Ravin Raori’s Blog for UAL PGCert

What: Expanding on the notion of community, I wanted to start by taking the incoming final years on a field trip. We were given the first week by our year coordinator as a week to run a workshop, or plan an activity. I thought it could be nice to take the students out of their usual studio setting, get them in the sun talking about Art and Design. I found a great opportunity to do this at Frieze 2024. Within Frieze is an exhibition called Frieze Sculpture, an outdoor public arts exhibit with a series of installations talking on a range of themes from social and environmental consciousness to playful encounters with media and technology, performances in the public to spiritual and conceptual practices (Frieze, 2024). There is enough here for the students to engage with social justice but how do I get them to engage with each other?

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How: I came up with a plan (see below) for the students to be randomly paired into teams of two. I used some of our existing methodologies within the Cert to assign folks a number (each number repeating twice) so that they could be paired up with someone new or (hopefully) an individual they haven’t worked with before. They were then given the task and asked to meet back up with me at a specific location for a debrief.

Transcript of the task:

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Where:

Regent’s Park London

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When:

Thursday, 03.10.2024

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Why:

Why set this task?

To answer this question I would like to refer back to some of my reflections on belonging and community. I was interested in keeping the learning conversational, in an attempt to flatten the power dynamics between me and the students but also between the work (the art on display) and the students (see Reflection On Belonging).

Perhaps, co-creating an artefact (Bunting & Hill, 2021) – whatever that artefact is; a reflective piece of writing, some images, conversations with me and the wider group could help with this. I wanted it to feel like a game but equally an opportunity to connect, be out in the sun and have a moment to gather; to co-own some space and time, acknowledging that we are part of a larger group and there’s much to learn from each other and about each other.

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Observations/Reflections (Data)

At the end of the session, we gathered around some logs and tree stumps to discuss findings and share our experiences. I wanted to keep the conversation open ended but find a way to encourage participation. I invited each student to have a chance to speak, and was happy to see that most contributed. Unfortunately, we didn’t have enough time for the students to be able to really co-author a statement about art in the public space, but they did manage to write some of the keywords from the first task. These keywords helped serve as good starting point for their conversations and something to jump off of. They did also share their experiences and I’ve collected those as bits of data for self-reflection. See below

Data collected:

Student 1: “It was nice to have another person to reflect my opinions off of – created a conversation as opposed to having the pressure of interpretation.”

Student 2: “The materials in the artwork and the unexpectedness of being outdoors allowed for humour to become part of the experience”

Student 3: “It was fun to watch the public interact with the art. We saw a family take pictures with their children, often the children finding new meaning in the shape or form of the piece”

Student 4: “It felt like there was an easier buy-in towards some of the more complex soical issues due to the nature of the interaction” (Referring to being in the park)

Student 5: “We questioned whether some of the pieces were truly interactive” (There was a few pieces situation in more of a performance context and another one using AR).

Reflections – Each of these are examples of statements that led to further conversations in the group. Conversations that we might not have otherwise had, perhaps that is wishful thinking, perhaps not.

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Challenges/Limitations

1. I perhaps could have done a better job thinking about accessibility requirements for students. The closest station didn’t have step free access and I discussed this with one of my students who needed more access support. I have permission to speak of the student’s experience. We came up with an access plan, which included an alternative route for the student to be able to access the park along with their supporting individual. However, there were obvious blind spots. The student ended up missing the train which meant we could no longer be the meeting spot we had planned. This added to the fact that it’s never easy finding a spot to meet in a big open green space, creating other challenges for the student being able to find us. It just got me thinking about community and how creating a sense of belonging really means doing this for everyone, including challenging ourselves for when we think we could have done better.
2. Some of my findings (from the conversations) feel convenient. I can see how an activity like this would benefit feelings of belonging and community – and as such, maybe some of the findings are expected. Perhaps moving forward, how do I facilitate conversations that don’t feel like they are about me or my project. I tried to make it as informal as possible, but there will always be a bit of power dynamics involved. Maybe students feel the pressure to have to say something interesting and that makes is challenging because I don’t need that, that’s the whole point to begin with. More work to do!!

