Christine Sun Kim: “Friends and Strangers”

I found Christine’s reflections on her positionality as a deaf artist profound. She opens with the quote “I can 100% promise that you learning sign language is easier than a deaf person learning to hear” (tweet by Sara Novic) and explaining how this frames her identity as a deaf person (Sun Kim, 2023). Just this sentence struck a chord with me, it made me feel guilty and made me recognise my privilege in a way I’ve not considered before. 

She goes on to explore how her work and her life all hinges around explaining herself and ironing out any miscommunication it made me consider how exhausting that must be. She contextualises this within education by explaining how she was excluded from classes due to a lack of interpreters. I hope from the bottom of my hear that I don’t exclude those willing to learn due to things like this. When listening to her story the theme that spang to mind was frustration, frustration at other’s unknown privilege, at society, at friends and family. This has moved me to compassion for my students experience this kind of frustration due to their own disabilities in whatever form that may be.

A key concept that came up across a few of the resources I looked at about disability was that design for disability does not need to be different or exclusive. However it could just be good design in general. For example the instance of making spaces on a bus all open with fold down chairs if required give more space to those who require wheelchairs, also to parents with push chairs, it encourages standing as the norm for those who can which is better for them than sitting continually and when more people are standing this makes space for more people to travel on one bus. All of these factors are simply good design and could have been lead by design for disability being at the forefront rather than a second thought or oversight which is corrected at the end with a bodge-job which marginalises those utilising this design feature as being different form the rest and therefore making them feel “othered”.

A simple way to incorporate accessibility and just general good design in my learning environment would be to have adjustable height desks where individuals can chooses what height is best for them to work at rather than a industry standard height being assumed best. This links back to the quote Sun Kim used where she highlighted that it is much easier for a hearing person to learn sign language than it would be for a deaf person to hear. In this context although it would be a financial investment it would be much easier to change the height of desks to suit each individual than it would be for someone in a wheelchair to stand.

Bibliography:

Christine Sun Kim: “Friends and Strangers” – Season 11 |Art 21 [Video] (Art 21, 2023)

Shirley Ann Tate Ted Talk

In Tate’s Ted (Tate, 2019) talk she mentions her own lived experience as a ‘BPOC’ student and mentions she was made to feel marginalised and othered by the higher education environment. I found this an incredibly insightful as both a reflection and a comment on systemic racism. However there was also something that somehow wound me up about this piece. I’ve since watched this back many times, analysing both what she is saying and what I am feeling to explore this further and to expose any white fragility (DiAngelo, 2018) that I may be experiencing.

On my first viewing I agreed with Tate in almost all she says, however I struggled to find it helpful. It felt as though she was simply stating the problems and highlighting how they both have been and currently are being perpetuated within universities. I agree and understand that this is a systemic level of racism which is most definitely built into our society within the UK and all our major organisations. On further research, DiAngelo covers this concept as she explains how racism is a system and not an event (DiAngelo, 2018) stating that it is a deep-seated issue within society, and Tate practically contextualises this from her own and her student’s experiences within universities. 

My feeling of frustration at Tate’s words in this video I believe stems from a sensation of helplessness. I am aware that I am part of this problem within society, yet I would like things to be different. I was hoping that Tate may give me some answers of things to do and ways to change my own attitude and movements to deal with these issues and felt frustrated when I was faced with more problems than answers. 

Being completely transparent when I am faced with such a huge problem, I feel much more inclined to bury my head in the sand than anything else as the sheer scale of this feels entirely overwhelming. I know however that this is not an option, that to do so would be perpetuating the issues and to further complicate my thoughts my own feelings of white fragility came through as Tate mentioned the Racist Myth 2 of “Unconscious Bias causes inequality” (Tate, 2019) where she addressed how bias is not in fact unconscious. I found this incredibly challenging as this module has highlighted to me examples of my own behaviour where I have used my own white privilege and therefore enacted racism, however I was unaware of doing so at the time. I will address this further in my intervention plan.

