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Category: Reflective Posts

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Reflective Post 4: Reflections on ‘zines,’ ‘roots’ and ‘routes’ in the multicultural university learning space.  

Here are some reflections on my experience with the Intercultural Communication programme, which offers workshops and resources for developing communication skills and intercultural awareness (UAL, 2025), as well as my interest in the works of Stuart Hall, and how this has informed my thinking about pedagogical approaches with my students at LCF.  

‘The intellectual routes’ taken by Stuart Hall and Paul Gilroy played a major role in transforming our understandings of ‘race, youth, schooling and identity’ (Warmington, 2014, p.91), and the development of cultural studies. I first came across Hall et al. (2013 [1978]) during my own studies in the field of public policy, and I was drawn to the chapter by Warmington (2014) because I wanted to learn more about how Hall and others have influenced the way in which we think, teach and learn about culture and identity.  

If you think of culture always as a return to roots — R-O-O-T-S — you’re missing the point. I think of culture as routes — R-O-U-T-E-S — the various routes by which people travel, culture travels, culture moves, culture develops, culture changes, cultures migrate, etc. 

(Stuart Hall in Paul, 2005) 

This play on the homophone (also see microteach post) resonates with me. The first time I came across this quote was in a Language Development sharing session given by Adam Ramejkis, about a program ‘R-O-O-T-S and R-O-U-T-E-S,’ which explores critical dialogues for more equitable and sustainable practice in art and design education (UAL, 2023).  

It was with Adam that I worked on (a separate programme) ‘Zine’ workshops during the UAL welcome week. The basic remit for these workshops was that students arrive, are briefed with how to make a ‘zine’ – using the materials (pens, paper, cut up magazines), and then are free to create (see figures 1 and 2 below).  

Figure 1. Welcome Week Zine workshops at Camberwell College of Arts Autumn 2024 

Fig 2. Welcome Week Zine Workshop Chelsea College of Arts Autumn 2024 

What I noticed happened in this multicultural space was that people felt relaxed and willing to communicate with each other, but were not under pressure to do so – i.e. they could choose when to communicate and when to focus on the work. The creative work itself expressing thoughts, feelings – and what we can discover in the moment; cultural identities being not only rooted in the histories, language, and culture of ‘who we are’ and ‘where we come from’, but also, and perhaps more importantly being ‘part of a process of becoming’ (Van Stipriaan, 2013, pp.206-207); see examples below (fig 4).  

Figure 3. Examples of student Zines created at CCW Welcome Week Zine workshops  

In the international classroom, I feel that it is my mission to facilitate a greater integration between cultural groups, but I want to explore a methodology where I can create opportunities for learners to find this without pressuring them to integrate. Culture is the process of ‘constructing a relationship between oneself and the world’ (Hsu, 2017) and, as Hall notes, people need to ‘have a language to speak about where they are and what other possible futures are available to them’ (Ibid). This is a language I want to explore in the intercultural fashion business classroom. See extensive feedback and evaluation of Zine workshops in Appendix, and for many more examples of student and staff produced Zines, see link to ual.amaZINES (2025) in references below.   

Appendix: 

AdamRamejkis_amazinesfeedback2324.pdf 

References: 

Hall, S., Critcher, C., Jefferson, T., Clarke, J., and Roberts, B. (2013) Policing the crisis, mugging, the state and law and order. London: Springer Nature [originally published by Red Globe Press 1978] 

Hsu, H. (2018) Stuart Hall and the Rise of Cultural Studies. Available at: https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/stuart-hall-and-the-rise-of-cultural-studies (Accessed on 07.03.25) 

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) 

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

UAL (2025) Intercultural Communication. Available at: https://www.arts.ac.uk/study-at-ual/language-centre/intercultural-communication-training (Accessed on 17.03.25 

ual.amaZINES (2025) ‘zines from students and staff’ [Instagram] Available at: https://www.instagram.com/ual.amazines/?igsh=MWk5NHhidDBwd2t3dQ%3D%3D# (Accessed on 17.03.25) 

Van Stipriaan, A. (2013) ‘Roots and the Production of Heritage’ in Contemporary Culture Book Subtitle: New Directions in Art and Humanities. eds: Thissen, J., Zwijnenberg, R., and Zijlmans, K. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press  

Warmington, P. (2014) Black British Intellectuals and Education: Multiculturalism’s Hidden History, London: Taylor & Francis Group

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Reflective Post 3: Research Philosophy: The language I’m learning and the language I’m teaching. 