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References:

1. Bunting, L., & Hill, V. (2021). Relational Reflections: How do we nurture belonging in creative Higher Education?. Innovative Practice in Higher Education.
2. Frieze (2024). Open now: Frieze Sculpture 2024. https://www.frieze.com/article/frieze-sculpture-2024 (Accessed: 05 Nov 2024).

Intervention 1 – Finding the Frieze
Intervention 2 – Obliquiscopes (Part 1) – Object Based Learning
Intervention 2 – Obliquiscopes (Part 2) – Object Based Learning
Intervention 3 (Part 1) – Assigning Roles
Intervention 3 (Part 2) – Assigning Roles
Intervention 4 – Experimental 3d forms
Intervention 5 – Furniture and studio set up (Part 1 and 2)

This was the first Ethical Action Plan I drafted during Workshop 1.

Reflecting on the work of Liz Bunting and Vikki Hill

I find myself relating to Bunting & Hill’s (2021) idea of ‘Belonging’ as a social and relational construct rooted in human connection.

At the onset of this project, I am investigating the idea of community. I’m particularly interested in what constitutes community from a student perspective and how pedagogic practices can help facilitate its formation.

To reflect a little on my own positionality, I grew up in New Delhi, India; from an early age my sense of community has always been rooted in an urban-Indian context, where we were largely shielded from the class struggles in the outside world and my immediate community was constructed of people of a similar socio-economic background to my parents. Moving to Hong Kong at the age of 18 challenged me on multiple levels as I was forced to adapt to a new culture and environment. I am someone who has spent majority of their professional career (and adult life) moving through through a variety of social, cultural and academic contexts. Between 2012 and 2024, barring a couple years in between I’ve been part of three academic institutions namely, The University of Hong Kong, University College London and University of the Arts London. My role at these institutions has ranged from undergraduate to postgraduate student, research assistant and lecturer. This has allowed me to understand the value of community from the perspective of student experience but further as a core, emotional need for belonging.

When I first moved to Hong Kong, I felt very isolated from my family and friends back home in India. Very few people spoke English as a first language and I struggled to make a friend, let alone break into friendship groups. Strangely, my most happy memories are ones from studio and in-class activities; particularly ones where I felt engaged with the task I was doing and the people I was doing them with including our tutors and lecturers at the time. It’s interesting to hear Bunting & Hill (2021) talk about the social and relational aspects of belonging, stressing on the importance of (loving) dialogue and its capacity to engender a liberating humanisation (Schroder, 2010 as cited in Bunting & Hill, 2021). In a way, it brings it full circle for me, seeing myself as a lecturer now and understanding how my interaction with students can de-centre the traditional power dynamics at play in a more banking education model (Freire, 2020).

Where does social justice come into all of this?

This is the something I’m grappling with at the moment. The lessons I learned from my Inclusive Practices Unit is that it isn’t just enough to talk about social justice. But rather embody it in the way we engage with our students and help scaffold their learning and personal journeys. While I do think the former is still important, the latter is much more difficult to articulate.

Increasingly, I am thinking social justice is in the little things. It has to simple. It has to be small and granular. The more I try to complicate it, the more it slips away from me.

In thinking about belonging and community, the little things can be moments and/or experiences, factors or influences, workshops or classroom activities that enable students to connect with each other, deepening their bonds with each other and with us. The decentering of authority and multiplicity of voices can be challenge dominant narratives and create the space for small social justice transformations (Tate, 2019 as cited in Bunting & Hill, 2021).

If at the end of this I can look back at my project as a series of experiments (successful and failed) that contribute as a toolkit/means for reflecting on what it means to create belonging in a HE context, I will be happy.

Embedding play and flattening power dynamics

Bunting and Hill (2021) talk about this idea of embedding play as a means toward flattening power dynamics; co-creating artefacts as a tool for breaking down hierarchies with students. I would like to take this provocation as a seed for my intervention/s. It’s both an ethos and way of working that I’ve always felt fascinated by. As an educator in Arts and Design, I think its perhaps more challenging (anyway) to have to adopt the banking model (Freire) as the extent to which knowledge exists and is produced daily is already de-centred to an extent. I know we might know always see it but in dialogue (Bunting & Hill, 2021) with my students, I learn as much from them as they do from me . As such its perhaps more prudent to see myself as a facilitator of their learning journeys as opposed to the orchestrator.

