Retention and attainment in the disciplines: Art and Design

Posted on 30th June 2023 by Sean-henry Fitzsimons

Terry Finnigan, London College of Fashion and Aisha Richards, Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts, London

Retention and attainment in the disciplines: Art and Design

Finnigan and Richards explore a deep dive into the inclusive practices of multiple sources that have been generated from lived experiences, missing data and loss of retention in BAME/BIPOC students in Creative Higher education in art and design. The focus on student voices is crucial to course structure and design, but vitally important to course longevity and student satisfaction.

The resource tells of student retention numbers and the complexity of differences between white students and students from a British Caribbean, Black or British African Students and those of other black backgrounds, a whopping difference of 6-7%. Also explained that further raw data is needed to allow practitioners and staff to understand this more, due to the fact that this information is ‘on those who achieved upper degrees and those who leave without a degree’.

One of the questions that emerged from this research;

What types of activities and interventions are taking place to impact the over-arching differing attainment and retention of students of colour in Art and Design subjects?

As a technician, I don’t particularly see any inclusive activities or interventions happening around race and inclusive practice within the workshop areas, which is a shared specialist workshop for knit students hosted by academics.  What I would desire to see, as a practitioner is more awareness around craft with inclusivity, why are we learning specific techniques and can the origin of these be related to inclusive practice?

One of the BA1 workshops around the introduction to punchcard techniques (Fairisle/Multicoloured textiles) could be transformed into an open intervention between the ‘classic’ history of the Fairisle and Shetland isles to the modern day expansion of African colour work in knitted textiles or the revolution of Norwegian style mosaic knitting expanding across middle-eastern and south American knitting communities.  Or the discussion between ‘pointelle’ lace knitting and how the Japanese Knitters have adapted this technique into their own work creating such beautiful complex lace structures based on Japanese culture.

As a whole team, we haven’t touched the surface of inclusive practice in our workshops, unfortunately, I don’t have the power to even suggest a change, when I have done so in the past, I always get put down in the sense of ‘technical over creativity’.

This leads me to section 4.3 ‘Inclusive curriculum and Identity work’, as an Irish immigrant, I rely heavily on my Irish craft identity to help support my ‘research structure’ by using my advantage of heritage/generational knitting skills to ‘scaffold’ my practice.  I have personally seen students be shunned for their personality identity research and discouraged from exploring and taking a risk. Merely my opinion is that academics are afraid of student failure and risk-taking, or not being qualified to guide students in this area. 

‘Art education has generally been conservative, repetitive and exclusive. Art education theorists have even described art education as Eurocentric, racist and imperialist and have called for curriculum reform and social change. (Hatton 2015, p. 3)’

As a technician, I play a rhizomatic pedagogy in teaching students, I personally like to learn, I am a peer as well as a tutor, but my goal is to help students understand. Part of this is exploring where they come from and where they want to go with their practice.  I have been learning Mandarin as a mere day-to-day conversationist to help our majority Chinese cohort feel like they belong in my workshops and that I am approachable and easy to talk to, even the simplest formats of greetings can dramatically change a student’s body language towards tutors.  Although my practice is more personal for me, rather than the schools, I am starting to see more cracks in the foundations of course design, that don’t cater for reflective, critical or open discussions around individualism, identity, craft and practice.

After reading this article, I may have the opportunity within the workshop space to help reduce retention loss and allow students to engage in succeeding in higher education. My personal practice is family/generational orientated, this is about community building and inclusive safe space building within my workshop environments, something that can be achievable from all technicians outside of courses and academic structures.

One of the most achievable outcomes of inclusive practice, I have personally achieved, is allowing final-year students to write words of encouragement throughout the workshop area. The student cohort was majority Chinese, but we also had, Zimbabwean, Italian, Korean and Greek students participate. The goal was to encourage, them to find the energy to complete the final hurdle of their final major project, I provided the English words, on A4 paper and those students were encouraged by me, to write the same meaning in their own language. So, when they came into the workshop again, they knew this last hurdle was not lonely, or about themselves, but that each one of their classmates was living the same experience.

