Here is a link to the presentation I gave on my own teaching, professional and creative identity and piece of pedagogy: https://artslondon-my.sharepoint.com/:p:/g/personal/m_elgon_arts_ac_uk/EfIBIhB34YlCjX1ntTXIRxYBhHTfNJKWYGLMtCiLcdQzWg?e=0azFBA
Here are my responses to some of the presentations from my group:
V
- V worked for a long time in the NHS.
- She is a qualified cognitive behavioural therapist.
- She was delighted when she moved to UAL and found it an incredibly positive change.
- She instructs people in mental health first aid and provides students with mental health support.
Her piece of pedagogy was an article on archiving critically in the Sparks Journal. It discussed critical thinking in the context of the archive. Vanessa also talked about object learning workshops. One of the main questions she raised was how you might proceed as an educator if students were resistant to the opening up or challenging of dominant narratives within the archive. Potential solutions which were raised by the group included opening up a discussion with students where you highlighted the fact that the absence of multiple narratives or voices gave an incomplete and erroneous picture. It was doing them a disservice.
Thoughts/ideas/implications for practice:
The point she raised around the archiving critically article regarding opening up discussion around material, reminded me of the type of discussion you engage in around art and design history with students to encourage them to think critically and realise that there are particular social, cultural and political dynamics at play in who is present and who is absent.
It also sparked ideas for me regarding the CCW Libraries and Archives. I was reminded of conversations I’d had with library staff at the beginning of the year that could be followed up on.
Thinking about the UAL African-Caribbean, Asian and African Art in Britain Archive. It would be exciting if there could be a series of events where Illustration students engaged with material from the archive later this year. Then perhaps exhibit, create publications or have a series of talks/workshops showing the results next year. It could be interesting in multiple ways. In terms of intent – illustrators as socially engaged ‘agents of change’ in line with our course ethos. Also, in terms of skills – an illustrator’s skillset being ideally placed to make visible, create and expose narratives, communicate, illuminate etc. Using longstanding illustrative skills but applied to a context and task of current relevance.
Regarding object learning, this also feels like it has great potential in terms of inclusive teaching practice. It encompasses a greater range of ways of engaging with and knowing the world for students. It would support and play into the potential learning strengths of some students – visual and tactile/kinaesthetic learners as described in the VAK Learning Modalities proposed by Barbe and colleagues (Barbe, Milone Jr, 1981) – but also stretch and expand horizons for others.
M
- M works in performance technical.
- His own work encompasses scenic environments and performative objects
- He is a maker
- He explores scale and interesting juxtapositions.
The pedagogy he discussed was ‘Arboreal Pedagogy: Tree Learning for Better Learning’. It highlighted how the learning environment affects learning. The authors were presenting ideas that worked against the institution and bureaucracy, for creativity and DIY methods. M mentioned that in addition to the main themes of the piece one of the things that struck him was the possibility of academic writing being ‘artful’.
Thoughts/ideas/implications for practice:
The pedagogic piece that M had chosen seemed to perfectly express the playful and disruptive yet also supportive and thoughtful energy within his practice.
It was also incredibly useful to hear in the context of online teaching, a large university with extensive administrative machinery and a higher education sector under pressure from a government which has a view of education at odds with academics. It feels like this type of pedagogy is the way forward in the face of these larger situations over which as a teaching practitioner you have limited control.
I do this already when I engage in things like taking students out into the world as part of a workshop or on visits. Within the studio, when I bring in visual matter and objects to set the scene for a learning activity or project and when I structure the room to aid learning.
However, this could be developed further. Taking students off site can sometimes be an issue because of our large class sizes but we could transform the studio spaces more extensively for each project. Displaying more extensive visual matter, bringing in physical examples, perhaps arts materials that might be useful too – Thinking more wholeheartedly in inspirational terms, embracing the theatrical and experiential.
Also, the object learning from V and the learning environment focus from M tap into the idea that outcomes of learning are stored in three memory systems: (Tulving 1985, in Teaching for Quality Learning in University, Biggs and Tang. Pages 63-64) procedural, episodic and semantic, that some are easier to remember than others and so ‘recalling the context or the actions can often bring back the semantics’ or meaning.
To begin thinking in this direction also leads on into full ‘adventure learning’ as describe in Geography Mackenzie and White (1982) or Nadja Siegel in Law (in Teaching for Quality Learning in University, Biggs and Tang. Pages 62-63) and ideas that ‘we learn through activating different sense modalities: hearing, touch, sight, speech, smell and taste. The more one modality reinforces another, the more effective the learning.’ In terms of development in this direction, I think adventure learning in an art school context is interesting as the making process itself covers the ‘adventure’ and ‘action’ aspects and provides a natural mix of sense modalities. In an art school, it might be more valuable when teaching content like assessment literacy.
R
- R’s creative practice is cross disciplinary, encompassing radio, performance, music and installation.
- She mentions the ‘journey’ and experimentation as important elements.
- She works across technical and academic teams.
- As an educator, she has worked in a variety of different contexts with students of different ages.
The pedagogy R selected was an article in the Sparks Journal, Issue 3 (Sarah McDonald, 20/04/2018) called ‘Citizens of somewhere: How a cross-cultural discussion group offers opportunities for intercultural understanding’ the inclusive, cross-cultural and dialogic nature of the group resonated and reflected themes within her practice.
Thoughts/ideas/implications for practice:
The ethical motivation behind this discussion group really resonated with me and felt like it had relevance for my course (BA Illustration) because of our high percentage of international students and the need to bring home, EU, international and all students together as one community. Perhaps a similar scheme could become a cross-year project run by our Graduate Studio Assistants who are recent alumni.
Activity like this could also work to disrupt the view Victoria Odeniyi talked about within UAL where students see diversity as a problem not a resource. I have observed this myself in student feedback responses like this one gathered as part of UAL Blueprint initiative discussing perceived challenges in group work:
‘The language barrier makes it hard to understand what some students want to say, adding new ideas when ideation period is over’ (2_6_138)
(Reflective Moment 2
15th Jan-29th Jan
I have some queries about the project that we didn’t get a chance to discuss as a group, for example, are there issues with getting the students you would want to feel more included to actually attend?
I think I will need to read the article to find out more.
See blog post Cross Cultural Group for more.