References

1. Bunting, L., & Hill, V. (2021). Relational Reflections: How do we nurture belonging in creative Higher Education?. Innovative Practice in Higher Education.
2. Freire, P. (2020). Pedagogy of the oppressed. In Toward a sociology of education (pp. 374-386). Routledge.
3. Schoder, E. M. (2010). Paulo Freire’s pedagogy of love. Rutgers The State University of New Jersey, School of Graduate Studies.
4. Tate, S. (2019). Tackling the ‘BPOC’ Attainment Gap in UK Universities [online]. TEDx Royal Central School. [Viewed 29 May 2021]. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UPMuuJrfawQ

I had a wonderful feedback session with Amy Henry on Friday 31st May 2024. We discussed at length the nature of our interventions. Amy wonderfully highlighted that it might be a good idea for me to narrow the focus of my intervention reflection to the second session.

She also provided me with some really useful resources around Universal Design for Learning Spaces, the Three Block Model of Universal Design as well as the work of Lev Vygotsky (Russian psychologist and theorist who touches on the idea of scaffolding within education). I particularly needed some help and support with contextual and theoretical frameworks around my intervention. Amy was kind enough to help me with this.

I also found Amy’s intervention idea to be very insightful. We’re both looking at the nature of spaces in some way. Amy focusses more on a corner of her classroom and its relationship to student engagement – seeing it as an opportunity for community and quiet reflection. I thought the idea to host a brief around the bean bags was really playful and engaging. I think these are great ways to communicate and introduce complex topics.

We also had a nice conversation around integrity being a key element with which we (as staff members) need to approach these conversations. Perhaps it’s not always about bringing intersectional social justice in its totality but through certain strands of it (during sessions/interventions) that can make it more approachable. We could then use the cumulative effect of those kinds of sessions/interventions to help students (and ourselves) gain a more comprehensive understanding of these topics.

Resources:

Katz, J. (2013) The three block model of universal design for learning (UDL): Engaging students in inclusive education. Canadian Journal of Education, 36(1), 153-194.

Merry, K. L. (2024) Delivering inclusive and impactful instruction: universal design for learning in higher education. (No Title).

Note to reader* 

• I grew up in a post-colonial India, with a high amount of generational trauma passed down to me through the stories of my ancestors; their experiences of colonialism and racist practices in the former British Empire. I was taught to have pride in who I am and not be put down on account of my race; something my ancestors have faced. My existence is (at times) defined by a delicate balance between the anger I feel on behalf of my ancestors and the moral confusion that stems from now being a resident of the United Kingdom. 
• The student whose experience is mentioned in the blog post has given me permission to include it in this writing. No names have been mentioned.

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“Diversity is about bringing different perspectives, different lived experiences together and respecting our differences and then working towards better goals”

-Asif Sadiq

Analysis:
Race is not only a very relevant conversation (Wong et al., 2021) in Higher Education (HE) but should also be at its forefront. As a former (BAME) student and now a lecturer in the UK, I engage in this dialogue through my personal experience (being part of the system) and the context I have gained through academic literature.

There is a political divide that frames conversations around Critical Race Theory vs viewpoints that may be considered as oppositional; consider Professor James Orr (2022). Something  that is often lost in this segregation is that diversity is about embracing diverse perspectives (Sadiq, 2023) through conversation. Hypervisibility of racialised subjects (Garett,2024) amongst other issues, can work against this and create barriers towards conversation. Sadiq (2023) talked about how he cannot speak on behalf of all Muslims. This encapsulates the individual nature of how race affects people’s lives and careers. 

Sadiq (2023) further talks about this idea of narratives, highlighting versions of events and providing an interesting lens to examine anti-racist discourses. This allows us to question the bias of not only the narrative itself but also who it’s being told by and to what end? Systemic inequities, especially those rooted in policy are not always visible to the naked eye and usually guiled in some way to appear neutral and/or meritocratic (Bradbury, 2020). This is evident in the way James Orr (2020) and his colleagues use statistics to claim that race is no longer relevant and further, in the testimonies of the ‘naïve’ or the ‘bystander’ (Wong et al., 2021), as (sometimes) even BAME students may fall into the trap of either trivialising their own experience or buying into this idea that race is not relevant in HE.

