pg cert blog

Friday 15th December

I attend the‘Radical pedagogies’ talk as part of the staff development week just before Christmas, as the project that was being presented had a similar theme to my ARP. I wanted to see how the research for this was conducted, what themes were created for the cards, how was the content developed and what was their decision-making process for the various stages of the project.

‘Radical pedagogies’ is a project created by colleagues Doctor Helen Walsh & Sarah MacDonald. The cards were created based on student feedback using a Horizons research and innovations funding in 2021. This was to support projects to develop pedological research. Their manager Christy Johnson suggested they make a proposal for funding as they had similar values around the concept of social justice. They used creativity in an educational format to create a more meaningful experience for students. Building inclusive models for engagement, foster risk taking, creativity and curiosity. The proposal was for student centred teaching materials that celebrate diversity. The box of activity cards they created from this project is now used by academic support staff in classes that they teach. Based around four themes.

• Cultural thinking
• Avant-garde action
• Radical imaginings
• Thinking time

The twenty cards in the box relate to their own personal research interests. These included concepts of time – how we use time, time management, to engage student learning and invigorate group discussion. They worked with students to get feedback on their themes and questions for the cards. The four themes initially had text for ten cards, they got student to vote for their preferences, and engaged a student designer and illustrator to create the final set. Which were then edited, proofread, and printed at LCC.

Students engaged with a focus group as part of this process, BA and MA students from Design, Screen and Media. They gave suggestions such as the card asking participants to ‘write a poem’ receiving feedback from an international student – maybe this is a hard request if you are not a native speaker, the request could be amended to write a poem or a statement. These cards were co-creation with students, their feedback was valuable to the development of the project. As they chose to not follow a banking model of education, but more the lived experience, where students were empowered to make suggestions. Another proposal was from a student who said we need to talk about colonisation, before we can talk about decolonization, they gave perspective as learners. Student initiative shaped the pedagogical materials. For the ‘Avant-garde action’ theme – each card takes an ‘instant’ and turns it into an activity. On the reverse of the card there are discussion questions and activities which get students to think more playfully about big issues. Each card has five activities listed. ‘Critical thinking’ – is a critique of white feminism. Racism and whiteness of feminism – intersectionality. Students were asked to research this and feedback. ‘Radical re-imaginings’ is based on an exhibition at the V&A. Alice – the social justice campaigner empowering women who stood up against injustice – the questions include design a placard to advocate for positive change. The ‘Thinking time’ theme is about decolonizing the calendar. The students giving feedback on this set proposed that time is universal, actually, it’s not, the sun and moon are universal, but time is not. Babylon, Egypt China made-up decimal time but other countries use different systems. They encourage us to use different cards in different learning environments. Helen suggests you can use all of them in a lecture or pick one from each thinking, use flexibly – such as the time management series or critical thinking. They can also be used as warm up exercises, or to support student discussions.

As part of this exercise, we as participants in the lecture now look at the cards and give feedback. Some of the cards need to be made more accessible with larger text. I love the consistency of the illustrations, but the text needs to be larger. I ask the following questions.

•  How many rounds of topics areas and the questions did you decide for each?
• Where did you get them printed on card?
• Which came first categories / examples of text to read, art exhibitions etc?
• Would they be used by just LCC students?
• Are the card age specific?
• Could you simplify the content for school children?
• Once they, the students have completed activities what do they do with that knowledge?

To create the themes and questions Doctor Helen Walsh & Sarah MacDonald created a padlet for the questions, themes emerged from these questions. Initially they had twenty categories, then they began to find which questions had themes in common. The printed set have now been used by both MA & BA students. They found that MA students have often being out of education for a while. The cards work well as an ice breaker. The team designed a few cards each and the categories. A member of the audience talks about working with a publisher to create box sets, how to take an academic project to a commercial conclusion. He had MA student on a course at the college who had done something similar.

The student who designed the cards presented today was found through a job spec on Arts Temps. She created both the illustrations and designed the cards. I love the colour coding of the card themes; it makes them very clear. It’s great to have something physical as a reaction to all the online learning during Covid, a tangible thing. I really like that there is more than one activity to choose from, some of the text is quite small. – we discuss this during the session, and it is something they will consider as they develop the project. The cards address multiples via a range of activities, some practical – film, poetry, a range of outcomes. We discuss how these could use in education; we also suggest they need packaging – a box like the School of Life sets I have been researching. A final idea is to include a dice with the set, the playful act of rolling a dice to get a card in a theme you might not have selected. This reminds me that I need to get feedback from my students on the cards I am creating. What about the final objects? – the speakers have used individual cards in a workshop which also works but they love the idea of having a dice – the gamification of the activity, so that it chooses for you. You can select one card from each colour to work with or all the cards from one colour. We talk about other concepts to work with academic students such as ‘Sentimental exchange’ – like speed dating as an icebreaker activity Students consider sentimental verses monetary value of objects, they talk about what is important and of value to them, that they didn’t bring to university. ‘Critical thinking’ – film, watch a trailer. The MA film students didn’t want to write in class but they like the idea of a game and how that changed the atmosphere in the room. Some prompts are individual activities, and some are class activities. We also recommend adding instructions – pick one card for the whole class or choose one card from each colour. Roll a dice, use the card that you are given. This reminds me that I need to do something similar with my own set of cards, create guidance or instructions explaining how they can be used. Pedagogy – test my cards out with students, in an Open Access workshop, or a game, how do we talk about these tricky topics? For the ‘Radical pedagogies’ set there could be included a ‘Mystery’ card – if you don’t fancy writing you could swap it – answer this by taking photographs, design a logo instead etc. Also consider:

