“Once you think of creedal identities in terms of mutable practices and communities rather than sets of immutable beliefs, religion becomes more verb than noun. The identity is revealed as an activity not a thing and it’s the nature of activities to bring change.”
Kwame Appiah (2016)
References
BBC (2016) Kwame Anthony Appiah – Mistaken Identities: Creed The Reith Lectures, BBC Sounds, broadcast on 18 October. Available at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/b07z43ds (Accessed: 12 July 2025).
My intervention design idea Connect centers the students’ need to make meaningful connections during their study time, both emotional and professional. The first to increase their feeling of belonging and decrease social barriers, the latter to foster their success. Amongst the teaching team we observed the absence of our international students to connect with others outside their course, this is echoed by the results of the Course Student Survery (CSS), figure 1 (2025). This might be due to language and social barriers and a lack of networks. I believe that this not only has a negative impact on their social life, but on their academic performance as well, which in turn increases the negative feeback loop, amplifying their individual struggles. As a fairly recent imigrant to the UK, multi-lingual and with a life shaped by living in various different countries before my arrival here, I understand how important networks are, therefore I’m passionate about giving students a sense of belonging on our course.
Context
I am a part of the teaching team at the MA Innovative Fashion Production course at LCF, as an hourly paid lecturer (HPL). I accompany the students as a tutor and lecturer across the year. Critical for the envisioned intervention is the final Master’s project in block 3. While the students have settled in, they are just getting the hang of academic expectations at MA level. At this time, they have made strong connections amongst themselves (91% agree, see fig. 1) and have become close to the teaching team and institution (90% agree, see fig. 1). These figures are about 20% higher than UAL wide, suggesting that we are doing not too bad, which might be due to regular informal class socials that the students organise. The established sense of belonging not only shows in classroom interactions, but also manifests itself in Instagram following and LinkedIn connection requests we are starting to receive by the end of block 2. The latter also shows that they start contemplating about their career paths after graduation.
“There are not sufficient opportunities to connect with other postgraduate taught students.”
UAL course survey result (2025)
At the moment, 73% of our students agree that “There are not sufficient opportunities to connect with other postgraduate taught students.” (UAL survey result, 2025), a survey that was conducted this year before the Easter break. To put this figure in perspective; it is 10% higher than the UAL survey result across UAL.
UAL wide our course MA IFP is performing very well in ‘Community’, with an average of 84.6% (see fig. 2) composed of the answers to the questions in fig. 1., compared to the UAL-wide much lower result of 68.6%. If the answer to the last question yielded a higher agreement rate, we would do exeptionally well. Notably, 84.6% is still our course’s lowest questionnaire score and therefore important to address.
Inclusive learning and intervention rationale
Inclusive practices in education are not only crucial for providing a positive study experience for all students but are transformative, especially those that recognize intersectionality and value lived experiences (Holland-Gilbert, 2019). Czerniewicz and Cronin (2023) frame belonging as inseparable from the idea of “infrastructures of care.” arguing that the higher education systems often fail to foster belonging for many students, due to competitive and individualistic cultures. Similarly, deficit discourses and structural inequalities reinforce feelings of alienation and marginalisation (Bradbury, 2020; Czerniewicy and Cronin, 2023).
“Care in higher education must be about creating the conditions for all to flourish: this necessarily means fostering belonging, inclusion and recognition for those who have historically been marginalised.”
(Czerniewicz and Cronin, 2023)
This frames belonging as not just emotional comfort but as a systemic goal. Within this discourse, networks are mentioned as one way to foster belonging. They are seen as central to moving away from cultures of individualism to more collaborative, relational, and care-focused practices. The intervention intends to connect the students to other students, alumni and people outside of the University.
Reflection
The idea for the intervention emerged during a team discussion about the upcoming Master’s project unit. Reflecting on the previous year, I noticed that some students seemed reluctant to seek out help by others, both from within and outside of University, likely held back by a lack of confidence and language barriers. This observation stayed with me, as I felt that these challenges were not just academic and emotional, but structural. How should they build and access supportive networks uniquely meaningful to them?
