Tag Archives: inspiration

Uni Connect

Inspiration, My Project, , , , ,

When I was last at my volunteering job, I got into conversation with a lady who works in the EDI department at Demontfort University in Leicester. I was telling her about my research and she suggested that I look at a scheme called Uni Connect that the other university in Leicester is part of.

There are currently 29 universities taking part in this scheme, spread all over England. None of the universities taking part specialise in the arts which I find interesting. Historically there has been a big push directing young people from underrepresented groups to STEM subjects and I have been unable to find any evidence of something similar for the arts. I am curious as to why there are no arts based universities on this list as diversity within the arts is something that is very topical.

I find it very interesting that there is targeted outreach as part of this scheme, as I have been told by multiple people that universities can’t target a specific group of people because it’s unethical. I suppose the difference is the context?

As you can see from this image, the funding amounts fluctuates. However the funding is dependent on how many learners are in each area so this difference in amounts of funding makes sense. I think it is important to note that in the majority of areas, the amount of funding being accessed has decreased in the last 2 years. Perhaps this is a knock on effect from Covid.

https://www.officeforstudents.org.uk/advice-and-guidance/promoting-equal-opportunities/uni-connect/

Next Intervention

Interventions, , , , ,

I will be the first person to admit that it’s been too long since my last intervention but with David’s help I’ve figured out what I want to do. My last intervention I asked a very small group of stakeholders what ‘working class’ means to them and I was struggling to see what the next iteration would be.

But… Now I have a plan.

Before I conduct interviews that I am going to *hopefully* video, I plan to make a video using quotes from the interviews I’ve already done. I didn’t record the interviews visually, but I do have direct quotes from the stakeholders I’ve spoken to. I plan to hold an online viewing party for this video, just to gauge if that works. This viewing party will be on October 21st and I have sent an invite to 10 stakeholders that I’ve already spoken to.

Why video?

Well, my background is in photography and I could take photos and make an exhibition. But something about letting my stakeholders words be heard feels right to me and I think that if I’m talking to all of these women then I should help their voices be heard. A lot of the stakeholders I’ve spoken to so far have spoken about how they feel invisible and a video is a way to overcome that, potentially. I think that this intervention will help me figure out how exactly my question needs to change/pivot.

Tutorial 10/10

Tutorials, , , , ,

Today I went into my tutorial with a question – albeit a slightly stupid one in hindsight. I asked David how to present my research at the festival in a way that utilises my background in photography….

Just writing that makes me realise how badly I was tying my brain in knots trying to avoid the obvious answer. However David challenged me to branch out into video, and I think that this is challenge I am going to embrace. Having arranged interviews with stakeholders in the coming weeks, I plan to ask if I can video them. And then compile the interviews into a short film to which I can ask both stakeholders and experts to react. We spoke about how exhibitions are an intervention as long as you’re asking for feedback on it, and how this goes for anything. I know what makes an intervention, but sometimes I confuse myself or overthink it.

Action points:

  • Conduct interviews that I have arranged, and arrange some more ✔️
  • Teach myself the basics of video editing (or find someone who can teach me) ✔️
  • Reach out to more universities to learn about their outreach
  • Rethink my question – I know it needs to evolve but I can’t figure out how yet. ✔️
  • Look at short films that are comprised of interviews for inspiration ✔️
  • Write blog post summing up what I’ve learnt about the outreach approach from arts universities and non arts based schools. What are the main differences/similarities?

Tutorial 3/10

Tutorials, , , , ,

First tutorial with David and I feel as though my mental block has disappeared! I think that I have been second guessing myself and my project too much, and focusing on the roadblocks I’m encountering rather than the successes I am having. We spoke about how CSM specifically has a reputation for it being difficult to get answers to questions and he suggested that I contact one or more of the other colleges that make up UAL such as CCW and LCC. Another conversation we had was about how in the UK, class is always the elephant in the room – it’s rarely spoken about but there’s always an undercurrent of it in the majority of situations.

Moving Forwards – Action points, ideas to research/think about etc

  • Show my academic argument for focusing on female working class students. Show why it is needed academically, rather than anecdotally. Illustrate why I’m focusing on what I am focusing on with the help of research and data, and pivot if needed. ✔️
  • Look at my project from the antithesis perspective. Potential arguments against my question, and also look at my question as less of a theory/idea. ✔️
  • Think about whether my stakeholder group has expanded to include potential applicants to universities for the next academic year. *If I am working on outreach as part of my research and interventions, then this would make sense, I think?* ✔️
  • Contact outreach at other institutions. How do other schools, not just art schools, entice students to study with them? What is working and not working? ✔️
  • Talk to educational policy officers at various universities, not just arts focused universities
  • Compare outreach at other arts universities – what are they doing that UAL are not? Compare and contrast and show the areas that UAL specifically are lacking, if any. ✔️
  • Contact the SU to work with them on a survey to work out how many female working class students there are – using re-enrolment figures potentially. They don’t have to disclose this under GDPR so I need to be inventive to get this data. ✔️
  • Offer to work directly with outreach teams. On a voluntary basis to collect data for my project. Kind of a quid pro quo situation. Have something to offer them in exchange for them helping me with my research – they are more likely to be receptive if this is the case.
  • Offer to volunteer with students who are potentially applying to university this year. Are they choosing an arts school? If not, why not? Have they thought about studying in London instead of staying where they currently are? *I have applied for a mentorship in this area at the Whitechapel Gallery which starts in November and I will look for other similar opportunities – this could lead into a paid role if successful* ✔️
  • Why are most HE teachers women? Did they go to an arts based university? Do they teach where they studied? *Look at the staff I see around me, as well as statistics if available. Maybe look at the ONS?*