• If you have half an hour do this
• if you have quarter of an hour try this

Timing
You could have an extra card with fifteen minutes, thirty minutes or one-hour options. This time limit would allow you to write a very different poem from having a longer period of time to explore & experiment, both are possible.

For my ‘work in progress’ cards, I now need to review what works – consider colour coding? but what could I change? Add a dice with colours on it? Give a different option for writing activities, mix them up? Take a series of photographs etc. Email Sarah MacDonald and Helen Walsh if I have any questions. I also meet Kevin Biderman from CTS, our GB&I new staff member.

Add lecture I attended staff development week and notes on Brian Eno, School of Life etc cards

11^th December

I had collated pages and pages of Qualitative data from my participatory action research, containing thoughts, opinions, and the experiences & knowledge of both my staff and student participants. I had all of the following documents to analyse.

• 2 staff questionnaire responses
• 2 staff semi structured interviews
• 8 student questionnaire responses
• 8 student drawing responses
• I student focus group semi structured discussion
• 1 student questionnaire response

Examples of data to analyse
Staff response

• I think after the climate emergency in 2018-2019 there was a big push for students to see more projects visibly respond within the curriculum, responding to the climate of urgency and also decolonizing the agenda.
• Reusing resources adds to creativity.
• Being specific about what sustainability means.
• Graphic design can benefit people & communities by limiting its environmental impact.
• Do the right thing.
• Responsibilities for designers, you need to think before designing, during designing and after designing, how it can be the whole process.
• How you make a small thing so that is feels more real, you have a connection to it.
• How is somebody gonna interact with your product or service?

• Student responses
  Lego did make you think about the project in a different way.
• Fantastic way to present your ideas to your friends because you can just ask them – _do you think this works? Do you know what I’m making? To get like real feedback. Just showing them a 2D page which they might need you to brief some background information at first, so feedback might not be clear.
• Something physical people understand. more of your thought process.
• A lot of projects we tend to talk about our ideas, you have maybe a vision of what you want something to be in your head but until you can actually, physically make it – drawing is one thing, but to physically make the objects helps somebody else understand what it is you’re trying to create.

• Find out where my resources come from, educate myself regularly as research.
• Trying to think about other resources that could be reusable so that they have a longer life.
• Does it make you think about that going into the future and the kind of company you want to work for. (Sustainability – aligned thinking.)

I began by reading everything that I had, highlighting the key points in each piece of copy that I found interesting. I used thematic analysis, following a manual, iterative process to extract the main points from my data, continually editing and reducing version after version of all the text I had collated. I put all the highlighted points from each document into one paper and grouped the text thematically, synthesising and transforming the data firstly into a series of statements under themes that I had extracted from my research. Then editing these to become a series of questions that could become creative prompts in the ideation stage of a design project. Once I had a set of approximately fifty sentences, I put these into a prompt card design I created. I then printed them and having this set to physically hold, I placed each card into one of the four final themes that I selected & wrote. These were Think. Use, Make and Connect. For a final edit of my designs, I considered and made a comparison of card against card, where questions overlapped or had a similar sentiment. I either merged the statements into a single response or removed one of the options from my pack. Finally, I was left with a set of 24 cards in total which I felt posed the most interesting discussion points, concepts to consider and ways of working to implement into individual or group project work for students on creative courses at LCC and hopefully Ual in the future.

My final set of creative prompt cards to embed social purpose into GB&I BA (Hons) contained the following themes and number of questions. 

6 prompt cards for Think
5 prompt cards for Use
6 prompt cards for Make
6 prompt cards for Connect
1 card for Instructions

The process in a visual format.

https://miro.com/app/board/uXjVN6jAfvc=/

How it all began…

Process

• For my data analysis I began by collating all my categories of text
• I read through each document highlighting key points of interest
• I then edited these into a new & separate word document
• I took this copy into Miro to categorise it into themes
• I then gave each theme a heading
• I took each point I have highlighted and turned it into a creative question / creative prompt card
• I edit the questions to my final set to add into my designs for production and the final set of wild cards.

