iholmesPGCert_2025

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Reflective Posts

About Me

I’m Ian I have worked with UAL since 2021 as an Associate Lecturer and Language Development Tutor – I have worked across colleges – CSM – LCC and CCW and I currently work at LCF East Bank with the Fashion Business School and with the LCF IISF Team at Lime Grove Pre Degree School. I have worked as a teacher of English language since 2007, as an actor since the late 90s, (in theatre and film in the UK and Italy) and, more recently, as a producer/ presenter and journalist with BBC Learning English and BBC World Service. My most recent experience as student in HE was doing an MSc with Queen Mary University London in International Public Policy, from which I graduated in 2023. In 2025 I had an article based on my Master’s thesis published with the journal Politics and Policy. I’m interested in narrative and storytelling, both as a pursuit in the creative arts, and in the pursuit of understanding it as a social theory.

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Action research project blog: Contents

  1. Background to study and Research Question (including Initial thoughts, Ethical Action Plans, ARP Action Plan) – LO1
  2. Rationale for making languages visible – LO2
  3. Methods: Guerilla research? (including link to MS Form survey/questionnaire) – LO3
  4. Methods: A ‘critical realist’ view – both above and below the water line – LO3
  5. Noticing: Flipping the classroom – LO4
  6. Noticing otherwise: Narration of the teacher learner – LO4
  7. So what: What now? – Reflecting on methods and findings (including FINAL presentation slides) – LO4
  8. Reference List (Bibliography)
  9. Appendices – (‘A view from the swamp’ – Example Consent form – Data Reduction)

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1. Background to study and Research Question

Background to study:

A critical incident observed during a presentation workshop illustrated for me a lack of inclusivity endemic within the university. There were seven home students and one Chinese. The Chinese student sat alone at the front, so I asked the student to sit with the others so that she could participate in group work. However, the home students worked together and still excluded the Chinese student (Holmes, 2025a). The refusal of the home students to be inclusive inspired me to devise a translanguaging intervention to optimize the potential for multicultural communication (Garcia, 2009, p.140).

This activity involved students to handwriting in their own language on a whiteboard (see fig 1) and then building a discussion around this, which also aims to focus attention away from the digitally mediated space and into the classroom space, and responds to discussions I had with PG Diploma Fashion course leader Tim Williams regarding strategies to develop an approach to (machine) translation (see IP blog: Holmes, 2025a; ARP blog 2: Rationale).

 Fig. 1. Example translanguaging fashion – Language Development MA Strategic Fashion Marketing – LCF October 2025

Having completed, revised and cleared the Ethical Action Plan (see links below) with tutors and course leaders and implemented the intervention with 6 PG Fashion Business School cohorts, I find myself in the “swampy lowlands,” of the research process (Schön, 1983 in Cook, 2009, p. 279). How should I construct my question, and which strategies should I use to try and answer it?

Ian Holmes_Ethical Action Plan 2025-26.docx

Revised Version:

Ian Holmes_Ethical Action Plan 2025-26_JOR_6.10.25 (1) (1)Download

I wanted to understand students’ attitudes and feelings about the legitimacy of the intervention, how this may facilitate or constrain this pedagogy in practice, and why this might be. Interviews or focus groups may provide more nuanced data, however questionnaires offer greater reach and anonymity.

Through conversation with colleagues and tutors, I learn that others have similar dilemmas, but, that to overcome this, I could in fact employ both methods – this will give opportunity to reach more students -anonymously and in person – (see figure 2 for data sets).

Whilst we still don’t know what will happen or how exactly we will get there, having reflected on this moment, I feel that I am more confident to begin the ascent into the foothills. 

See full post ‘A view from the swamp’ in Appendix. 

Fig. 2 Final Data sets for ARP

Research Question:

How do students’ expressions of attitudes and feelings about participating in a multilingual translation intervention act as indicators of the underlying *doxa and *habitus that facilitate or constrain the development of a transformative and inclusive multilingual identity and learning environment?

  • *Doxa – taken-for-granted assumptions of the social world that typically conceal power relations’ (Bourdieu, 1993)
  • *Habitus – habits of perception, classification, appreciation, feeling, and action (Bourdieu, 1977)

Objectives:

To evaluate the validity of using the ‘multilingual backgrounds of students (and *tutors) as a pedagogic resource and as a legitimate part of classroom and creative practice’ (Odeniyi, 2022, p. 73).

Develop a transformative and multilingual identity and learning environment at UAL.

*the first action research cycles focuses on student participants – however the future cycle will also include educators.

Action Plan for ARP:

ARP_ Action Plan_ Making Language Visible_ 2025-26_UAL_PG Ce (1)Download

(500 words)

References:

Cook, T. (2009) ‘The purpose of mess in action research: building
rigour though a messy turn,’ Educational Action Research, 17- (2)- 277-291, DOI:
10.1080/09650790902914241

García, Ofelia (2009). ‘Education, multilingualism and translanguaging in the 21st century.’ In: Ajit Mohanty, Minati  Panda, Robert  Phillipson and Tove Skutnabb-Kangas (eds). Multilingual Education for Social Justice: Globalising the local. New Delhi: Orient Blackswan, pp. 128-145

Holmes, I.D. (2025a) IP Unit_ Reflective Report. Available at: https://pgcertianholmes2025.myblog.arts.ac.uk/2025/07/15/intervention-reflective-report_-fostering-inclusivity-in-the-international-multi-lingual-multi-cultural-university-space/ (Accessed 12 December 2025)

Odenayi, V. (2022) ‘Reimagining Conversations,’ Available at: https://www.arts.ac.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0032/359339/Reimagining-Conversations_FINAL.pdf (Accessed on 26.09.2025)​

Schön, D. A. (1983) The Reflective Practitioner. New York: Basic Books.