On my last re-watch of this piece however I realised I had completely missed the answer. Tate (2019) opens by saying “I had Teachers who saw me, they looked past the stereotypes of what black women could become, they saw more… They saw me. Shirley Ann Tate. An Individual” This answers all of my previous questions about what I should do so simply. I should care for each student as an individual, to help them feel seen and heard and known in my classroom. It is so simple, but this is my answer and my plan to act, I plan to truly SEE each of my students going forward.

Bibliography:

DiAngelo, R. (2018) White Fragility. Penguin Books Ltd.

Dr Robin DiAngelo discusses ‘White Fragility’ [Video] (Seattle Channel, 2018)

Tacking the ‘BPOC’ Attainment Gap in UK Universities | Shirley Ann Tate [Video] (TEDx Talks, 2019)

My positionality as a Christian impacts my life in how I relate to other people. Both outside the workplace and my colleagues I enjoy discussing with others, however when it comes to my teaching practice and interactions with students I am much more cautious about this. I refrain from sharing many of my opinions with students where in a non-teaching environment I would do so readily. 

On watching the video titled What does it mean to be a young person of faith today? (Coventry City of Culture & RSC, 2021) I am now considering involving my faith and allowing others to express theirs much more within my teaching space. One comment that really struck me was from an agnostic student expressing how much they appreciated the communal prayer time as it helped them to feel connected with others in the classroom (Coventry City of Culture & RSC, 2021). Having also spoken to colleagues and friends one of the main things that they appreciate and notice about different faith groups is the sense of community that it offers. This is particularly what I would like to bring to the classroom. 

Thomas (2012) states that community is good for learning as it develops a sense of connectedness between individuals where they feel respected and valued. I plan to foster this within my teaching practice by learning from religion. Taking the modern concept of liturgy (as communal spoken words, originally derived from the original Greco-Roman context of “public service/duty” as work done for and by the people communal spoken words – Dr James Merrick, (2019)) into my workshops by creating key phrases that we as a group will repeat together at different points through the workshop. I will also consider those with disabilities such as deafness and although many of these students will already have interpreters I will trial learning for myself the sign language for these phrases to make the classroom more inclusive even within this practice. 

This use of repeated group phrases is a subtle incorporation of practices within my own faith rather than an explicit invitation for students and staff to feel more comfortable sharing their own beliefs. I would like to work on exploring how faith could be shared more overtly within my space however am sensitive of there being many different backgrounds within my classrooms and so need to do much more research into how I can incorporate this well

Bibliography: 

Building student engagement and belonging in Higher Education at a time of change, Liz Thomas (2012). 

Coventry City of Culture & RSC (2021) What does it mean to be a young person of faith today? [Online] Youtube, 9^th July. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lDYy0U7WtkM (2:19 min) 

Merrick, J. (2019) Ascension. Available at: https://media.ascensionpress.com/2019/10/24/what-liturgy-really-means/ 

This unit has brought to my attention both the limited number of marginalised students attending my workshops also the massive White Male bias both the history and current 3D printing industry has and therefore how my teaching resources reflect this and therefore may be subconsciously attracting that type of student while possibly deterring other student and people groups. I am ashamed that through ignorance my teaching practice has perpetuated the marginalisation of different people groups and am now excited to start changing this.

My plan is to re-haul my Introduction workshop resources (initially focusing on my powerpoint presentation) with a much broader range of people groups being represented. I will do this by creating and utilising images and video tutorials showcasing people of a mixture of skin colours, people of different faiths and people with disabilities. I also plan to find more examples of where 3D printing has been utilised within these communities to support them, their faith, cultural practices and disabilities rather than those examples which solidify and increase current social injustices.

The main challenge that is posed to this are the limited number of existing resources and examples that reflect marginalised people groups, meaning I will have to do in-depth research to find good quality examples and also will be required to create many new tutorials and photos.