I often tell students that learning vocabulary (lexis) is a little bit like walking towards the horizon, it doesn’t matter how far you go with it, you will never reach completion: it is impossible to learn all the words and phrases in English (or any language). In blog post 2, I reflected on the language that I have learned and how it informs the language I now teach, however, to illustrate the above point re: the horizon – I can now reflect on the language I am learning and the language I am teaching (simultaneously).  

Below are some vocabulary items which you may recognize (see figure 1) from the discourse of our PG Cert course, which I have also been teaching on the Advanced Research Methods for Postgraduate Marketing courses at the Fashion Business School at LCF.    

Fig 1. Revision of vocabulary and new vocabulary. Language Development – Advanced Research Methods – Fashion Business School 20th Feb 2025 

This vocabulary I have drawn from a key chapter of Saunders, Thornhill and Lewis (2023) – which deal with research philosophy and research design – it is this chapter which presents the infamous (in business post grad studies) heuristic the ‘Research Onion’ (see figure 2). As you can see (fig 1) I have also included the word heuristic, which was a lexical item I learned during my own postgraduate studies – and one which I now feel has application for the said ‘Onion’ and other such ideal type models and visualizations. Ontology was also a word I had learned in my own studies, epistemology I acquired through a session given at LCF: Where do you know from, which I went to specifically to learn this word, however, axiology and reflexology and others are new to me.  

Figure 2. The Research Onion. (Saunders, Thornhill and Lewis, 2023, p. 13) 

The development of research design requires reflexivity in transcending bias and contextualizing positionality (Archer, 2007; Yip, 2024; Creswell, 2013). Both teachers and learners need to explore a level of thinking which allows them to reflect both in (ontologically) and on (reflexively and epistemologically) their practice (Schon, 1983). This is a vocabulary which I am learning myself -and through sharing this with my learners, I can offer insights into my own learning process, whilst participating in theirs. Moreover, it reaffirms my belief that language can be acquired through use, and this is the true value of paraphrasing in academic writing – it helps us synthesize new knowledge until it comfortably becomes a part of our discourse (see fig 3). 

Figure 3. Paraphrasing and summarizing academic texts. Language Development – Advanced Research Methods – Fashion Business School 20th Feb 2025 

References 

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

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

Saunders, M., Lewis, P., and Thornhill, A. (2023) Research Methods for Business Students. 9th edition. Harlow: Pearson Education 

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    

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Reflections on Microteach: Object Based Learning- ‘rolls’ and ‘roles.’

Objects have the capacity ‘to facilitate deep learning;’ they can be surprising, intriguing and absorbing, and through stimulating learners’ sense of wonder they can provoke a ‘rich, important and fun’ educational experience (Hardie, 2015. p.4). My experience of the Object Based Learning (OBL) microteach on the PG Cert in February 2025 at LCC, both as teacher and as learner, was a joyful one.

For my own microteach I decided to draw on my experience of learning through practice at drama school in the late 1990s. In the theatre of Shakespeare, in its original productions, printing multiple versions of play texts for actors was not an option, plus the limited time for rehearsal necessitated that actors would be presented with only their lines and their cues, sometimes meeting their fellow actors on stage for the first time in performance (Tucker, 2001).

Therefore, a key objective was for participants to learn something of the history of the Elizabethan theatre, or at least a theory of it, through practice. I had chosen a short part of Macbeth which provides opportunity to demonstrate some of the features of this style of theatre work through the replica artefact. Shakespeare’s plays can be seen in the replica theatre of Shakespeare’s Globe (see fig. 1 below).  

Fig.1. Aerial view of Shakespeare’s Globe performing arts venue on the bank of the River Thames, London, England (Britannica, 2025) 

It was the linguistic angle that first drew my attention to the idea of using these objects – with the mind to have learners discover the etymology of the homophone ‘roll’ and ‘role’ through speculating the identity and function of the object.  

I decided to tie them up with a ribbon, however, the effect was that the objects appeared to be the scrolls you might receive at graduation – or as one participant commented a ‘Christmas present for a dog,’ as you can/might see from the image (see fig.2 below), 

Fig 2. Cue scripts/The roles tied with red ribbon.  

This provided a useful reflection for me about my lessons in general: what effects do the design choices have on the perceptions of the learners? Despite this, once the function of the object was revealed through opening the ribbon the roles (see example fig 1, and others in appendix 1) were allocated as the rolls were unrolled; I was able to elicit from the group this homophonic etymology, which was a key learning aim of the lesson.  

 

Fig. 3 – Banquo cue script.  

The plan worked effectively, if not quite to timing, and we managed to achieve the physicalizing of play: the performance of the scene. I wanted to allow participants the time they needed to speculate what the object could be at the beginning without (too much) interference from me as teacher/ facilitator. I also wanted them to have the curiosity to open the object and discover its function (see lesson plan in Appendix 2).  