Below are the various stages and edits I made of my data, from a series of documents to a single paper. Statements collected by themes, edited again, turned into questions with a final cull to decide what would go to print and be part of my creative prompt cards.

I found some inspiration for my data themes from the following document. – page 5. Long before the categories I finally used developed from analysing the data I collected.

Themes could be;

• Design for Activation
• Design for Imagination
• Design for Recognition

Or from Ual The Exchange
Fostering belonging and compassionate pedagogy
by Vikki Hill, Liz Bunting and Jheni Arboine page 5.

1. Belonging online
2. De-biasing our course
3. Whiteness
4. Courageous conversations
5. Micro affirmations
6. Creating the conditions for compassion

Monday 4^th December

In our last tutorial before the Christmas break with break we are asked

• To talk about our projects.
• Present part of what you’re doing.
• Simplify the Learning outcomes – the fourth learning outcome is about communication – blog.

What is my project essentially about?

• Research methods
• social justice
• design

I am reminded to make sure I touch on all three of these.

Look at the unit brief – what the presentation needs to include.
What do I want to present and what do I want to leave on the blog?
If it is difficult to explain, leave it off the presentation and just put it into my blog.

If it’s energising & enjoyable including it in the presentation. save that interesting content for your blog.

• Reading references – make sure talk about these when you present.
• Tim and others will look at my blog.
• Gather together and organise

I present where I am with my ARP, I show and talk through twenty-four slides. My feedback is mostly positive, it’s lovely not too rushed. My design depicts my journey, the audience learn more about my project, gaining insight on my themes. Why I chose my topic around graphic design, the context for my APR. I worked this theme through my workshops, the whole project exists as a thing. My talk is 9 minutes and 45 seconds, I did not plan what I was going to say I just talked but it is interesting to understand that I used my time well.

I present how I hope to actually embed climate justice into the course I teach on. I am told I speak with an honest voice stating points, uses etc through my implicit practise. I am interpreting institutional policy. There is a value for students as a participatory Action Research Project. I am told with this presentation as it is I would currently get a B/B+. What is missing is my research, I must put on the hat of a researcher. Include a slide about why I choose these methods for my research and data analysis, why I chose this method over another. How was this experience? Add this to my slides. Include the original context, background rationale for my project. I need to add my research analysis, the policy documents I have included are good. I need to talk about ethics and my research particiapnts who created the data with me – explain the formats I used.

I could talk about what I would like to redesign in terms of the university policies or that I could read that literature. I need to show the design of my research overall – what would I do to improve the research design? Teacher implementing the research I have developed. As a final slide I need to include a reading list, consider what did you find the most interesting. Finish your presentation with a bibliography. I need to add a few extra slides to my presentation covering the areas I have yet to document as part of my APR.

Tim breaks down the talk I have just given.

• 1 minute on my first slide introduction
• 7 minutes on data collection
• 1 minute on data

I need to add more research information, why did I chose a certain way to research? How did it go? How did I use the workshops I created? What would I do differently? Write about these as a researcher, not as a teacher or a designer.

Think about timing, to get in all my content. I will take out the section I have on other prompt card designs, and the page I have included on my branding – I will put both of those sections into my blog instead. Tim said I wish everyone could see your presentation, which was very kind.

ASAP to do

• Write up my blog posts
• Create a visual plan of my project
• Contact staff member E for an interview
• Interview El ASAP
• Contact staff member K for an interview, again
• Analyse my data
• Decide & create my themes
• Collate my questions
• Design cards
• Do Risograph induction
• Print cards
• Create a feedback form on my prompt cards for students to fill in
• Put cards into a Professional Practice Unit workshop with students
• Collate their feedback
• Draw some conclusions
• Plan what to do next

Contextualise all you’re thinking as a researcher. Consider sociality, conditions of university etc. Add methodologies to my presentation. Include a slide – how did I analyse and interpret my data? Participatory research can be difficult, dealing with different groups etc Consider, if I did another participant research project, what would I do differently?

For example, Michiko interviewed her colleagues, it has taken her a long time to edit their scripts. Kat created a workshop, ten participants signed up to join her but only one turned up for the event, it is not always easy.

Use the blog template, make sure I have included all the sections listed. State why I decided to data collection via interviews, justify your methodology, your data collection format. The collective identity of staff and students on an equal level. A framework objective is the most important thing, art not therapy. How do you communicate an academic approach? ‘Critical friendship’ – I need an approach. An alternative way to play the academic game. Apply to the relationship with staff and students, a lived experience. A representation for artistic practice.