At the same time, I happened to listen to a podcast episode by Leah Cox, one of our IP guest lecturers, in which she discussed using a Human Library for social work students. What struck me most was hearing the student’s own account of how meaningful that experience had been for her learning, especially that the encounter not only enhanced her expertise, it boosted her confidence and brought her closer together with her peers. I thought this was a helpful example of how to part from a purely skills-based perspepctive to considering the emotional and relational dimensions of learning.
Initially, my proposal foregrounded academic support, with the inclusive and emotional aspects positioned almost as byproducts. However, when I shared the idea with my peers, I chose to emphasise the student’s voice from the podcast as the dominant inspiration behind the intervention. Their feedback was insightful; they suggested the intervention should centre on building a supportive network. One peer, in particular, reflected on how valuable such a workshop would have been for her personally as a newly arrived international student at the time, which made me realise the broader potential impact.
“Establishing a network for students who don’t have one.”(Ignacia, 2025)
My tutor also offered a critical perspective, pointing out that my original title, Expert Encounter, could unintentionally reinforce traditional hierarchies by suggesting that the expert holds authority. This feedback prompted me to reconsider the framing of the intervention. Drawing on Freire’s (1970) idea that “No one educates anyone else, nor do we educate ourselves; we educate one another in communion,” I was reminded that everyone brings unique forms of expertise shaped by their lived experiences. This reflection helped me reframe the intervention. I now prefer to include the students in the process of ideating the network event in terms of event design and choice of guests. Therefore, I chose to rename it to Connect, as a space where students and their guests could share, listen, and learn from each other on equal terms.
Reflecting on the planning for our networking event, I identified a potential risk linked to funding: there is no dedicated budget available, although our programme leader kindly offered a small amount for providing refreshments. This lack of funding means I am unable to pay some external network candidates for their time, which is particularly unfortunate as some may need to make financial decisions about how they spend their time, despite their goodwill and desire to contribute.
References
Allport, G.W. (1954) The Nature of Prejudice. Cambridge, MA: Addison-Wesley.
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).
Czerniewicz, L. and Cronin, C. (eds) (2023) Higher Education for Good: Teaching and Learning Futures. Cambridge: Open Book Publishers. Available at: https://doi.org/10.11647/OBP.0363 (Accessed: 10 July 2025).
Freire, P. (1970) Pedagogy of the Oppressed. New York: Continuum.
Hall, F. (2025) Positive Evaluation – Tools for evaluative thinking. Available at: https://positiveevaluation.myblog.arts.ac.uk/ (Accessed: 4 July 2025).
Holland-Gilbert, J. (2019) Precariat insurgency: A means to improve structures of inclusivity in higher education. In: K. Hatton, ed. Inclusion and intersectionality in visual arts education. London: Institute of Education Press (IOE Press), pp.122–142.
Gibbs, G., 1988. Learning by doing: A guide to teaching and learning methods. Oxford: Further Education Unit, Oxford Polytechnic.
Rolfe, G., Freshwater, D. & Jasper, M., 2001. Critical reflection for nursing and the helping professions: a user’s guide. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Savage, P. (2022) ‘The New Life’: Mozambican Art Students in the USSR, and the Aesthetic Epistemologies of Anti-Colonial Solidarity. Art History, 45(5), pp.1078-1100.
Appendix
UAL wide our course MA IFP is doing well, with an average of 84.6% composed of the answers to the questions in fig. 1.
“Establishing a network for students who don’t have one.” (Ignacia)
“Access to experts is fantastic!”, “Can this be the start of a network that students can extend on?” (Kuljeet)
“Network > Expert encounter UK!” , “Can it be applied to other contexts?” (Julia)
Barriers to seeking help: > language & cultural understanding / Network > Expert encounter UK!
After having received feedback from my peers and my tutor
What are meaningful activities that address and ultimately end institutional racism in Higher Education? How can we engage with, learn and teach about the topic without reinforcing stereotypes, institutional inequities, or triggering counterproductive fatigue? As a ‘white other’, a German immigrant not directly experiencing racial oppression, I reflect on the approaches of the set resources through the lens of anti-racism.
