Mikolai's site

Introduction

This intervention is shaped by Kimberlé Crenshaw’s theory of intersectionality, which helps us understand how different parts of identities, like race, gender, class, or disability, can overlap to affect how critique sessions are experienced in the classroom. Alongside this, the idea of positionality reminds us that we all bring our own backgrounds and perspectives into learning spaces. Drawing on my own identity and experiences, this work looks at how crits can often ignore hidden identity dynamics, and explores ways to make the sessions more inclusive, supportive, and reflective for everyone involved.

To provide more context to this report I shall start with mapping out relevant intersectional fragments that inform my positionality, contributing factors of which may inform this academic delivery design interference.

Context

I’m a 48-year-old, gay white male of Polish origin and a political refugee from the communist block who grew up in Sweden. I have been living in London for 27 years, and I feel more like a Londoner than belonging to any singular nationality, whilst those national-level elements have fused together over the years and serve more as a cultural and social foundation of who I am. I’ve been fortunate enough to live in the borough of Hackney for 25 years. According to the most recent census, 46.9% of residents are B.A.M.E, whilst 53.1% are White (Census, 2021). From the perspective of religion almost 10% are Jewish, one of the biggest communities in the UK, that live alongside 13.3% Muslims. Drawing on this data I aim to illustrate how my background and surroundings in London have influenced my intersectionality and why I consider diversity, inclusion and acceptance a norm (in the community that I have lived in for the majority of my life) which influences my teaching practice and my approach to the very diverse cohorts at UAL that I teach, as well as my relationship with each of the students.

Whilst the above informs my positionality with regards to marginalised communities, I’d like to add the focus on disability in this report, through the lens of delivery design. To provide a fuller picture I’d also like to add the professional fragments of my intersectional self, as those are the ones that are actioned in the delivery design that I intend to interevent and develop. I am currently the Fashion Photography Year 2 lead and have been for the last 5 years. The focus of Year 2 is industry skills, so having my own practice for the last 16 years as a photographer, is an intersectional element that plays a significant role in my delivery design. In the classroom, I often aim to mimic and facilitate an industry environment, to equip my students with skills that will help them better navigate their professional trajectory. In order to achieve this, I apply signature pedagogies ‘which enable students to learn to think and act as a professional would’ (Schulman, 2005).

Inclusive Learning

Part of these skills is constructive criticality, both in the ability to give and to receive critique and successfully draw upon it, which happens in formative assessment settings. A theory that I decided to draw upon here, is Herrington & Herrington’s ‘authentic assessment approach’:

‘Authentic assessment directly involves the evaluation of students’ knowledge, skills, and competencies of real-life’ situations. These assessments often require authentic artifacts as evidence of their learning.’

                                                                                              (Herrington & Herrington, 2006)

In the more common crit design in arts-based learning, the artefact – the WIP submission material, is a key element of the assessment criteria, but what I found problematic was the students’ involvement in these sessions. Examining one of the first crit sessions I conducted, I discovered that there was a need for an intervention in the delivery design of the session to facilitate the students’ engagement with regards to exchanges of opinions and feedback, as previously the driving factor here was the feedback of the teaching team. Having long worked on inclusion of all students, and particularly the ones who are neurodiverse, I applied group work to ensure that all students were able to participate, enabling alternatives and ensuring that, in cases where an ISA agreement was in place, that those needs were met to foster an across-the-board inclusive environment for all. For a broader outline and statistics and theories underpinning my approach of this, please refer to my Case Study 1 from the TPP unit [link].

Following on the above learning, it became clear that the group work model would lend itself well to play an integral part of a crit design. Alongside this, I refined the teaching spaces strategies, and a Post-it based feedback method. I further developed a design that integrated the elements that I found supportive in a model that I described in my Intervention Proposal on this unit [link]. Please consider this content to provide more clarity on the overview of the intended session delivery in the classroom.

Reflection/Action

Having had the opportunity to implement this version of the intervention in class, alongside experience of previous crits sessions that I had conducted, I found many problematics, some of which were quite unexpected. By applying the feedback sandwich approach, I discovered that most students would read out the negative comments prior to the overall, or positives. It was their way of getting ‘the stressful feedback’ out of the way first. This perhaps caused issues, as the groups that had commented were not addressed for all their comments at once, but by comment by comment. This may have been caused by the framing of the feedback sandwich, in its simplicity. Victor Guillen suggested in his feedback to use the wording of ACE (Appreciation, Consideration, Extension), a more current framework. Perhaps a re-wording of the rather antiquated feedback technique could provide a more transparent understanding of providing feedback?

A positive takeaway was that the neurodiverse responded well to the Post-it structure, possibly having an awareness that the comments were in specified categories, a design element I’d previously not applied. Also, through the group feedback, I got the sense that these students felt comfort that the comments were not on a one-to-one basis. Moving forward, acknowledging the successful response to group sessions, I’m considering whether the presentations should be in a group setting as well. The support that groups created for students that might otherwise feel pressured by presenting in class was evident. I’m currently reflecting on whether a design that also group the presenters (by say theme, subject matter, or technical elements) could avoid the pressures of standing up alone and presenting in front of class.

Lastly, and perhaps more importantly, an area that would benefit from further attention would be a more in-depth instruction of the expected session structure. Victor Guillen predicts in his feedback that more focus on ‘scaffolding’ as coined by Wood, Bruner & Ross would have potentially provided further support:

‘Scaffolding consists essentially of the adult ‘controlling’ those elements of the task that are initially beyond the learner’s capacity, thus permitting him to concentrate upon and complete only those elements that are within his range of competence.’

    (Wood, Bruner &Ross, 1976)

A firmer implementation of the scaffolding approach, at the beginning of the session and throughout, providing step-by-step direction for each of the group’s tasks could provide the structure and solidity that the session may have lacked.

Evaluation

Considering the data I have collected from this trial intervention, I have gleaned further knowledge of students in a crit design setting. The findings also provide insight into psychological responses to the pressures of live presentations when an artefact, in this case personal work, is being assessed by an audience. It has made me question the idea of the ‘safe space’ that the classroom may represent, and maybe the failings or it. What I find beneficial is that this space may, in fact, resemble a real-life situation where the students are asked to receive critique, much alike situations they will face in an industry environment. Referring to my earlier comments on applying this approach, I feel that I have succeeded somewhat, but more work needs to be done.

