Eva Feld's Blog

Bell, J. (2010). Doing Your Research Project: A Guide for First-time Researchers in Education, Health and Social Science. 5th ed. Maidenhead: McGraw-Hill Open University Press, p. 30. Available at: https://www-vlebooks-com.arts.idm.oclc.org/Product/Index/155387?page=0&startBookmarkId=-1 (Accessed: 16 November 2025).

Bilgin (2021) Why positionalities matter:  reflections on power  hierarchy  and knowledges in  development  research

British Educational Research Association (BERA) (2024) Ethical Guidelines for Educational Research (5th ed.). Available at: https://www.bera.ac.uk/publication/ethical-guidelines-for-educational-research-fifth-edition-2024 (Accessed: 12 November 2025).

Coulson, D., & Harvey, M. (2013). Scaffolding student reflection for experience-based learning: A framework. Teaching in Higher Education, 18(4), 401–13. https://doi.org/10.1080/13562517.2012.752726

Gerber, S. and Paugh, R. (2018) SUPER connector: Stop Networking and Start Building Business Relationships That Matter. New York.

Harvard Business Review (2022) HBR Guide to Smarter Networking. Boston, MA: Harvard Business Review Press.  

Harris-Reeves, B. E., Pearson, A. and Massa, H. (2025) ‘From uncertainty to clarity: A career plan task empowering first-year university students’, Journal of Teaching and Learning for Graduate Employability, 16(1), pp. 127–144. https://doi.org/10.21153/jtlge2025vol16no1art2131 

Kerstein, S. (2024) ‘Treating Persons as Means’, in E.N. Zalta and U. Nodelman (eds) The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Summer 2024. Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University. Available at: https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/sum2024/entries/persons-means/ (Accessed: 17 November 2025).

Krueger, R.A. and Casey, M.A. (2000) Focus groups: a practical guide for applied research. Thousand Oaks, Calif., London: Sage Publications.

Punch, K.F. (2016). Developing Effective Research Proposals. 3rd ed. Los Angeles: SAGE, p. 47. ISBN 9781473916388.

Rana, R., Galligan, L., Fard, R., & McCredie, T. (2023). A novel employability embedding framework for three-year bachelor’s programs. Journal of Teaching and Learning for Graduate Employability, 14(1), 104–118. https://doi.org/10.21153/jtlge2023vol14no1art1604 

Richards, A. and Reid, A. (2025) ‘Reflections on reflection: Supporting employability learning in the higher education context’, Journal of Teaching and Learning for Graduate Employability, 16(1), pp. 75–92. https://doi.org/10.21153/jtlge2025vol16no1art2062

UAL: Belonging Through Compassion (n.d.) Theory. Belonging Through Compassion. Available at: https://belongingthroughcompassion.myblog.arts.ac.uk/theory/ 

UAL: Creative Shift (n.d.) Connect To Creative Network. Available at: https://www.arts.ac.uk/students/student-careers/stories/creative-shift-connect-to

University of the Arts London (n.d.) Resources. In: Ethics for Making. Available at: https://ethics.arts.ac.uk/wpx/resources/ (Accessed: 12 November 2025). 

University of the Arts London (2020) Code of Practice on Research Ethics. October. London: University of the Arts London. Available at: https://www.arts.ac.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0020/43328/UAL-Code-of-Practice-on-Research-Ethics-October-2020.pdf (Accessed: 12 November 2025).

University of the Arts London & Lotus Films (2020) Ethics for Making. Available at: https://ethics.arts.ac.uk/klynt/#Home (Accessed: 12 November 2025).

Waghid, Y. (2019). Towards a Philosophy of Caring in Higher Education. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan. https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-030-03961-5

Reading Notes

There is debate about a new terminology to distinguish the new way of networking from the old way, in which networking was approached as to maximise its efficiency by favouring the quantity of connections over their quality, being subsequently rightfully perceived as egoistic and opportunistic. Gerber and Paugh (2018) suggest to use connection instead of connect and connecting instead of networking.