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2. Rationale for Making Languages Visible

This rationale attempts to position my intervention within the curriculum (see example SOW- figure 1). The project foregrounds the plurality of languages as a resource for exploring the mediation of worldviews and culture (Ponorac, 2022); considering language from an intersectional (Crenshaw, 1991) perspective, and as an aspect of social justice in the Anglonormative university space (Odeneyi, 2022). Bourdieu’s (1991) ‘linguistic capital’ resonates with the experience of “non-native” (L2) speakers of English at UAL, and how academic and societal ‘markets’ privilege English over other languages. 

Figure 1. Example SOW (Language Development MA Fashion Design Management)

Example SOWDownload

Teaching and assessment in HE has traditionally focused on the cognitive rather than the affective (Shepherd, 2007). The Language Development scheme of work began with an analysis of learning outcomes and unit briefs through the lens of ‘cognitive domains’ (Bloom et al., 1956; Anderson and Krathwohl, 2001; Krathwohl, 2002) – see example scheme of work above (fig. 1). However, the seminar skills lessons leaned more towards encouraging learners to participate in group ‘seminar’ interaction with a focus on affective domains (Krathwohl, Bloom and Masia,1964), practising systemic functional language (Matthiesen and Halliday, 1997),‘connecting features of language with the social actions with which they correlate’ (Ding and Bruce, 2017, p. 70) whilst emphasising the empathy and mutual inclusion that is required for dialogic learning to take place (Friere, 2005, p. 90). 

Translanguaging optimizes the potential for communication (Garcia, 2009, p.140), benefits both L1 and L2 speakers: a lack of worldview awareness where mastery of our native tongue, ‘in turn masters us’ (Fantini, 1989, p. 2). Our mediation of the world, being exposed to other languages may expand this view and aid participation with other cultural groups (Ibid, pp.2-3). This mediation regards learners as social agents focus on meaning making and communicating beyond linguistic and cultural barriers; all mediation relying on collaborative processes (CE, 2022). Albaba (2025, p. 2) proposes the ‘concept of linguistic repertoire,’ which focuses not purely on students’ performance in English but views their existing language ‘as cognitive tools that can scaffold both content learning and language development.’ 

My intervention therefore attempts to bring the multilingualism in the classroom into focus through viewing this as a pedagogically resourceful and legitimate part of classroom practice which promotes ‘greater linguistic, epistemic and culturally (more) open inclusion’ (Odeneyi, 2022, p. 5). The ‘rhetorical power’ of ‘reimagining’ conversations in the HE space goes beyond teaching and learning (Ibid, p. 7), and this study aims to support both classroom practice, peer behaviours and even institutional change. 

Figure 2. Translanguaging fashion and communication

The intervention involves the procedure of activating schemata – contextualizing key terms: fashion, communication, sustainability, narrative – through students saying and writing the words in their L1 alongside the English forms (see example figure 2 above). The qualitative research aims to evaluate, from a student perspective, how this procedure could affect inclusivity, motivation and attendance for this non-compulsory class. However, it is a procedure which I feel could equally be explored in other teaching contexts across the university, forming the next iteration of the action research cycle (see figure 3).  

Figure 3. Action Research Cycle: Making Languages Visible at UAL

Figure 3. Action Research Cycle_ Making Languages Visible Download

(492 words)

References

Albaba, M.B. (2025) ‘Proposing a linguistic repertoires perspective in multilingual higher education contexts,’ Journal of Learning Development in Higher Education (36)​

Anderson, L. W., and Krathwohl, D. R. (2001) A Taxonomy for Learning, Teaching and Assessing: A Revision of Bloom’s Taxonomy of Educational Objectives: Complete Edition. New York: Longman. 

Bloom, B.S., Engelhart, M.D., Furst, E.J., Hill, W.H. and Krathwohl, D.R., (1956) ‘Taxonomy of educational objectives: The classification of educational goals.’ Handbook 1: Cognitive domain. pp. 1103-1133 New York: Longman. 

Bourdieu, Pierre (1991). Language & symbolic power, J. Thompson (ed) (trans. G. Raymond & M. Adamson). Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press

CE- Council of Europe (2025) ‘Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR): Mediation. ‘Available at https://www.coe.int/en/web/common-european-framework-reference-languages/mediation (Accessed on 25/05/25)  

Crenshaw, K. (1991) ‘Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics, and Violence against Women of Color.’ Stanford Law Review 43 (6), pp.1241-1299 

Ding, A., and Bruce, I. (2017) The English for Academic Purposes Practitioner: Operating on the Edge of Academia. Springer

Fantini, A.E. (1989) ‘Language and Worldview’ Journal of Bahá’í Studies Vol. 2-2: this paper was presented in Ottawa, October 7–10, 1988, at the Association’s Thirteenth Annual Conference, “Towards a Global Civilization.”   

