For my Action research project, I am pursuing an emotive take on the positions of technical staff members who fall between the “third space” ‘Whitchurch’ in their job. I have used an argument reflecting on a paper published in 2018 by Tim Savage, questioning the feelings, positions and responsibilities of technical staff in contemporary creative education institutes.
I presented to a group of technical staff members and academics, followed by a forum asking questions under two topics. Unfortunately out of all those who attended only 10 people replied with responses. The focus group/forum was encouraged to be a safe space and I put pressure on the words that I personally wanted this to be built democratically by technical staff members for technical staff members.
Forum /Presentation took place at the London College of Fashion, East Bank Campus. (the hidden goal was to see if we could also get physical bodies rather than digital identities.
Out of all those in attendance was expecting some of the level 5 participants to be involved in the forum as well. As expected the ratio for LCF is shown that we are a practical institute, with a majority of our technical staff members being level 4. (it was extremely hard to get level 3 or level 2 staff members to participate).
Having a 50/50 participatory response was unexpected and yet promising on the value of the responses and balance between the SDT and SMC. The FBS didn’t have many technical staff members and the departments that did, unfortunately, couldn’t partake.
A generalised question on participant teaching practice. As visualised 9 responders are doing 1 to 1 teaching with students as well as 8 responding to providing technical workshops (assuming the two level 3 staff members not teaching these workshops although one must be doing 1-2-1 teaching). What was interesting to see was that none of the participants were teaching digital craft skills.
A personal question for myself and my research in technical pedagogy, this open question was to see if I can build upon those who do understand their practice as a pedagogy and help those who do not or are unconsidered develop a wider understanding of what pedagogy is in general but also encourage our community to help shape a new age in technical pedagogy.
This question was presented in the presentation as well, allowing the participants the time to reflect on this quote from Tim Savage’s paper: ‘Creative Arts technicians in academia: to transition or not to transition? 2018’.
The goal of this question is to allow technical staff to realise not just their future careers but also to understand the responsibilities in teaching practice and process.
Response 1:
“I work with my students to complete difficult garments, in a workshop environment. I get 2 sessions to complete this task with them – 7 hours to cut and sew a complete garment. Before class I have to cut and prepare my workshop sample ahead of time, and sew half of the garment before class so the students have more time to create the sample. I teach cutting etiquette- grain lines, selvedges. I watch and check they are cutting correctly. What fabric is used where and why, what the garment is doing on body. I demonstrate how to cut, and then show the students a few steps of the process, let them then complete those steps, and then repeat the process – I sew a few more steps and show them, they then repeat. I agree with Tim Savage – we teach practice and process, and I personally don’t understand why this is looked down upon and seen as less worthy of pay or reward. I spend all summer prepping and cutting and getting ready for the next cohort – Academics might update a PowerPoint but I wouldn’t agree our summer workload is the same.”
Response 2:
“Prior to being in a teaching environment I usually create a lesson plan, outlining aims and objectives, whilst considering learning styles and information retention. Usually at the beginning of the session , I introduce the topic and clarify the relevance of the topic in relation students’ brief and or individual projects. Half away through the session there’s group activity and or debate to ensure students with different information retention can meet at the same level. session end with reflective discussion of each other’s work. Alternative depending on the technical session, after teaching the technique I ask students to guide me through the process without me adding any input.”
Response 3:
“As a grade 3, I can only do supervised studio and informal tutorials. I have created SharePoint pages about our different kits to help explain the uses of the materials. I have my own speciality books and my own kits to assist with 1-2-1 explanations.”
Sharing some responses as the thematic feedback wasn’t as ‘creative’ as I had hoped to play on the word game of visualising easy results. As you can read from this selection, each technical staff member has a unique teaching practice purely built from personal, ethnographic and experience. The challenge it would be building a practice that is inclusive in the pedagogic goals of the technical staff members at LCF.
The forum uses a data capture tool to pick up on words from the responses, I am delighted to see the words ‘processes’, ‘students’ and ‘technical workshops’. Using this information, it highlights the replies to questions that technical staff members understand and consider their practice to be process-based, but not just processes and practice, the select replies also highlight the amount of work technical staff are doing to complete not just daily tasks but yearly responsibilities to keep the workshops/studios going throughout the student experience.
Using another quote from Savage, I wanted to gauge the response from Savage’s responses in 2018 to see if our technical staff members still felt the same in 2023. Although 5 years and a pandemic later, the majority of the responses still feel the same. I felt ashamed, angry and also embarrassed that an educational platform like UAL is still allowing this engagement/behaviour to run wild throughout our teaching environments.
How do we tackle this to bridge the gap and emotional toll this has on technical staff members?
I think in the future this is a hot thought to bring forward in an inclusive and safe environment to witness the academic response to this quote as well as share my findings on it as well.
I wanted to keep the answering to a single option, asking the participants to really consider what they consider the most important in developing a future career plan.
Level 5 technicians were the majority, which is understandable as there is no option unless management follows what Tim Savages is saying that we must transition to academic career plans. It was interesting to pick up that providing technical staff members with a qualification that is industry standard. Could we get UKFT involved? this would need further research.
The other two responses were is what I think are based on staff retention options, allowing technical staff members to be involved in knowledge exchange and research, would really bring a new lease of staff morale to the technical resources team who are solely asking for respect, opportunities and the chance to bring and explore new things to their teaching environment.
I believe the graph is easy to read and speaks volumes about the thoughts on what is most important to the technical staff members, the majority on equal opportunities, equal pay and the importance of technical workshops.