As time goes on I also plan to progress this throughout all of my workshops and my online resources. By doing this, my aims are to attract a more diverse range of students and inspire them all, including those who may have previously felt excluded from utilising 3D print. 

This is just a quick post to note the end of the Theories, Practices and Policies unit and the start of the Inclusive Practice unit.

Whilst working as a specialist technician I also maintain my own creative practice outside of my teaching time. This often directly feeds into my teaching work and helps me to engage and support students within their academic projects. During some of my reading on the PgCert I have been introduced more and more to the idea of learning through teaching an approach where rather than only feeding into my teaching practice from my external work, my external work can also be improved and developed through my teaching practice. 

I have long since believed the comment “we are all teachers and we are all learners” (Harvard Gazette, 2007) however in my work environment, this often doesn’t seem to pan out and although I am inspired by my students as individuals the work we do in the classroom often feels like it’s draining me as a practitioner rather than enhancing my work as well as the student’s learning. This is something that is incredibly important to address as many teaching staff often start to feel under-utilised or valued within their roles and therefore end up not giving as all to their teaching which in turn results in lower quality learning from students.

A way to address this, as mentioned in the Teaching Strategies (Shreeve, 2008) is the idea of learning whilst teaching. This could be done through a few of the other strategies that Shreeve (2008) also mentions such as “the removal of boundaries to both practice and teaching”. I plan to implement this strategy within my own practice and teaching work by inviting students along with me in my creation process, as I come across new skills I would like to learn myself I will utilise “experimental” workshops, where students will be invited to join me in my learning and creative practice, where we can walk through new processes together. 

At the moment in my own work, I would like to look further into the sustainability of 3D Printing materials and the possibility of recycling waste prints and excess materials. Many students are also engaged with this concept and so would be very interested in learning more about this. I plan to create a new experimental workshop within which I will utilise the idea of self-cultivation through teaching (McDonald, J. K., & Michela, E. 2019) by experimenting with different methods of recycling within the class. I believe this will deepen the student’s understanding of the process as they will be taking part in it and will much more fully understand the difficulties and limitations. When we potentially get a successful outcome they will also have a much rounder knowledge of what products could be produced in this way and why it is beneficial.

• Shreeve, A., 2008 Transitions: Variation in tutors’ Experience of Practice and Teaching Relations in Art and Design. Unpublished PhD Thesis. Lancaster University 
• Harvard Gazette (2007) We are all Teachers and we are all Learners. Available at: https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2007/09/we-are-all-teachers-and-we-are-all-learners/#:~:text=’We%20are%20all%20teachers%20and,are%20all%20learners’%20—%20Harvard%20Gazette  (Accessed: 25.03.24)
• McDonald, J. K., & Michela, E. (2019). The design critique and the moral goods of studio pedagogy. Design Studies, 62, 1–35. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.destud.2019.02.001.

Session/artefact to be observed/reviewed: Induction Workshop titled 3D Print: Past Present and Future

Size of student group: 12-20

Observer: Lindsay

Observee: Kira Oliver

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?

It is outside of the curriculum as an extra session students have the option to book onto to enhance their studies. 

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

They are new students I have never taught before. Some may have come to drop in sessions previously but that is the maximum exposure they would have had. 

What are the intended or expected learning outcomes?

PART ONE Live Session – ‘Understand that there are different types of 3D printing and how each of them work’ 

PART TWO Live Session – ‘Understand pros and cons of each technology and where each individual type is utilised best in industry’ 

PART THREE Live Session – ‘Be comfortable will how to run the FDM printers independently here at LCF’ 

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

N/A

Are there potential difficulties or specific areas of concern?

A lot of students find technology in general overwhelming and so come to the session with a defeatist attitude already. 

The technology can be very complex and sometimes students get lost through the explanation process.

How will students be informed of the observation/review?

Verbally at the beginning of the session

What would you particularly like feedback on?

How retainable the students find the information – would they be able to use the equipment by themselves after this session? Do they feel confident?

How will feedback be exchanged?

