Month: January 2019

Earlier I have published my little 5 minute presentation. There were eight of us in the room and we all casually did our little presentations. It was great listening to people from all different backgrounds telling their story on how they got into teaching. We had a range of educators; librarians, metal health officers, REAL academics who teach theory and creative tutors.  After everyone’s presentation we could comment on what we identified with and what issues that brought up. Race and gender within education were big topics of discussion. There are very few tutors who are BAME and female in UAL. This is crazy, as you expect, especially in the arts field where you believe majority are open minded that there would be equal opportunities for all. Also our students are so diverse which makes me think I need to be even more inclusive and aware of other cultures. My students are currently doing a live brief with Zara and its title is ‘Home Town Trends’ and it’s been great to hear about other countries and what is popular there. This is all about just opening your eyes and questioning what is happening around you. Another big topic that came up was class and how some students really felt the struggle of paying for university and attending whilst having to work compared to others who were always in uni but not always being productive because they had parents to help them out. Although I agree this is definitely the case and I see it with students all the time, I didn’t get a chance to say, my parents worked hard to pay for my education and even though I went to private school we didn’t have a large disposable income. Because I was privileged and didn’t have to work, I still worked all through uni and saved money so I didn’t have to work in the final year. I didn’t want my parents paying for everything. Also because I felt privileged, I never felt like my issues were important because there was always some one in a worse situation and so I had no right to feel that way. What I say to my students is if it makes you feel rubbish then it’s a problem worth talking about and dealing with. I didn’t grow up with a lot of money and my parents worked really hard to make money for us to be comfortable but I don’t think just because you went to a posh school or have been lucky enough not to have to work makes your voice less valid.

Another recurring topic was ‘bad teaching’ from our former tutors – we all agreed we mostly have learnt what not to do from them!

Another member of our small cohort was talking about the inequalities she experienced in her MA, which was surprising to me. It made me realise that our small teaching team used to have a fantastic course leader and she always was fair to all students, offering everyone a chance to participate in funding, external projects and competitions.

I wanted to note down my thoughts and what I deduced from this session.

My small team were given the statement

While risk taking is central to the critical thinking process, this behaviour is unlikely to occur unless those involved have no sense of fear. (Macfarlane 2004, p.59)

We decided that you have to let inhibitions/ fear go to allow the ideas to flow – but can you let everything go? Just like a child, if you have no inhibitions you are also not aware to critically question/ think about the decisions you make. You need to have some fear but it’s about overcoming the fear and opening the mind to other potential ideas and concepts that maybe are out of your depth. Our team questioned – Is risk taking central to critical thinking? Maybe it’s also about self confidence that allows one to feel assured and critically think. The statement also brought up many other questions such as, How do we change our relationship to fear? What are the fears that inhibit one from taking risks? How do we reduce fear to take the risk?

Looking back at Padlet, which Linsday told us to upload a statement regarding our statement on to, unfortunately, there seemed to be no other teams looking at the same statement. I would have liked to see what they interpreted from it. For us, we thought ‘How do we change our relationship with fear to think critically?’ was an important question to ask as it’s easy to be told do this and do that,  but it’s the HOW, the journey to get there that is what students need to learn and as teachers, what we need to teach them. Especially in a creative university, no longer are the days of students living in fear of their tutors and just listening to what they say. Students now question tutors judgements and constantly ask us for guidance and help through their journey.

I also had a quick look at the first statement:

Techniques is what teachers use until the real teacher arrives (Palmer 1998, p.5)

I took this as we come from industry and have no formal training as teachers and we believe we are not real teachers and are waiting for the real teacher to educate us/ tell us what to do. This really resonated with me and Iestyn also told us that this is a common thought amongst tutors. To hear other people feel exactly the same as you is great. My colleague and I really felt like it was just us, but now there are more of us in this boat!

Some educational knowledge Lindsay wanted us to be aware of:

ROBBINS – all the ppl who wanted to go to uni – were the capable? Before robbins 4 x men than women going

1992 – Further and higher education act – bringing everything under central control rather than locally. Made polytechnics into unis

1990s – labour intro tuition fees – stripping back of funded places

Dearing report – 90s – intro by new labour but had cross party support – initiated by conservative gov. In 97 Oberton window (sits within the realm of acceptability). Asking people to make a contribution to fees as costs going up.

NSS – 2005 – students are now consumers

2008 – crash

2010- browne report – opened the flood gates for fees. Uni’s are competing – some do two yr degrees so cheaper and do the best in NSS

Teaching excellence framework – ranking unis – incorporates some of the results of NSS, employment and highly skilled

Growth of online learning – 2000s

Graeme and I were in a pair discussing education, and I brought up that even despite having free education you are still indirectly paying for an education as it’s all about catchment areas and the areas with the best schools attract residents, which in turn raise house prices and only a SEC can afford to live in these areas.