Reflection:
We need to have a much more nuanced conversation about race. It takes me back to a conversation I had with a former MA (BAME) student at UAL. The student wanted to do a project on their connection with their culture through exploring (in their words), “the motif of Sikh women’s hair as a context through which to decolonise visual lexicon and broaden the scope of hair in art. The project explored the 1984 riots in India (Dheer, 2018) and how Sikh women’s hair contains this dichotomy of grief and tragedy, as well as pride in their religion.” The project was supported by a white tutor, who drew on predominantly euro-centric literature to support the student, without making an effort to establish a middle ground by learning more about the student’s culture. The student felt like they were being fit into a mould as opposed to being helped find their voice. I wonder if and how I could have also contributed to these kinds of situations in the past, especially with a large international student body. 

There is a clear need for decolonisation in how we think about anti-racism in arts education, through the references we use as well as in a more direct sense; having diversity within the staff body. This ties back to Garrett (2024) and how race based inequities affect not only the student population but also the numbers of students making their way to academic careers. Here, diversity is not just about representation but about representation actively creating a situation where BAME students can be supported better.

References:

1. Dheer, G. (2018) ‘1984: “His hair was cut so he could live”’, Deccan Herald, 1 November. Available at: https://www.deccanherald.com/india/our-eyes-welled-my-brother-s-700931.html (Accessed: 18 June 2024).
2. Bradbury, A. (2020) A critical race theory framework for education policy analysis: The case of bilingual learners and assessment policy in England. Race Ethnicity and Education, 23(2), 241-260.
3. Channel 4. (2020) The School That Tried to End Racism. [Online}. Youtube. 30 June. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1I3wJ7pJUjg 
4. Wong, B., Elmorally, R., Copsey-Blake, M., Highwood, E., & Singarayer, J. (2021). Is race still relevant? Student perceptions and experiences of racism in higher education. Cambridge Journal of Education, 51(3), 359-375.
5. Orr, J. (2022) Revealed: The charity turning UK universities woke. The Telegraph [Online]. Youtube. 5 August. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRM6vOPTjuU
6. Sadiq, A. (2023) Diversity, Equity & Inclusion. Learning how to get it right. TEDx [Online}. Youtube. 2 March. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HR4wz1b54hw
7. Garrett, R. (2024) Racism shapes careers: career trajectories and imagined futures of racialised minority PhDs in UK higher education. Globalisation, Societies and Education, 1-15.

Intervention – The nature of space.

What
My intervention explores the nature of safe spaces. Here, a safe space refers to the physical embodiment of a space where conversations around intersectional social justice can take place or students can approach this issue through design and critical thinking.

Why
I have encountered a barrier where I am struggling to address intersectionality and social justice as lived experience within the classroom. I am able to express them within impact-oriented briefs and contextual/theoretical frameworks. However, I am interested in approaching a social justice that is more situated.

How
I will enact this intervention across three sessions. The sessions are part of a series of live workshops called Studio Labs within BA Graphic and Media Design.

Session 1: Synthetic Spaces (Form Lab) with Owen Wells.

Session Plan:
-Synthetic Spaces explores how (physical) spaces are represented or manipulated physically/ digitally/both.

-Students will work in groups to 3D scan a corner each of the room (D110, LCC) and redesign it in Virtual Reality. Here social justice is addressed through a series of prompts (for design) such as:
What would make the space feel more familiar? 
Does the space feel safe and accessible?
Is it easy for you to listen to the tutor speaking at the front of the room?

Session 2 & 3: Active Space Lab with Irene Martin.

-I anticipate that the redesign of a space can be challenging and would like to explore how we can activate existing spaces to tell stories around intersectionality and social justice. 

– Students will work in groups to pitch an installation around social justice for the Design School Graduate Showcase. The piece will be exhibited live at the front of the Upper Gallery, giving students the opportunity to bring this conversation to wider audiences.