Written and spoken

Waiting for Lindsay’s feedback

I recently did the Object Based learning micro teach had hugely overthought what I should do for this & ended up really striping it back. These are my reflections around that task.

Before my PgCert learning I was using objects regularly in my teaching as I support students in 3D Print process & find it easiest to show examples for students to differentiate the outcomes of models from different technologies. However for this micro teach session I was stripped away of my original process of using a powerpoint and physically showing the machines to explain to students how they work then pass round samples to solidify their learning after this. I didn’t realise I could still use a powerpoint and so approached the task differently to usual. 

For my session I handed out three objects right at the start. I both received feedback and observed that they enjoyed this approach as they were instantly engaged. I explained that each object was created using a different type of 3D printing technology and asked them to think about what differences there were between each of the objects. From there I lead a guided conversation between the group and myself about each of the objects. 

They noticed a few of the surface differences however struggled to think as deeper about the things that to me as someone who deals with these objects and processes every day appears obvious. And to students that I teach usually who have a little more context for the production process it is much easier to produce the answers I was hoping for. I continued attempting to coax these answers out of them with more and more questions. My attempts to ask leading questions guiding the group in the direction I wanted didn’t work very well. I received feedback that although my questions were good, some of the group found them frustrating when they simply didn’t know an answer. This is something I definitely plan to work on in my teaching practice as I’m aware I ask a lot of questions of my students in an attempt to put the bonus of their learning on them rather than spoon-feeding them answers. I do think this is important but will consider other ways of doing this going forward.

Something I noticed from engaging in other’s micro teaches was that as a learner I like to be situated before the task begins. I found that having something that tied me to why I was doing the particular task or activity gave me more context and context allowed me to apply the learning in my own practice or to make it more relatable. One of the teachers did this well by starting with an interesting fact about the subject that we were learning, this particular fact both impressed upon me how important the task we learned about was and how that particular process gets applied in industry ad how as a consumer I can now see situations in the world in which something like this task would have been applied to create the outcome I am experiencing in society. Another teacher situated us well by using mixed media in the form of presentation slides alongside the objects. This is something I could utilise to help engage students when they’re struggling to answer the questions I am asking, I could give them a little information using images or video in a powerpoint to direct them rather than asking so many questions. I will test this out in my sessions in the future.

Assessment looks quite different in my teaching space to what it does in most of the university. As I sit outside of the usual curriculum I am not assessing student’s work against grade margins in the usual manner. For me assessment is all about gauging whether students have taken on board the information I have given them and if they can then work independently using that knowledge. Previously I have found this at points incredibly easy to assess and at other times incredibly difficult. It tends to depend on the individual student, their personality and their rapport with me as my process was simply to ask if they were comfortable to work independently or if they would appreciate further guidance.

Having read Barrow’s (2006) piece Assessment and Student Transformation: Linking Character and Intellect my understanding of the role of assessment and feedback that I take has changed. I now see my positionality outside of the course curriculums as a blessing, where I can walk alongside student projects as they develop and grow (with the specific students that follow through with digital design and 3D Printing).

Rather than simply assessing a student’s ability after one workshop, I can use ipsative assessment techniques instead. This option allows me to give each student personalised feedback as an evaluation of each stage of their learning based on where they were at the last stage Hughes (2011) The benefits of this were highlighted by Antonio Martinez-Arboleda (2021) from studies on the use of this technique within language learning. He commented that the ipsative form of feedback gave learners improved motivation and higher skills of self reflection. Self reflection gives individuals a chance to consider their own contribution from an external perspective, it gives students a chance to locate themselves and their work within wider society which in my opinion is much more important than the grade they may receive at the end of the degree. If simplifying Barrow’s argument down to look at the self-reflection aspect, he suggests that through continual touch points between student and teacher (in an ipsative assessment sense) teachers can support, encourage and ultimately teach different ways of thinking which students go on to apply to life outside of university, thus affecting their character as an individual and not only their degree measured intellect (Barrow, 2006)

In order to implement this concept into my teaching and assessment practices going forward I plan to consider the students differently, rather than only focusing on their work, I also plan to think about what the work might say about their individual thought process or journey (Osler, Guillard, Garcia-Fialdini, Cote, 2019). Assessing rather than simply the outcome but also the process and what questions lead them to that point. I plan to research a little into psychology, learning what kind of questions push people to develop their individual character and question how the world works and what their place in it may be.

