PROJECT FINDINGS & ACTION PLAN

Posted on 16th January 2024 by Susana Guinau Molina

It has been a very interesting journey to work on my research, to read about how to do it from a creative perspective, to collect all the information, to challenge the process and to conclude with findings and an action plan.

After determining the participation on my survey was not conclusive, Saunders, M., Lewis, P., & Thornhill, A. (2019). I put all my attention on the casual interviews as I mentioned on my previous post “Research Challenges”.

Once I finalised all the interviews, I color coded the key mentioned topics which were common across the participants. The color coding helped me to visually unify ideas and to easily transcribe them in a table where I highlighted key categories, concepts and possible solutions. It has been revealing to observe both perspectives, from academic staff and from the students.

The key findings are:

The MA FDM course doesn’t have any formal traceability tool in terms of employability.
Students wonder about their future in the industry from an early stage as the course lasts 1 year.
Networking is key for employability, the LCF provides multiple options, but students lack confidence to take advantage of the opportunity, which makes them feel uncertain about their future.
Students would appreciate guidance as networking help them to feel included and helps them to move toward their professional goals. It would be valuable to provide support to define and action plan and a follow up accountability process.
Networking should be contextualised and seen as an opportunity for development, a learning experience where information is exchanged, no matter the ultimate outcome.
Not all the students are ready to participate in some of the activities provided by the LCF. We could support them building confidence, however, this is a journey where they need to keep being curious.

Is it evident on the research that the networking opportunities are there, students are eager to participate, but they feel not confident and equality somethings they’re not ready to move forward. The proposal solution would be to provide a space were we complement the current Tutorial Framework with a Tutorial Framework for employability addressing the MA’s FDM concerns about their future employability and where the current networking opportunities are consciously explored according to the students needs and interests.

Saunders, M., Lewis, P., & Thornhill, A. (2019) Research methods for business students. 8th edn. Harlow: Prentice Hall. (Pages 297 & 298)

HOW I DID MY SURVEY

Posted on 11th December 2023 by Susana Guinau Molina

I’ve chosen Survey as a research quantitative method with the purpose of understanding the current and past MA Fashion Design Management students perspective regarding the benefits of the networking opportunities the university is offering to them.

Before writing down the questions I read a chapter of Kara, Helen. Creative Research Methods in the Social Sciences: A Practical Guide, which helped me to reflect on:

What I want to achieve with this research
Which questions will help me to get relevant findings
Are my analysis and its results going to be helpful in the next stages of the research process: writing, presentation, dissemination and implementation
Which type of questions are better for my ARP? Are they closed questions or restrictive questions?
Because of the nature of the questions, am I excluding any potential relevant results?
Are the questions in the right sequence?
Am I using the right vocabulary?
Can I avoid any misinterpretation?
To encourage high participation, is the number of questions adequate?

Once the survey draft was finalised, I wanted to verify it ticked all the boxes. On that note, I shared the draft with two current MA FDM students and with two former ones. The aim was to simply get their feedback, specially about the above points 4, 6, 7 & 8.

The opinion of these students was insightful and allowed me to notice some aspects I didn’t considered:

They appreciate multiple choice closed questions
The questionnaire could be more addresses towards the adaptation/inclusivity area
There is one question which is not clear

Now I feel confident to finalise my survey and share it with the participants.

ARP TOPIC THOUGHTS

Posted on 30th October 2023 by Susana Guinau Molina

I am currently taking my time to define my research topic. I am aiming to select a research that resonates with my interests, that can add value to my practice (MA’s Fashion Design Management), specific enough, feasible, and related to social/racial justice.

Within my personal experience at the FBS, I’ve noticed how the students struggle to find a placement or a job once they finish their studies. They are very well prepared, with a high level of knowledge and eager to work. However, at the end of the year there are always some students who reach out for help to start their professional career.

At the same time, the UAL and the FBS are offering multiple options to create interactions with companies to increase the networking among the students and with professionals. Few of these options are: Graduate Futures, the Mentoring Network, different industry projects throughout the year… I wonder if the students are fully aware of all these opportunities and if they are able to define goals which will help once they start their professional career.

A very high percentage of the students move to London for the first time, they start working while they study, they have multiple projects to work on during their MA’s year and in addition they should be thinking about their professional futures. My aim would be to make MA’s FDM students’ journey easier, to empower them, to help them with their inclusion in the university as well as with their future employability by offering a clear “one page” guideline which contains all the possibilities that the University offers in terms of networking. In addition I would like to go deeper in the topic and provide an easy tool to define their networking goals as well as follow up. To make the journey easier and to empower all the students would be my commitment with Social Justice.

In order to define my final research, it was very helpful to casually chat with few UAL colleagues as well as with few students. My next step will be to define a proper survey as well as formal interview framework respectively.

A possible ARP title would be: “Effective networking tool box for MA’s Fashion Design Management students”.