We are reminded that there isn’t a right or wrong way about the type of research method you use, most will give a rich data set. Think about you reading, use it and your thinking about it. Consider your interests, your interests as a researcher. The depth of your fundamental questions. The nature of learning – individual or social learning: Lev Vygotsky. (1934 -1978) The social learning model is collective thinking, how we learn. Learning is a psychological, about how individuals developing themselves Tim says we have all worked really hard and we are using what we have learnt in our APRs.

In conclusion, the feedback I receive includes needing to add information about my research methodology, why I chose it, did it work? Add a bibliography, remember to document the analysis of my interviews, my own interpretation. Consider, how do we bring the whole of ourselves to the teaching environment? How much do we bring in? When do we stop? What is the frame we’re going to bring in? I must check on my notes, it was really useful to put an initial presentation together and talk it through with an audience. I hadn’t considered my timings, but now I will. This will help me make a plan to get ready for my presentation.

What next for me?

• After this course I would like to apply for staff development funding to develop my social justice prompt cards.
• Speak to Tim and Lindsay – what else can I do within Ual? Become a researcher?
• Can I do the MA in Academic Practice if I only teach on PPU?
• Ask Rachel & Stacey my PPU colleague for career advice.
• Create guidelines for students and staff.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lev_Vygotsky#:~:text=Vygotsky%20was%20a%20pioneering%20psychologist,between%20learning%20and%20human%20development%2C

Wednesday 29th November

Doctor Bob Walley is an actor, a fine artist and a dancer, she teaches medical students traditional Chinese medicine and acupuncture, she says yes to everything. Anticipate that everyone is glorious, be lucky. She did the first joint PhD in the world. In presenting & saying yes, always use that energy and presence. I ask why her name is both Bob and Joanna – she tells us she was short, fat, and ugly someone at the Hacienda nightclub called her Bob. It’s always stayed with her. She is neurodiverse which means she only thinks in the present. She tells us to work with what you have, especially when you have a lot on. Silent, no narrative a PhD on none places. Dance through different epistemology – interpretive dance, silent disco. She hosts ‘shut up and write’ sessions online / in a room – take the space to write with each other for 25 minutes on Thursdays 9:00 to 11:00am. PhD was in performance duration practise.

She asks us to think about the moment of presenting we are working towards. Do you know everything you need to know about it?

A moment,

• Draw ideas together
• How do you plan a presentation together?
• Breathe – look at her padlet
• Content – what is relevant?
• Draw all this information together
• Structure – ask me anything
• Delivery
• Graphics

Bob suggests we put our content onto post it notes – move them around to begin a structure.

• Sections
• Logical
• Beginning, middle and end
• Clearly introduced and concluded
• Delivery
• Eye contact
• Pace & timings
• Graphics

Ted talk, three articles – just a sorbet. Acupuncture for stress, read based on her disciplines. Email her any questions. ever be made. Look at her padlet – how do you feel about presenting? I feel ok as I do this a lot in my teaching practice. She asks us about being given permission to speak, will get stuck in your throat? Remember people, your colleagues want to be there, be present, be the best you can. Academic paper – write any word for clarity, to give a voice to something. I find public speaking OK, I find writing harder, balance.

Bob suggest when we speak, to make sure we face the door, settle, you can have, if you need a physical reminder. Think about your presentation, the characteristics you’re enjoying. Consider the person in the room who is experiencing your presentation. Use powerful pauses, repetition, something unfamiliar, reminder to breathe.

Nest – be present in the room, sit when you want to, on the right chair, where you feel comfortable, have your favourite pencil, hold tactile objects. Nesting – have your own things infront of you, with your words. Make your nest – put things in your pockets. Bob always has a smooth stone in her pocket as a moment of comfort. Wear comfortable clothes, shoes off – what makes you feel comfortable? Favourite stationary, smooth pebbles, a housecoat. All a nesting approach, what might yours be to be comfortable?

Grounding technique – find the ground to extend up and away from it and find a voice. Think about what you don’t like in a presentation? For me, its reading from slides. Get the correct tone, a melody in your voice. Lectures that are too long aren’t good, lighten the tone by smiling, frowning brings the tone of your voice down. Confidence – talk through and around your slides. Proxemics – invite more interest, learn less formally. Lean back, gain critical distance and understand something better. Correct method – section out the pages – different parts to take notes. This allows you to extract different information.

Bob teaches both death & birth practise. She focuses on water as energy, cleanse with cold water for clarity before you present.

Define a set of rituals,

• find your ritual practise.
• durational performance practise.
• Eg brush your teeth before teaching.

When you give your presentation, what are your strong and weak points? Keep those characteristics when you structure, plan your presentation. Find your ritual practice.