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Whiteness: Unconscious bias – Josephine Kwhali

Posted on 28th June 2023 by Sean-henry Fitzsimons

Whiteness: Unconscious bias – Josephine Kwhali

Kwhali demonstrates a strong profile in providing a lived experience of racism and growing up since the age of four, what was worrying was this issue we are still facing in today’s university landscape has been in conversation for a long time. Kwhali mentions that she is not prepared to allow the ‘get out of jail card’ scenarios to happen, due to all the information around race, diversity and unconscious bias training there is within educational institutes. This I will stand beside and link in force with, we can not tolerate any shift towards hatred within our spaces, be it student or staff, we must be allies and provide a safe space for all those involved in that environment.

Kwhali goes on to discuss the actions universities have taken for women, but yet only middle-class women seem to benefit from it, yet black and working-class women are still fighting to be seen or recognised. This I actually have experience with (even though I am a man), I have experienced the shift between working-class and middle-class colleagues, those who can afford to do a Master’s program, with us who carry on working to gain experience. There is a pay difference in spine points for those starting the same job that holds a master’s degree than those who don’t and it’s a pretty big shift in difference, from my last interaction with a colleague, the difference of starting the job was at least 5 spine points. Although to value my skill set, I was teaching them industry skills, because they went straight from education learning to education teaching. Not to let my positionality come into play, as I am very grateful for my unique experiences and workmanship, I do have some biases towards who should be teaching and that it falls into the social justice pedagogy;

“D. Experiential education (text study, guest speakers, field trips, interactive activities)”.

Especially in craft and design-led courses, we need experiences, lived experiences, and moments of hardship in stressful environments to encourage and reassure students the future ahead is exhilarating and extremely fast yet filled with loads of moments of rewards and friendships.


Reflecting on this video, I really enjoyed Kwhali’s body language and sense of ownership of their future goals set! The encouragement of others to stand alongside, and say enough is enough! It’s time to fight, be an ally and secure our teaching environments as safe spaces for all to learn.

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Faith

Posted on 11th June 2023 by Sean-henry Fitzsimons

Technically speaking, faith doesn’t come into my current practice. I work on a student skill-based front, normally conversations around what I teach, are solely about the subject rather than any topics within the course or outside of the course.

The resources were extremely interesting to read, mostly due to the fact of my sexuality and how it has been a constant battle with faith. What I took from the paper ‘Religion in Britain: Challenges for Higher Education’ of multiculturalism, the public sphere and Minority Identities, these three topics stood out to my positionality rather than my teaching practice. Understanding how my history with faith has built my positionality to be strong, and independent on my stance around the crippling control faith has on society, women’s rights and LGBTQI people. Growing up in Northern Ireland, really shaped my views on religion and how sectarianism plays a role in my beliefs around a secular education system.

I believe that a secular education platform is a future and that faith has no place in the teaching practices, and if it does, then it should be subjected to interpretation, just the same as those who study religion and regurgitate their personal opinions on their meanings of scripture. This is also supported in the BBC iPlayer lecture: ‘The Reith Lectures’ the lecture of ‘Mistaken Identities’ by Kwame Anthony Appiah, with the audience interaction section, Appiah mentions that scripture is interpreted and adapted by the reader to adapt to the current situation of communities. With this the adaption of an audience’s proposal to change the wording of religion to community and how would that change the perception of faith and belief systems to a wider audience. As Appiah is a gay man, who similarly lived with two religions and has become an expert in deciphering the complexities behind community and religion. I did feel a stronger connection to this lecture, which allowed the review of opening my teaching practice with some new terminology, Orthopraxy stood out as it is how religious people conduct themselves, ethically and liturgically, could I interpret this to workshop conduct and how ethical practices are changing the textiles industry with every new generation of practitioners.

Appiah’s three dimensions also stood out;

1. What you do, the practice.

2. Who you do it with, the community.

3. Body of beliefs, the religion you follow.

My other interpretation would be in a technical scenario, building a UAL dimension system that is key to learning and belief in craft, symbolising the religious pillars behind community and practice. The community of textiles and the practice is incredibly open and welcoming, the challenge would be succeeding the social aspect around academic learning goals and the technical workshop environments.

Studying these resources has allowed me to review my own past, and where my positionality sits within my teaching practice, the benefit of this is being spacious in the sense of welcoming and my curiosity around faith. Personal practice and academic practice will always cross paths, my goal as a technical tutor is to provide a safe space and awareness around caring, so that students feel welcomed on their faith and can express their religious needs or concerns in the workshop environment.