Friere, P. (2005) Pedagogy of the Opressed: 30th Anniversary Edition, (Originally published 1970): New York: Continuem  

García, Ofelia (2009). ‘Education, multilingualism and translanguaging in the 21st century.’ In: Ajit Mohanty, Minati  Panda, Robert  Phillipson and Tove Skutnabb-Kangas (eds). Multilingual Education for Social Justice: Globalising the local. New Delhi: Orient Blackswan, pp. 128-145 

Krathwohl, D.R., Bloom, B.S., & Masia, B.B. (1964). Taxonomy of educationalobjectives: The classification of educational goals. Handbook II: Affective domain. NewYork: David McKay Co.
(PDF) Three Domains of Learning: Cognitive, Affective and Psychomotor. Available from: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/330811334_Three_Domains_of_Learning_Cognitive_Affective_and_Psychomotor [accessed Nov 03 2025].

Krathwohl, D.R. (2002) ‘A Revision of Bloom’s Taxonomy: An Overview’ Theory Into Practice,  Vol. 41, No. 4, pp. 212-218 Available at: https://www.jstor.org/stable/1477405 (Accessed 11 February, 2025) 

Matthiessen, C., & Halliday, M. (1997). Systemic functional grammar (1st ed.)   

Odenayi, V. (2022) ‘Reimagining Conversations’ Available at: https://www.arts.ac.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0032/359339/Reimagining-Conversations_FINAL.pdf (Accessed on 26.09.2025) 

Ponorac, J. (2022) ‘Culture and Language,’ Available at: https://epale.ec.europa.eu/en/blog/culture-and-language#:~:text=The%20relationship%20between%20language%20and,of%20identifying%20language%20and%20culture (Accessed on 25/05/25)
Shepherd, K. (2007) ‘Higher education for sustainability: seeking affective learning outcomes,’ International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education Vol. 9 No. 1, pp. 87-98 DOI 10.1108/1467637081084220

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3. Methods: Guerilla research?

Having moved on from the ‘swampy lowlands’ (Cook, 2009, p. 279), I now find myself in the research jungle, where I may encounter unexpected obstacles – but, thinking reflexively, perhaps opportunities to understand, not only the view of student participants in the study – but also the tensions that exist between the pedagogy and the institution itself – at least at course level.  

Indeed, I did feel somewhat feel ambushed when I received an instruction to effectively cease and desist with the intervention with one of my groups. The focus on ‘translanguaging’ – despite only being only a small part of the lesson – seemed to be putting students off from attending. Any activity focused on multicultural community building should take place outside the class time. This in contrast to the generally positive and supportive feedback I had otherwise received from both students and course leaders.   

This unexpected direction has motivated me to implement the data collection both pragmatically and strategically. In a previous workshop at LCC, critical friendship had highlighted that need to consider the language ability and comprehension of participants (as largely L2 users of English) of any questions in interviews or focus groups. The language appropriate for any survey would also need to be graded to the extent that all participants could access the necessary response – and be able to articulate this. For this reason, I have decided to advance a volley shot of surveys (see link below*) this designed to reach the maximum range of participants and achieve data saturation (Creswell and Poth, 2016) – especially those who I may not see again in the Language Development classroom, being delivered via Moodle announcement to all the various course groups who had been included in the intervention. It’s worth noting that following this action I was also instructed not to communicate anything regarding the ARP to the students of particular groups via announcements – to paraphrase Tyler Durden from Fight Club (1999): the first rule of Action Research is – don’t talk about Action Research! 

The synchronous data collection would potentially involve a smaller number of participants and would also need to be organized as appropriate to the wishes of the student participants. Where this can form a meaningful learning experience as part of the lesson (an opportunity to apply the seminar skills that we have developed earlier in the scheme of work), and where participants are no longer willing, or able, to engage with this ‘teaching moment’ (O’Reilly, 2025), I will organize ad hoc outside the class time. This also attempts to respect the principles (at least) of ‘participatory action research’ (Lenette, 2024).   

I hope that the outcome of this research can provide meaningful insights for both learners and teachers. Ethically I cannot use a lot of the potentially useful data, as it was not offered in response to the agreed data collection. In the future iteration of the research, in addition to students, I will also be seeking to understand the attitudes and feelings of educators regarding the intervention.   

(500 words)

Here is a link to the anonymous survey/ questionnaire MS form which was sent via Moodle to 3 x PG Marketing, MA FDM, MA FEI, PG Dip FM at LCF:

Action Research Project – Making Languages Visible in the Language Development Classroom  – Fill in form

References:


Cook, T. (2009) ‘The purpose of mess in action research: building 
rigour though a messy turn,’ Educational Action Research, 17- (2)- 277-291, DOI: 
10.1080/09650790902914241 

Creswell, J.W. and Poth, C.N. (2016) Qualitative inquiry and research design: Choosing among five approaches. Sage publications.

Fight Club (1999) Directed by D. Fincher. [Feature Film] 20th Century Fox

Lenette, C. (2024) PAR: Participatory action research. August 2024 (Available at: https://moodle.arts.ac.uk/pluginfile.php/2190224/mod_folder/content/0/Lenette%20%282024%29%20PAR%20%28Video%29.mp4?forcedownload=1 (Accessed 25 October 2025). 

