Week 1: Teaching and Learning – an introductory lecture

Today marked the beginning of the Teaching and Learning unit, and I came to the session not really knowing what to expect. Perhaps I hadn’t seen the schedule when I had looked on Moodle, but I was pleasantly surprised.

We kicked off with James Wisdom (a Visiting Professor in Educational Development from Middlesex University) who presented ‘The Context of UK Higher Education, 2021‘. This was an overview of both the historical context and current situation of HE and creative HE, highlighting the politics, economics and attitudes influencing the policymaking around HE. Having recently written a dissertation on the role of HEIs in preparing creative graduates for the labour market, I was aware of the depressing statistics and issues surrounding the government’s focus solely on the economic value of HE, and how they do not favour creative education which puts the future of creative HE at risk. Will it be accessible to underrepresented applicants in the future? Or will it become more elitist, perpetuating the homogeneous workforce that is prevalent within the creative industries, further widening the gap to access? The gender pay gap was briefly discussed, but what about the access barriers to POC? If not the government, then is it for universities to address these issues to level the playing field, and if so – where does the funding come from and how do they drive the change into industry? Some food for thought.

James raised some interesting questions such as which way HE should develop in the next generation, whether the standard models of studying will remain post-Covid, the potential for change in academic culture and what it means to be a professional HE teacher. I feel he was purposefully quite provocative in some suggestions, perhaps to spark a debate or to highlight opposing views. What about the impact of neoliberalisation in HE (and in this context you could replace neoliberalisation with individualisation) and how that ties in with the consumerist perception many students come with? The students expect value for money, are we providing it? How can we manage student expectations?

Overall, James was a very engaging speaker, who spoke at a slow speed to allow us to digest the information provided. Having just been in an online Away Day yesterday where I felt the Chair had whizzed through their presentation at bullet speed, I was grateful for the change and for the ability to be able to keep up with the content. His humour and ability to respond to the questions or comments in the instant messaging whilst teaching made for an engaging session. I very much enjoyed this.

Following a short break, the second and final speaker, Victoria Odeniyi (Project Researcher, UAL), presented her ongoing research titled ‘Reimagining Conversations with Multilingual Students‘. She noted her interest in researching real-world problems through the lens of language. She argued that language can be framed not only in a technical or communicative skill, but also the subtleties found in understanding cultural differences such as the grammatical ordering of sentences. This resonated with me, as a British-Japanese bilingual, as I often find it difficult to be concise with my thoughts, particularly when I’m speaking. Previously, somebody has speculated the reason why I do this could be due to Japanese sentence structure, where the verb often comes at the end of the sentence – perhaps my brain likes to mix it all up.

Victoria explained that she has been observing online teaching sessions at LCC and LCF, observing who dominates the conversation and who remains silent. She questioned whether the silence or pause was productive or negative in the context, and reflected on the pros and cons of the chat function (e.g. it enables those who are not confident enough to speak up to have a space to contribute or ask questions, whereas it can also be distracting and disrupt the flow of a conversation). It’s a shame that the research hadn’t begun prior to the Covid-19 pandemic so that there could be the face-to-face teaching to compare her research with.

Having done a spot of shadowing of a delivery of a session on Blackboard Collaborate myself, I have observed the awkward silences and the apprehension of turning a camera on, and experienced the uncertainty of speaking to a group of headless icons, unable to gauge the reaction or note the subtle body language of the listeners. I have also seen how an international student was utilising a translation service, which acted as a delayed form of subtitles for the session. This meant that it took a little longer for them to respond, and those silences were really important for them to be able to gather their thoughts and translate parts which were necessary. This made it really clear that to be truly inclusive in the delivery, you needed to allow the time, and to adapt by typing the questions/comments whilst also speaking.

During the lecture, there was a discussion about colloquialisms and whether they have a place within the teaching environment. I am of the view that as long as colloquialisms are expanded on which would ensure inclusivity (one noted how they had a glossary of terms as they spoke quite naturally through colloquialisms), they should be fine to use – it’s part of the language, and the classes should be established as safe spaces where inquisitive questioning is encouraged when an individual does not understand something. This in turn could spark a conversation about how a particular phrase is said in a different language.

Overall, it as an interesting session. I’m looking forward to learning more, and getting to know the rest of the cohort better for peer-to-peer learning. I’m sure there’s plenty I can learn from experienced academics!