I feel that participants were able to find some joy in this opportunity to perform and play (albeit a small part of) Shakespeare’s Macbeth.  

Appendix One – Cue scripts:

Banquo.docx

Macbeth.docx

First Witch.docx

Second Witch.docx

Third Witch.docx

Appendix 2 – Lesson Plan

Microteach Lesson Plan.docx

Appendix 3 – Long form version of this blog post:

Reflections on Microteach- OBL – ‘roles’ and ‘roles’.pdf

References 

Brittanica (2025) Globe Theatre, Available at: https://www.britannica.com/topic/Globe-Theatre (Accessed on 14.03.25) 

Hardie, K., (2015) ‘Innovative pedagogies series: Wow: The power of objects in object-based learning and teaching,’ Higher Education Academy. York: HEA 

Tucker, P. (2001) Secrets of Acting Shakespeare: The Original Approach. London: Routledge 

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Reflective Post 2: Reflections on the language I have learned and the language I teach.

The Language Development (LD) programme at UAL is focused on helping students who speak English as an additional language (EAL) to develop the language skills required to be successful on their courses (UAL, 2025). However, LD is available to everyone, and I draw on the often quoted – (and sometimes misquoted as Ding, (2019) notes) assertion that academic language is ‘no one’s mother tongue’ and is remote from the language which is actually spoken by the vast majority of the population in day to day life (Bourdieu and Passerson, 1995, p.8). This is especially true with language required at postgraduate level. From reading around this topic, I am reflecting on the language that I use to communicate threshold concepts, the multiple meanings this language holds and my own socialization into the language of academic discourse as learner (Bond, 2016). 

One term that I frequently use with learners is ‘looking for tensions in the literature,’ this I owe to my tutor Paul whose teaching on the MSc International Public Policy at Queen Mary University of London embedded this notion in my understanding of a key purpose of literature review. I include this image (see fig 1) which for me illustrates what to articulate between the schools of thought in a given field of study; a tug of war is meant to represent the friendly nature of this critical discourse – it is a game that we as academics need to play  – the argument is academic not ad hominem. I also reflect that other lexis I frequently use when referring to framing the literature is illustrating the drama and making a compelling narrative; this lexicon owes more to my background as an actor and writer.  

Fig.1 “I will not play tug o’ war; I’d rather play hug o’ war” – Shel Silverstein, Where the Sidewalk Ends. (Crockett, 2017). #1 

Some key lexis that I explore with learners is frame and framing, these are concepts that I learned about myself at postgraduate level study in the field of public policy and International Relations, where a frame can be understood as the definition of a policy’s image (Cairney, 2011) and framing a process of messaging where both producers and receivers ‘transform information into a meaningful whole.’ (Van Gorp, 2002; Fischer, 2003, p.144). However, perhaps the most memorable learning experience for me was an online lecture podcast by Paul Cairney (2015) which explores the different ways that we can understand this meaning through visual representation (see figure 1 and 2 below).  

Fig.2 Framing as deciding which part of the world on which to focus. (Cairney, 2015) 

Fig 2. A timber frame, to highlight the structure of a discussion which is crucial but often unseen and taken for granted. (Cairney, 2015).  

It is from the latter that I draw inspiration in trying to help my postgraduate fashion business learners visualize theoretical frameworks with this image (see fig 4).  

Fig 4. Framework of Flatiron Building, Circa 1901. (Designing Buildings, 2020) 

To further emphasize this idea, and to help students access the threshold concept of foundations underpinning assumptions I use the illustration of our building at LCF and the steel formwork which underpins it (see slides in Appendix). Reflecting again on this choice of image – perhaps I owe this to my dad – an engineer who worked on designing the steel frame formwork for this kind of construction. 

Thinking reflexively: the way I see the things – ontologically #2 – and how this is manifest in language – comes via multiple roots and routes, to draw on Stuart Hall, (Hall, Segal and Osbourne, 1997) #3, and this cultural positionality informs my pedagogy. This is a theme that I would like to explore further with fellow practitioners, as well as my own learners, to understand the relationship between the language we learn and the language we teach.  

Appendix: 

Foundations underpinning a construction.pptx

End notes:

#1. There are many Google images available, but I have chosen one that uses real people, and these people are mainly not white Caucasian, because I believe that the images that I present to my learners should be more representative of the learners themselves.

#2. This language will be explored further in reflective blog 3.

#3. The work Stuart Hall will be explored further in reflective blog 4.

