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I’m always nervous when lecturing, but what I can say is I thank God for this unit because for the first time I truly understand what I’m doing within the classroom. My contribution, the importance of the two-way communication between myself and the students, hearing from my teaching colleagues which has only aided my own teaching professionalism.

This week I was observed by my tutor Catherine Smith for my online Gender Inequality within the Creative Industry with the primary focus with how motherhood often impedes career progression, by way of ‘childcare’ responsibilities for the MA Media students participating within the module Professional Industry Practice.

This all female class hosted my guest speaking session about my ‘practical and professional’ experiences within the creative industry. It was an online, one hour session which saw me really wanting to try to cultivate the pedagogy of compassion at the start. As noted from my micro teaching session, my slides tended to be extremely dense, so I opted for more colourful and creative layouts and highly visual slides, complimented by quotes, interview snippets, referenced articles and my own personal anecdotal stories to try to convey the information. I set out my clear aims/objectives at the start with a recap at the close of the session. I allowed for group interaction/chat but as observed by my tutor this did not always allow enough time for them to answer/debate the question tasked – in fear of dead noise. This ‘dead noise’ was actually beneficial as pointed out to me, as it allowed for group introspection, reflection and consideration from the students perspective.

My second observee was Lalu, who equally provided me with critical points of consideration. She noted my lack of not expanding on academic terminology when used within session, additional areas of focus to the discussion of gender inequality such as the ‘black mother, trans parents perspective and/or students within the session’. Whilst I welcome these, I cannot be all things to all people and wanted to keep this session as linear as possible bearing in mind my time constraint.

I welcomed my feedback from Catherine as I felt was very balanced, I felt a lot more attacked by my peer which rubbed me the wrong way. But I’m thankful for both levels of feedback because it can only will serve to better craft this career path as an educator within an academic framework.

I loved my session, an intimate setting with myself Fritha and Phillippa of the Wednesday weekly cohort. I couldn’t of asked for a better group. As nervous as I was I went first and presented a very structured 20 minute presentation out lining my aims and learning outcomes for the first 5 minutes, followed by my teacher demonstration and class activity for 10 minutes and finishing up with a recap of what we learnt for the last 5 minutes.

Feedback from colleagues Phillippa and Fritha:

My feedback was positive from everyone: well structured, engaging, personable and thought provoking. However, it was noted from my lead tutor, I offered far too much text, detail and did not allow the listeners to engage in an activity that would allow them to self govern/learn independently like my two colleagues had demonstrated extremely well.

He also provided great bedtime reading for this aspiring academic lecturer!

Today was a difficult day, my iron level dropped but the discussion around data statics, lower achieving BAME students at attainment levels compared to their white counterparts is becoming a very boring topic of discussion. How many times do I have to sit in these meetings to go over the obvious. In order for a democracy or capitalist system to work, someone has to lose or be exploited. In this sector, the white elite have the stronghold and position and power to accredit those they feel will continue this trajectory. Although my lecturers hosting the session were empathetic which I completely appreciated, its not comforting as the very change they spoke of to which they see taking place is not actually taking place, as the language they used to describe the students in question was actually offensive -BAME, who still references BAME in the black/brown communities?

But what was great is that I highlighted this within the chat and this allowed for more voices to be heard and a discussion to be had which was positive.

At the breakout the question: What interventions, policies and connections did you discuss?

The answers were really insightful as demonstrated below:

SystemicThe lack of representation at a senior level is a problem. You can get practitioners of colour into lower grade positions, but they aren’t supported. And that is a direct result of the broader systemic issue . Also, a more inclusive approach across the board. Being more inclusive for those with SpLDs, other mental health disabilities, sensory disabilities, communication disabilities, or those who don’t identify with a gender binary, those who do not identify as heterosexual. We need to see representation of all of these diverse positionalities in our university.

