Today’s session was the most challenging yet. It focused on Values and Ethics, and asked participants to engage with written policy. The amount of documents was overwhelming, and the response of the group was distracting. There was a feeling of resistance towards the bureaucracy that surrounds teaching as a practice. I found myself responding in negative ways throughout the whole of the session.
To nourish a positive disposition, I will try to work through appreciative inquiry in this blog post.
Firstly, it is amazing to see how much work has been put into structuring the university and its entangled ecosystem of frameworks, policies, codes and strategies. I am aware that policies are there to support both staff and students in equal measure. Thinking of bell hooks’ All About Love, and something one of peers on the PgCert mentioned earlier in the year regarding love and growth, policy making can be a practice of love, and a framework for facilitating growth. It could be thought as a top down process way of operating, which can be considered didactic –which makes me wonder ”where do love and didacticism meet and what do they create?”– yet often policy is set to level the ground.
Another element that I found challenging today was the use of abstract language that the documents we were engaging with were using. In reality, the language used is not abstract–it is operational: it applies to situations, and, removed from their applied concept they might feel vague. They are also meant to apply to a variety of situations, and hence is always adapted by the subjective viewpoints that the reader brings. Of course the application of the policy is contextual, and will be formed by circumstance. In which case, there is a sense of trust towards the reader that they can make sense dense, seemingly theoretical content, and that even there is space within such language for the lived experience that is often excluded.
The definition of words such as policy, code, framework, guide etc was extremely useful in identifying nuances for each and their application. Of course they work together and ave an effect on one another–it would be bizarre if they dididn’t.
One of the tutors mentioned that policy is often aspirational, or even utopian. Maybe it is a aim-for-the-moon-to-get-to-the-stars method, in which the full potential of something is articulated in order to start making small steps towards it. It is positive and encouraging to identify the scope yet a few questions come to mind:
-How can we stop from getting overwhelmed from this?
Not taking it for face value but still not stop trying to achieve set out ambitions?
-How to integrate policy in the curriculum? Who is monitoring this implementation?
How can we make sure that these processes are more than tokenistic or prosaic
Recognising that these processes are lengthy is a great start, and, by acknowledging the limitation of one’s knowledge and influence, one can recognise where it is that they can actually have an effect. This approach has made me aware that I can start working with fellow tutors, technicians and students and asking to implement policy. With regards to climate justice, I designed a project brief at the beginning of the academic year. It was not directly about sustainability, as students have mentioned that they find these themes very anxiety inducing. Instead the guest lecturers invited use found objects, materials, ideas. with a focus on prototyping, the project used a lot of cardboard, and students were asked to find their own from already used packaging. I am only talking about this as an example of practices I already implement, that are successful and focused with regards to university policy which feels abstract at first sight.
I hated today’s session.
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NOTES FROM SESSION
Cognitive Dissonance between institutional / professional and personal values
This is a conflict of personal and professional values, referred to as an ethical dilemma. An ethical dilemma is “..a situation in which professional duties and obligations, rooted in core values, clash” (Reamer, 2006, p.4).
In the field of psychology, cognitive dissonance is the perception of contradictory information, and the mental toll of it.
Appreciative Inquiry:
—Re-defining fault finding to affirmation in organisational management Suresh Sruvatva and David Cooperrider (1987)
—textured vocabularies of hope Ludema and Wilmot (1997)
Knowledge and Values in Education
UK PSF???
To what extent is teaching motivated by:
- informed and structured by lived experience
- acquired knowledge
- Policy and guidelines
—What do you need to know in order to teach well?
Knowledge on Subject // comfortable with subject matter
Level of students
Contextualising the knowledge // the application of what is being taught
The ability to communicate that knowledge
The ability to read the room
The ability to be flexible // adjust where needed
How much time / space you’ve got
Equipment / resources available
Know the student cohort
Empathy / compassion / understanding
Know the people you are working with (working / together)
Knowing what is happening in the industry but also the world
—What values inform the way we teach? (what is a value: the things that you give importance to)
Empathy / compassion / understanding
Collaboration / community
Diversity
Transparency
Personal growth (development)
Can you distinguish between articulated values (what you say) and tacit values (what you teach by doing)
What is the difference between values, beliefs, ethics, morals, duties, principles…? Very confusing
Moral as something that has to do with judgement (right or wrong)
Ethics: fundamental questions
Duty:
PROFESSIONAL STANDARDS FRAMEWORK
How do you relate to this?
How. Do you meet / match / exceed these professional expectations?
Dissonance between institutional / professional and personal values
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Defining Key Terms: Utopian thinking
Policy: a course or principle of action adopted or proposed by an organization or individual.
Tutorial policy:
https://www.arts.ac.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0026/364643/UAL-Tutorial-policy-PDF-158KB.pdf
Framework: an essential supporting structure of a building, vehicle, or object.
Creative Attributes Framework
’The Creative Attributes Framework helps articulate and connect the curriculum to professional practice’’
Strategy: a plan of action designed to achieve a long-term or overall aim.
Learning, Teaching and Enhancement Strategy
Code: a system of words, letters, figures, or symbols used to represent others, especially for the purposes of secrecy.
Disciplinary Code for Students
Principle: a fundamental truth or proposition that serves as the foundation for a system of belief or behaviour or for a chain of reasoning.
Teaching quality is a set of principles:
https://www.arts.ac.uk/about-ual/excellent-teaching-at-ual/teaching-quality
Guide: a document that leads or directs another on a course, something that shows and explains points of interest. It could be a person / or a written guide / or a video guide
What is the point in having so many documents that no one communicates that they are there?
When are you meant to refer to these documents?
Who are they for? To protect the university / tutors / students
What is the strategy of implementing this?
Who is monitoring this implementation?
Are these policies supportive to us?
How are they connected and interconnected with our practices?
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Climate Justice:
Its relationship with agency?
https://canvas.arts.ac.uk/documents/sppreview/e559543e-1db7-4154-b7c4-d843861603ad
Option 1:
In your scale: what would be a climate policy? What would a climate policy work like in your context / areas
What alternative metaphors could you maps of a teaching practice do? Propose a method
What kind of mapping do you want to do???
Ethical responsibility
Policy as aspirational