Reference

“BBC Radio 4 – the Reith Lectures, Kwame Anthony Appiah – Mistaken Identities, Creed.” BBC, www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07z43ds.

Modood, Tariq, and Craig Calhoun. Stimulus Paper. June 2015.

Shades of Noir. “Higher Power: Religion, Faith, Spirituality & Belief.” Shades of Noir, 2017, shadesofnoir.org.uk/journals/higher-power-religion-faith-spirituality-belief/. Accessed 11 June 2023.

S&F Online. “Queerthinking Religion: Queering Religious Paradigms.” The Scholar & Feminist Online, 23 Mar. 2017, sfonline.barnard.edu/queerthinking-religion-queering-religious-paradigms/.

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Student send out on my Aretfact

Posted on 10th June 2023 by Sean-henry Fitzsimons

I sent this through announcements on Moodle to our knit students. You can also check out the pallet as well, and add to it if you wish to do so.

Hello Students, 

I am working on a proposal for my pgcert (teaching qualification) which in this module is about inclusive practice and as a reflective practice we use a series of reports, case studies and articles to challenge our biases around faith, disability and race. I know most of you have finished, unfortunately, the timing for this isn’t the best, I do apologise. 

For my reflective piece, I am hoping to bring an identity card of sorts, in a workshop environment that is based around introductions and social interactions between craft and community. With this I have built a map-based Padlet, to allow students and staff to add a craft that falls within 3 main identity options;

1. Personal identity – What do you associate with, or connect with that showcases a craft and your personal design identity? This could be how you were taught a craft, or if you explored a craft through self-investigation. 
2. Heritage identity – Is there a craft in your town, city, county, province or district that you would associate with part of the identity of that place? also question do you consider this a part of your identity? 
3. Country identity – Does your country have an associated craft? and have you as a designer connected to this craft? 

It does not need to be an essay, just a simple image, or website, a small paragraph on why you feel this connects to you, it can also be anonymous or you can share your name if you please.

As a young creative, exploring identity can bring a reassuring sense of creativity and research methods to your learning experience, my goal is to allow you to have a conversation and interact with your classmates, with a sense of pride in your country/place in a sense, but also to become peer-to-peer educators and bring a global connection to your craft with your classmates and tutor. 

Technically my goal is to see if we as a professional service, can show you how to connect your heritage identity to your particular craft identity. This is also part of global connection (a sharing of knowledge and skills) and individual learning opportunities. Community is a belief system that is about growing and developing a connection to craft, which is worldwide, you will notice as you get older and experience the industry, that the craft world is an amazingly unique experience, that provides a sense of space for personal growth and learning. I am hoping that is opportunity will bring that sense of global community to our workshop spaces and learning environments. 

I will later extract the data of this artefact, (learning tool) to build a SharePoint or resource page that can inspire future cohorts in connecting their identity and learning environments, but also that this is a student-built resource that is built by students for students.  

Thank you so much for your time, and please if you can contribute, I will be gratefully thankful. 

https://padlet.com/sfitzsimons5/craft-and-identity-l6qsx98zv2tsrmn4

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Mistaken Identities

Posted on 10th June 2023 by Sean-henry Fitzsimons

Kwame Anthony Appiah – The Reith Lectures BBC Iplayer

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/b07z43ds

At first, I found this to be slightly long-winded, but by the end, I realised the introduction was Appiah’s positionality and how they as a person has developed and lead a life in this field he is an expert in.

Identity as a fellow queer mass in a highly religious country can affect your curiosity which Appiah describes as a Western view of what have got apart that Christianity couldn’t offer. I took the latter in finding that Christianity especially catholicism didn’t want me, so I set my goals to find one that did, a turbulent journey of self-hatred and a confused position in finding a community. Funnily though, in gay culture, we are subjected to the community through appearance, especially in Western societies, be it the bears, twinks or jocks etc. We have placed our sense of community in our sexual identities to maybe feel a sense of belonging that we didn’t receive when we were younger (not to stereotype all gay/queer people in this field, but the community is quite tribal in that aesthetics control your place of belonging).

In part of the early lecture,
Appiah communicated that religion has 3 dimensions :

1. What you do – The practice one holds.
2. What you do with it – The community you are with.
3. The body of Beliefs – The religion you set your beliefs to.

