the Action Research model.
- Include a final reflection.
- Reading references, bibliography at the end of my document.
- Make sure I show the data analysis in my presentation.
- Which model I used – thematically, qualitative or quantitative.
- Acknowledge what didn’t work.
- Conclusion – these prompt cards can be used in any workshop.
- I hope to apply for a grant to develop these as a Ual resource tool.