Reference List:

Bond, B, (2016) The importance of language for learning. Available at: https://teachingexcellence.leeds.ac.uk/opinion-the-importance-of-language-for-learning/ (Accessed on 13.03.25) 

Cairney, P., (2015) Policy Concepts in 1000 Words: Framing. Available at: https://paulcairney.wordpress.com/2015/11/02/policy-concepts-in-1000-words-framing/ (Accessed on 13.03.25)  

Cairney, P., (2011), Understanding Public Policy: Theories and Issues, Basingstoke Hamps: Palgrave Macmillan    

Crocket, Z. (2017) A History of Tug-of-War Fatalities. Available at: https://priceonomics.com/a-history-of-tug-of-war-fatalities/ 

Designing Buildings (2020) Skeleton frame Available at: https://www.designingbuildings.co.uk/wiki/Skeleton_frame (Accessed on 13.03.24)  

Hall, S., Segal, L., and Osbourne, P. (1997) ‘Stuart Hall Culture and Powe,’ Radical Philosophy, 086, Nov/Dec 1997, pp. 24–41. (pdf) Available at https://www.radicalphilosophy.com/interview/stuart-hall-culture-and-power (Accessed on 13.03.25) 

UAL (2025) English Language Development for students. Available at: https://www.arts.ac.uk/study-at-ual/language-centre/english-language-development-for-ual-students (Accessed on 13.03.25) 

Van Gorp, B., (2002), ‘The Implementation of Asylum Policy: Which Frame Dominates the Debate,’ European Consortium for Policy Research, Joint Sessions, Grenoble France (6th -11th April 2002) 

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Reflective Post 1: Reflections on ‘moral goods’ and the critique

McDonald and Michaela (2019) explore ‘moral goods’ and ‘the critique’ – from the perspective of what matters for studio instructors. This provoked me to reflect – what matters to me?  – how does this affect my instruction and the diverse students I teach.  

The term critique is not unproblematic – the emphasis is on the critical, and outside of the academic context, this is perhaps something which humans try to avoid being, in day-to-day life. The crit’ can range from the traditional presentation of a student’s work, followed by an interrogation, to one-to-one feedback. It is with the former that I first had experience, as both tutor and assessor, on the UAL Pre-sessional English (PSE) in 2021. 

The crit forms the primary speaking element of the PSE assessment, for which students who speak English as an additional language need to reach a threshold grading to progress to their main courses at UAL. It is this participation which often causes the greatest anxiety, especially for those more introverted learners. The students develop a creative project and then present their work, followed by a Q&A by 2 tutors (and sometimes students). Over the 4 years that I have been doing this course, the time allocated for the presentation has been incrementally reduced and vis-a-vis the time for critique has increased. This is presumably because it is the most exposing of communicative ability – presentations can be learned by rote – or read from script. I encourage students to move away from this rote learning to make it as live as possible, both for pragmatics – passing the course, and perhaps for fostering something more moral– developing a fundamentally human skill in the age of machines.  

From the position of ‘moral realism,’ how we take part in the world is manifest as ‘participation in practice,’ and this practice involves (normative) ‘real moral reference points’ (Yanchar and Slife, 2017, p.165). Using this frame, McDonald and Michela (2019) investigate three types of ‘moral goods’: student development; teacher/practitioner self-cultivation; and for other stakeholders, through investigating how instructors talk about critiques. The paper finds that these moral goods can both reinforce and pull against each other – and that instructors are often mistaken in their view of a good and that this can interfere with actually achieving it (Ibid, p.28).  

AI has already revolutionized the way in which we can produce text and is therefore becoming a less reliable measure of communicative, academic and professional capacity. In future, the viva – currently reserved for Phd students – may become part of the method for assessment for written papers at other levels. This would increase the need for students to embrace the critique, however how instructors should approach this regarding diversity is another point for reflection. My point of departure here, drawing on Harris (2022. P101), is to investigate how I can help make this form of participation meet the historically underrepresented needs of introverted learners, whilst building skill and confidence through practice.  

Harris, K. (2022), ‘Embracing the silence: introverted learning and the online classroom’ Spark: UAL Creative Teaching and Learning Journal, 5 (1) 101-104 

McDonald, J. and Michela, E. (2019), ‘The design critique and the moral goods of studio pedagogy,’ Design Studies 62 (2019) 1- 35 

 Yanchar, S. C., & Slife, B. D. (2017), ‘Theorizing inquiry in the moral space of practice’, Qualitative Research in Psychology, 14(2)146 -170. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/14780887.2016.1264517. (Accessed on 11.01.25) 

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Hello everyone

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. I look forward to meeting the rest of the Friday cohort in January.