The main takeaway from this tutorial for me, apart from all the advice, was David saying that the point of research isn’t to solve the problem. Research provides data and insight into what the problem is and presents possible solutions. I think up to this point, I’ve convinced myself that I’m going to make a huge change through my project. But really, that’s not what matters and that’s not how success is defined in the context of my project.

Case Study : LAMDA

Inspiration, Interventions, My Project, , , , ,

Today I saw that LAMDA (London Acadamy of Music and Dramatic Art) has installed QR codes around the school, where students and staff can report microaggressions that they experience in an anonymous way.

I think that something similar could be a viable intervention for my project when we are back on campus, and would be a way of my stakeholders talking about their experiences truly anonymously. Whilst my project is not about microaggressions as such, I think it would be useful to gather data around events that happen on campus that make my stakeholders feel uncomfortable or inferior to their peers. I especially like how LAMDA have asked the people filling this form in to say what they would like to be done about it. If I do a similar intervention then I think it would be interesting to see what my stakeholders would like to see from UAL in terms of things changing or just simply support. An intervention of this sort could also educate universities on why more support for working class students is needed.

I think another good thing about this prospective intervention is that if I asked the gender of the person clicking on the QR code, it would allow me to collect data that is split into genders, which so far has been impossible to find in regards to UAL. It would also allow me to see if one gender is reporting more than another and this could influence my research question.

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https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/08/20/report-microaggressions-qr-codes-campus-lamda-students-told/

Reading List

My Project, , ,

Books:

Jones, O. (2020). Chavs:The Demonisation of the Working Class. London: Verso Books.

Bloodworth, J. (2016). The illusion of meritocracy : why working class kids still get working class jobs. London: Biteback Publishing.

Gilbert, I. (2018). The working class : poverty, education and alternative voices. Carmarthen, Wales, Uk Independent Thinking Press.

hooks, b. (2009). Where we stand : class matters. New York ; London: Routledge.

hooks, b (2015). Outlaw culture : resisting representations. Routledge.

Ardoin, S., Martinez, B. and Washington, J. (2019). Straddling class in the academy : 26 stories of students, administrators, and faculty from poor and working-class backgrounds and their compelling lessons for higher education policy and practice. Sterling, Virginia: Stylus Publishing, Llc.

Brookfield, S. (1995). Becoming a Critically Reflective Teacher. Jossey-Bass.

Rubin, M., Evans, O. and McGuffog, R. (2019). Social Class Differences in Social Integration at University: Implications for Academic Outcomes and Mental Health. The Social Psychology of Inequality, pp.87–102. doi:10.1007/978-3-030-28856-3_6.

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Journals:

Müller-Pinzler, L., Czekalla, N., Mayer, A.V., Stolz, D.S., Gazzola, V., Keysers, C., Paulus, F.M. and Krach, S. (2019). Negativity-bias in forming beliefs about own abilities. Scientific Reports, [online] 9(1), pp.1–15.

Reay, D. (2021). The working classes and higher education: Meritocratic fallacies of upward mobility in the United Kingdom. European Journal of Education, 56(1). doi:10.1111/ejed.12438.

Soria, K. and Bultmann, M. (2014). Supporting Working-Class Students in Higher Education. NACADA Journal, 34(2), pp.51–62. doi:10.12930/nacada-13-017.

Archer, L. and Hutchings, M. (2000). ‘Bettering Yourself’? Discourses of risk, cost and benefit in ethnically diverse, young working-class non-participants’ constructions of higher education. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 21(4), pp.555–574. doi:10.1080/713655373.

Reay, D. (2003). A Risky Business? Mature Working-class Women Students and Access to Higher Education Correspondence : Diane Reay, Kings College London, UK.

Bettencourt, G.M. (2021). ‘I Belong Because It Wasn’t Made for Me’: Understanding Working-Class Students’ Sense of Belonging on Campus. The Journal of Higher Education, pp.1–24. doi:10.1080/00221546.2021.1872288.

Nairz Wirth, E., O’Shea, S. and Lessky, F. (2021). Higher education access, participation and progression: Inequalities of opportunity. European Journal of Education. doi:10.1111/ejed.12441. pp 53-64

Lareau, A. and Ferguson, S., 2017. Cultural exclusion of upwardly mobile college students. American Sociological Association August, 12, p.2017. 