An important element that I’d like to bring forward is the constructive criticism from one of my course peers in which she suggested a feedback session, following the crits session itself. This could have provided me with valuable data to bring forward and hopefully enhance the structure of the session itself, by providing further feedback from the participants themselves.

Conclusion

My crit design is a WIP progress project that I have been developed over two years. However, reflecting on the recent methods that I have implemented, the IPP Intervention trial has been the most effective. It is professionally gratifying to have broadened my pedagogical knowledge in recent months and, by having the opportunity to put my methods to the test, provided me with the most progressive results in this design development so far. What I’d like to point out is the sustainability of this model within my teaching practice which I hope to develop further and share with my peers to improve student experience in crit sessions on my programme.

To end, and provide further context, I’d like to finish on a quote of Mitch Goldstein taken from the UAL Crits guidance document, which I feel has been inspiring in the process of developing this Intervention:

‘Critique is one of the most valuable components of a formal art and design education. It is also one of the most difficult […] Critique is a collaborative activity that takes quite a bit of time to learn – both in terms of how to give feedback, and how to accept feedback.’

                                                                                                                                                                    (Goldstein, 2020)

Bibliography

Crenshaw, K. (1990) ‘Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics, and Violence against Women of Color’, Stanford Law Review, Stanford Law School

Office for National Statistics (2022) ‘2021 Census: Ethnic Group, National Identity and Religion – England and Wales’, Newport: ONS.

Shulman, L. S. (2005) ‘Signature Pedagogies in the Professions’. Daedalus, 134(3), pp. 52–59.

Herrington, J. & Herrington, A. (2006) ‘What is an Authentic Learning Environment?’ Information Science Publishing, IGI Global

Wood, D., Bruner, J.S. and Ross, G. (1976) ‘The role of tutoring in problem solving’, Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, Wiley-Blackwell

Goldstein, M. (2023) ‘How to Crit’ Website [link]

I’d like to reflect on and discuss race in the framework of inclusive (or non-inclusive practice) in employment strategies at the UAL, in light of topics discussed in the article ‘Racism shapes careers: career trajectories and imagined futures of racialised minority PhDs in UK higher education’ by Rhianna Garrett (2024).

I’d like to start with a more personal practice anecdote centred around the problematics of inclusive employment in practice. The latest figures in the most recent UAL EDI report reveal the percentage of B.A.M.E staff is 25.5% (8% percent higher than the educational section benchmark), however my fractional team are predominantly white. Given the awareness of the how ethnically diverse my cohorts are, I have always strived to provide role models who would demonstrate a backbone of ‘ethnic solidarity’ to the classroom and an understanding of ‘marginalised, racialised experiences’ (Garrett, 2024). I aimed to resolve this issue by employing B.A.M.E Hourly Paid Lecturers (HPLs) who in sharing their creative practice and perspectives fulfil this mentorship role. This was also my solution to de-colonising the curriculum (UCT, 2015), providing space to non-Eurocentric perspectives, sources of inspiration and ‘story telling or counter-narratives to express… everyday lived experiences as knowledge’ (Doharty, Madriga & Joseph-Salisbury, 2020).

As A. Sadiq says in his Ted Talk: ‘How can I become something that I can’t see’.

(Sadiq, 2023)

However, I’ve gained awareness on how limited this approach may have been after reading Garrett’s article and realised that my solution/approach, may only be of surface level, well aligned with what she calls ‘optical diversity signalling’ (Garrett, 2024). Garrett maps out her research applying the theoretical framework of Critical Race Theory (CRT) centred around societal power structures and racialised experience and the theoretical tool of Intersectionality (Crenshaw, 1990) to ‘understand the nature of social inequalities’ and its complexities.

Garrett examines ‘whiteness as an invisible structure of the academic institution’ (Ahmed, 2014; Tate, 2014) through a range of semi-structured interviews with recent PHD graduates from racial minorities, focused on how racism has affected their career aspirations and future trajectories whilst studying.

What I found most useful in this text was perhaps the core of the research method itself being interviews, hence the varying responses and perhaps individual counter arguments that shape the overall narrative. Whilst some students found the ethnical identification process helpful in further understanding their professional futures, possibly understood as ‘critical moments’ or ‘turning points’ in their trajectories (Sampson and Laub 2005; Thompson, Bell, and Sharpe 2002), others sensed tokenism at play; an overlooking of their intersectional identities. Their own experiences in the academic space became foregrounded, where the unique intersection of their identities had been neglected (e.g. Black and Muslim; Korean American; Asian and neuro-diverse; mixed race and disabled; Half Ghanian, half British and a mother). In many cases their academic experience would involve the marginalising of their intersectionality, solely giving voice to the most apparent of visible characteristics, often race. Garrett further examines the phenomena:

‘…higher educational spaces need to address the racist cultural expectations based on whiteness they placed on racialised minority academics to be ‘model minorities’

(Walton & Truong, 2023)

What I have learned from this are the complexities of applying inclusive staffing structures. Have I made an error and made assumptions by trying to staff representatively? Of course I did, as all our identities are much more complex structures than solely our ethnicity, which is itself complex. I did so with the best intentions, but will apply this learned knowledge in the form of further application of intersectional practice in HPL staffing procedures.

Bibliography

Garrett, R. (2024) ‘Racism shapes careers: career trajectories and imagined futures of racialised minority PhDs in UK higher education’. Globalisation, Societies and Education

UAL EDI annual report (2024)

Available in: https://www.arts.ac.uk/about-ual/public-information/equality-objectives-and-reports

UCT Rhodes Must Fall. (2015) Mission Statement. University of Cape Town

Sadiq, A. (2023) ‘Diversity, Equity & Inclusion. Learning how to get it right’. Ted Talks x Croydon

Available in: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HR4wz1b54hw

Doharty, N., Madriga, M.& Joseph-Salisbury, R. (2020) “The University Went to ‘Decolonise’ and all They Brought Back was Lousy Diversity Double-Speak!’ Critical Race Counter – Stories from Faculty of Colour in ‘Decolonial’ Times.” Educational Philosophy and Theory 53 (3)

Crenshaw, K. (1990) ‘Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics, and Violence against Women of Color.’ Stanford Law Review, Stanford Law School

Ahmed, S. (2014) ‘On Being Included: Racism in Institutional Life’. London: Duke University Press.