Breathing, guided meditation

Feel more present in the moment, feel more confident. Find your voice. Vocal exercises – how to use to communicate confidence and clarity, intention and conviction into the way we speak. Put ideas into practice, start to get ready. Breathe – a pandiculation. Stretch, yawn, place, space, pandiculation, breathe, loosen up the body. Breathing – are you aware of your breath? A moment of stress when we panic. Series of practises to do work with your breath. Exhausting up, away and out – in a bad way. We feel breath, in those moments of stress when we put the body through a certain set of conditions. Guided meditation – senses of words, guide you, direct you into the process, where are you? Take off your socks and shoes, lie down, feel the ground. I am in the perfect place for me right now.

We participate in a guided meditation with Bob. Breathing, I feel my heels. Intention, it was good to be in my body rather than in my head. I spent so much time in my head.

Yoga nidra – this is my time; I’ve been through a battle. This is my time, it’s time to take care of me. Do yoga, be more body centric, learning – do the MA, no more Graphic Branding and Identity? It’s time. Lengthen my space, when you feel stressed – what does that feel like to be me? Shake it out.

Tell your body you’ve got this. When speaking, open mouth more. Project, use your breath intentionally. Not tense, constructed, open up your shoulder blades, open your mouth. Sense of clarity, get the words out. Exposing vulnerability, gives space to something internal – your mouth, open your mouth. Yawning, the apparatus of the jaw. Expanding, you are revealing more of yourself in the moment.

Breathing exercise, close the loop, your energy is yours – teeth, placing the tongue on the back of your teeth. Yoga nidra – lions breath, breathe in, hold, breathe out. Draw a square, draw one breath in, when ready, breathe out. A little hold, square breathing. We are told we can practice this in a queue – imagine the square.

Posture – open up the space, give the lungs space, this will give you more clarity, open up the voice, where you place your shoulders. Have a welcoming posture – open ‘in’ the moment, slightly placed forward, an aggressive pose – chin out, elbows up. Smile – pencil in your mouth, to begin the smile. Watch a Ted talk 20 minutes on posture. Consider your body language, taking in power poses in stressful situations, watch. Joy, celebration – open the body up. Hands on your hips, before you have an intention. Change your response, bring anxiety down.

Presence – physically, communicate your body as it is comfortable as you can be, you are willing to give it a good shot.           It could just be about holding your gaze. Take a moment, A powerful pause, speak to people, smile, allow yourself to access, be as comfortable as you can be. Manifest through physicality, look in between the eyes. The ability to hold the gaze, give your lungs the space to breath.

Breathing – bringing objects around you, remember to breathe, put it into the text you read

Sounding – a sigh, gets breath out of the body. Automatically replaces with fresh breath, sigh to get something out.

• Develop a sigh.
• Your text – learn a way of reading. How might you address the text we read?
• Practice the sound and clarity, the belly breath.
• Practice beforehand – where there should be breath.
• Not the breathing in when reading text, it’s the breathing out.
• Follow your rhythm – use little breaths
• Shaking hands are nerves, they are there because you can see humanity.
• In stress it’s hard to listen, we go blank.
• Stress can affect the senses; you don’t hear the questions.

You can answer through the questions, repeat the question while you gather your thoughts. Build through, use what you’ve heard and what you, use that material to find a way into a response. Ask – does that answer your question? Ask the speaker to repeat the question.

High moments of stress – exam techniques, an elastic band around the wrist, inability to function, ping it – the slight pain will reset and interrupts your brain. Catch your breathe and come back into it.

All points to consider as I prepare for my presentation.

Monday 20th November
In person, we meet in Holborn, a very different space that throws me initially. The session introduces us to a variety of methods to analyse our data, it is extremely helpful but it’s also our last group session before our presentations in January.

Friday 17th November

For my second student workshop, I created a focus group discussion in an informal setting. I had six participants that had attended the original session and two other new members joined to make up for the students who were off unwell. We sat in a circle on the sofas in our studio. I introduced the subject I wanted them to talk about together and with me, posing questions for them to answer and guide the conversation. It was very informal and enjoyable experience.

Raw data from the focus group discussion.

Wednesday 15th November

This blog session is held by Dr Rachel Marsden who specialises in creative health, working freelance and as both a Research Fellow and a supervisor for PhD’s across Ual, teaching as a Senior Lecturer on both the PgCert and MA in Academic Practice. This session is fantastic, helping me to think about writing & my ARP in a different way, I could definitely use some of these activities with my own students. She shares a slide deck to help us as a visual resource. Mentioning Pat Francis book – Taking a Line for a Write.

Today is about blog writing and sharing

• Rolling reflection
• Data sources
• Experimental
• Discovery

We limber up with a list exercise, free writing lists as an everyday method. Creative lists to generate ideas and inspire creative work. I am asked to write a list of everything I did since waking up this morning, we all have 5 minutes to complete this. I’m amazed at how many things I have achieved this morning. We also write a list of what colours we can see around us. This is so light, fun and thought provoking.

The task helps us to think about how we document, using observation as a method. See in different ways, what we hear or feel. Workshop – focus group, participant facing, observation as a form of reflection. A period of time – concentrated. Unit brief – check the criteria eg. data collection etc What have I got? Write a list.