I liked this breakdown of faith-based identity over religious identity and that the modern views are extremely heavy fundamentalist ideologies around religion and identity and that these can control a communities views on certain topics like women’s rights, abortion rights and LGBTI communities. One thing mentioned was that belief has a history of faith and that accompanies a history of doubt. In modern times, I believe the younger generation is fighting this sense of doubt in religion and faith practices that are filled with hatred or body-abling laws that constrict a person’s right to live freely, one thing to take was this has continuously been happening throughout the ages and that religious sectors use scriptures in personal or ‘choice’ based views to challenge or change the sense of identity or community surrounded by these doubt based challenges.

A few of the positives picked up from audience conversations are that, the value of choice in religious beliefs is a choice, that they shouldn’t control or master our lives and identities and that we as individuals should be the masters or mistresses of our own identities. The dictation of control through religion should be something we as a community of faith shouldn’t thrive for, as it can generate hatred or misconceptions of others’ lives.

Before we close up this review, I would like to say that this lecture slightly touched on the family identity of celebrating two scriptures of Christianity, but didn’t really explore the heritage of what effects that religion does and is being passed down to children, are children given a choice to follow this scripture and could this been a sense of child abuse that neglects a child’s identity growth through the pressure of being indoctrinated into the family faith.

Questions, that I am no expert in, but something I can only speak from personal experience, in the sense of how the church controlled what school I went to, what sins I committed and how I should devote parts if not all of my life too! As I get older, I feel that the church sectors and religion are just massive based cults that are associated with profit-building rather than community, if a faith asks you for money, why does this belief in money and also church come hand in hand.

The end of this lecture was my favourite, from a past pupil of Appiah’s, the question was centred around; whether should we remove the word religion and just describe these faith sectors as communities and does he feel this could change the future of faith and identity?
It was definitely an interesting question, one that made my ears prick up and listen, the idea behind this seems a lot more inviting than a static religion with rules and protocols. Appiah also found it interesting as the idea or concept is to focus on the interaction between people and the community, but they did mention that Western Christian views especially had or has this sense of superiority and the offering is so-called better than anyone else’s. This could be a troubling future to change the concept and it could provide a lot of problems but the benefits of showing the community over religion was a promising idea that needed further investigation.

I am guessing that this lecture is to inform me to look on the outside of religion and see how I can visualise it within my work, or my student cohorts, and how it affect their life using my positionality and experience can I navigate religion with an open view and embracing the cultural history it holds and that we shouldn’t shy away from the conversations between religions and encourage a positive interaction to share views or identities on faith together, in a sense of community and practice.

https://sfonline.barnard.edu/queerthinking-religion-queering-religious-paradigms/

This article is interesting in the area of queer thinking and religion, where I place myself in this, and how I go forward in my secular mindset, taking a position of care to embrace faith and religion. I believe sexual identity and religious identity have always been a double edge sword in this sense world of faith and beliefs. Overall it is an interesting read, can I place it in my research around faith and my practice?

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Cultivated learning Artefact proposal

Posted on 30th May 2023 by Sean-henry Fitzsimons

Cultivated learning

This aspect of my practice is around identity in craft knit and its enriched history, with the prospect of modern teaching in Higher Education settings. I have named it cultivated learning as I am the seed sewer, the work is about understanding how knitting isn’t a Western only craft, although records show a very dominant Western view of the craft. Providing a small seedling of representation from knitting in a global setting, could potentially encourage global engagement in research and investigative practices around knitting and identity within the student learning journey. This workshop would be a combination of synchronous (interactive) and asynchronous (data collective) that will be showcased in the technical resource platform SharePoint, with cohort permission, this has the potential to grow into an inclusive student-generated resource.

Referencing the book ‘Knitting Around the World: A Multistranded History of a Time-Honoured Tradition’ by Lela Nargi who has documented 20 patterns in particular location-based style knitting. Although this book is extremely knowledgeable, a new knitter would be lost in its very enriched and complex knitting styles. The artefact that I am proposing is a more user-friendly and possibly interactive map that would showcase a traditional knitting style from around the world. Being Irish, and with the history of Irish knitting, I have shared conversations around fashion and craft with Aran knitting being routed in spirituality and paganism with its symbolism of meaning behind the cable stitch and its formations. As the fisherman jumpers/sweaters were family-orientated or clan-based, they provided an ‘identity card’ for when fishermen were lost or killed at sea. Much of the symbolism is routed in small charm-based designs, certain stitches represent luck, family, wealth, health, work, success, love, nature and God.