Tate, S. A.(2014) ‘Racial Affective Economies, Disalienation and ‘Race Made Ordinary’.’ Ethnic and Racial Studies 37 (13)

Sampson, R. & Laub, J. (Eds. 2005) ‘Developmental Criminology and its Discontents: Trajectories of Crime from Childhood to old age’. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage

Thompson, R., Bel, R.& Sharpe, S. (2002)‘Critical Moments: Choice, Chance and Opportunity in Young People’s Narratives of Transition.’ Sociology 36 (2)

Walton, J. & Truong, M. (2023) ‘A Review of the Model Minority Myth: Understanding the Social, Educational and Health Impacts.’ Ethnic and Racial Studies 46 (3)

In this blog I aim to reflect on my exploration of the concept of intersectionality, this time considering religion as a core element in this framework.

I have chosen to consider the suggested reading by Riedel and Rau, ‘Religion and Race: the need for an Intersectional Approach’, as one of two principal materials of my research process.

By applying the multi-axis approach to intersectionality coined by Kimberly C Kershaw, which illustrates the complexities of structural discrimination in law doctrine against black women in terms of race and gender – in which positionality is weakened by separation of these characteristics – Riedel and Rau aim to apply a similar approach to the issues surrounding race and religion:

‘We can observe a similar limitation in relation to influential definitions of race and racism in academic but also public and legal discourse that focus on phenotype and skin colour (see e.g. Omi and Winant 2014). However, these definitions of race have been insufficient for accounting fully for the experiences of racialized religious minority groups, such as Muslims and Jews.’

         (Riedel and Rau, 2024)

To further underpin this perspective, a historical context is outlined in two quotes within the piece which consider the concept of otherness created by the legacy of the Christian church in the West (ie. a secular majority) and its consequent alienation of religions such as Judaism and Islam in Western societies:

‘For Topolski, the trajectory of anti-Judaism and its development into antisemitism has for a long time been the sine qua non example when thinking about the racialization of religion. In that sense, it can be seen as the precursor of ressentiments against Muslims, anti-Muslim racism, more broadly, Islamophobia.’      

                                                                                                      (In reference to Topolski, 2018)                                         

‘This is a reaction often underpinned by a common perception that these religions are a system of oppression given the secular-progressive orientation of intersectional scholarship.’

                            (In reference to Singh, 2015)

Following on these, the authors further state that:

‘..various permutations of European ‘civilizationism’ (Brubaker, 2017) … suggest the need to consider race and religion in tandem rather than each in isolation.’

        (Riedel and Rau, 2024)

Additionally, given the current state as suggested above, Riedel and Rau continue to illustrate that by separating religion and race in juristic practice we run the risk of overemphasising the link between religion and ethnicity. However, in many jurisdictions, religion and race are separate protected characteristics (e.g. UK Equality Act, 2010) partly to avoid the treatment of religion as automatically racialised, as in the case of Bosnian Muslims or Ethiopian Jews – or even White American Buddhists.

Clearly identities are complex, and at times race and religion have had to be separated and one prioritised legally. Here’s an instance in an educational setting: the 2009 case in which the Jewish Free School lost at the Supreme Court. It was found that their admission policy had discriminated on grounds of ethnicity against a 12-year-old boy due to his mother having converted from Catholicism (The Guardian, 2009). This suggests that at times not only separating but prioritising protective characteristics has been necessary.                                                                                                                                                      

I’d like to introduce a counterargument to Reidel and Rau’s approach that de-essentialises religious identities more in the manner of the Equalities Act. In her text ‘Religion, Intersectionality, and Epistemic Habits of Academic Feminism: Perspectives from Global Feminist Theology’ Finnish theologian Elena Vuola argues that the ‘flattening of religion’ whilst merging it with race has implications on lived heterogeneity:

‘The phenomenon of the treatment of religion in feminist theory could be described as a simultaneous under‑ and over‑estimation of religion. … the latter case points to a ‘religion‑as‑a‑lens’ type of theorising, in which religion is seen as the main explanatory factor of women’s lives in a given culture, mainly in negative terms’.

       (Vuola, 2017)

Following from the two arguments above I’d now like to take the conversation aways from the political and juridical domain and take it back to the classroom. Aligning to UAL’s Climate/Social/Racial Justice principles, the students are first asked to engage with the distinct frameworks of race and religion, before exploring their interrelations, which also avoids any conflations that may lead to problematic assumptions, which in turn re-enforce stereotypes.

As opposed to Reidel and Rau’s concept, Vuola’s critique of ‘religion-as-a-lens’ supports an educational strategy where race and religion are first introduced as separate analytical tools, each with their own genealogies and power dynamics, before being brought together through an intersectional lens that highlights their interconnections without flattening either.

Overall, one strives to understand the interconnectedness of peoples’ race and religion in a social context, but perhaps a fuller acceptance of each individual’s unique intersectionality is key.

Bibliography

Crenshaw, K. (1990) ‘Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics, and Violence against Women of Color.’ Stanford Law Review, Stanford Law School

Riedel, M., & Rau, V. (2025) ‘Religion and race: The need for an intersectional approach’. Identities/Global Structures in Culture and Power, available in: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1070289X.2025.2476300#abstract

Omi, M., and H. Winant. (2014) ‘Racial Formation in the United States’ London: Routledge.

Topolski, A. (2018)‘The Race-Religion Constellation: A European Contribution to the Critical Philosophy of Race.’ Critical Philosophy of Race 6 (1): 58–81.

Singh, J. (2015)‘Religious Agency and the Limits of Intersectionality.’ Hypatia 30 (4): 657–674.

Brubaker, R. (2017) ‘Between Nationalism and Civilizationism: The European Populist Moment in Comparative Perspective.’ Ethnic and Racial Studies 40 (8): 1191–1226.