Having looked at dashboard data previously, international students who are disabled gained higher awards than their non-disabled counterparts in 2017/18, 2018/19 and 2019/20. Similarly, disabled BAME students had higher awards than non-disabled students in 2017/18 and 2018/19 – most notably in 2018/19 when disabled 65% of BAME students were awarded a 2.1 or 1st compared to just 54% of non-disabled BAME students.

Does this indicate that the inclusive practices that support disabled students may also be supportive for other marginalised students? Would love to hear ideas/thoughts.

Hiring non white lecturers, position of power. external speakers to do assessments. hiring non white , higher diversity of external speakersincreasing diversity within the curriculum for references, more accessible. help a broader range of students.Board of governors and trustees., at the director level, change of these positions only happens when people want to step down. Maybe have a time limit on this power positions. Refresh every 5years.

PipelineLack of familial support is a huge factor, why aren’t we investing more time and money in early stages of the student life-cycle and including their families.

I’m no respecter of person, but I’m a respecter of facts, data and statistics because there in lies the truth as uncomfortable as it is. Academia is a long way to go in comparison to other industry sectors such the creative industry in ‘leveling up’ the playing field both in profession and achievement for all. It’s 2022 for goodness sake where is the pedeogdy of compassion here?!

Judy started the session by setting the scene for inclusion of objects within the learning space for students, the emotional responses to objects; how it affects the students and how we and they engage with objects on a daily basis.

Judy and team were able to explain the cultural context about object based inclusion and the importance of the ‘material analysis’.

It was refreshing to see the concerted efforts to bring light to the inclusion of art/textiles et al from differing cultures/creeds. This included the targeting of commissioning new works, understanding more about ‘this’ work and telling new stories about it and lastly, exploring the colonial contexts of the objects currently stored within their archives.

This style of teaching works well within my PR practical based learning model as artefacts/objects often brings to life the academic and practical based knowledge we are transmitting to the students. So, this session was very useful and I have started implementing into my current teaching scheme of work and will include into my micro teaching session.

This was a brilliant read, I have read vast amounts of cultural commentary surrounding the US higher educational system from the viewpoints of predominately alumni students within my age group and the affects it had on their long term career trajectory and financial status. And in more recent years the call to end tuition fees via US millennial students often speaking out via coveted platforms such as YouTube e.g Dave Ramsey, The Financial Diet et al. The disparity that exists for students from ethnic backgrounds was apparent within US institutions and seemingly unashamed for doing so (internal structure). I cannot get into this right now, but what I will say, is that whilst under the Jim Crow law African-American students attending HBU’s (Historical Black Institutions) received high attainment levels, and faired better than their white counter-parts at an academic level despite all the obvious obstacles, they were married at a rate of 80%, created their own businesses and generational wealth e.g. Black Wall Street, cosmetic brands, agricultural brands to name a few.

When delving into the UK higher educational system (external structure), there does appear to be a disingenuous treatment to students from selective ethnic minority backgrounds wishing to study within the UK – the often negative perceptions, connotations and beliefs often without merit surrounding them. Accessing housing, educational pathways, coveted institutions, funding and job post academia. Equally home based students from same said backgrounds are treated somewhat marginally better but are worse off at attainment level in comparison to their those students who have travelled to study from the same or similar background. There also seems to be as I believe having once been a home based student from an ethnic background, a self fulfilling prophesy that the academic arena does not recognise, value or consider the perspective, contributions or considerations from this group. The ‘visible – invisible’, so the pedagogy leaning towards the sense of belonging comes into play here now more than ever, and I do believe intuitions are trying to address this issue sensitively.

It will come as no surprise that as this issue is being overly analysed by appropriate academics other issues of inequality will manifest, so I think its best to recognise that we will never completely eradicate all racial injustice/discrimination that exists for student populations within an academic setting, because structurally it does not serve a capitalist model within a democratic society. But what can be re-moulded is the language used by external stake holders e.g. media, specialist niche groups in society when referring to such groups as all peoples are equal and are deserving of respect no matter what.