In my writing I have opted for adding descriptive words to define the new way of networking, such as meaningful, authentic, reciprocal and organically grown. This is what I am advocating for and referring to as desirable and connected to belonging. I still use networking and networks as they also have some positive associations, for instance it evokes the way we might be caught to safety by a net from a fall or an image of a network linking people together opposed to people existing in isolation. I hope, that over time with research underpinning what networks should be to help us flourish both physically and mentally, the negative connotations will diminish bit by bit.

Pictures below taken from pages in the book SUPER Connector by Gerber, S. and Paugh, R. (2018)

“Connect” and “connection” are not the same thing”

Networking […] is dead.

• Email invite to my focus group ‘You and your connections’. Final version
• Information Sheet
• Consent form
• Pre-session information
• Focus group prompt cards

Critical Friends – Have you got feedback for me?

• Asking my critical friends, my course team, for feedback: “Have you feedback for me?”
• Mikha’s feedback
• Ella’s reply

When developing my student invite draft, I sought feedback from my course leader, Ella Sharp-Mitchell, and my colleagues Mikha Mekler and Sean-Henry Fitzsimons. As a team, we are mindful of each other’s workloads, so I appreciated that Mikha was able to respond with constructive comments. She recommended adding more detail about the purpose of the session and the activities involved. On reflection, I realised that I had not fully explained the meaning of the topic, “You and your connections,” nor provided a concrete example of what students would be doing, namely discussing prompts. I revised the invite to address these omissions and ensured I expressed my thanks for her contribution.

Mikha also suggested including ethical considerations such as anonymity and voluntary participation. These elements were already covered in the information sheet and consent form linked beneath the image, which she had overlooked. This highlighted to me the importance of providing my critical friends with clear contextual information upfront. In future, I intend to begin feedback requests with a brief explanation of the document and its purpose, followed by the material I would like them to review. This approach aligns with my aim of making the feedback process efficient and respectful of colleagues’ time.

Although my course leader, Ella, was unable to offer detailed feedback, her brief message: “Go for it.” was warm, encouraging, and supportive. This reinforced my confidence in my approach and underscored the value of collegial reassurance alongside formal critique.

Action research methodology

Qualitative and iterative, reflexive

Reading notes: Action Research by Costello (2003), from left to right p.3, p.4, p.6 with my annotations (2025)

Data collection tool: Survey – Focus group interview

The focus group interview is my intervention.

I chose focus group interviews as a method for data collection

• as I am looking for a range of opinions, perceptions and ideas about the issue of how students may connect meaningfully to other master students (Krueger and Casey, p. 21)
• to uncover factors that influence opinions and motivation of students to want to connect to other students? *1 (Krueger and Casey, p.21)
• as I want ideas to emerge from the group. “a group possesses the capacity to become more than the sum of its parts, to exhibit a synergy that individuals alone don’t possess.” (Krueger and Casey, p.22)

Analysis tools

Transcript analysis

Critical friends

The question design: Designed to gain insights about the research question,

Accessible and inclusive prompt design

The prompts I will use in the focus group will be shared via QR codes, allowing the participants to view the questions on their phones and to translate them into their first language. It also allows them to zoom in if they have trouble reading small text and adjusting the display mode and light if needed.

Anticipating the flow of the discussion

In addition, sharing the QR code one at a time for each question allows the participants focus on the question by not reading ahead into the following questions had they been shared together which helped me in my role as the moderator (Krueger and Casey, 2015, p.119).

References

Bell, J. (2010). Doing Your Research Project: A Guide for First-time Researchers in Education, Health and Social Science. 5th ed. Maidenhead: McGraw-Hill Open University Press, p. 30. Available at: https://www-vlebooks-com.arts.idm.oclc.org/Product/Index/155387?page=0&startBookmarkId=-1 (Accessed: 16 November 2025).

Krueger, R.A. and Casey, M.A. (2000) Focus groups: a practical guide for applied research. Thousand Oaks, Calif., London: Sage Publications.