UK Equality act 2010, available in: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2010/15

Shepherd, J., Butt, R. (2009) ‘Jewish School Racially Discriminated Against Boy, Court Rules’ Guardian article, available in: https://www.theguardian.com/education/2009/dec/16/jewish-free-school-dsicrmination-ruling

Vuola, E. (2017) ‘Religion, Intersectionality, and Epistemic Habits of Academic Feminism: Perspectives from Global Feminist Theology.’ Feminist Encounters: A Journal of Critical Studies in Culture and Politics

UAL Climate, Social and Racial Principles teaching plan 2025, available in: https://www.arts.ac.uk/about-ual/climate-action-plan/what-and-how-we-teach

The aim of the intervention is to redevelop a crit session to better meet the needs of those with invisible disabilities. Last year, the session was generally successful but did not achieve the element of constructive feedback I had hoped for. At the beginning of that session the students printed their unit outcomes (a series of stills) and stuck them to the classroom wall, separately and anonymously. Then, individually, they were asked to leave feedback on a single Post-it for each of their peers affixed to the relevant work. Finally, each student read out the comments on their own work to the class. While the crit session went well, it generated almost exclusively positive feedback. While this is clearly important, the outcome lacked the critical element we are hoping to encourage in students.

Many students did not seem comfortable enough to critique in this way, particularly those with ISAs and I recognised that those with invisible disabilities may have found the task anxiety inducing. The proposed intervention consists of two key changes, which I hope will both encourage more balanced feedback and encourage those with invisible disabilities to partake in a way that works better for them.

The first change is to conduct the critical stage in self-selected small groups of around three. This will allow students to work with those they are most comfortable with, and – by introducing a collaborative element to the feedback – avoid individuals feeling overly exposed. I have previously used group activities to create an inclusive learning environment, and this is something that I would like to develop further in this crit setting based on appraisal of WIP outcomes.

The second change would introduce the concept of the ‘feedback sandwich’ in which each group is asked to leave three Post-its, in different colours, on each peer’s work.

The first of these would highlight something particularly positive and commendable in the work, the second would identify an area for development and the third would be an overall impression of the work. This would hopefully further scaffold students who might struggle in voicing or writing critical opinions.

If observations suggest that this intervention is successful, then there could be implications for how delivery could be adapted to better facilitate the participation of those with invisible disabilities.

Theory

The focus of this blog post is the journey that I have experienced interjecting a broader understanding of intersectionality as a concept and how it can be a useful tool to further comprehend disability as lived experiences. The seminal piece ‘Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics, and Violence against Women of Color’ was instrumental in understanding intersectionality as a concept, considerate of structural (legal), political (ideology) and representational (cultural) variants of intersectionality (Crenshaw K, 1980).

The videos featuring Para-Olympian Ade Adepitan, artist Christine Sun Kim and Chay Brown, the director of operations and healthcare at Transactual, effectively illustrate how the ‘single axis’ approach is not supportive of identifying the diversity in the intersectionality of these other-abled people. Instead, the metaphor of the traffic intersection provides a more useful tool for mapping out the complexities of all identities (Crenshaw K, 1980).

In her video clip, Christine Sun Kim says ‘if you don’t see us then we have no place to be’ and this is a concept that I’d like to explore further. Both her and Chay’s disabilities are invisible which plays a key role in their potential invisibility with regards to their intersectionality. ‘A future without disability is no future at all’ (Keefer, 2013) is a quote from Alison Keefer’s text where she coins the term ‘crip theory’ exploring how feminist and queer theory often assumed able-bodiedness rendering disabled queer people invisible. She argues further that disability is not just another identity but intertwined with other structures of oppression, racism, cis-normality and colonialism (Keefer, 2013).

It’s on the grounds of invisibility and disability that I’d like to further discuss intersectionality in academic practice.

Practice

A good place to start further inquiry is my first case study from the TPP unit. In this study I investigated the dramatic rise in neurodivergent students with learning differences such as dyslexia, dyspraxia or AD(H)D, and mental health issues such as depression and schizophrenia (Hesa, 2023) resulting in a record rise in ISAs (Individual Support Agreements) issued by the Disability officers at UAL. In these agreements the teaching team are not informed of neurodiverse diagnosis but made aware of no-go situations that may impact the students negatively in classroom activities. The case study further illustrates how I have aimed at providing an inclusive environment through my methods of delivery. Here’s a link to the case study:

Case Study 1 link

Whilst recognising the shift from a society of conformity and norms to one of difference and individuality (Young, 2023), and the impact of BLM and the #Me Too movements, I feel that this should have broader implications on how intersectionality is made part of the curriculum of academic institutions. Especially as these and as many of its elements are invisible. Jennifer C. Nash argues:

‘Intersectionality has become a kind of academic currency – something departments claim, scholars cite, and institutions promote – often without enacting its deeper political commitments.’                                                                                                         (Nash, 2019)

The danger, she claims, is that the radical potential of the practice becomes flattened by institutionalisation, reducing it to an ‘identity check list’ or a ‘diversity branding exercise’ (Nash, 2019).

I am recognising the potential of intersectionality practice but also aware of how poorly it has been embedded in the curriculum. My concern is that it becomes virtue signalling of its own complex kind, or diminished by responses to powerful political currents. An example of such failing could be the current response of UAL to take down its trans and non-binary inclusive policies in response to the OfS fining the University of Sussex for not upholding ‘freedom of speech’ (Jeffreys, 2025).

Perhaps more work could be actioned, in a more deeply reaching way than the ‘The Social Model of Disability at UAL’ video.

Bibliography

Crenshaw, K. (1990) ‘Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics, and Violence against Women of Color’, Stanford Law Review, Stanford Law School

HESA, www.hesa.ac.uk, CC BY 4.0

Kafer, A (2013) ‘Feminist, Queer, Crip’, Indiana University Press

Young, E. (22nd February 2023) ‘People conform to emotion norms more in individualist than collectivist cultures’ (article) The British Psychological Society

Jeffreys, B. (2025) ‘University of Sussex fined £585.000 in Transgender Free Speech Row’ BBC

(picture 1)

A reflection and appropriation of Slöjd, a Swedish arts and craft delivery approach, that I was fortunate enough to experience in my primary and secondary teaching in Sweden in the 1980s and 90s (see my metal work result in picture 1). Slöjd is further described by Lars Lindstrom (2012):

‘Teaching of sloyd [English approximation] takes place within a design process (Swedish slöjdprocessen) proceeding from idea to object… The students should design a product of their own choice. They are expected to make sketches, choose materials, find solutions to problems and train in the specific skills that are required. On a number of occasions throughout the process the student has to stop and reflect as a result of obstacles or problems that have to be solved.’