Bibliography:

Barrow, M. (2006). ‘Assessment and student transformation: linking character and intellect’, Studies in Higher Education, 31(3), pp. 357–372. doi: 10.1080/03075070600680869.

Cote S, Garcia-Fialdini A, Guillard I, Osler T, (2019). ‘An A/r/tographic metissage: Storying the self as pedagogic practice’ Journal of Writing in Creative Practice Volume 12 (Numbers 1&2)

Hughes, G. (2011). Towards a personal best: a case for introducing ipsative assessment in higher education. Studies in Higher Education, 36(3), 353-367. https://doi.org/10.1080/0 3075079.2010.486859 

 Martinez-Arboleda, A. (2001). ‘Ipsative assessment measuring personal improvement’, Innovative language pedagogy report, Bibliothèque Nationale de France doi: https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED614089.pdfAccessed: 22.03.24

We had one session before we started the PgCert properly, this was in December and was a chance for us to get acquainted with each other, the course, our tutors and how the next year was likely to play out. Although in many was different, this session holds a few similarities to my first workshop with many of my students. It is a chance for them to orient themselves in the Fabrication Lab, to learn what technology is available to them and how they can access it and potentially most important to meet and form an impression of me as the teacher (Giles, 2011)

Creating a relationship between teacher and student is an emotional practice which is integral for successful teaching (Karpouza & Emvalotis, 2019) this is based on the idea that when students feel that they belong within a classroom/teaching environment they are more engaged with the learning process. (Osterman, 2023)

Lindsay started this first session by walking around the room and asking for each of our names, which she jotted down on a sheet in the position that we were sat in. She later utilised this to remember each of our individual names like a game. From this point onwards she had memorised my name. I was hugely impressed by this not only as a skill but as the feeling of individuality and importance it gave me as a learner. Katelyn M. Cooper, Brian Haney, Anna Krieg and Sara E. Brownell (2017) collected data which explains that name learning creates this feeling among other many other students. Through our following few teaching sessions we had sticker name tags applied for the benefit of building community between students and for our second teacher who wasn’t there in the first session.

Name learning is something I plan to put a much more intentional emphasis on going forward in my teaching. I will test using name stickers for this and creating a personal “lay plan” of names based on where students are sat. I will also do further research into how to ingrain names and improve student belonging in the classroom.

Bibliography:

• Giles, D. (2011). Relationships Always Matter: Findings from a Phenomenological Research Inquiry. Australian Journal of Teacher Education, 36(6) Available at: https://doi.org/10.14221/ajte.2011v36n6.1 Accessed: 19.03.24

• Brownell S E, Cooper K M, Haney B, Krieg A,  (2017) ‘What’s in a Name? The Importance of Students Perceiving That an Instructor Knows Their Names in a High-Enrollment Biology Classroom’ CBE Life Sci Educ. 2017 Spring; 16(1): ar8. Available at: doi: 10.1187/cbe.16-08-0265 Accessed: 19.03.24
• Eleni Karpouza & Anastassios Emvalotis (2019) Exploring the teacher-student relationship in graduate education: a constructivist grounded theory, Teaching in Higher Education, 24:2, 121-140, Available at: DOI: 10.1080/13562517.2018.1468319 Accessed 19.03.24

• Osterman, K.F. (2023). Teacher Practice and Students’ Sense of Belonging. In: Lovat, T., Toomey, R., Clement, N., Dally, K. (eds) Second International Research Handbook on Values Education and Student Wellbeing. Springer International Handbooks of Education. Springer, Cham. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-24420-9_54 Accessed 19.03.24