O’Reilly, J. (2025) Workshop 1: Action research project, 2025-26 PG Cert Academic Practice. London College of Communication, 26 September 2025

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4. Methods: A ‘critical realist view’ – both above and below the water line

As a researcher, I need to engage in reflexivity ‘to account for how subjectivity’ is ‘fundamentally intertwined’ with my process (Olmos-Vegaa et al., 2023). A qualitative approach provides an ‘opportunity to excavate’ the evolution of ‘previous frames of reference’ (Nguyen et al., 2023). Moreover ‘ethical reflexivity involves considering the social and political implications of research,’ being mindful of the experience of the participants (von Unger, 2021) – and other stakeholders. Tensions and contradictory demands create challenges, but as von Unger (2021) notes, a way forward might be found through dialogue with peers,’ but also through ‘dialogue with actors in the field.’  

Crouch and Pearce (2015, p. 59) posit that since ‘social processes cannot be directly discovered’ the purpose of research is to attempt to ‘understand those processes through the ‘use an interpretivist lens.’ However, assuming that the ‘world is characterized by inequalities’ the role of the researcher is to ‘explore and attempt to expose’ those inequalities through use of a critical lens (Ibid), and the development of ‘participatory action research’ to provoke change (Ibid, p. 63). I am positioned more centrally in the process – acknowledging that my epistemology is ‘culture – value and history specific’ and therefore I must be explicit about my ideology relative to the design of my intervention and where this position has taken me (Ibid, p. 62).  

I am drawn towards a critical realism, with its connection to discourse analysis as its distinction between ‘between the causal power of structures and the causal power of agency’ (Newman, 2020, p. 2). Reflecting on the roots of my research question (see Holmes, 2025a) – racism and the issue of digitally mediated translation – I recognize I am attempting to explore the connection between a deeper structural reality and the empirical space above the water – whilst acknowledging that a considerable ontological amount of the iceberg will remain unseen and unknown – see fig. 1. 

 

Figure 1. Adapted from Introducing critical realism. (Wiltshire, 2021)

This image is something I adapted whilst helping students to understand Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill’s (2023) Research Onion – see figure 2. 

Figure 2.The Research Onion. [diagram] (Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, 2023, p.131)​

This also helped me to reflect on how my positionality is situated – and how my previous research fits into this paradigm, exploring how frames in the foreground serve forces in the background – emphasizing the importance of ideas, which ‘impact the chain of events’ in the evolution of policies (Holmes, 2025b, p. 14). 

My current project aims to discover how the mediation of languages might foster a greater sense of inclusion and empathy between students in the learning space and overcome some of the risks presented by a world where communication is increasingly mediated by machines. In my view, these two elements are not mutually exclusive in respect of the tension between systemic power and human agency.  

When I think of the roots of the project, I am also cognizant of the routes of multiculturism – as articulated by Stuart Hall (Paul, 2005), and how, through exploring critical dialogues, we might work towards creating a more equitable, sustainable (UAL, 2023), inclusive and less divided space at UAL in the future. 

(481 words)

References 

Crouch, C., and Pearce, J. (2012) Doing research in design. Bloomsbury 

Holmes, I.D. (2025a) IP Unit_ Reflective Report. Available at: https://pgcertianholmes2025.myblog.arts.ac.uk/2025/07/15/intervention-reflective-report_-fostering-inclusivity-in-the-international-multi-lingual-multi-cultural-university-space/ (Accessed 12 December 2025)

Holmes, I.D. (2025b) ‘Framing COVID-19: ‘How UK government and media narrated the “crisis,”’ Politics and Policy, Vol. 53 (3) https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.70040 

Newman, J. (2020) ‘Critical realism, critical discourse analysis, and the morphogenetic approach.’ Journal of Critical Realism, 19 (5) pp. 433- 455. 

Nguyen, D.J.,Mathuews, K., Herron, A. Troyer, R.,  Graman, Z., Goode, W.A., Shultz, A., Tackett, K. and Moss, M. (2019) ‘Learning to become a scholar-practitioner through research experiences,’ Journal of Student Affairs, Research and Practice, Vol 56 (4) pp. 365-378, DOI: 10.1080/19496591.2019.1611591 

Olmos-Vegaa , F.M., Stalmeijerb, R.E. Varpioc, L. and Kahlked, R. (2023) ‘A practical guide to reflexivity in qualitative research.’ AMEE Guide No. 149. Vol. 45, (3) pp. 241–251   

Paul, A. (2005) Stuart Hall: “Culture is always a translation.” Available at: https://www.caribbean-beat.com/issue-71/culture-always-translation (Accessed on 17.03.2025)   

Saunders, M.N.K., Thornhill, P., and Lewis, A. (2023) Research methods for business students: Ninth ed. Pearson   

von Unger, H (2021) ‘Ethical reflexivity as research practice,’ Historical Social Research / Historische Sozialforschung, Vol. 46, (2)- Special Issue: ‘Reflexivity between science and society,’ pp. 186-204 

Wiltshire, G. (2021) Introducing critical realism: Workshop four- analysis. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nFpZYF0dF38 (Accessed 20 Nov 2025)

UAL (2023) Roots and Routes. Available at: https://millbankexhibition.myblog.arts.ac.uk/2023/07/19/roots-and-routes/ (Accessed on 17.03.25)   