Lindstrom further investigates the application of the ‘four ways of learning in art’ (Lindstrom, 2012) (Table 1).

The fundament of this piece is focused on the synthesis of two different ways of learning:

‘Convergent learning is goal-directed, focused and rational, while divergent learning is explorative, open-ended and intuitive.’                             

(Lindstrom, 2012)

He continues by investigating the coherence of a medium-specific model and a medium-neutral model and their implementation:

‘Medium-specific learning emphasises the forms of representation, for example words, pictures, algebra, dance. Medium-neutral learning emphasises instrumental aspects of learning, such as academic achievement or personal development.’        

                                                                                                                 (Lindstrom, 2012)

Reflection

Lindstrom claims that all aspects of his model should be looked upon as complementary to a comprehensive curriculum design. Therefore, I aim to examine a unit briefing where I’ve located teaching strategies informed by this approach in action. The process of the design of unit-brief is also informed by the model of Slöjd as freedom in process and medium is at the heart of how I formed the introduction.

Appropriation

In this unit-briefing session photography students are introduced to a medium that they have previously not worked in: virtual generation on a 3D software. Having previously encountered issues with students not understanding how this may be relevant to analogue photography (what they signed up for) it has been a challenging task to demonstrate utility (which industry now demands). In a more recent session, I applied a more divergent approach by asking them if they take a picture or make a picture. Taking a picture is medium specific and the goal is reached at the press of a shutter, whilst making/constructing a picture is an open-ended process: more medium neutral. Relevant practitioners could be Henri Cartier Bresson and Jeff Wall, to illustrate further. Fashion Photography, including an applied art can be seen as belonging to the ‘picture-making’ camp, where even documentary-style photographs are constructed images.

To further avoid ‘medium alienation’ the unit session design encourages students to apply their tacit data and knowledge (Davenport, 1997) of their previous image making processes to include in their image constructions. Their outcomes are often realistic, and stills-based but also experimental from a cross-medium perspective. In this approach they often take to ‘Learning Through Art’ (Lindstrom, 2012) and apply ‘studio habits of the mind’ (Hetland et al, 2007) in the process of conceptualising aesthetics that may be more familiar to them and their own practice.

The question of the medium has long been under scrutiny in academic dialogue in art and design. To conclude, I’d like to introduce two quotes from a seminal text by Rosalind Krauss on the subject as it underpins my delivery design in this unit and will continue to play in an important part in future development:

“…I thought I could simply draw a line under the word medium, bury it like so much critical toxic waste and walk away from it into a world of lexical freedom.”

“Medium seemed too contaminated, too ideologically, to dogmatically, too discursively loaded.”

   (Krauss, 1999)

References

Lindstrom, L. (2012) ‘Aesthetic Learning About, In,With and Through the Arts: A Curriculum Study’, NSEAD/Blackwell Publishing Ltd

Davenport, T. H. (1997) ’10 Principles of knowledge management and four case studies’ Knowledge and Process Management, 4, 187–208.

Krauss, R. E. (1999) ‘A voyage on the North Sea’: Art in the Age of Post-medium Condition’ Thames and Hudson

Hetland, L. Winner, E. Veenema, S. & Sheridan, K. M. (2007) ‘Studio Thinking: The Real Benefits of Visual Arts Education.’ New York: Teachers College Press

Introduction

I’d like to examine the validity and constructiveness of Learning Outcomes in art and design education by looking at feedback in specifically designed sessions in in my classroom. I shall examine the benefits and deficiencies through a couple of teaching sessions that I have modelled to provide insight on some topics discuss in the academic resources that I have included.

Evaluation

In a text focussed on a critical approach to Learning Outcomes, Nicholas Addison provides a comprehensive investigation:

‘…intend to revisit the literature outlining the differing positions on LOs by constructing a sequence of tables charting their perceived benefits and deficits… working through contradictions by arguing from a theoretical position based on constructivist principles.’

(Addison, 2014)

By specifically focussing on a beneficial point – and the opposite – in curriculum design, I aim to outline the difficulties imposed by how linguistics applied in academia may alienate the learner, contrary to a student-centred approach, rather than a tool providing guidance:

‘Benefits: guarantee transparency, clarity, accessibility and are thus motivational; students know what is expected.‘

‘Deficits: depend on language and transmission, requiring interpretation and negotiation.’

(Addison, 2014)

Transparency is only achieved through the careful choice of language and its transmission, formation and interpretation. In their text on student understanding of assessment standards and criteria, Donovan, Price and Rust (2001) argue the importance of semiotics further:

‘..the very precision of language and terminology progressed explication away from common parlance and, as a consequence (as our research suggested), definitions became less accessible to novice students.’

      (Donovan, Price and Rust, 2001)

The problem lies in the accessibility of students – especially international ones – in understanding the Learning Outcomes to navigate their learning journey and achieve an outcome that aligns with the unit submission requirements and objectives.

Moving Forward

To demonstrate an example of the Learning Outcomes from my current unit see figure 1 below.

(figure 1)

In order to clarify the meaning and objectives of the outcomes I intended applying the second of the seven principles of self-assessment and self-regulation into a teaching session (Nicol & Macfarlane-Dick, 2006). This pre-assessment model aims to provide students with skills of self-regulation. The benefits of this approach were evident in an empirical studies reinforcing that:

‘The more learning becomes self-regulated, the more students assume control over their learning, and the less dependent they are on external teacher support.’

          (Zimmerman & Schunk, 2004).

Drawing on this approach, I introduced a Make the Grade session earlier than previously in the unit curriculum with the aim to de-mystify the LOs by asking the students to grade themselves. I introduced the session with a lecture including leading questions for the students to respond to which would provide them with clarity on the objectives and expectations. I handed out a resource that I re-appropriated (from the TPP Workshop 2) to my current units LOs (see figure 2). The students were asked to ‘grade themselves’, noting what outcomes and level of dedication would result in which grades. I suggested to start with C, then follow on with an A, D etc. Once finalised, we discussed individual outcomes and any questions that had arisen with regards to the LOs.

(figure 2)

Reflection

I think this was a successful session that provided the students with clarity. The activity model of the presentations revealed the attainment levels of the students and the responses to the activity were generally positive.

As critique, questioning the wording of the LOs, could be linked to the avoidance of accountability in the grading process, implemented by the institution.