The media headlines stated this week started out with ‘Blue Monday’ in contrast I was really upbeat, it’s today i’m blue thanks to my monthly visit and the constant grey skyline i’m being greeted with on a daily basis. Anyway moan over.

Today we started late in the afternoon where our tutor Lindsay gave an in depth look into the OB1 (observee) and OB2 (observer) observations we are required to conduct. This breaks down as:

One observation of a peer (in class teaching and provide my thoughts and then respond to my peers thoughts on my initial thoughts)

One observation BY a peer (in class whilst i’m teaching and then provide feedback to my peer’s thoughts of my teaching)

One observation by your tutor (n class whilst i’m teaching and then provide feedback to my tutor’s thoughts of my teaching)

Luckily I felt equipped for this session as Rahul my assigned tutor went through this during our tutorial. The supporting text taken from Macfarlane 2004 paper about the fictional research lecturer quizzing her class and then upon receiving the student responses is quite surprised by the not so nice reviews, then tackling her defensive kneejerk reaction such as maybe making some of those not so nice comments magically disappear is all to familiar for many of us. I have received like many of me peers unpleasant feedback such as ‘Ruth has favourites, she’s unclear’ but as hard as it was for me to hear, it was necessary for me, in order for me to develop within this academic industry sector, and ultimately be the best at it for the benefit of those young people I come into contact with.

Unfortunately I had to leave slightly early at 3.15pm (as our class finished at 4pm) but i’m excited to be peer reviewed. Its an opportunity to learn, digest, develop and grow as an academic lecturer.

My reflections

Today’s activity with my confirmed tutor Rahul Patel was really good. Firstly I logged in at 9.30am when the class started at 9am, but raced back from dropping the kids to school, Rahul, has a very calming aura so I felt at ease straight away, he was equally very empathetic. As I entered the collaborate room Abigail my colleague was in full presentation mode. ‘wow’ I thought, her slides and information, graphics, layout citations are really good. Then started the almost instant comparison to mine…’oh mine doesn’t look like hers, oh mine is text heavy’. Well it too late now to change so buckle up!

Each member of my tutor group had to present their first task: presenting a five minute talk with slides to support about our teaching context, introducing ourselves and sharing something we’d learnt about the pedagogy / pedagogic research and any questions it raised for us. I was very nervous, but executed brilliantly, although my reflections taken from my chosen article, ‘Why choice of teaching method is essential to academic freedom: a dialogue with Stephan Finn. Finn highlights the ‘professor’s freedom to teach’ and the ‘pedagogic self-governance meaning that the academic profession should enjoy autonomy with respect to the choice of teaching method and development of curriculum’.

This resonated with me as I lend to a more creative output of messaging to students. I’m hoping through this course i’am able to develop a better way of moving past simply expelling information, fielding curious questions and entertaining anecdotes and become more academic in my approach that fuses holistically the creative. The freedom to speak on topics that are unfavourable.

Rahul made a valuable point upon listening to one of the students, ‘it’s not a one way transmission in terms of what we do, and the students are a key to our learning’. Rahul, spent time understanding our ethnic backgrounds, detailing his and then each one of us, our names, pro-nouns which was nice as I believe he was being culturally sensitive of the room. Rahul then proceeded to ask us why we thought he did this?

Miss Robin Red Breast over here, automatically responded by stating, ‘you wanted us to feel safe and connected?’. He nodded, ..’this exercise’ he said ‘was done to give a sense of belonging and compassion’. Which harkens back to the pedagogy of belonging.

He then posed the question; ‘how do you ensure students are part of the institution on first encounter/meeting?’ As for students who have travelled to study in London, London can be alien to them and for those born and raised in London it can be extremely tough.

Rahul went on to explain that traditionally within academia there is zero discussion of where students were from but now its the connections that are important within teaching and learning.

Rahul then went on to provide us with the course schedule and overview with key dates, and areas of focus for our pending assignments, tutorials, classes etc.