Both Bradbury and Garrett (2020, 2024) argue that racism in higher education must be recognised as systemic rather than incidental. This perspective shifts responsibility from individuals to institutional structures, requiring universities to rethink policies, curricula, and assessment practices that marginalise racialised learners. Bradbury, for example, highlights the importance of explicitly naming racism as institutional rather than masking it, postioning policy as a site for transformation.
Leadership commitment and accountability are essential. Garrett (2024) calls for university leaders to make anti-racism a strategic priority, backed by funding, staff time, and measurable goals. Publishing detailed data on racial disparities can help identify and address systemic biases. Equally, definitions of ‘excellence’ and success should be reimagined to value multilingualism and the cultural capital of racialised communities (Bradbury, 2020; Garrett, 2024).
Methodologically, critical race theory (CRT) offers a powerful lens to reveal hidden structures of racism, while intersectionality helps show how race intersects with other aspects of identity in shaping academic experiences (Bradbury, 2020; Garrett, 2024).
Beyond structural reform, cultural change is necessary. For creating genuinely inclusive academic spaces, Garrett (2024) suggests including the perspectives of racialised minority researchers in curricula and decision-making, alongside improving mentoring and networks. Similarly, Sadiq (2023), critiquing diversity training, argues for moving beyond stereotypes and tokenism by embracing lived experiences and disagreements rather than seeking forced consensus. He stresses experiential learning and storytelling over lectures and the need for psychological safety so staff can openly discuss race without fear of making mistakes. Finally, diversity work, he adds, must also be localised; one-size-fits-all initiatives risk overlooking regional and community contexts.
Among the media resources, one supports and the other criticises anti-racism measures, reflecting opposing implicit positionalities.
Channel 4’s positionality is that of a progressive, public-service media organisation using documentary storytelling to challenge racism. Channel 4 (2020) documents an educational intervention where students participate in a ‘race’ activity, stepping forward or back in response to questions revealing societal privilege. Each student ends up with a different starting position. Asked, “Is this fair?”, none says yes. The exercise makes structural inequality visible and shows racism isn’t only explicit hatred but also unconscious bias. White students are encouraged to recognise their privilege and become active allies. The approach aligns with Sadiq’s (2023) emphasis on experiential learning and storytelling, aiming to foster empathy and solidarity rather than guilt.
In contrast, The Telegraph’s film by Orr (2022) adopts a skeptical, even oppositional stance towards anti‑racism initiatives in UK universities. It frames equality education (Advance HE) as ideologically motivated threats to free speech and academic freedom. From an anti‑racist perspective, this reflects a conservative stance that protects the status quo and questions the legitimacy of anti‑racist work. The title, “Turning universities woke”, frames ‘woke’ pejoratively, suggesting excessive political correctness. Notably, when Orr asks a student, “Do you feel woke really? What do you think that term means?”, the student replies, “If it’s like culturally competent and aware, yeah, I think I’m pretty culturally competent and aware, yeah.” On reflection, I was struck by the assumptive and intimidating way Orr questioned the students and touched by the students replies, endorsing bias training.
It is important to critically interrogate criticism to improve DEI training, especially by considering Sadiq’s practical suggestions. Sadiq, speaking both as a racialised Muslim man and a DEI practitioner, draws on professional expertise and lived experience. He points out that real progress depends on open dialogue rather than silent stereotyping:
“I have never been offended by someone asking me a question, but I have been offended by someone making an assumption about what my needs are. So ask me, ask what I would like.”
(Sadiq, 2023, Min. 12:11)
This quote captures his call for open, respectful dialogue, something I find valuable for my own teaching context.
In summary, addressing racism meaningfully requires systemic reform, leadership accountability, inclusive curricula, and cultural change supported by critical frameworks like CRT and intersectionality. Equally, it calls for a shift in teaching and engagement practices: moving away from a one-size-fits-all training, towards dialogue, lived experience, and local context. By combining structural changes with culturally aware practice, we can create spaces that move beyond performative gestures towards genuine inclusion and equity.