The idea of this artefact is inspired by my own identity in knitting, a sense of belonging to my heritage, how I was taught (generational) and how my idea of teaching is a community, open-sourced learning, I have a huge distaste towards gatekeeping knowledge, especially knitting knowledge. The artefact is to bring a sense of ownership to a student’s learning journey, with encouragement around identity and investigate localised– knitting or yarn (fibre) crafts, the prospective outcome would be both a thought-provoking and encouraging conversation surrounding one’s identity and their heritage through craft. Setting wise I would assume this can either be a pre-task before the beginning of BA1 or the start of BA1 in teaching/historical lessons around knitting and its global recognition within fashion, craft and community. The major outcome of this artefact is to inspire handcraft and its very prominent connection to fashion in the present time, something that I have witnessed a decline in recently due to the fastness of machines and now with the introduction to digital technology, students are less willing and often neglectful towards slower traditional crafts.

Reference list

aranstore.co.uk (2021). The meaning and symbolism of different Aran stitches. [online] aranstore.co.uk. Available at: https://www.aranstore.co.uk/blogs/news/the-meaning-and-symbolism-of-different-aran-stitches.

Burke, P. and Mcmanus, J. (2009). NALN Research Report Exclusion and Misrecognition in Art and Design Higher Education Admissions.

England, L. (2023). Crafting professionals: Logics of professional development in craft higher education. Arts and Humanities in Higher Education, 22(2), p.147402222311568. doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/14740222231156895.

handknitty.com. (2023). The History of Knitting in Different Regions – HandKnitty.com. [online] Available at: https://handknitty.com/history-of-knitting/ [Accessed 28 May 2023].

Lucas, B. and Claxton, G. (2009). Wider skills for learning What are they, how can they be cultivated, how could they be measured and why are they important for innovation? [online] Available at: https://media.nesta.org.uk/documents/wider_skills_for_learning_report.pdf.

Nargi, L. (2011). Knitting Around the World. Voyageur Press (MN).

Richards, A. and Finnigan, T. (n.d.). Embedding equality and diversity in the curriculum: an art and design practitioner’s guide.

Westrup, R. and Reading, S. (2022). Learner, student, graduate: a toolkit for student identity formation and critical reflection. [online] THE Campus Learn, Share, Connect. Available at: https://www.timeshighereducation.com/campus/learner-student-graduate-toolkit-student-identity-formation-and-critical-reflection [Accessed 28 May 2023].

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Artefact and peer responses

Posted on 29th May 2023 by Sean-henry Fitzsimons

An email, that I sent out to 17 members of my colleagues and peers with in the materials and product department at LCF.

Hello Colleagues, 

As you may know, I am currently just passing the halfway point of my PGcert, this unit is about inclusive practice and specifically developing an ‘artefact’ that could help transform my teaching practice within textiles/ my job role. My purpose is to continue my leading research around technical pedagogy and the pillars of technical identities by bridging Acadamia guidance and creative pathways (the unspoken rhizomatic technical pedagogy that runs alongside academia).  

Part of this unit is bringing our colleagues into this conversation and how they could interpret this idea of the artefact and provide an honest or guided response to what I propose to do, after our formative, I will hopefully be able to bring this artefact and explore with some students as well. As you may also know, I work across both materials and product teams and I have included you all in this conversation. This can also be ignored, please don’t feel pressured to respond, but if you do want to, use the padlet link;

https://padlet.com/sfitzsimons5/ip-unit-artefact-kvsurtoui7lstgbi

IP UNIT- ARTEFACTSean-Henrys IP Unit artefact proposal – for colleague reflective response.padlet.com

I would also like to say, if you do respond, I have to let you know that I will be documenting the evidence in response to my artefact on my UAL blog, I will not be including names or positions etc and keep it fully anonymous between us. 

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The beginning of faith

Posted on 25th May 2023 by Sean-henry Fitzsimons

http://www.tariqmodood.com/uploads/1/2/3/9/12392325/6379_lfhe_stimulus_paper_-_modood_calhoun_32pp.pdf

Multiculturalism pages 9-10

What I see in multiculturalism is sectarianism, maybe because of my positionality in growing up in a war-torn pre and post-good Friday agreement of Northern Ireland. I still pick up on the everyday sectarianism in micro and macro aggression. In the core living environments of today, we are pinpointed towards hate in a media-controlled manner, be it from my background setting, ‘themuns’ (a northern Irish slang word for a person of the other religion).  What we see constantly is faith-based attacks around sexuality or attacks on faith with white nationalists claiming Muslims are taking over.