As our session drew close to its end, we reflected collectively as a class on our presentations. Abigail confirmed my sentiment of being nervous when presenting. I commented in the chat that I too was nervous and spoke really fast – my coping mechanism as this impacted on the five minute time we were allocated per presentation. I actually stuck to it via Rahul’s prompting..’er one minute left Ruth’. Phillippa, also stated like me she too produced a lot of content to mask her nerves.

Rahul, posed the last question, as Torisheju presented without slides, did we need slides to present? A very varied response from the class. Torisheju mentioned to substantiate my point within my own presentation that she looks for social ques from the recipients of the information to gage the success of a presentation.

Rahul’s final feedback to close our first session today

From watching, listening and talking to each of us post our presentations we provided too much information, and the need to over compensate for our skillsets, career trajectory et al is often the reason why we do this. He went on to say, pausing and silence is good during presentations as it allows for thought and less is more.

Lastly, he informed us all that there’s no definitive way to produce a presentation, but to remember less is more and leave the listening/viewing audience with a question. I have a question Rahul, will you pass me on this course?

I will always say it to myself, nothing worth gaining comes easy. 2022 is set to be a major balancing act for me. So today Wednesday 15th December I started my introduction session to the above titled unit. I was paired with an amazing peer/ fellow student Richard Ward (a digital wiz kid) with whom I bonded with quite instantaneously. Lindsay, our course tutor was extremely warm, kind and patient as she talked us through the course, the expectations and advise we will need to complete this unit.

So for the purpose of my blog I will outline my points as if I were jotting them down in own notepad, so that I can refer to them and it makes for some interesting reading. Teaching, PGCert commitments, kids, Christmas and New Year break, Lord give me strength.

Key points from session:

Course runs from January 2022 – April 2022

I’m to reflect and document my learning as I go like a journal via MyBlog

I’m to produce all content relating to my assigned tasks via my Work Flow

As I cannot attend my Wednesday Cohort B sessions and request a day change to Mondays, I need to pay close attention to the ‘cross programme events’ as it falls on a Wednesday. These events are crucial as part of peer observations etc. So, I’m advised to stay in my tutor group but attend the Monday sessions.

I’m to look at resources for sessions, follow up reading material in case I miss any in person sessions.

We were shown a quote via the External Examinars Report 2019.

The Challenge

“…Our Academic Development programmes…need to ensure adequate practical judgement as well as a normative level of educational theory are incorporated into the participants understanding of their discipline (disciplines which quite often eschew some of the methods and methodologies upon which the educational theory is based)”.

Clare from my cohort had a great answer in response to this, ” …Because the courses are unconventional they might not lend themselves to traditional learning models, but nevertheless they still need to be aware of and use more established techniques”.

Lindsay Jordan’s ultimate response to this quote to the benefit of our class was as follows,

“..lecturers within the arts are reluctant to engage with theory.”

Maybe because of the way theory is presented via text books, spreadsheets and other traditional academic material. The creative disciplines are at odds with scientific theory e.g. data, platforms. The way of looking at information instead of the way creative information is presented. We must produce teaching and learning practice in a scholarly way.

Is anyone bold enough to poke, kick and push out of the way the elephant in the ‘class’ room.

Its shockimg to really register the personal accounts taken from the short online film Room of Silence’. I felt slightly torn as I was obviously able to identify with both parties in  question.

The student wanting to express the very essence of themselves – colour, culture – creativity – done so unapologetically via their artistic space, leveraging  somesort of approval/critique via the establishment. Its interesting  to me, the very notion of academic institutions is to break down the student in some way, re mould them, inject them with dogma and send them back into society equipped to handle the ways and workings of that society. But if during this ‘remodelling’ the students very essence is being rejected or not properly serviced it’s problematic.

I understand the experiences these students discussed, as I to was a student. Issues of race are still a contentious issue is quite annoying for me to digest, especially coming from the post Obama America we have all observed.