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5. Noticing: Flipping the classroom

Although the worlds of EAP (English for Academic Purposes) and ESL (English as a Second Language) differ in respect of their focus, my experience of SLA (Second Language Acquisition) has undoubtedly informed my approach to Language Development at UAL. One debate in SLA is that between the idea that genuine learning – ‘language acquisition’ is a subconscious process, conscious learning having very little impact on actual production or comprehension (Krashen, 1981); and the thesis put forward by Schmidt (1990, p. 131) that consciousness is a useful part of learning because, amongst other things, it focuses on the importance of attention as a concept. This ‘noticing hypothesis’ posits that unless it is consciously registered – input does not become intake in language learning – and more broadly SLA is ‘driven by what learners pay attention to and become aware of’ (Schmidt, 2010). In essence people learn about the things they pay attention to – and do not learn much about the things they don’t (Ibid).  

The aim behind my intervention in making ‘autonomous languages’ (Garcia, 2009) visible was less about learning these languages, and more about noticing them – the patterns, the differences, and whether this could help us empathize and understand each other culturally, using language as a cultural lens. 

Before implementing the intervention, (after clearing the ethics form with supervisors and course leaders), I briefed the students about the action research project. I told them that we would be doing an exercise that would involve their participation, and my research would involve me asking them about what they thought and how they felt about doing the exercise, and/or seeing the exercise being done, and the product of the exercise. I also told them that, as is the case with research, we did not know what was going to happen.  

I knew that I wanted to create a discussion around the product of the exercise, and that this would involve some metalinguistic framing, but I did not really plan anything beyond this. The intervention and the discussion would be an act of discovery both for myself and the learners. Once the exercise was completed and we had a whiteboard which centred on the ‘parts of speech’ forms in English with translations of the other languages of the learners (see example figure 1), my instinct was to focus the learners on what I could see – from my position – central to the process (Crouch and Pearce, 2015, p. 62).   

The exercise itself was an adaptation of the ‘flipped classroom’ strategy, whereby students’ acquisition of knowledge prior to the class is practiced ‘through interaction with peers and teachers’ in the class time (AdvanceHE, 2017). However, in this instance, the knowledge would be that acquired through the lived experience of the learners: their first language. This also changes the power dynamic between myself and the learners – they are the experts in their own language for which they have access, but I do not, especially those languages that do not use Roman script (See 6. Noticing otherwise) .

(500 words)

References

AdvanceHE (2017) flipped learning. Available at: https://www.advance-he.ac.uk/knowledge-hub/flipped-learning#:~:text=A%20pedagogical%20approach%20in%20which,Assessment%20and%20feedback (Accessed 28 November 2025)  

Crouch, C., and Pearce, J. (2015) Doing research in design. Bloomsbury

Krashen, S.D. (1981) Second Language Acquisition and Second Language Learning. Pergamon Press Inc.

Schmidt, R. (1990). The role of consciousness in second language learning. Applied Linguistics, Vol. 11, pp. 17-46.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/applin/11.2.129

Schmidt, R. (2010). ‘Attention, awareness, and individual differences in language learning.’ In W. M. Chan, S. Chi, K. N. Cin, J. Istanto, M. Nagami, J.W. Sew, T. Suthiwan, & I. Walker, Proceedings of CLaSIC 2010 pp. 721-737. Singapore: National University of Singapore, Centre for Language Studies 

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6. Noticing otherwise: Narration of the teacher/learner

Figure 1. Translanguaging LCF Fashion Business School 2025

The first thing I narrated from my position as learner/ noticer, was my access to the European languages, they all had similar forms. Fashion for example, was, in all the European languages represented, a variation of the Greek “moda,” highlighting the historical and etymological foundation of European languages – and how this provides Europeans with access to meaning through visual (and phonological) proximity. I was not able to identify any pattern between Hindi, Mandarin, Hebrew, Thai, for example (interestingly, of all the Asian languages represented, Vietnamese is the only one to use Roman characters). Reflecting on the root moda, I narrated my connection to the English mode, the verb and noun form model –it’s relationship to both the verb to fashion, and its significance to fashion (the noun). I also observed that the French translation for the adjective fashionable – elegant – is also a word in English, with a related (polysemic), but not precisely the same (synonymous) meaning. This prompted me to point out the homographic proximity between French and English. 

With those languages for which I do not have access, my focus became what I could notice about the repetition of / or differentiation of characters between noun verb and adjective form, the suggestion of affixes and where they might be in relation to the root word. I then invited the speakers of these languages to explain how it works. I commented that this gives me – the non-literate in the non-Roman script – some access to the language which I can otherwise only appreciate on an aesthetic level. 

One observation I made was that, when we looked at translations of communication – communicate – communicative – (much like the homographic, polysemic – fashion in English) – the Mandarin verb and noun is both homographic and homophonic (see fig. 1) . I also learned that, whilst being able to recognize Hebrew – I had never seen it being written – not realizing that, like Arabic, it was written right to left. This created some discussion around how we might read images differently having been conditioned to read text in a particular direction.   