One thing I have realised as an adult and educator is that the world likes to ‘Shout’ and it’s up to us how we absorb this information. also if we do take an interest in it, to find out our stance on the situation through investigation and researching both sides of the story. I got this from an amazing cross-community conflict management boot camp I was granted just after high school, the approach was that everyone was to believe their story, but it’s a core responsibility for me, as a person to understand both scenarios.

Minority Identities pages 12

It is interesting to read this portion, as referring back again to the positionality, pre the Good Friday agreement, Northern Irish Catholics were the minority identity, and it caused a lot of friction as the people who identified as Irish were stripped of rights, we have suffered the brutalist attack of the British army killing innocent people (proven fact) which caused the major 30-year battle of the Troubles in Northern Ireland.  Luckily ‘post’ good Friday agreement and my parents divorced I was able to experience a taste of ‘integration’ that liberated my views and questions on religions and ‘Christian’ identities, which is also a double edge sword, as growing up as a Queer kid, Christians or religious fanatics are still trying to devalue my being as a human and question our right to live.

I do give credit to this experience because I am so intrigued by religion and its mighty multi-faith possibilities that idealistically all believe in the same thing, from my explorations, the softer faiths do sing a louder song for me, Buddhism and my Irish connection to paganism how the 13th month is removed from society to live a modern ethno-Christian lifestyle.  Looking for the wild card just to pull that month back into the yearly calendar to send everyone into chaos, that shifts the mindsets of all. I believe as an adult my mind is a curious secular individual with an interest, I like to listen and learn and understand, last year alone I had my first student experience with Ramadan, which totally freaked me out, that a person wasn’t eating or drinking, now it’s on my radar and my comfort as an educator is to show a more fatherly caring role during this time, engagement with faith calendars in ‘stressful’ teaching scenarios is new to me, but a challenge that is also exciting to bridge between my curiosity between faith and creativity as a queer man.

The Public Sphere page 13

I am a humanitarian secular futurist, remove ‘Religion’ from State and schools! The even possibility that is a topic on this ‘educational’ course is somewhat a two-way argument I have with myself, I can’t fully connect, but I also respect the person who has faith. Although I don’t think we as educators should be teaching a single faith or any faith in school systems at all. Religion breeds hatred, it lives off it, while stealing your money and living tax-free. As mentioned, this shift that has happened is to allow a sense of belonging a multi-cultural society that but faith shouldn’t be able to control living views on women, sexuality or gender! And even education.

This idea that higher education should provide respect and accommodation for other non-Christian faiths is a ludicrous statement, in what way? A religious care plan to be implanted, but then that went against the human rights act, or is this just a statement on the encouragement to understand multi-faiths in our cohorts which I am so for! But as an educational platform, faith and creativity can be challenging and this is the question rather than the space. I believe questions like this sense should be around safe environments and excluding risk in the factor for conversation, debate or creativity should not be inclusive with faith, as the risk in education is the journey of learning. My biggest fear coming from my background is another faith feeling that they have control over someone else’s freedom to explore life with the negativities or ‘consequences’ of being faith controlled.

I wholeheartedly believe that this would allow public educational institutions to provide opportunities in research or investigation around faith and creativity with risk and that as an educator I should have a chance to engage with this and provide a safe space between a multicultural environment to progress humanity through this connection between creativity disciplines and faith. The primary thing with this is that we don’t have the sole opportunity to explore this, could we potentially provide a course designed specifically for faith creativity, the history of faith within humanity alone is enriched with a multitude of possibilities and creativity should be allowed to explore we just need to provide the space.

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Disability

Posted on 12th May 2023 by Sean-henry Fitzsimons

Impairments in creative education are very apparent in my localised teaching environment, especially if I was to reflect on the days of my own student adventures and tackling my own dyslexia and building upon an ‘academic’ written format to communicate my creative thinking patterns that constructively was bombarded by my ADHD tendencies of boredom and being distracted in other more ‘fun’ things to do or knit.