Realising the positive impact of the self-regulatory model in pre-assessment, I intend to implement a post-feedback approach, discussed in conducted studies (Taras, 2001, 2002, 2003):

‘..involved students self-assessing after they had received tutor feedback. The results showed that, while both conditions benefited learning, self-assessment with integrated tutor feedback helped students identify and correct more errors..’

        (Nicol & Macfarlane-Dick, 2006)

The outcome will be a ‘viewing party’ session, much alike a crit structure where the students will have the opportunity to collectively discuss their conceptions, share visual submissions and get feedback from tutors, technical team and peers. This will also be an opportunity to reflect on the work, which will hopefully activate the self-regulatory learning mechanisms.

References

Addison N. (2014) ‘Doubting learning outcomes in higher education contexts: from performativity towards emergence and negotiation’ The International Journal of Art & Design Education

Nicol, David J. and Macfarlane-Dick, Debra (2006) ‘Formative assessment and self-regulated learning: a model and seven principles of good feedback practice’, Studies in Higher Education, 31: 2, 199 — 218

O’donovan, Berry, Price, Margaret and Rust, Chris (2004) ‘Know what I mean? Enhancing student understanding of assessment standards and criteria’, Teaching in Higher Education, 9: 3, 325 — 335

Taras, M. (2001) ‘The use of tutor feedback and student self-assessment in summative assessment tasks; towards transparency for students and tutors, Assessment and Evaluation in Higher Education, 26(6), 605–614.

Taras, M. (2002) ‘Using assessment for learning and learning from assessment, Assessment and Evaluation in Higher Education’, 27(6), 501–510.

Taras, M. (2003) To feedback or not to feedback in student self-assessment, Assessment and Evaluation in Higher Education, 28(5), 549–565.

Zimmerman, B. J. & Schunk, D. H. (2001) ‘Self-regulated learning and academic achievement: theoretical perspectives’ (Mahwah, NJ, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates).

Session/artefact to be observed/reviewed: WIP Crits

Size of student group: 15

Observer: Tim Stephens

Observee: Mikolai Berg

 

Note: This record is solely for exchanging developmental feedback between colleagues. Its reflective aspect informs PgCert and Fellowship assessment, but it is not an official evaluation of teaching and is not intended for other internal or legal applications such as probation or disciplinary action.

Part One
Observee to complete in brief and send to observer prior to the observation or review:

What is the context of this session/artefact within the curriculum?

This is a class for Year 2 Fashion Photography students, and they are in the penultimate week of a 40-credit unit (10 weeks), in which they are introduced to 3D image making and provided insight into emerging technologies in fashion imaging.

The moving-image submission requirements are a 30 sec MOV file produced in a 3D software (usually Blender software), accompanied by a re-branding exercise of a pre-existing brand’s updated identity in the New Media landscape (in a research journal submission).

The focus of this session is the WIP crits in which the students are asked to present their WIP outcomes, chosen brand, branding strategies, concept and up-to-date outcomes in Blender software. This is followed by feedback by an industry practitioner, teaching team and their peers.

How long have you been working with this group and in what capacity?

I’m the Year 2 lead and have been with this cohort since the beginning of this academic year, though I taught them occasionally in Year 1 also. This is the 2^nd 40 credit unit that I am delivering for them.

What are the intended or expected learning outcomes?

Overall, for the students to contextualise their image making practices in

emerging technologies and demonstrate the ability to conceptualise a creative pitch in consideration of existing brand heritage.

This session, in particular, provides an opportunity to share their WIP outcomes, witnessing their peers’ work, and be provided feedback to respond to. These crits are to be formal (students present in front of class) and an opportunity for them explain their processes (cognition through verbalisation), reflect and apply feedback to their outcomes prior to submission.

What are the anticipated outputs (anything students will make/do)?

The students have been informed of the expected presentation content, on Moodle and via a reminder announcement.

The students are to present in front of the class and (on a monitor) show their WIP visual outcomes accopanied by a PDF of edited research material visual/theoretical). Each student has 5-10 minutes to present. They will then be provided feedback from the teaching team and their peers, which they are to respond to verbally, outlining how they will implement the feedback into their work (if they choose to do so).

Are there potential difficulties or specific areas of concern?

Depending on the number of late comers, the timings will have to be kept in mind throughout the session, so that all students get the opportunity to present and that those timeframes are as similar as possible, due to parity to other students.

How will students be informed of the observation/review?

The observer will be introduced at the beginning of the session and the students will be made aware of the observation.

What would you particularly like feedback on?

Everything, time allowing.

How will feedback be exchanged?

Via email.

Part Two

Observer to note down observations, suggestions and questions:

The method I use for everyone’s teaching observations is to try and note the progress of the session – this is really to remind you of the session so you can recall it. I will not cover everything you said in such complex presentations as these. Then, I comment on any issues arising. I use “ “ to indicate actual speech and [ ] to make comments or describe.

[You prepare the space really well. This is a really important aspect of practice. See comment.

[Layout of seating, the first slide on the screen, desks for the presenters (and myself).

“There’s a train disruption…so we’re starting late…15 minutes or so…

“Morning [you greet the students as they come in

[St requests window to be closed

“You sure, you don’t want the windows open…

“How are you doing?…Good, good…how are you getting on…

Another St. “I’ve had enough

M “in what sense….[This is a great response, to take off-hand negative comments seriously and enquire further

St…replies I don’t know I’m just worn out…

M: which part of the work…

M “How far are you…[Adding practical focus

St. Discussion on rendering…

“As you all know…

[Introduces Agneta..

[Troubleshooting slide…You talk through..

M:” just hitting home with this again…[you are offering support available, giving room, the support you will offer and how…

[WIP Crits  – slide

Presentation format…industry pitch, etc…visual/textual research, competition. [All very comprehensive and clearly communicated

“Blendr, other? [You checked how many have used which…

“How many got my announcement yesterday…?

[You talk through the key points…

“How many on logos…on 3D…

[One hand up

“Kelly 3D logo..

St “not yet..

“We can talk about that later [kind response

[Explain about AI and pace of tech “out there’

[You also describe anything practical, laptops, and borrow your even…

3^rd Slide – Prep. Connect laptop

Projects in any form are welcome…[This is a great notice to give, despite being “close to deadline” you are very inclusive in your approach

Extensions…you explain dates and last week of access to Eliot’s help… and holiday access

Access to computers but you won’t have technical support…

“All very good professional tutor announcements, see comment.