Nuñez, C. (2009). The self portrait, a powerful tool for self-therapy. European Journal of Psychotherapy & Counselling, 11(1), pp.51–61. doi:10.1080/13642530902723157.

Clance, P.R. and Imes, S.A. (1978). The imposter phenomenon in high achieving women: Dynamics and therapeutic intervention. Psychotherapy: Theory, Research & Practice, [online] 15(3), pp.241–247. doi:10.1037/h0086006.

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Websites:

https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5f5a43bbac8a03768312ff22/t/61125de8b770e631706ce87d/1628593641057/3.4+Understanding+Social+Mobility.pdf

https://sdgs.un.org/goals

https://www.brown.edu/sheridan/microaggressions-and-micro-affirmations-0

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/09/20/ordinary-joe-producers-some-passions-are-hobbies-not-professions.html

https://www.boredpanda.com/privilege-explanation-comic-strip-on-a-plate-toby-morris/

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2019/feb/14/half-of-universities-england-have-fewer-than-5-poor-white-students

https://www.educationopportunities.co.uk/news/new-report-shows-differences-in-white-working-class-students-going-to-university-by-higher-education-provider/

https://www.hesa.ac.uk/data-and-analysis/sb262/figure-6

https://www.officeforstudents.org.uk/media/79a7bb57-83cf-4c50-a358-6bcfe80f165c/ofs2022_29.pdf

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/08/20/report-microaggressions-qr-codes-campus-lamda-students-told/

https://www.arts.ac.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0021/40629/UAL-Equality-Diversity-and-Inclusion-Report-2016-4mb.pdf

https://www.arts.ac.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0025/325267/Student-Equality-Diversity-and-Inclusion-Report-2021.pdf

https://www.arts.ac.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0024/144474/190206_EDI-Report-2018.pdf

https://www.arts.ac.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0011/40610/UAL-Equality,-Diversity-and-Inclusion-Report-2017-Students.pdf

https://www.arts.ac.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0013/40630/UAL-Equality-and-Diversity-Progress-Report-2015-FINAL.pdf

https://www.unitegroup.com/articles/rising-cost-of-living-increases-pressure-on-parents-with-children-at-university-unite-students

https://www.unitegroup.com/articles/cost-of-living-crisis-students

https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/bills/article-11099735/Uni-students-deferring-places-cost-living-crisis-one-seven-fear-homeless.html

https://bgsf.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/StopTellingWomenTheyHaveImposterSyndrome.pdf

Lack of Photography as an Intervention

Inspiration, , , , ,

In January 2020, two months before the pandemic hit, Vogue Italia published an issue of their magazine, in which they produced no new photography. They did this to draw attention to the vast number of resources that just one issue of their magazine uses :

  • One hundred and fifty people involved.
  • About twenty flights and a dozen or so train journeys.
  • Forty cars on standby.
  • Sixty international deliveries.
  • Lights switched on for at least ten hours non-stop, partly powered by gasoline-fueled generators.
  • Food waste from the catering services.
  • Plastic to wrap the garments.
  • Electricity to recharge phones, cameras 

I’m not great with numbers but even I can work out that this is a lot, especially when you consider that there are 26 different editions of Vogue monthly, and around 80 mainstream fashion magazines globally per month.

vouge-italia-illustrations

I think this intervention was partially successful – it worked because it drew attention to how wasteful editorial shoots can be and the impact that they have on the planet. It allowed the industry and consumers to see that is actually possible to produce an issue of a magazine without new photographs. I think another success from this intervention was that artists were showcased on a Vogue front cover, which is a big deal. It allowed their art to be seen by people who maybe would never have seen it otherwise.

However fashion needs photography so this was never going to be sustainable going forwards. I think this worked as a one off intervention but there is not obvious path forwards from it. Nowhere did they state their next steps, apart from saying that their packaging was now recyclable.

Another problem I have with this intervention is that it seemed performative – everything went back to normal the next month. So in actuality, Vogue Italia drew attention to something that people had previously been blissfully unaware of. This was now something that their readers knew about. Whereas before they might have speculated about how many flights were taken per issue, now they had a concrete number to think about. I am curious as to whether drawing attention to this impacted the number of subscribers to their magazine in any way. Vogue subscribers are at an all time high but would there have been more without drawing attention to this issue?

If an intervention occurs and no changes occur because of it, what was the point to creating the intervention in the first place. I think it would have been interesting for Vogue Italia to publish their findings from creating this issue – did they receive positive/negative social media comments? Was there criticism within the fashion industry? Did they get praised? How did the photographers who would normally have been used feel? The whole purpose to an intervention is to change something, and analyse the data from doing so. Maybe they did this internally, but I wish they would have shared this with the general public/

https://time.com/5760459/vouge-italia-illustrations-photoshoots-sustainability/