References
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).
Channel 4. (2020) The School That Tried to End Racism. [Online}. Youtube. 30 June. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1I3wJ7pJUjg (Accessed: 7th July 2025).
Garrett, R. (2024). Racism shapes careers: career trajectories and imagined futures of racialised minority PhDs in UK higher education. Globalisation, Societies and Education.
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 (Accessed: 4th July 2025).
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 (Accessed: 4th July 2025).
I’m planning an experimental, small-scale action research intervention, “Expert Encounter”, to improve the validity and quality of masters projects for MA Innovative Fashion Production students.
It is designed to address the problem, identified in a teaching team meeting earlier this year, that students are reluctant to seek expert advice early enough to react and implement it in their projects. As a result, some projects lack in relevance and feasibility.
Although the project idea directly derives from the Human Library (2025), whose primary purpose is to combat people’s prejudices and promote inclusivity, I prefer to refer to my intervention as an Expert Encounter to avoid ambiguity. The Human Library typically invites people with protected characteristics to elicit on their lived experiences.
In contrast, I plan on using this method primarily for academic enhancement, inviting staff, industry experts and alumni to meet and converse with the students. However, I hope that it contributes to a decrease in social barriers and an increase in community and belonging amongst the students, both learnings that Summer, a social work student, highlighted in an interview about her experience of the Human Library session run by Leah Cox at the Universtity of Winchester in March this year (Different Perspectives: A Social Work Podcast, 2025, min. 9:28).
The intervention is planned to take place after the students have settled on their topics (see fig. 2) and worked on them for about 10 weeks, more than half their total time, before their final project presentations, and 8 weeks before submission, leaving them enough time for implementation.
The 24 students will be split into 2 groups of 12 students of similar and overlapping research topic interest. In our last weekly team meeting, I brought forward for discussion which broad areas those could be. Together, we identified Pattern Projects and Digital to Physical, each associated with related research topics for which we thought of some potential experts.
The experts are invited to speak about their experiences for one hour, folllowed by an hour in small student groups of 6 to have conversations. The students and the experts will have 30 minutes to converse. Informed by Summer’s explicit positive feedback that “it was really nice to just sit down and chat” opposed to prior experience on a different unit where they “had to prepare questions [..] and that made it quite a nerve wrecking experience” (Different Perspectives, 2025, min. 8:28). Thus, I don’t intend to structure those conversations, but rather observe or gently help conversations starting, if needed.
Different Perspectives: A Social Work Podcast (2025) The Human Library with Summer 27 March. Available at: https://open.spotify.com/episode6xsSfBnjZIxmaNsKMi2zf8?si=iQ3lYFKyT9SOVEgSYlJArA Accessed: 26 May 2025
Human Library (2025) Human Library Available at: https://humanlibrary.org/ Accessed: 26 May 2025
Tierney and McGill (2014) The 5 Minute Research Plan Available at: https://www.teachertoolkit.co.uk/2014/02/01/5-minute-research-plan/ Accessed: 26 May 2025
“What are your values?”, our group tutor asked on the topic of faith. My teammate responded first: ‘I deeply care about equity’, which resonated with me. My answer was ‘I deeply care about empathy as a means to get along with each other.’ Thinking about where those values could stem from, we both drew on being raised by parents we described as science-led thinkers, although we didn’t get the chance to unpick how this informed our values exactly. In my case, I associate science-led thinking with openness to knowledge gain, tolerance, and curiosity. Upon deeper reflection, I found that those characteristics may not be the origin of my values, but rather characteristics I appreciate and trust, reflecting my love for- and trust in my parents. Thus, I came to think, my values might stem from their other embodied and expressed characteristics, such as compassion, humility and respect, grounded in their religious and philosophical beliefs. While I am stemming from a large catholic family, currently my belief is that of agnostic atheism. I phrase this intentionally careful as I have experienced my views and that of my father change over the decades, navigating intense internal conflict on his part. For this reason, I agree with Appiah (2016), who suggests that our religious identities are not rigid, but shaped by the communities we belong to. I view faith as complex and understand, as Appiah (2016) argues, how a narrow view on religion, nationality and other identities might even be harmful.