“Research Journal as presentation resource..also; what you want to get feedback on..

“How many using Journal…specific pdf…hands up, [Really transparent engagement, being clear who has what] so I know could be 40pp but won’t have time…[explain more

“You’ll get feedback from us, and nice to also fdbk to each other…

“At the end of it….Let us know, thinking of taking this fdbk on board, useful or not…keep it open in that sense.

[You now introduce Agneta, you stand at the front with her which I thought was a nice supportive gesture to give her confidence, mindful she is a relatively young alumni

A: “Intro. To herself….3D artist. Martine Rose, Margela, Nike

M: [you add “and Fashion

Hybrid photography

M: You also work on the hybrid, very interesting world…

“A lot of you have been working in hybrid world…

You announce my presence before starting the presentations.

“So, we’ve been here before….

“How do you want to do this…?

[Pause

“Alice do you want to start again…[friendly, volunteering someone you know is confident perhaps

“One moment, my bad…do a little timer…

1^st St. Alice starts…[does her presentation

[Gets to video…”will it play

[You check out the technical…

Alice shows video…

St Applause!  [Really strong student engagement… well done for setting up an environment where this quality of engagement is present

“Brilliant, thank you Alice, that’s great… and very intimate yeah..[You sum up…and make a few points…

You have a brie dialogue with her and make constructive points  [The comments you make are varied, practical, positively focussing on elements, storyboard…

“You may want to send it to them…!

[Alice dialogues with you…

[Someone, latecomer (Will) comes in, and Kelly leaves at this point..

“Camerawork good, wide angle…could be even wackier, lens ranges…even more surrealism…

“Anything you would recommend to Alice [To Agneta

A: retro low-fi, world, quite 80’s…[explains more…

“Quite a lot of elements in there…can we look at it again…[you ask Alice

“Video that springs to mind…Tom Tom club…stylistic direction

Anything else…? [To Agneta

A: Yeah I agree with what you’re saying [to you]…more to with intimacy…?…world building…abstract persona….

“Brilliant…!

St Applause

Anyone else sorry..? [turn to students

St one comment…

Dialogues with Alice.

“OK, so, coin tossing or anybody…[laugh…another st volunteers

[Another student comes in and sits where Kelly sat – also International student. See comment

“What is your brand Rachel…Levis

Rachel…[Presents her work

…

St Applause…

“OK, Is that your world you’ve already created…great, great…

“Can you go through again, b’cos it was pretty fast….[You ask for a repeat show of some elements

Rachel explains more in detail…

“Good process…you’ve gone through branding ideas….competition….more visuals, feels more textual at the beginning…[You interact with her on the main ideas and themes…and, again, consistently provide detailed and useful feedback…

“Well done on the photogrammetry….how are you seeing marrying those two…still space…interesting…camera movements…[ you bring in previous discussion, good practice

“continuing a conversation that we’ve had”…

Rachel explains….

I have a video…do you want to see it

Yeah sure…! Why not…it can be at whatever stage, if you feel comfortable yeah…thank you….[You are very encouraging and supportive…excellent practice here

Short clip..

St Applause

“Assessment brief specifies a rendered space, and it’s all in a rendered space….I’m enjoying what I’m seeing…[You point out all the different elements she has included]….”and audio” [Positive and pro-student, encouraging

Agneta?

A: explains hyper reality…glitches…collision of super realistic and small computer glitches…also still spaces…a reference could be…X

“Maybe lighting actually could be, creating another aspect…

“Any thoughts, feedback for Rachel….Will [you volunteer him, and he makes a comment – this is good that you noticed he had arrived late and naturally included him, excellent work

“Ok onwards and upwards…

[I will go into less detail now, as the routines are clearly set up and you are doing excellently in terms of building student confidence and quality of the feedback

3^rd Student

Presents…

“Brilliant, very interesting…you started on tearing apart VS and making something contemporary…I think you’ve enjoyed that process [really encouraging…in proportion to her confidence..? Let’s reflect on that…

St. 3 “Yes, I’ve really enjoyed that…[enjoys being understood

“Exploring body shapes…flux….camera work, lighting work…the narrative still…it’s coming together really well….Not necessary top be brand specific…and for VS a type of critique…unexpected element of this medium….

“More research into contemporary sculpture…

A: I like it…you’re pushing…[makes comments

“Brilliant

St applause…[Still loud and engaged, genuine

Any thoughts by the way…[turn to students

St.s looks really cool..

Cameron?

Cameron presents..

Do you want to start maybe [to Agneta

A: “I’m wondering about…its quite driven…by an idea…

“You are exploring cinematography…

“Something, even push this further…

Next presentation – On Levi’s also

[And so on.

1 hour.

Summary and key points

Room prep & lesson prep. You take great care of the room and slide set up. For me, in my experience, this is fundamental to a successful session. It could be an attitude, and it could be a conscious way of thinking about teaching and learning, incl teacher student interaction, in the space.

These are all aspects of the architecture of a learning space and what is in our control…room furniture helps concentration for those who find visual ‘noise’ distracting…also about student comfort, and meeting student expectations as to what learning can happen, what types of dialogue can happen in a space like this. Expectations.

In some ways the meeting and disrupting of student expectations is a large part of planning teaching, and in microcosm the learning experience also. This session is very much meeting their expectations, having a controlled environment, that is fair, transparent, predictable, in order for them to take a risk and stand at the front, improve their presentation skills even (the tacit/process curriculum; assessment-as-learning (see Bloxham)

The only ‘surprise’ element is the short intro by Agneta, which is a lovely part of the session. This again pre-planned and very suitable. Her talk is inspiring, gives a fantastic role model opportunity, is aspirational and is also industry related; therefore makes the industry pitch element more ‘real’. Brilliant programming I must say and wonderful preparation.

You bring a lot of pleasure, smiles and laughing into your communication, that helps in keeping it light and also fun, engaging and adds to student’s ability (permission giving) to enjoy the learning process

Professional announcements. These were like a list of tutor notices, all very clear, supported by Slides and create a very good, if not excellent because mature, learning environment. Your attitude to the teaching, is both kind, thoughtful and professional and work-focussed which creates a brilliant educative culture. Seriously.