-Students are asked to select from the following themes to develop a concept:
LCC communities (inside and outside)
Access and opportunity
Student journey and voices
Sustainability
Intersectional identities (social/cultural/ethnic)

Resources:

1. Freire, P. (1974) Pedagogy of the oppressed. New York: Seabury Press. 
2. McIntosh, P. (2001). White privilege and male privilege: A personal account of coming to see correspondences through work in women’s studies (1988). Race, class, and gender: An anthology, pp.95-105.
3. Muller, L., Froggett, L. and Bennett, J. (2020). Emergent knowledge in the third space of art-science. Leonardo, 53(3), pp.321-326
4. Noel, L.A. and Paiva, M. (2021). Learning to recognize exclusion. Journal of Usability Studies, 16(2), pp.63-72.
5. Bayeck, R.Y., 2022. Positionality: The interplay of space, context and identity. International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 21, p.16094069221114745.
6. Medvescek, N., Raori, R. and Gonsalves, K. (2023). Relationality in Intermedial Architecture: A Creative Producing Approach. In Proceedings of the 6th Media Architecture Biennale Conference (pp. 173-178).
7. Crook, L. (2024) ‘Less experimentation and more “safe spaces” will define architecture in 2024’, Dezeen, 4 January. Available at: https://www.dezeen.com/2024/01/04/architecture-trends-predictions-2024/ (Accessed: 28 May 2024). 
8. GMDLCC (2024) GMD LAB. Available at: https://lab.gmdlcc.com/ (Accessed: 28 May 2024).

Note to Reader:

This intervention outline was first drafted at the beginning of the IP Unit and has been updated regularly. The sessions have now been concluded and I will reflect on them in the report, using the resources above as well as additional resources that I shall continue to add. Work on the installation with the students is underway. It will go live on Friday 31 May 2024.

Introduction:
This past week, I was particularly struck by the resource entitled ‘Faith: What does it mean to be a young person of faith today (Coventry UK City of Culture 2021, 2021)?’ 

In the contemporary context of how we understand secularism (Reki,2023), it’s challenging to consider how a young person may be allowed the circumstances to acknowledge and practise their faith without the fear of judgement. Faith intersects with other aspects of an individual’s identity and I will use the examples below along with my understanding of the resources to elucidate my understanding around the nature of epistemic injustices (Rekis,2023) rooted in intersectional religious identities. 

Examples:
Dr. Simran Jeet Singh highlights the importance of addressing power structures and challenging stereotypes (Trinity University, 2016). It is inspiring to hear that he is able to take on the burden of challenging stereotypes (in real life scenarios) but he shouldn’t have to do that and not everyone can. Others may face a pre-emptive epistemic injustice caused by suppressing their own identity in that situation (Lougheed, 2019 as cited in Rekis, 2023).

It was eye-opening to read about the barriers faced my Muslim women in sport (Jawad, 2022). Here, there is a cumulative effect of  gender dynamics and faith-based considerations that create a barrier (Jawad, 2022). I wonder how we as educators can help uplift individuals that may be facing such forms of injustice during their student journey and beyond. Is the classroom a safe space for students to share their experiences and difficulties? What does a safe space look like? I will unpack this further in my teaching intervention.

Recurring themes:
Hermeneutical Injustice
It was empowering to read about how an individual’s unique experience traversing through race, gender, faith and other parts of their identity can contribute to a unique set of experiences that makes them a valuable source of knowledge (Rekis, 2023). The racialisation of religion deprives the rest of society from this knowledge by generalising their experience (Rekis, 2023). 

Prejudice 
I found it particularly insightful – the way Kwame Anthony Appiah talks about religion as a non-existent thing, reaffirming this idea that there is a lot of nuance that is crucial to understanding someone’s experience. We can often miss this nuance through our pre-existing notions and prejudice (Rekis, 2023). Towards the end of his talk (reflecting on his own experience), he wonderfully explains religious identities as formulated within societal traditions, ones that allow people to express them as cultural identities (Appiah, 2014).

Teaching Context:
It’s interesting to note from UAL’s Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Annual Report (2024) that the percentage of students with a declared religion or belief has steadily decreased in the past five years from 34% in 2019/20 to 29% in 2022/23. In the same time, there has been a subsequent increase in people stating ‘No religion or belief’ as well as an overall increase in people stating ‘Prefer not to say’. I wonder if some of the types of injustice discussed here and in the resources prevent students from declaring their beliefs. Sometimes, I also feel like the forms we fill out are not entirely representative of an individual’s experience, adding further layers of complexity that need to be addressed. I hope to unpack this further and find ways to support students with these barriers.