This teaching year 2024/25, 24 students are enrolled on the course I predominantly teach on, MA Innovative Fashion Production (as an Hourly Paid Lecturer (HPL)). All are Asian, only 12.5% (3 students) are male (see fig 1 and 2). 21 (87,5%) students are non-religious and 12.5% (3 students) prefer not to say (see fig. 3). Out of the latter 3 students, it is unclear if the they have a faith or an absence of faith. This is why it is worth noting that both religion and a lack of religion is protected by UK law, under the Equality Act 2010 (Equality and Human Rights Commission, 2016).
The UK is only recently considered a Post Christian, secular society (see fig. 4) from a long history of predominantly Christian belief (ONS, 2022; Field, 2009), having shaped both government, culture and communities. Although persons of no faith are in some countries discriminated against, such as in the US and some Muslim countries (Humanists International 2024), it does not seem to be a wider issue in contemporary Britain (Gey, 2007). Therefore, I conclude that a person of no declared faith is not subject to systemic discrimination and/ or marginalisation in the UK at the moment. Hence, here, an intersectional assessment is not applicable.
Contrarily, political propaganda in secular societies can cause harm by inflicting systemic discrimination and racism, highlighted by Trinity University’s (2016) speaker on Challenging Race, Religion, and Stereotypes in the Classroom. To navigate religious debates, he suggests to firstly find commonalities and use empathy for creating a diverse community. In his words, “If we can try and understand where people are coming from with empathy […] that allows us to really engage with difference in a way that is constructive rather than destructive.” This empathetic approach resonates with me (see introduction). Further, he recommends to look together with students at the arguments and propaganda used for obtaining or maintaining political power. What are the power interests of leaders? To separate or to unite?
A communality between Dr. Jawad (2022) and Appiah (2016) is that she too warns for stereotyping religion and non-religion (she refers to Islam and the West) being harmful for mutual understanding. Just as Trinity University’s (2016) speaker, she too advocates for education on the topic, specifically with attention to how visibly Muslim women are affected (Jawad, 2022). I will illustrate their dilemma by applying Crenshaw’s (1990) theory of intersectionality, which states that discrimination is not simply the sum of each marginalised characteristic (here: gender plus religion), but is experienced as a distinct form of disadvantage that emerges at the intersection of these identities. Visibly Muslim women aspiring to participate in a sports competitions might not be allowed to compete because of wearing a hijab (religious discrimination). In addition, they might prefer sex-segregated sports grounds but there might be no provision of the option (sex-based discrimination). Together, these identities interact so that the discrimination they face is qualitatively different from what Muslim man or non-Muslim woman might experience. My key take-away concerning the educational setting, is to understand and support faith-based principles, such as dress codes like the hijab and modesty, the need for gender separated spaces.
I found more religious diversity across LCF’s School of Design and Technology, where I teach on some units as well. Although most students are non-religious (60.6%), the largest religious minority is Buddhist with 4.7% followed by Muslim with 3%. Christian present the religious majority with 11.8% (see fig.5).
In my teaching context, it is my responsibility to ensure that all my student’s contributions are taken seriously, regardless of their belief. This includes the expectation that everyone pays attention to making all others feel included. As Fricker’s (2007) work stresses; everyone should be validated equally as a knower (opposed to epistemic injustice), their credibility may not be diminished, particularly by refraining from stereotyped judgement (opposed to testimonial injustice), and by developing an awareness of gaps in collective knowledge that may disadvantage others in the group (opposed to hermeneutic injustice). Tolerance and acceptance have to be embodied. Differences to be embraced.
Word count: ca. 874
References
Aktive Dashboards (2025) UAL data. July 2 Available with provided access at: (Accessed: 2 July 2025).