Being diagnosed in Year 2 of my Bachelor’s with these impairments was shocking, I was around 20-21 years old, and weirdly it was never picked up in my primary or secondary education. Although extremely thankful at the time and the access to the ‘disability service’ (another name was used, that I can’t recall). I was awarded personal help and equipment that really changed my student life, especially the award of an Apple desktop computer! Coming from single-parent, council estate background this was the jackpot award that changed my education journey. With that, I got to understand that I read better under ‘yellow’ lights and that reading white pages can cause me to lose focus or make my eyes fuzzy. This brings me to the ‘UAL disability and dyslexia funding’ the system seems quite clear on what is needed to be done to apply, although it provided a link to the Irish student finance its not fully inclusive of the multi-nationality cohorts we take in, is this provided to international students as well? It does mention;

” Students must also meet the criteria to apply for funding as a ‘Home’ student. The Student Advice Service provides guidance on the Home, EU or Overseas fee and funding categories.”

which makes it more of a hassle to find out information if you are not a home student, a redesign of this page is greatly needed, as disabilities isn’t just a domestic condition its world wide, especially something this important in creative education.

While on this subject of disabilities and impairments, it was interesting to find a sub-title article within the Shades of Noir journal ” Disabled people: The voice of Many”. It cited a list of modern or revised disabilities and impairments that are clearly set out with descriptors to understand that this complex human condition is multilayered and those affected can have singular or multiple impairments that affect all ways of their living life. Fundamentally as a grade 4 technician of teaching and learning, I should be made aware of any students disabilities or learning impairments, not just in the case that my subject area is heavily physical but also if my teaching needs to be adapted or if a student needs a personal learning plan (PLP). The question I ask the department is;

Can the knit workshop host multiple disabilities and impairments?

Using the list provided by the ‘SON’ resource, on pages 68-69 can the department find a solution or provide adequate learning possibilities that cater to any if not all of these disabilities or impairments. Recently I have had the opportunity, weirdly just before this term started during the Easter break of 2023, the UAL insights program had a multi-layered disabled student that participated in the studio activities. This was a huge challenge, as I had a very quick turnaround to consider how I could include a wheelchair-bound person, in a very compact room with fragile and sharp machinery (some machines hold over 200 needles). Luckily I had two options, that not many knit workshops would have, an electronic pedal-based Brother 970 knit machine with its own motor system, or the digital knit-down machines that are operated through computer (CAD) interaction.

The student who was also supervised by her mother chose the pedal-based knitting machine, and with a little help, was able to interact in the same activities as those who we unconsciously build the course for (able-bodied students). Although this was extremely rewarding in the sense of student participation and the social joy of other students (classmates) engaging and thankful that this particular student could engage, it wasn’t until after the experience that reflecting on it, I consider the physical workshop is not fully fit for purpose on disability learning environments and needs a huge undertaking to get our team fully aware of these conditions and how they affect a students learning journey.

“A loss or abnormality of psychological, physiological, or anatomical structure or function, impairments and disabilities may be temporary or permanent, reversible or irreversible, and progressive or regressive. The functional ability of people who are diagnosed as having the same impairment or disability may vary widely.” – World Health Organisation, Impairment.

I believe this statement by ‘WHO’ as well as this resource by ‘SON’ could be the start of some much-needed research departmental wise in Textiles to consider our training and awareness around our teaching practice, our resources and how the physicality of our spaces can dampen a student’s learning experience especially those who have a disability or impairment.

On this topic and on impairments the other resource I resonated with was Christine Sun Kim’s (Aka CK) film ‘ A Selby Film’, the opening scene provided a very generalised pedestrian or as I would consider an ‘average’ person’s morning. It is around 2 minutes and 14-16 seconds in we realise that Kim is deaf and signing to the camera. The beauty of this piece was the explorative journey from childhood and how Kim’s work questions the ownership of sound from their perspective and that able-hearing people don’t own the power of sound. This unique perspective of learning sign, and English and communicating with her immigrant parents provided a strong sense of communication that is now explored creatively around the physicality of sound, using sound as a vehicle to connect to a larger audience to express the meaning behind the sound that is Kim’s medium, which is showcasing performative art due to their impairment. The film provided an insight into Kim’s creative art practice that was extremely colourful and interactive between Kim the artist and the environment it was in, “let’s listen with our Eyes not just our ears” really stood out because of my own practice.