References

1. Appiah, K. A. (2014) Is religion good or bad? (This is a trick question). Youtube [Online]. 16 June. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X2et2KO8gcY (Accessed: 18 May 2024)
2. Trinity University (2016) Challenging Race, Religion, and Stereotypes in the Classroom. [Online]. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0CAOKTo_DOk (Accessed: 18 May 2024)
3. Lougheed, K. (2019) Epistemic injustice and religious experience. In The Lost Sheep in Philosophy of Religion (pp. 79-96). Routledge.
4. Coventry UK City of Culture 2021 (2021) Faith: What does it mean to be a young person of faith today? [Online]. Available at: Faith: What does it mean to be a young person of faith today? (Accessed 18th May 2024).
5. Jawad, H. (2022) Islam, Women and Sport: The Case of Visible Muslim Women. [Online]. Available at: https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/religionglobalsociety/2022/09/islam-women-and-sport-the-case-of-visible-muslim-women/ (Accessed: 18 May 2024).
6. Rekis, J. (2023) Religious Identity and Epistemic Injustice: An Intersectional Account. Hypatia 38, pp779–800.
7. University of the Arts London (2024) Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Annual report 2022/23. Available at: https://www.arts.ac.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0015/432141/SPCB23435-EDI-report-2022-23.pdf (Accessed: 18 May 2024).

​​”I am disabled because society has not allowed me to shine.”

-Ade Adepitan

Reflection on resources:

Ade Adepitan provides a lens to understand disability as a failure by society to provide the necessary conditions for individuals to prosper. Counteracting oppressive systems requires a deep systemic investigation to challenge power structures that hold individuals back. Disability intersects with other aspects of individuals’ identities in scenarios where identity becomes an unwanted determining factor for eligibility and opportunity (ParalympicsGB, 2020). The situation becomes further complicated when statistics are based on singular identities/narratives and rooted in essentialism (Crenshaw, 1991). This can often further marginalise individuals that fall outside the dominant narrative of either of their identities (Crenshaw, 1989).

In the case of Christine Sun Kim, it’s clear that her disability intersects with her artistic practice; in many ways informing the content and visual language of her work. It also seems like the two are in constant dialogue with each other as well as the audience. One of the key terms she discusses is visibility; and the idea of how art can be used to normalise conversations around disability (Art21, 2023). This is evident from her interest in scale as can be seen in the project at Manchester International Festival where she uses the natural and built environment as her canvas to raise awareness about deaf lives.

In the case of Chay Brown, it was particularly insightful to learn about how his identity as a trans and gay man intersects with disability. He mentions not being neurotypical during the conversation and the impact that has on navigating the subtleties of queer communication and culture (Parapride, 2023). This was eye-opening for me as a cis-gendered man, to educate myself on the invisible structures that impede people’s multiple identities from existing simultaneously.

Recurring themes:

Some of the recurring themes that this investigation has brought forth for me are:

• Structural inequalities, both visible and invisible
• Art as a vehicle for conversations around social change and social norms.
• Normalising access and conversations around disability.
• Creating spaces for people to be heard.
• Radical approaches towards addressing structural changes.

Teaching context:

I often find myself confronting and accounting for disability in the planning and delivery of session content. Further, there is also an element of agility and/or flexibility required in being able to address and navigate situations that arise in real time. I’ve found opportunities for Pastoral support (planned and unplanned) to be useful avenues that allow students to check-in and feel heard.

Looking at UAL’s most recent Annual Report on Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (University of the Arts London, 2024) – it’s interesting to note the differing percentages of declared disabilities between Home, EU and International students, with home students being the highest, followed by EU and International students. This has consistently been the data for the last five years. It’s important to consider how we break down these numbers looking at adequate support across all categories, but also investigating potential invisible correlations such as those between the motivation to apply for courses with declared disabilities and the lower percentages of international students with declared disabilities. It goes without saying that I strive to be better, keeping my eyes and ears open to educate myself as I continue to inculcate inclusive practices.