You really are an excellent teacher and have lots of implicit experience informing the way you teach. Do please consider Fellowship (Advance HE) after the PG Cert when you get that option.

Kelly sat on her own…and left early…let’s reflect on that. How should we follow up on this?  Her seat was taken by another latecomer, also international student.. maybe? Who effectively sat on her own and hence, chose to sit in a way that she could be a bystander, somewhat. Will, also, sat apart from the ‘others’ at the back…however he doesn’t have an issue with confidence in the same way. How do we deal with the “Kelly’s” of the classroom?

Uses of praise and encouragement, do we sometimes use this strategically? Or, where we are generally positive about most people, what happens when we don’t praise certain people…this might be the only downside…or there may be other considerations. Praise is legitimate for student’s doing normatively “less well” than the average, in my view, if, I know they have had to overcome certain obstacles to achieve what they have, or their own learning journey has been steep. In which case praise is deserving. I also believe praise is valid for presence, being, engaging, attitude, and other implicit qualities, not just actions or outputs. What’s your view?

International students…how to support in the sense of include and or integrate when they are also a minority in the classroom. Thoughts. There are plenty of articles in this area.

Wonderful session and thanks so much, I enjoyed a lot about your teaching style, organisation and planning, skilful feedback and genuine engagement.

Part Three

Observee to reflect on the observer’s comments and describe how they will act on the feedback exchanged:

Thank you for your insightful and very thorough and, frankly, uplifting feedback. Throughout the four years in my position I think I have successfully shaped a personal teaching strategy and let’s say a ‘style’ which involves a range of elements. Classroom set up is one of them. I feel that it not only helps to facilitate the session, but also provides a welcome change to the space, making it session-specific, aligning the students’ attention to the delivery model and also providing a ‘breath of fresh air’ to the room. I used to re-arrange my room as a child every few months which I loved – perhaps it’s partly derived from this – but that’s a different story.

Following on the application of personal style, I do think that a ‘safe space’ or at least ‘safer space’ approach to the session provides a less stressful environment for the students. The crit can already be a challenging situation for the students, not only asking them to share their WIP progress, but also expecting them to engage their presentation skills in front of an audience. I often re-iterate the fact that this is not industry, highlighting that this is a space for open opinions, and that in their professional life this kind of feedback may be hard to come by. What I possibly struggle with is balancing a sterner approach when this is necessary. It’s an act of equilibrium to apply an openness and yet remain firm when this is required. I’d be grateful for more feedback and academic resources in this area.

Agneta’s surprise element seemed well-received. I firmly feel that involving an industry practitioner provides useful perspective and perhaps further informs the students’ work. I’m also hoping that her presence provided a useful element of identification, being a young woman, successfully navigating her career in New Media and emerging visual technologies. I have expanded more on this approach in my Case Study 2.

Thank you for pointing out the issues with the ‘Kellys’ of the class. It’s a situation that I do recognise and try to improve year by year. I realise that engineering a situation maybe what’s needed here, even though that seems un-natural due to existing group formations within the cohort, I think sometimes it might be beneficial for students to work in prescribed groupings, rather than self-selected ones, for the sake of wider group cohesion and learning. Thou ISAs do make this more of a challenge.

The strategic application of praise may be intended as part of the delivery and I aim to always praise each student equally, being aware of each individual learning journey. I always aim to seek out the positives of the student-presented work and apply this democratically in the classroom. This may also be a part of my teaching approach mentioned earlier.

I aim to provide a ‘sandwich’ approach regarding content structure: positive critique – critique on improvements – positive resumé. In some cases, the middle part of this will be more weighted, and these are nuances in the delivery that the students will be aware of, which are intended as a challenge to improve possible missing/underdeveloped elements in the work. Perhaps this is the space I reserve for the firmness element of my teaching.

I hope that this reflection provides my responses effectively. Thank you for suggestion the Fellowship (Advance HE) as a follow up to the course, I’ll certainly consider this. The process of the PG Cert so far has been enlightening, guiding me to previously unchartered territories of research, an occupation that I’m finding very interesting and rewarding.

I’d like to discuss the importance of technicians’ contribution in the delivery of the curriculum on Fashion Photography Year 2, of which I am year lead. The delivery content focus of Year 2 is an introduction to virtual imaging (in which students use 3D software to generate a rendered environment) and moving image. Each are 40 credit units and occupy most of the planned teaching time of the academic year.

‘The Technical Lecturer’ (Sams, 2016)

I’d like to use the terminology applied by Clare Sams as I think it’s a more suitable name for the technician role rather than technician. I myself refer to them as technical team member as I see it more suitable. The text by Sams argues the vital role of the technician, dividing their professional tasks into three main categories:

Supporting

Helping

Teaching

I’d like to argue that the role has more extensive duties in the current curriculum in which the focus has recently shifted further towards employability.

In Year 2 I have been developing ‘co-delivery’ sessions for the past 4 years (and continue to do so). The delivery design of these sessions implements a hybrid of academic and technical delivery. These deliveries run parallel to the planned technical workshops and is strategically planned and associated to the weekly academic and technical delivery. This planning process with the technical team involves exchanges of up-to-date knowledge of tools available for student to best achieve the objectives of the submission requirements and supports their learning journey. Thus, providing them with a skillset valuable when leaving the course/entering industry and meeting those expectations.

Following on Shreeve, Sims, and Trowler’s findings (2010), most of the technical team members do pursue artistic careers outside their roles, which provides them with current industry knowledge. This is a beneficial and important element of the delivery content planning of this co-delivery sessions. It also provides an opportunity for the students in crossing the boundaries between the academic world and professional one, as highlighted in the text on signature pedagogies and its benefits

From my perspective of teaching design and content, I find the outcomes of the collaborative aspects with the technical team something possibly not valued enough in academia. For my students these sessions provide a valuable convergence of theoretical and technical learning, which equips them with a solid contextual backbone to the core of their image making practice and future incomes.

References

Sams, C. (2016) ‘How do art and design technicians conceive of their role inhigher education?’ Spark: UAL Creative Teaching and Learning Journal / Vol 1 / Issue 2

Shreeve, A., Sims, E. and Trowler, P. (2010) ‘A kind of exchange’: learning from art and design teaching’, Higher Education Research and Development, 29(2), pp. 125-138, available in: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/07294360903384269.