RACE

Posted on 21st June 2023 by Susana Guinau Molina

As a child in the 80’s, I was raised in a working middle class neighbourhood where only one color of skin was the norm. I didn’t think that was unusual, because I had no other experience. Years later, that neighbourhood started to be one of the immigration hubs of my city. Immigration rates now are 32.8% and that translates into multiple nationalities, citizens from Morocco, Senegal, Gambia, China…and more than 120 different languages.

When I was 10 years old, primary school was where Moroccan students joined for the first time in their new life in Spain. It was 1988 and I remember Mustafa, he was seated beside me and we shared a few hours a day. I remember my first interactions as if it was yesterday I asked him if he could teach me his alphabet. I was quite naive, thinking I would be able to speak and write arabic by learning the alphabet. These were early days and , as kids, we were not conscious of racism. Or at least, I wasn’t. This is something which I connect with the Ted Talk video “Witness Unconscious bias” and makes me agree with Josephine Kwhali, about the importance of consciousness. I can reflect how at that time my teachers approached this new paradigm and I believe they did it brilliantly. They just normalised the situation and even embraced the mix of cultures and races. I hope I can be as good with my students as they were with us. There was no oppression as at that stage we were not aware of power and identity, it was a positive unconsciousness.

It’s painful to read Shades of Noir testimonials, which reflect the discrimination present in the academic world, where supposedly there is a high degree of knowledge and culture. I believe Shades of Noir can help me to increase consciousness in my classes and to break the silence around these topics. As Brazilian pedagogue Paul Freire says “education is the key to enacting social justice” (Freire 2006)

I really empathise with the thoughts compiled in the text: “A pedagogy of Social Justice Education Social Identity Theory, Intersectionality, and Empowerment” (Hahn Tapper 2013): “A teacher needs to create experiences with, and not for, students, integrating their experiences and voices into the educational experience itself (Freire 2006). Teachers’ and students’ identities are thus tied to one another in an interlocked relationship” (Rozas 2007). I believe my primary school teachers were embracing our realities, our “situation in the world” as Freire highlights (Freire 2006, 96). This also makes me reflect on the “Room of Silence” testimonials, in a few cases it looked like the teaching body was not part of the class reality. I wonder how I can create these dynamics and a safe space where there is room for all the voices and space for interlocked relationships.

In this same text I’ve also learned about Social Identity Theory (SIT) and the concepts of intergroup and intragroup encounters and I would like to further explore the following thoughts in my artefact: “creating opportunities for intergroup cooperation and teamwork—activities that have the potential to lead participants toward the perspective that because they all have a shared humanity, they can focus on this common bond instead of their differences, thus marginalizing the seemingly superficial conflict between them—participants are able to have personal interactions with one another that shatter their group conflicts” (Allport 1954).

“The participant interactions within intergroup settings are often a reflection of interpersonal dynamics or social group interactions or a combination of the two. Those who are facilitating intergroup encounters, both inter- group and intragroup (Dovidio, Saguy, and Shnabel 2009), need to take these dynamics into account. Students learn to embrace the notion that each of us has several social identities—identities based on ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, socioeconomic class, and so on. In addition, each of us has an individual identity—a unique personality shaped in relation to our manifold social identities.” I have to consider how I can highlight the concept of one individual having several social identities without falling into intersectionality.

Reading ‘Retention and attainment in the disciplines: Art and Design’ Finnigan and Richards 2016, I’ve learned about the importance of being aware of the lower attainment and retention rate in particular backgrounds and how important it is to act according to that with activities and intervention to reduce this difference.

The text mentions “So, students in their first year of study are constantly looking for certainty and reassurance, while staff are encouraging ambiguity and risk taking and expecting a tacit knowledge of how the subject is delivered. They rely on their tutors for guidance and for evaluation of the quality of their work”. Which makes me realise the importance of the tutors during the 1st year journey. As an associate lecturer I am not aware of this service for undergraduates and I believe it is something I should explore, considering the latest data from the “Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Annual Report 2021/22”. In addition, the text highlights the importance of building trust with the student group to ensure that the students will find their voice. I wonder how it could be done from an HPL perspective where in most cases there is no consistency in terms of interaction hours. From my HPL position I also wonder if I could support a more inclusive curriculum and be more mindful about the “group crit” assessment and its impact on 1st year students. I believe it is something I will raise in the new course.

I’ve read the article from Shades of Noir: White Fragility by Robin Deangelo. This text really impacted me. It was a reality check, especially the white fragility patterns and the social stress situations. As I mentioned above, I believe SoN is a very powerful resource which I will directly share with my students. it would be helpful to discuss a few of the articles in a context that makes sense with the content. This will hopefully support a more inclusive curriculum and will encourage open respectful conversations, less silence.

See my comments on other posts on this topic:

https://sebastianmay.myblog.arts.ac.uk

Bibliography:

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Annual Report 2021/22

Finnigan and Richards (2016) ‘Retention and attainment in the disciplines: Art and Design’

Hahn Tapper (2013) “A pedagogy of Social Justice Education Social Identity Theory, Intersectionality, and Empowerment”

Robin J. Deangelo “White Fragility”, Shades of Noir. pp. 100-105