“Upskilling in a particular area of interest or department need”, was the majority selected, followed by “external teaching/training similar to the academics pg cert program” with “research projects within the PRA scheme”
The other response was: “Shadow a ‘senior technician’ – Grade 5. Or, a career path checklist that requires evidence in order to grow up – no ‘reapplying’ for job roles, just HERA assessments”
The university of Exeter uses a HERA program, I would need to investigate further if UAL has one in place, maybe this is a route worth exploring.
https://www.exeter.ac.uk/staff/employment/hera-highereducationroleanalysis/theheragradingprocess/
Response 1:
“Different technicians might have different methods to create the same seam. I think sometimes it’s nice to all sit together and discuss pockets/sleeves/ etc etc. We should all be aligned with our practices. I also think that academics might benefit from supporting technical workshops, and vice versa, so we both get to learn both sides of the teaching – and really help to give the students more rounded support that aligns both technically and academically.”
Response 2:
“It keeps technicians’ skills and industry knowledge up to date – the longer a technician works for the college and does not have time to either take on outside industry work, or engage with the industry, the higher the chance that they will fall behind professionally and also start to feel disconnected from their specialisms. I feel it is often assumed that technicians are here because they enjoy education, but it is often forgotten that they’re here because they love their specialism and want to share it with others.”
Response 3:
“I believe that exchange of knowledge between schools/ departments is extremely important, Not only for my personal development but for the student’s general experience in the university. we encourage students to do collaborations so why we don’t do the same? Not only it will increase our understanding of new techniques but it will help us to upgrade our problem-solving.”
I believe there might have been a slight miscommunication in the question of what is knowledge exchange, rather than exchanging knowledge, although I have selected responses that are interestingly related also some in-house ‘knowledge’ conversations/ workshops would be options to explore to help technical staff members benefit and develop their skill sets.
Response 1:
“Research opportunities would highly benefit our department, research would underpin new workshops, with the potential for innovation, which I feel does not currently happen at the university”
Response 2:
“Research opportunities would give staff more of a sense of personal and departmental growth and development. It would feel more equal with the research opportunity that academic staff get offered. It would also in turn benefit the students as learning from this research would inform our pedagogy.”
Response 3:
“I think research opportunities allow technicians to dive into the “academic” side of education – where technicians are often left out. It allows for people to combine their specialism with an academic aspect that not only could produce incredible individual outcomes but also advance the entire college/institution.”
The benefits of research for technical staff members seem viable in the opportunities to engage with innovation, academia and professional practice bringing a new sense of engagement to the student experience that allows and grants technical staff members equal opportunities to explore the technical side of enhancing teaching environments.
One of the major concerns was the time, how would those wanting to explore this option, be able to engage fully and how would it affect their practice as well as job responsibilities.
Response 1:
“There should be dedicated time weekly where we are not student facing, to allow us to research, gather our thoughts, review our taught sessions for the week, and just have a mental health break that comes with being student facing 100% of the time you are working. This would only happen if we have more staff – we are severely understaffed and vacancies not posted/filled.”
Response 2:
“The opportunities for technicians to progress to a higher level through completing a project, just like the academic family.”
Response 3:
“I would like for there to be another progression in the career path past just giving technical workshops. At the moment you can only be grade 4 if you deliver these workshops and that undermines the skills of other staff who are stopped from progressing because they don’t deliver workshops.”
Response 4:
“it would be good if the technical staff was more involved in marking”
The selected responses describe needs, that I also personally support in areas of time management between the working week, being involved in marking and learning outcomes, and completing and working on projects that benefit the college and department, while also wondering if it is possible for other career pathways within the technical family.
As the only available option to benefit the current “career” plan within the technical resources department, I set forth the question on the group, as it was a mixed group of those who have completed the PGcert, doing the Pgcert and those who don’t want to do one. Is it beneficial for technical staff members to complete the pgcert! with the majority voting yes! with one solid No. The others were basically describing that it has no benefit for them as they are at the top of their pay grade and don’t wish to transition to academia.
The response was very positive, and a highlight of the focus group! I was in a chaotic state debating with myself, on the benefit of the PGcert, and I didn’t come to the realisation of this until the ARP unit.
Response 1:
“It was nice to hear that other technicians are also feeling the same way. I think we should meet up outside of our own technical families and check in regularly.”
Response 2:
“This was a nice start, it was good to hear the voices of other technical staff members in a safe space, for technicians by technicians”.
Response 3:
“I really enjoyed being a part of the focus group, I learnt from the information presented and from people’s inputs. I felt a great kinship with my colleagues and great to feel like your opinions are shared. I would definitely attend again. I think there should be regular meet-ups to keep momentum on this topic to make an actual change !”
Response 4:
“Insightful experience, technicians from various schools and departments are experiencing similar issues. Indicating this is a University-wide issue. More sessions like this with actionable outcomes should be considered.”
I have decided this is how I will lead my research going forward, democratically and community-based learning, in developing a wholesome educational platform for the technical community to benefit from and encourage the management and strategic teams to get involved in building a more inclusive, equal environment that technical staff members can thrive in!
Reflection:
Overall the experience was interesting and a lot of hard work, time management and getting people in physical space is quite demanding! let alone allow them time to digest the content and reflect on what I am suggesting as a future for the technical teams across not just LCF but UAL as a whole technical family.
I feel the data collected is worth and a great building block for directing where my ARP should go, and I am hoping to carry this on in a series of ‘manageable’ talks, workshops and debates around technical pathways and career goals.