I was reacting to what I could see, and as Citton (2019, p. 2) suggests, a significant part of our attentional behaviour is reactive, and this reaction ‘is massively conditioned by the sum of previous impressions and external circumstance.’ My positionality as a teacher interested in how languages work no doubt informed my reactive noticing. However, identifying and reflecting on aspects of positionality regarding what is noticed aims to move towards a non- normative noticing, what Robinson (2022, p. 24) calls noticing otherwise; the practices of both giving and taking notice having potential for change regarding the terms and time of attention (Ibid). The act of asking students to hand write in their own language on a whiteboard was, in part, an attempt to focus attention away from the digitally mediated space and into the classroom space, finding myself as the model noticer, in the hope that the students may find some value in noticing each other’s multilingual – multicultural identities. 

(500 words)

References

Citton, Y. (2019) ‘Attention Agency Is Environmental Agency’ in Waddick Doyle & Claudia Roda (ed.), Communication in the Age of Attention Scarcity, Cham, Palgrave Macmillan, 2019, p. 21-32. 

Robinson, D. (2022) ‘Ethics of performance and scholarship: Giving/ taking notice,’ Performance Matters Vol. 8 (1) pp. 24- 36

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7. So what: What now? Reflecting on methods and findings

Positioning myself as educator agent of change, as Monbec and Ding (2024, p. 12) suggest, ‘calls for robust theoretical tools’ for analysis, and as Bhaskar (1989, p. 2 in Ibid) argues, ‘change cannot occur unless we understand the structures that operate the events that lead to how things are.’    

Understanding that qualitative research is ‘to a large degree an art’ (Tesch, 1990, p. 304 in Gray and Malins 2007, p. 130) was helpful in guiding my approach to data reduction. It is a representation of the raw data ‘in the same sense that an artist can… create an image of a face that we would recognise, if we saw the original in a crowd’ (Ibid). Fryer (2022, p. 366) offers a critical realist approach to thematic analysis that is appropriate for this project, which ultimately ‘seeks to develop causal explanations;’ this being compatible with the stages suggested by Braun and Clarke (2020) – see figure 1., (see appendix C for data reduction).

Fig. 1 Thematic Analysis – A Critical Realist Approach (1)Download

Using Monbec and Ding’s (2024) broad ontology of language as resource vs language as rule to frame the responses to the intervention, the key themes range from the facilitative: cognitive legitimacy of the intervention, to the constraining: cognitive illegitimacy, the themes of affective value and reflexivity connecting via sub themes (see fig. 2), perhaps the most significant (paradoxical) intersecting subtheme is the notion of comfort vs discomfort. 

Fig. 2 Themes_ data reduction_ causal mechanismsDownload

Whilst a pedagogy of discomfort is more explicitly focussed on the ‘pedagogisation of white discomfort within the broader decolonising project’ (Zembylas, 2020), language educators should also ‘explicitly aim to sensitise students’ about social injustice, cultivating ‘empathy, solidarity, hospitality and inclusion’ (Porto and Zembylas, 2020). These were all themes which were evident in the empirical data, and through challenging preconceptions students can develop a deeper sense of interconnectedness with each other (Smeenk, Mayer, and James, 2025). The data shows the affective value for both self and other as well as the cognitive value for learning, the pedagogy of translanguaging being strongly connected to ‘identity affirmation, equity, equality, and decolonialization’ allowing students ‘to construct and negotiate meanings’ (Haim and Manor, 2024). 

A key limitation of study was data pertaining to the constraint of the intervention being limited to one or two responses. although there was a lot of potential data from some students and course leaders, which could not ethically be used as it was not offered as part of the data collection. This has however, prompted me to adjust the research question to more explicitly include the perspectives of educators (see figure 3),

I will continue to use of a critical realist lens as methodological approach for the future cycle (see fig 4). The EAP classroom ‘is a site of power, agency and multiple meaning makings’ (Chun, 2015, p. 2) and as Bourdieu (1993 in Monbec and Ding, 2024, p. 12) asserts ‘we must provide causal explanations to “make trouble” and “provoke”; that is, to question received categories and unveil the doxic taken-for-granted assumptions of the social world that typically conceal power relations.’ 

Fig. 4 Action Research CyclesDownload

Here is FINAL presentation 16/01/2026:  

FINAL PRESENTATION_ Making Languages Visible_ 16th Jan 2026 (2)Download

(500 words)

References:

Bhaskar, R. (1989) Reclaiming reality: A critical introduction to contemporary philosophy. Routledge​

Braun, V. and Clarke, V. (2020) Thematic Analysis: A Practical Guide. Sage 

Chun, C. W., (2015) Power and meaning making in an EAP classroom: Engaging with the everyday. Multilingual Matters​

Crouch, C., and Pearce, J. (2012) Doing research in design. Bloomsbury

Fryer, T. (2022) ‘A critical realist approach to thematic analysis: producing causal explanations,’ Journal of Critical Realism, DOI: 10.1080/14767430.2022.2076776

Gray, C., and Malins, J. (2007) Visualizing Research: A Guide to the Research Process in Art and Design, Taylor & Francis Group​

Haim, O., & Manor, R. (2025) ‘Exploring translanguaging in academic discourse through an ecological analytic lens.’ International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 28(4), 449–464. https://doi.org/10.1080/13670050.2024.2433145

Monbec, L. and Ding, A. (2024) Recovering Language in Higher Education Social Justice, Ethics and Practices. Palgrave Macmillan

Newman, J. (2020) ‘Critical realism, critical discourse analysis, and the morphogenetic approach.’ Journal of Critical Realism, 19 (5) pp. 433- 455.​