The tutors/lecturers response to not commenting/advising/adjudicating the students of colours work – why? White priviledge? Lack of understanding, knowledge, etiquette? Not caring about varying cultures, colours, creeds?

But overwhelmingly, its this bloody notion of ‘not wanting to offend, not wanting to appear racist’ because ultimately no matter what critique is given these elements maybe perceived to arise via the tutor as their tone or gestures will be misconstrued so…go get Ella the elephant..lets not acknowledge the race fuelled stories, artistic visuals. Lets not do our own research to better support the racially androgynous class, lets not invite in different practitioners who provide alternate viewpoints to this rich platform.

Issues of race within the classroom affects everyone, but how open is our open society really? Our current democracy requires there to be ruling and sebordinate classes/races..so until the tide changes I fear the classroom will not.

What I can do is listen to every student that I come into contact with, establish as early as possible a common factor or topic of discussion that unites us and hopefully vis this orchastrate a safe space to discuss possible concerns relating to race and additional ‘isms’, one seminar at a time.

Hello Blogging team!

Faith, as Angela Drisdale Gordon rightly commented on Pen Portraits, discussing religious belief is sensitive. Why? It’s deep rooted, comments Steve Cross on Travelling Cultures.

I’m from the school of thought that your faith is who you truly are, its your very fabric, your moral compass, the light that shines from withn inot this dark world. Yes, very dramatic. I’m a conservative, Christian woman and very poud of that. I live by the philosophy that God is in the present, the here and now, He’s not in the past – it doesn’t exist and He’s  not in the future as it hasn’t happened yet, He indeed is here and now. And also to love, as God is a God of love, so as a Christian womanhowcan I say i Love God but hate my fellow neighbour? Forr those who do not know, within the Chistian guidebook known as the Bible the greatest commandment is to Love thy God with all thy heart and mind, and to love thy neighbour!

Anyway, so that my position is clear I can move on.  Its important that faith identities are explored, within academia, life as its curerntly an increasingly important topical issue. Yes, the global unrest, wars, terror, genocides etc all  rooted back to the dogma that religious beliefs can expel. But from a basic human level people take much comfort, build fortitudes, fellowship, draw strength, from their beliefs.  Growing up in the 90s it wasn’t always cool or accepted to necessarily to discuss ones beliefs and it wasn’t until I attended unversity that I actually clung even tighter to it.  University life does have a way of breaking down an individual , re moulding them into societal standards, pumping the individual full of knowledge and spitting them back out again. This newly aquired head knowledgt can at times conflict with the simple principles of an students/individuals faith beliefs. The two at times cannot coexist – especially with consideration to the Christian model.

Its apparent that the UAL have set up resource channels to question, engage and identify students their wants and needs within this area. But what they should also consider and what I would consider is to allow the doctrines of each faith background be heard liverally and unapologetically.  There is no shame in having a faith and at times this element is overlooked. Being a Christian for example is nothing to hide, students would appreciate more guest speakers, cinema days dedicated to viewing religious movies/films/drama, contemporary magazines, music played within the grounds, subtle inclusive tactics that allows for the communication element to exist.

Mr Appiah did show that religions are contingent and always changing. But he is too much of a intellect for my sensibilities. From a personal standpoint the things of God or godly inspired topics are very simple. I found him to be very humorous at times when referencing his Ghanaian background, which I completely identified with coupled with his British identity, which again I can identify with. His depth and scope of knowledge regarding religion was plain to see,  he was inclusive about the faiths, its affects on our actions, our truths, our lives, but he also came across as slightly agnostic, above it all, distant which left me slightly despondent.  His sexuality seemed to offer a conflict for those present at the talk,  as its topical when relating it to faith/religion.  I cannot offer my opinion here so will quite comfortably sit on the fence, with my tea, after all i’m still a student of life trying to unpick and understand what this is all about.