Our next 5-minute task is a memory making tool. We are asked to create a pattern in letters, to act as a device in memory making. We create Mnemonics using the letters from our names to create a list of keywords as a summary, that define our Action Research Projects. This exercise helps me enormously, to consider what are the key points of importance for both my research & my intervention.

Our tutor shares;

R – Researching
A – Arts
C – Care
H – Health
E – Ethics
L – Lived Experience

I write;
S – Searching
A – Answers
R – Research / Reflection
A – Analysing
H – Hearing

M – Making / Methodology
A – Art & Design
N – Number / Nature
S – Social Responsibility / Students / Staff
E – Ethics
L – Looking
L – Learning / Lived Experience

How could I take this further? Other words that come up in people’s poems include: variety, group, creativity, observation, insightful, brainstorming, emotion, reflective, inclusion creativity investigation – methods. We are asked to really think about ‘what are your priorities as part of your APR?’ I must make sure I can define what my research is and then invite my participants. This will help with co-production. Think about the reading I am interested in as part of my APR. Create a concept map. Think – are the words appropriate in the context of my research? Go further with each word – position in context. Action or active verbs – doing words. The experience made me think about what the key elements of my Action Research project are, along with a wider reflection on the activity. How would I define each activity? What reading should I do on it? Does this identify any gap I’m missing? Participants? Can a numeric reveal senses and emotions?

We are given a proposal of ‘to do exercises’ – promoting the approval to write. These are to do in our own time. The Reflectionnaire (Francis 2009:83) – the way, the how and what of writing. Consider – how do you write? What are the hurdles? Time and space? A framework? How might you create ­a Reflectionnaire for the Action Research Project? How do I write? Lists, post it notes, untidy handwriting. Take pleasure in writing as reflection. I write too much, about what I need to do to formalise it in my own mind. I need to read more reading. I reminder myself to look at the workshop three resources on Sunday. Rachel tells us that if you do a PhD there is a lot of reading & research, but the writing is hard. We are reminded to think about what we find hard and easy to do.

Time – idea generations.

There is no perfect time to write, there are times that we are better. Rachels tells us – give yourself the time to write, time boxing as a daily practise. For example – after breakfast, every morning. Write at the kitchen table. Time box, same time, every day. Short or long? Use dictation? Talk to word or just my iPhone? Investigate how the pomodoro technique works – 25-minutes on, 5-minute break but longer breaks throughout the day. Use time boxing – schedule a time. I tend to think about my work for a long time and then write with the pressure of a deadline! APR – engage in an interaction continuously. We can’t leave this to the last minute because it requires blogging & a presentation. It’s fine to work offline and upload it later, which is what I tend to do. Writing up my handwritten notes from each session. Find what word works for me.

ASAP

• Blog posts done before Christmas
• Make my cards
• January 9th plan to do the workshop & collate feedback
  Sadly my US students will be gone by then
• Need to do in December?
• Design and write a presentation of where I am
• Homework for session 3

• Idea generation – content bank
• Look at Lindsay’s blog post suggestions etc
• What should I focus on?
• Make sure I are meeting all of those areas
• Free write about my ideas
• Acknowledge any gaps eg. Research Methods

Find more literature & theory to underpin

• Definition – feelings & emotions
• Look at the Unit brief
• Data collection – analysis, integration, quotations, add into my text. Lines that resonate or are challenging. A diagram of five legs responding to a question with links, agree or disagree. This can also include anecdotes, statements or quotations – extract a quote and sit it in that space, generative to create a paragraph around it, that is analysis. Generative – value & power – reading / listening can form a pivotal moment for you as an approach. Have a set of criteria to identify – thematic analysis. Criteria to select quotations for analysis. A generative process, repeated process – I am interacting follows the Action Research cycle. Our third session in person will go over this.
• Summary – what I’ve got out of the project.
• What changes did I make in the project / did the project go through? An honesty task. Attitudes, ways of working.
• What brought me joy? Inspired me? An achievement?
• Blocks & barriers – What did I overcome?
• Reflect on my tutorials, the advice I have been given, feedback on my ethics form etc.
• How did I manage your time?
• Is my APR experimental enough?
• What skills have I gained? For me, learning how to collected & distil data. The practical workshops, learning how to use the digital print space at LCC, how to pay for my printouts, a Risograph induction and how to print my cards using this technique.
• What next? Using the cards I create, develop a workshop. I would like to be part of a responsible design practice – creating a unit for my students (This will happen as our course is currently under revalidation with the new course beginning in September 2024)  
• What I found challenging? I sent questionnaires to staff members I had engaged with for my project, the lack of response made me realise that I needed to make the experience less formal. I evaluated what I had created and made significant changes. I invited my participants to meet me and conduct interviews with each where the questions I was posing could be asked and we could discuss those themes together, I found this incredibly rewarding.
• Attend 12:00pm session about our presentations
• 29th of November 2:00 to 4:00pm Cross-programme event
• Blog post – a visual plan of my work
• I am reminded to capture new, raw material – write notes, capture the energy. Edit later not as I go. Drive the idea, think about the focus later. I could give my questions to another colleague on the PgCert for feedback. Check – are my questions clear? Are there different ways to say what I am asking? Refinement of writing. WIDEL – write it down, edit later. (Francis 2009:207) Capture the raw material.
• Look at Rachel’s references
• What next for me? I love Graphic design, the English language & History – apply for the MA? One day, a PhD? Design, writing, research.