Porto, M., and Zembylas, M. (2020) Pedagogies of discomfort in foreign language education: cultivating empathy and solidarity using art and literature,’ Language and Intercultural Communication, 20(4), 356–374. https://doi.org/10.1080/14708477.2020.1740244

Smeenk, W., Mayer, C., and James, E. (2025) ‘The Empathy Compass for addressing Societal Challenges in Education. A tool for higher education to stimulate, facilitate and assess empathic awareness in multistakeholder collaborations,’ Higher Education Research & Development pp. 1-19​
https://doi.org/10.1080/07294360.2025.2510670

Tesch, R. (1990) Qualitative Research: Analysis Types and Software Tools, pp. 77–111 Falmer​

Zembylas, M. (2024) ‘Affect, race, and white discomfort in schooling: Decolonial strategies for ‘pedagogies of discomfort’,’ in Critical philosophy in race and education. Routledge​

 

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Reference List (Bibliography)

Master Reference List

This reference list includes all texts cited in the blog posts (either in text, figure captions, or in the figures themselves), including the appendices.

Bibliography

Texts used in research development but not cited in blogs or presentation marked orange – this includes some texts which are cited in presentation slide deck (all texts cited in the main 10 min presentation and the extended discussion slides are listed in the reference list on the slide deck).

AdvanceHE (2017) flipped learning. Available at: https://www.advance-he.ac.uk/knowledge-hub/flipped-learning#:~:text=A%20pedagogical%20approach%20in%20which,Assessment%20and%20feedback (Accessed 28 November 2025)

Albaba, M.B. (2025) ‘Proposing a linguistic repertoires perspective in multilingual higher education contexts,’ Journal of Learning Development in Higher Education (36)​

Alverson, M. (2012) ‘Views on interviews: A skeptical review,’ in Interpreting Interviews, 9- 42, Sage ps://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781446268353

Anderson, L. W., and Krathwohl, D. R. (2001) A Taxonomy for Learning, Teaching and Assessing: A Revision of Bloom’s Taxonomy of Educational Objectives: Complete Edition. New York: Longman. 

Archer, M. S. (2007). Making our way through the world: Human reflexivity and social mobility. Cambridge: Cambridge university Press.

Bera (2024) Ethical guidelines for educational research, fifth edition Available at: https://www.bera.ac.uk/publication/ethical-guidelines-for-educational-research-fifth-edition-2024-online (Accessed on 26/09.2025) 

Bhaskar, R. (1989) Reclaiming reality: A critical introduction to contemporary philosophy. Routledge​

Bhaskar, R. (2008) A Realist Theory of Science. Routledge​

Bloom, B.S., Engelhart, M.D., Furst, E.J., Hill, W.H. and Krathwohl, D.R., (1956) ‘Taxonomy of educational objectives: The classification of educational goals.’ Handbook 1: Cognitive domain. pp. 1103-1133 New York: Longman.

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Braun, V. and Clarke, V. (2020) Thematic Analysis: A Practical Guide. Sage

Bloom, B.S., Engelhart, M.D., Furst, E.J., Hill, W.H. and Krathwohl, D.R., (1956) ‘Taxonomy of educational objectives: The classification of educational goals.’ Handbook 1: Cognitive domain. pp. 1103-1133 New York: Longman.

CE- Council of Europe (2025) ‘Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR): Mediation. ‘Available at https://www.coe.int/en/web/common-european-framework-reference-languages/mediation (Accessed on 25/05/25) 

Chun, C. W., (2015) Power and meaning making in an EAP classroom: Engaging with the everyday. Multilingual Matters​

Citton, Y. (2019) ‘Attention Agency Is Environmental Agency’ in Waddick Doyle & Claudia Roda (ed.), Communication in the Age of Attention Scarcity, Cham, Palgrave Macmillan, 2019, p. 21-32

Cook, T. (2009) ‘The purpose of mess in action research: building
rigour though a messy turn,’ Educational Action Research, 17- (2)- 277-291, DOI:
10.1080/09650790902914241

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Gray, C., and Malins, J. (2007) Visualizing Research: A Guide to the Research Process in Art and Design, Taylor & Francis Group​

Haim, O., & Manor, R. (2025) ‘Exploring translanguaging in academic discourse through an ecological analytic lens.’ International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 28(4), 449–464. https://doi.org/10.1080/13670050.2024.2433145

Holmes, I.D. (2025a) IP Unit_ Reflective Report. Available at: https://pgcertianholmes2025.myblog.arts.ac.uk/2025/07/15/intervention-reflective-report_-fostering-inclusivity-in-the-international-multi-lingual-multi-cultural-university-space/ (Accessed 12 December 2025)

Holmes, I.D. (2025) ‘Framing COVID-19: ‘How UK government and media narrated the “crisis,”’ Politics and Policy, Vol. 53 (3) https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.70040 

Jackson, J. (ed) (2020) The Routledge Handbook of Language and Intercultural Communication Second Edition, London: Taylor & Francis Group 

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Krathwohl, D.R. (2002) ‘A Revision of Bloom’s Taxonomy: An Overview’ Theory Into Practice,  Vol. 41 (4), pp. 212-218 Available at: https://www.jstor.org/stable/1477405 (Accessed 11 February, 2025)

Lenette, C. (2024) PAR: Participatory action research. August 2024 (Available at: https://moodle.arts.ac.uk/pluginfile.php/2190224/mod_folder/content/0/Lenette%20%282024%29%20PAR%20%28Video%29.mp4?forcedownload=1 (Accessed 25 October 2025).