 

I wrote and rewrote this several times, not knowing what to write about. BUt this is what I said in the first meeting with Iestyn…

Hi I’m Selina and I am a 0.6 and teach at LCF, Golden Lane. For those who have never visited, it’s a small site for BA footwear, BA acessories, MA artefact and MA jewelry courses. I love it because it is so intimate – you know all the staff and all of your students. It has a very friendly atmosphere.

 

I teach on the BA Accessories degree and am the second year main tutor and the final year technical tutor. There are approximately 30 students in the second year and I deal with half the final year cohort – about 16 of them. It is important to me as a tutor to remember all their names and also pronounce it correctly. At university my tutors never made the effort to learn all the names, mine included. It definitely made me feel like I was not an equal of the student cohort. This is something I never want my students to feel, I want them to feel like part of a big team all working together to the same goal.

 

Having taught at other smaller schools, with Artscom and running my own business where we always had employees – I have learnt that people do not learn through fear. Especially with so many students with personal difficulties like anxiety and depression, it is vital, in my opinion to make sure you are firm but always encouraging and positive. I find always being enthusiastic helps the students get excited about their work too. I went to a private secondary girls school in North West London, where my art teachers – who were incredible- were exactly like this. Always encouraging but would be firm if something needed to be changed. Contrasting to this was my English Literature Tutors who would ignore me because my answers were not intellectual enough or good enough. They never encouraged me and or made me feel like I could do it. I ended up sleeping through my last English Lit exam because I just couldn’t be bothered. I will never forget this – and would never want any student who I teach to feel like this either. Everyone needs to feel important.

 

My 2nd year students are divided into group A and B and I usually teach one group in the morning and the other group in the afternoon. If it is a design class, I have to repeat the class twice, so make sure I repeat the afternoon class with the same enthusiasm and is if it is the first time I’m delivering the session.  Design classes usually begin with me teaching them something and then getting them to participate after. With creative students, I have found they don’t sit still for long! They want to move around, interact and get creative! One of the websites I enjoy using is mentimeter.com. Here you can imput a question with multiple choice answers, students use a code to access the page and then use their phones to input their answers anonymously. Students love it  as they are always on their phone and also if they are shy or worried about giving the wrong answer, it’s all anonymous so no one need worry. The technical classes are different. If I’m teaching them a new technique/ construction, I have a powerpoint presentation of the steps so students who are moving faster can move on and no one feels left behind. It is very much me demonstrating steps and them copying. Once students get to making their own bags there more of a one on one tutorial session where I run around the room making sure I see each student and they are okay with the process. 

First lecture completed as a whole collective. It was great to meet educators not only from LCF, but from other universities as well. It took me several hours to read the Holmwood extract and Lindsay mentioned in her email that this was an easy read! Not for me! I thought that I would be the only one struggling, but after today’s session I realised we were all in the same boat. We are all creative tutors and haven’t read academic articles for a while so to get our heads around language was one thing with new terminology thrown on top. It made me realise that for a student and more so as a foreign student, you do really need to think about the way you phrase words, the pace you speak at and your enunciation.

 

Today’s session wiped me out! There was so much to take in and so much for me to review later on and analyse in another blog. I loved working in these small tiny groups as I felt comfortable to say my opinions even if they didn’t make sense or really answer the questions in hand. I enjoyed discussing ideas and then being forced to summarise  it into a phrase or a question. This taught me that i had an understanding of what was going on and made me feel confident that I actually had some intellectual opinions that my team thought were good!

My name is Selina and I have been a lecturer at LCF for three years now. I am the main second year tutor and am part of the final year teaching team on Ba Bags and Accessories. My background, which has led me to this point, started at CSM and graduating in 2005. From there I worked as a textile designer for a year which really wasn’t for me, I enjoy feeling materials and being hands on with the making which I always felt helped me develop my designs. Whist working, I did an evening course at LCF and learnt how to make bags professionally. I was lucky enough to have a tutor who took me under his wing and I worked in his studio whenever possible. It is from there I started getting paid work, building up my client list until I was working for the likes of Sophie Hulme, Harris Tweed, Topshop Unique, Johnathan Saunders etc. I was consulting, making samples for press, catwalk and pre production samples. I then joined forces with a good friend and colleague and we created Studio168 where we pooled our clients together and set up on our own. Alongside the work I taught at smaller schools about bag making and at LCF Artscom. It was from there a colleague asked me to cover her maternity leave and I’m still there now!