Monday 6^th November

Points to go over with Tim

1. I have written my questions for my student & staff questionnaires and workshop.
2. I have had my ethics form signed off.
3. I have written & created my consent forms, my question sheets for staff & students and the information sheet to explain my Action Research project.
4. I hosted my first student session last week – Friday 3^rd November.
5. I will host my second student session this week – Friday 10^th November.
6. I sent my questions via email to the 4 members of staff that I selected and want to engage in my project.
7. I will send them a reminder this week about my submission date – 16^th of November.
8. I should have all my data by the following Monday 20^th November to analyse and distil for the content of my cards.
9. Next week put together a ‘work in progress’ presentation
10. Try to use Orb
11. Book risograph printing induction at LCC – find out how
12. Design & make cards
13. Urgent – catch up on blog posts
14. Conduct reading on research methods, consider and write about why I chose the method/s I have used
15. Present WIP 4^th December
16. Try cards out in a Professional Practice Unit session I teach with year 2 BA(Hons) students as a cross-school programme of events
17. Remind Tim I would like to use my ISA

My father In-law suddenly passed away yesterday. It’s a huge shock to the family and throws everything I had organised by a week. The session I had planned as workshop 2 with my students on the 10^th of November moves to the 17^th instead. His funeral is on the 27th of November. We attend as a family, it’s the first time my twins have been to a funeral, they are only six. My older daughter doesn’t remember attending my father’s funeral as she was two at the time. It’s a moving experience, I had no idea how generous he was with his time and helping other people.

Online session

We discuss the intervention – research versus practical. I need to have on two hats – be a teacher and a researcher. I need to think of and ask researcher type questions, for example: what do my colleagues think about using music in the taught curriculum? What are the gaps in between working for students attending class? Reflect on the use of music in general. Researcher & practitioner – being both will help the students at some point. Consider a ‘research type intervention’ Michiko’s methodology is conducting interviews; she has seven participants who have agreed to be involved – she has four interviews planned. Tim reminds her this is a response rate of over 50%.

Look on Moodle for advice on reading material, look at ways to do interviews, techniques. Really think about my actions – a recorder in hand becomes too official, outside the teaching environment feels more informal. What applications can we use to make a transcript. AI? Investigate if there is a Ual package? Often programmes are available for a small amount of time for free. Record using my iphone? Type up text or find a recorded text to written text format? Data transcript from sound to text files. I need to investigate software for transcription. Remember to interview & record in a quiet space. Think about semi structured interviews which are informal and more conversational. We are each conducting a mini research project – data selection, the process of when do our collecting, we need to focus on an aspect of the response. Reduce the amount of data we’ve got to thematical / comparative analysis. Try not to be overwhelmed with context. We are reminded that if we’re going to use the information for publishing – speculative possibilities, my interviewee needs to agree I can use it.

Think back to the Action Research cycle – question, how can this data be used?

• Linear / circular research
• Cards and implementation
• Will my data give me the right questions?
• Sit with the data – put my questions / preconceptions aside
• Revisit my methodology and the question I have posed
• Visualisation / analyse the visuals
• Affective methods, gamification – digital research, for which there is lots of funding
• Linguistic or language based?
• Verbal or nonverbal data collection?
• Reading materials what should I read to support my methodology and my APR?

Look at Giles Lane CSM cards, making interactive toolkits – cards, awareness, letter maps, values.

I have eight students and four members of staff participating – hopefully!

I need help – what is my methodology?

My concerns

1. Will staff respond to my questionnaires?
2. Will I get the data that I can use to create the questions for my prompt cards?
3. Don’t have a preconception, wait and see.
4. Analyse what I receive, if not – relook at the questions I have asked.