References:

1. Crenshaw, K. (1991) Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics, and Violence against Women of Color. Stanford Law Review, 43(6), 1241–1299. https://doi.org/10.2307/1229039
2. Crenshaw, K. (1989) Demarginalizing the intersection of race and sex: A black feminist critique of antidiscrimination doctrine, feminist theory and antiracist politics. University of Chicago Legal Forum: Vol. 1989, Article 8. https://chicagounbound.uchicago.edu/uclf/vol1989/iss1/8
3. Crenshaw, K. (2017) Kimberlé Crenshaw on intersectionality, more than two decades later. Columbia Law School, 8(1).
4. Coaston, J. (2019) The intersectionality wars. Vox, 28, p.2019.
5. ParalympicsGB (2020) Ade Adepitan gives amazing explanation of systemic racism. [Online video]. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KAsxndpgagU&t=162s
   (Accessed: 25 April 2024).
6. Art21 (2023) Christine Sun Kim in “Friends & Strangers” – Season 11 | Art21. [Online video]. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2NpRaEDlLsI&t=770s (Accessed: 25 April 2024).
7. Parapride (2023) Intersectionality in Focus: Empowering Voices during UK Disability History Month 2023. [Online video]. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_yID8_s5tjc&t=1s
   (Accessed: 25 April 2024).
8. University of the Arts London (2024) Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Annual report 2022/23. Available at: https://www.arts.ac.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0015/432141/SPCB23435-EDI-report-2022-23.pdf (Accessed: 25 April 2024).

Benefits:
It can be used to articulate what is required from a student as they navigate a particular instance of learning, whether that is at course level or unit level. Outcomes-based learning design allows for criterion-referenced assessment, giving students more ownership over their journey and path to improvement as opposed to norm-referenced assessment (Davies, 2002). In an ideal sense, they help students understand how they are being assessed based on: what they have achieved (outcomes) and the level to which they have they have achieved this (assessment criteria) (Davies, 2002).  In this sense there is a clear delineation of function for both learning outcomes and assessment criteria as well as a well defined relationship between the two.

Opportunities:
Within the context of learning outcomes based design is an opportunity for students to support each other. Looking at (Brooks, 2008), it seems there is a desire from students for more forms of peer-led assessment and feedback opportunities. When we put phrases like ‘meeting professional standards’ and ‘demonstrating awareness of’ into learning outcomes, there should equally be ways for students to evidence the (human) interactive qualities of those outcomes. Encouraging students to document forms of peer-led assessment and feedback and further evidence that as learning through their unit and portfolio submissions could be unique opportunity for students to demonstrate their intended and un-intended learning outcomes (Davies, 2002).

Challenges:
Within my own context, I often remind students of their learning outcomes for the unit. This is especially common in Year 1 where these concepts are new and I find it useful to articulate the relationship between learning outcomes and UAL’s assessment criteria. Two challenges I face are:

1. Time: Students often treat this as something additional to their studio work and perhaps the verbose nature of the outcome daunts them. I often speak to the students to ask why they aren’t reading the unit outcomes and this is one of the reasons I have gathered.
2. Language/Cultural Barriers: Overseas students who do not have the same definitions/understandings of words like ‘creativity’, ‘imagination’, ‘risk-taking’ (Davies, 2012) facing an additional layer of struggle beyond the ambiguity of these terms.

Limitations:
In order for constructive alignment to occur (Biggs, 2003 as cited in Davies, 2012), it seems like there must be a relationship between program content, delivery, student experience and assessment criteria. In this particular context, I would like to focus on assessment criteria and acknowledge that sometimes there are certain barriers to this relationship for teachers. From course handbooks to unit assignments,  we are not involved with writing learning outcomes and often to have to resort to the ‘common sense’ prevails way of working (Davies, 2012).  In the interest of time, budgets and staffing allocation – I do understand why this occurs. I have often found it really useful to use things like benchmarking sessions to help align ourselves around seeing work through the lens of learning outcomes.

References:

1. Davies, A. (2002). Writing learning outcomes and assessment criteria in art and design. City.
2. Biggs, JB (2003) Teaching for Quality Learning at University. SRHE & OU Press.
3. Brooks, K. (2008) ‘could do better?’: Students’ critique of written feedback, AdvanceHE. Available at: https://www.advance-he.ac.uk/knowledge-hub/could-do-better-students-critique-written-feedback (Accessed: 13 March 2024).
4. Davies, A. (2012). Learning Outcomes and Assessment Criteria in Art and Design: What’s the Recurring Problem. Networks, 18(9).