Matthiessen, C., & Halliday, M. (1997). Systemic functional grammar (1st ed.) 

Monbec, L. and Ding, A. (2024) Recovering Language in Higher Education Social Justice, Ethics and Practices. Palgrave Macmillan

Newman, J. (2020) ‘Critical realism, critical discourse analysis, and the morphogenetic approach.’ Journal of Critical Realism, 19 (5) pp. 433- 455.​

Odenayi, V. (2022) ‘Reimagining Conversations,’ Available at: https://www.arts.ac.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0032/359339/Reimagining-Conversations_FINAL.pdf (Accessed on 26.09.2025)​

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Porto, M., and Zembylas, M. (2020) Pedagogies of discomfort in foreign language education: cultivating empathy and solidarity using art and literature,’ Language and Intercultural Communication, 20(4), 356–374. https://doi.org/10.1080/14708477.2020.1740244

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Appendices:

Appendix A: ‘A view from the swamp.’

Which way should I go now? 

Developing the research design requires my reflexivity for both avoiding bias and contextualizing the positionalities (Archer, 2007; Yip, 2024; Creswell, 2013) of both myself and the participants. As Schön (1983) posits, I need to reflect both in and on this process, my current view being from the ‘swampy lowlands’ (Schön, 1983 in Cook, 2009, p. 279). However, before I can move on to higher ground, this ‘messy’ moment needs to be accounted for; omitting this would not ‘offer a true and honest picture of the research process’ (Ibid). 

Whilst interviews or focus groups may provide richer more nuanced data for thematic analysis, I am cognizant of the limitations of scale and reach that this will present, given the small-scale nature and time limitations of this study. Creating questionnaires would potentially provide a greater reach and the possibility for anonymity which may yield more enlightening insights, without the risk of participants feeling obliged to provide the ‘positive’ feedback.  Organizing time for interviews will present logistical issues, both for myself and for the participants. 

Interviews, which can be understood as empirical situations, should only function as a data collection tool for that which exists within that empirical situation (Alvesron, 2012, p. 9). However, research should be treated as a pedagogy – a teaching moment (O’Reilly, 2025), and therefore the classroom where the intervention itself takes place would seem the most ethical space in which to conduct an interview or focus group. In terms of the time this would also mean using the opportunity of class time – as a reflective language development activity which gives agency to the students to affect change. That said, the appeal of a digital form remains.  

From the beginning I have been open with the students about the process – and the fact that we don’t really know what will happen or how we are going to it. I frame it not as my research but rather our research, and with the aim of creating a space for (albeit partially*) ‘participatory action research’ (Lenette, 2024), I want to try to share the decision making at different stages of the research design. In conversation with a Chinese student, I presented my dilemma and she suggested that a focus group would likely yield deeper insights as I would be able to elicit more from participants and they would be able to engage with each other’s responses (this cross-cultural spoken interactivity is also a key teaching aim of my lesson design).  

Through conversation with colleagues and tutors at the workshop this week, I learn that others have similar dilemmas, but that to overcome my dilemma I could in fact employ both methods – this will give opportunity to reach more students (either anonymously or in person). 

Whilst we still don’t know what will happen or how exactly we will get there, having reflected on this moment, I feel that I am more confident to begin the ascent into the foothills. 

*As limited by project 

(500 words)

References:

Alverson, M. (2012) ‘Views on interviews: A skeptical review,’ in Interpreting Interviews, 9- 42, Sage ps://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781446268353

Archer, M. S. (2007). Making our way through the world: Human reflexivity and social mobility. Cambridge: Cambridge university Press.  

Cook, T. (2009) ‘The purpose of mess in action research: building
rigour though a messy turn,’ Educational Action Research, 17- (2)- 277-291, DOI:
10.1080/09650790902914241

Creswell, J. W. (2013) Qualitative inquiry and research design: choosing among five approaches. 3rd ed. London: Sage Publications Ltd. 

Lenette, C. (2024) PAR: Participatory action research. August 2024 (Available at: https://moodle.arts.ac.uk/pluginfile.php/2190224/mod_folder/content/0/Lenette%20%282024%29%20PAR%20%28Video%29.mp4?forcedownload=1 (Accessed 25 October 2025).

O’Reilly J. (2025) Workshop 1: Action research project, 2025-26 PG Cert Academic Practice. London College of Communication, 26 September 2025

Schön, D. A. (1983) The Reflective Practitioner. New York: Basic Books. 

Yip, S.Y. (2024) ‘Positionality and reflexivity: negotiating insider-outsider positions within and across cultures’ International Journal of Research & Method in Education Vol 47-Issue 3-pp.222-232   

Appendix B: Example Consent Form

Consent Form_ ARP_ EXAMPLEDownload

Appendix C: Data Reduction

The first analysis used a metalinguistic lens, however the coding and data reduction follows a thematic analysis:

Coding #1_ Questionnaire_ QualDownload
Coding aggregate – interviewsDownload
Coding aggregate – survey_ interviewDownload