I was alerted of the ELIA community (LINK) by my line manager, who was in attendance at the most recent technical summit. Here she sent me a link to Tim Savage and requested that I should reach out, that was it.
After reading the snippet from Tim’s Powerpoint, I felt I struck gold! I was asking myself all these questions, and here someone with 20 years worth of technical, and managerial experience is documenting their findings. ( I am still waiting on the video of the conference, but it was enough to give me the confidence to reach out).
The email exchange
Hello Tim,
My name is Sean Henry, I’m currently a level 4 technician “specialist” at LCF, and I was wondering if I could use your PowerPoint presentation in my PGcert studies?
I have been pondering the idea of where and what our pedagogy is, and where it sits in relation to that of academics or schools. Unfortunately, I wasn’t there today, but my line manager was and provided me with your QR code.
I have been generating research around this pedagogy and splicing my everyday role and job requirements to student interactions on how I would perceive my teaching as an educator.
My main thoughts lay in the areas of ‘scaffolds’ or a ‘reinforced’ pedagogy that falls in the line of habit-building and problem-solving with on-task behaviourism.
I also question if we fall in the line of rhizomatic pedagogy and if we are unintentionally disruptors to students through blockage or solution, that more or less “corrects” that of academic tasks.
Although my research is in its early stages, I’m looking for consistent evidence of level 5 technical teaching roles be they creative or not. The main problem I see is the barrier that level 4 progression technically is management roles, yet our main job focuses are creative and we don’t have suitable pathways into the strategic pillars of KE, research or academia.
Hopefully, my jargon doesn’t disrupt your day,
All the best,
Sean-Henry (He/him)
The reply;
Dear Sean-Henry,
Thanks for reaching out, and I’m pleased that you enjoyed my slides (and that your manager was kind enough to share them with you). You are very welcome to reference it or use the content however you find it helpful. The preparation was recorded, and the slides were really just the backdrop to much greater detail that I verbalised on stage so it would be worth getting a copy of the recording when it is available from ELIA (your institution is a member, so perhaps ask your line manager when the file is shared). My content is being written up into a book I am co-authoring that will be released by Routledge towards the end of the year too, this has much more information and theory in compared with the ETHO presentation.
If you enjoy the scaffolding element, you might find Vygotsky’s “Zone of Proximal Development” (ZPD) interesting, in which learners are ‘scaffolded’ by a more experienced practitioner. Vygotsky described the ZPD as “the distance between the actual developmental level as determined by independent problem solving and the level of potential development as determined through problem-solving under adult guidance or in collaboration with more capable peers” (1978:86). The term ‘proximal’ in this context relates to skills the learner is ‘close’ to mastering. Put another way, ZPD represents the difference between what a student can achieve with and without the support and guidance of a skilled technician.
You make good observations regarding the roles, and also creativity. I have done a fair amount of work on linking technical teaching with creativity, and while some (such as Witkin) believe “The vast body of rules, techniques, conventions, and practices that constitute the heritage of expressive form are an immense threat to the expressive act itself. They give risk to the possibility of organising expressive forms on the outside of the self, or producing forms by application of rules” (1989:45). I prefer the more pragmatic thinking of Csikszentmihalyi who argues “a person cannot be inspired by a domain unless he or she learns its rules…You cannot transform a domain unless you first thoroughly understand how it works” (2013:89/90).
I have written a couple of articles that you might find helpful, see below:
https://intellectdiscover.com/content/journals/10.1386/adch_00007_1
https://intellectdiscover.com/content/journals/10.1386/adch.17.2.237_1
Also, take a look at chapter twelve of the Research England UKRI funded Talent Commission. You can download it here: https://www.advance-he.ac.uk/knowledge-hub/ukriresearch-england-talent-commission-report-technical-skills-roles-and-careers-uk
Anyway, this is still a work in progress for me too. I’m a year or so away from publishing my thesis which I hope will become a helpful resource for creative arts technical staff who seek to better understand and theories their teaching (and for institutions to recognise and value the staff who do it).
Good luck with your studies and thank you again for reaching out.
Best wishes,
Tim
Tim Savage (he/him)
BA, MA, PGCE, PFHEA
Director of Technical Learning
I was extremely surprised at the quick response, but I flew at the opportunity to add these points to my reading lists, and with his guidance on my path, I felt secure in exploring more options and routes in and around my research already.
This spark of hope reminded me so much of the culture behind textiles, which is deeply embedded into communities and especially more artisan-based communities today. I feel this is something that is also apparent in technical communities, they are willing to open up and share and build the learning gap together.
Karen textiles in Northern Thailand, <- explore and find out a little about these incredible artisans who have succumbed to hardship and are now surviving in the modern world fighting for their place in the textile industry/culture.