While comparing the physicality of Kim’s practice and my own, something that does make a lot of mechanical sounds, the passing of carriages over 100s of needles or the more alerting systems of carriages crashing into needles. As an able-hearing person, my hearing really plays a massive role in my job, as these alerting sounds provide me with enough information to alert a student to ‘reference check’ (a machine knitting term) their physical area and what they are doing. What I really connected to was Kim’s introduction of capturing the ‘Noise’ pollution of a busy road junction, and how that noise was later translated into works of performative art, Similar to when the machines ‘sing’ and students are awarded physically with crafted pieces of art.

On a more serious note, within our industry, prolonged exposure to this physical mechanical noise has irreversible hearing conditions or losses. While we move into our new campus this is something the Health and Safety team has considered within our work environments, which is a huge luxury for long-time employees and short-term student exposure. I am thankful to see how the physicality of sound and Kim’s work is translated into performance art, it does remind me of a past students’ work on how they recorded their physical actions of sound making around the machine interaction, Hong’s work explored the analogue and digital interactions of creativity and how expressive the actions around knitting are not considered by those participating in the craft. A similarity towards Kim’s outcome, only Hong kept everything in the digital realm but that could’ve been more nurtured around the global pandemic and how that affected a student’s learning environment. They carry this explorative nature within their social media presence of ‘HyperKnit’ which can be found on the social media platform Instagram.

Bibliography

UAL (2020). Disability and dyslexia funding. [online] UAL. Available at: https://www.arts.ac.uk/students/student-services/disability-and-dyslexia/disability-and-dyslexia-funding [Accessed 11 May 2023].

27061696 (n.d.). Disabled People: The Voice of Many. [online] Issuu. Available at: https://issuu.com/shadesofnoir/docs/disabled_people. pg64-71
Quote by WHO on page 70.

selby, the (2011). Christine Sun Kim – 10min. Vimeo. Available at: https://vimeo.com/31083172.

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Posted in Inclusive posts | 5 Comments

Deaf-accessibility for spoonies: lessons fromtouring Eve and Mary Are Having Coffee whilechronically ill

Posted on 8th May 2023 by Sean-henry Fitzsimons

Khairani Barokka (Okka)

Deaf-accessibility-for-spoonies-lessons-from-touring-Eve-and-Mary-Are-Having-Coffee-while-chronically-illDownload

What I received from this reading was an understanding of awareness around hosting or building a production, suffice to say the hardship that Barokka endured was disregarded by organisers and that their chronic illness was subjected to repeated paperwork to find and secure funding to openly share their illness with the world.

A courageous and long recovery journey to reflect on the awareness needed to bring a greater sensitivity towards intersectional understandings within the arts. While all 3 points resonate with education teaching, I will only quote one, which I feel is currently the most concerning amongst young people and the arts.


“ (b) The need for greater acknowledgement of mental health issues in particular during production, and for a full spectrum of perspective on how deeply mental health issues are associated with lack of avenues to success in the arts for disabled practitioners;”

This is a revolving theme amongst young creatives in the arts, and while stress is embedded into education, its also a trigger for mental health, could I use this paper to help bring a greater sensitivity to our students in workshops that allows the student to find guidance in material understanding that is trigger free or sensitive towards mental illness and disabilities.

The other side of this is the staff is fully aware or trained in how the university treats/deals with disabilities and mental illness and how can we equip staff with a better understanding of navigating student needs and the arising crisis of mental health within arts education. Barokka was mishandled by their arts organisation in their request for support during their production that shown added extra pain and stress to their show, what I question in my own practice is why sometimes I find out when certain students are in the 3rd year of their degree, that they have hidden disabilities or learning needs, that should’ve been shared across all teaching teams from the moment this became apparent to their student learning experience. 

Is this a request I can bring to the academic team? That allows the technicians to build upon their teaching that requires a personalised learning plan for those students who are disabled or/and have mental health issues. Generalised teaching is sufficed only until it is not.

“I’d made sure to enforce rules on Eve and Mary Are Having Coffee: it would be D/deaf and hearing-impaired accessible, and only performed in wheelchair-accessible venues. The script was put on a Google Document, and the shortened link was given to D/deaf or hearing-impaired audience members, who were asked to identify themselves beforehand and were given iPads or iPhones with which to read the poetry. In Vienna, the URL was projected onto a wall, which meant anyone who saw it inside the gallery – or indeed outside it, as I performed in a window space facing onto the street – could read the script”

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