I give an overview to my group based on the list I created in this post, to show where I am in my ARP. I’m advised to look at what I asked as a device to get my students to think about Analogue Tuesday, making and sustainability. Asking, how did that workshop make them feel? I am given feedback that my Action Research project feels like an MA, it has the scope to turn into an amazing project – which is fantastic. It’s complex & cohesive, innovative, at the threshold of thinking, a new development – pushing the university to be more relevant, critical. Tim talks about the Stuart Hall project, a researcher in the Knowledge Exchange. Look up Stuart Hall & Maureen Salman. I am reminded to think about the scale / scope of the project – what is doable for me? I feel it’s OK, think about what will sustain me & feed me going forward. I want to make work. Design, writing, research. I would like to do the MA, this is the beginning of something new for me.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Stuart_Hall_Project

In my data collection I tried to be efficient – with the hope that staff will type up their answers via emailing them questionnaires, to save me having to writing up the interviews. I must remember to ask – what do you really want? It’s an important question to ask students and an amazing question to be asked. Document the event – how? What will I record? What resources do I need to share / create? In this situation, what materials are required? To share physical resources, do I need a script? – I created one for each scenario I envisaged. I am reminded to consider what prompts I will give my participants to get them to think in the way in that I want. If it’s a surprise they may not have bought all of that information with them to the session. It’s good to get people in a room and open them up. Have carefully prepared resources for what they need to do the next. Anything is possible – Theaster Gates took over a bank for $1.00 and turned it into a national critical archive.

https://www.theastergates.com/project-items/stony-island-arts-bank

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0361684319865255?journalCode=pwqa

Critical Participatory Action Research: A Feminist Project for Validity and Solidarity by Michelle Fine

If you can see and feel the possibility, then students will open up. We are reminded –  what are you going to bring? Prepare your interviewees. Activate ‘use of self’ a method used in social work. This is real – Rachel talks about her struggles with the project, we discuss making ourselves vulnerable. She is asking her Year three students to think critically. For me, I need to catch up on my blog and my reading list. I need to finalise what is my methodology. Build connectivity, prepare a meaningful space – this is powerful for students. Participatory autoethnography – prompts to get under skin. Create imaginative, artistic questions. Look at The Queer Art of Failure – A John Hope Franklin Center Book by Jack Halberstam, Sep 2011 ­­- knowledge not passed on due to structures of power. Get the student facing things done. Participatory action research – look at Michelle Fine’s work. Capacity, trust, communities who experienced marginalisation are studied Participatory research is delicate, consider: how does this service? What do we need to believe in the process? What do I need to get there? What do I need to sustain myself? What resources do I require to get there? Be upfront, what is possible? Intersectionality? Remember to mention my positionality as part of my Action Research Project. The power is in the participants hands – let’s begin where the curriculum begins. Think of Paulo Freire – we are the educator and the educate. The researcher is the outsider, what do we bring to the group as a gift? To give them the confidence to speak. Educational research, we are teachers designing research, how do we do this without advantageous / disadvantageous some students?

Educational research can be unethical, as the students who do my project or at an advantage. Think about this, find the right stories for people to connect to.

• Email Tim if I have any questions.
• Plan a speculat­­ive unit model.
• Show how much we can commit ourselves.
• Self-reflect as a teacher.
• Non duality, this doesn’t happen very often.

Enjoy the process

• Collate data from my students and staff ASAP
• Analyse for the next session in two weeks time
• See what happens
• Write up my blog posts
• Think about my methodology – do research to support my method and write about it

November 13^th Updates – where I am

Staff

• R e-mailed she will do the project, I can interview her
• K chase him if don’t hear anything, ask if I can interview him
• E expert on sustainability, ask again for her involvement
• G check he is OK to complete & return my questionnaire ASAP?

• Email Tim request use of ISA
• Interview with R booked for Thursday 16^th November, send invitation
• Second workshop with students booked for Friday 17^th November
• Use Microsoft Teams transcript for both
• Arranged interview with K
• I could also interview E previous colleague from GB&I BA (Hons) see how other interviews go & then decide

1. Completed workshop one with students
2. Sent questionnaires out to 4 staff – 1 returned, 1 expressed interest I’m learning that I would have been better to do these interviews in person. Relook at this.
3. Risograph induction – I’ve finally got onto ORB to book this but I’m listed as being a student at LSF campus so I can not book an induction at LCC
4. I’ve talked to staff and they have said I can do a walk in session this week, do it ASAP
5. Complete blog posts on ethics form questions &consent forms for staff & students
6. Email staff and book interviews – be more interactive offered to conduct an interview rather than ask for an email reply to the questions I have posed
7. Thursday – go in and do Risograph induction
8. Do second workshop with students on Friday
9. Saturday / Sunday Review data content to start thinking about making cards
10. Plan my presentation for Monday 4^th December

Friday 3rd November

Data collection

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.

1. Did you participate in ‘Analogue Tuesday’ workshop in year 2?
2. How did you find it?
3. Can you draw what you made on the paper provided?
4. How did the experience of making something physical (an object) feel?
5. 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.

Interviews & Questionnaires
Staff questions posed included.

• 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.

Friday 3rd November

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.