Punch, K.F. (2016). Developing Effective Research Proposals. 3rd ed. Los Angeles: SAGE, p. 47. ISBN 9781473916388.

This section was used to stay on track during the project. Especially as all listed aspects of the project have gone through iterations as the project progressed. This is captured by V1 for Version 1 and so forth.

• Research Question – V1 > seek advice if ok 13.11. >
• Rationale – DONE
• Reading – in progress – adding my readings to the Reference List as I go – should I also add a Bibliography?
• Research Methods – V1 – revise
• Ethics form – V1 done – feedback received – V2 done 13.11. – waiting for approval
• Draft activity plan/brief – DONE
• Run pilot with colleague and students – DONE
• Get feedback – DONE
• Refine activity – in progress
• Draft in colleagues to observe – is this mandatory for a focus group?
• Prepare observation templates > Participant-facing documents > in progress
• Run activity – 2oth November 2025
• Capture outputs
• Reflect on session
• Debrief with observers
• Collate feedback
• Plan next steps
• Presentation slides

This action research project wants to find out what the needs of  MA Innovative Fashion Production (MA IFP) students are to make meaningful connections to other MA students. The results should inform the development of an intervention, such as a workshop or teaching material, that aids students to identify their individual relationship-building needs. The purpose is to foster belonging and to challenge the structural and social barriers that international students, especially those arriving from Asia, might face but may not initially recognise.

Connect – You and your connections, centres  students’ needs to make meaningful emotional and professional connections during their study. It responds directly to data from our Course Student Survey (CSS, 2025), where 73% of students agreed there are sufficient opportunities to connect with other postgraduate taught students. Although a figure 10% above the UAL-wide average (see fig. 1 and fig. 2 appendix) it still leaves room for improvement. 

All current MA IFP students are Chinese, far away from home, thus the groups they belong to, such as kin, culture and friends, are not in practical, immediate reach. I believe that the lack of feeling connected and consequently to belong, negatively affects academic performance and social life, triggering a cycle that can amplify individual struggles.

“Humans are hardwired with the desire to belong; belonging to family, a group of people, a community. It is existential for us now and historically.” (Eastwood, 2022).

Our core relationships, the people we choose to surround ourselves with, are our network and the place that we think of as belonging to. “Not to belong affects our physical and mental health. Even the fear of not belonging triggers a physical reaction and puts us into a fight and flight state”. 

Rightfully, the term networking has fallen into disrepute because the old doctrine encouraged practices that are self-serving and opportunistic, such as valuing the number of connections more than their quality (Gerber and Paugh, 2018; HBR, 2022). However, network building based on authenticity and reciprocity is not only effective for succeeding well in life, but promotes our well-being, as more recent studies suggest (HBR, 2022; Eastwood, 2022). I believe that having an authentic, meaningful, reciprocal, slowly and naturally grown network is directly related to our sense of belonging. 

My positionality as a fairly recent immigrant to the UK, who has lived in multiple countries and speaks several languages, informs this perspective. I know first-hand the emotional importance of belonging and its correlation with having an authentic, supportive network, grown out of authentic curiosity and informed by reciprocal interest in one another. Truly diverse networks do not distinguish between private and professional; connections are often interlinked (i.e. multi-flex ties) and bridge across groups. 

Reading notes: Super Connector by Gerber and Paugh (2018), from left to right p.1, p.2, p.9 with my annotations (2025)

My working out: iterative rationale development, notes and reflection

My topic: Connect

Networking is important for everyone’s personal and academic development. It provides support and opportunities for many aspects in life, such as job search, furthering research, pastoral support, emotional stability (sense of belonging). I believe that our network needs are as diverse as our research questions; like a fingerprint. It must be chosen and composed by us with people we naturally, organically connect with.

• The challenge is that networking events are not tailored to individual needs.
• A solution might be to design a workshop that helps students develop their own networking strategies.
• A possible threat is that once the workshop is done, the student might not find a sustainable way for the upkeep of their networking ideas. Reflection: Which methods could work? First, I will explore in which way this was found true for myself and others I know.

Workshop 1 Notes