Appiah, K.A. (2016) Creed. Lecture 1 of Mistaken Identities, BBC Reith Lectures, BBC Radio 4. October. Available at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07z43ds (Accessed: 2 July 2025).
Crenshaw, K. (1990) Mapping the margins: Intersectionality, identity politics, and violence against women of color. Stanford Law Review, 43(6), pp.1241–1299.
Dinic, Milan (2020). “How religious are British people?”. YouGov. 29 December.
Equality and Human Rights Commission (2016) Religion or belief: a guide to the law. [PDF] Available at: https://www.equalityhumanrights.com/sites/default/files/religion-or-belief-guide-to-the-law.pdf [Accessed 2 July 2025].
Field, Clive D. (2009) Universities of Birmingham and Manchester. Religious Statistics in Great Britain: An Historical Introduction (British Religion in Numbers)
Fricker, M. (2007). Epistemic injustice: power and the ethics of knowing. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Gender Talks (2020) Miranda Fricker On testimony and the power of words 16 June Available at: kyoutube.com/watch?v=VpnzEErB-r8&ab_channel=GenderTalks (Accessed: 11 May 2025)
Gey, Steven G. (2007). “Atheism and the Freedom of Religion”. In Martin, Michael (ed.). The Cambridge Companion to Atheism. Cambridge University Press. pp. 253–255. ISBN 978-0-521-84270-9.
Humanists International (2013) IHEU | New global report on discrimination against the non-religious”. iheu.org. 5 February 2013. Retrieved 10 October 2016.
Humanists International (2024) Available at: https://fot.humanists.international/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/FOTR-PAGE.pdf / https://humanists.international/2025/01/new-report-exposes-the-scale-of-blasphemy-laws-worldwide/ (Accessed: 2 July 2025).
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/
Office for National Statistics (ONS) 2022. “Religion, England and Wales: Census 2021”. ons.gov.uk. 29 November 2022. Retrieved 13 August 2024.
Robert Evans (2013). “Atheists face death in 13 countries, global discrimination: study”. 9 December. Reuters.
Trinity University (2016) Challenging Race, Religion, and Stereotypes in the Classroom. [Online]. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0CAOKTo_DOk
Tweedle – Own work, data taken from Measuring religious affiliation in Great Britain: the 2011 census in historical and methodological context, using Tables 1 and 3 (up to 1978) and BSA Religious affilation surveys from 1983 to 2018., CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=128461024 published on Wikipedia: Religion in the United Kingdom.
Bibliography
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How does an individual’s disability interact with their other identities? Crenshaw’s theory of Intersectionality provides a suitable prism for analysis as it frames the intersection as a legal and societal blindspot that has to be considered for each individual to understand the many forces impacting them. Illustrated on the examples of Ade and Christine, I discuss how the intersection of their disability with their other identity aspects might have impacted their lives.
Ade Adepitan intersects disability and race. He is a Nigerian-born black male and a famous British TV presenter and author (Wikipedia, 2025). Ade is socially well respected, exemplified in his opinion being frequently thought out on diverse topics (BBC News, 2025; Rotary, 2025, BCU, 2024). Bound to a wheelchair (Rotary, 2025), Ade, frustrated with structural barriers, emphasises “[…], what makes people disabled is not their disability. […] It’s society. Society is what holds us back. It’s that systemic discrimination and oppression.” (ParalympicsGB, 2020). This echoes the Social Model of Disability, which theorises disability as a social phenomenon, differentiating between disability and impairment (Shakespeare, 2010).
Christine Sun Kim is a female American, blind and mute. She is a well-recognised artist living in Berlin. She intersects disability, gender, race and parental care. Her early experiences were shaped by her non-hearing community in Los Angeles which provided a place of belonging and inclusion. However, according to Christine, this meant at the same time exclusion from the hearing world and to pursue her artistic career she had to leave to move to New York and later to Berlin, an experience she found scary at first, but embraced soon after (Art21, 2023).
A recurring theme I notice, is that both represent lived examples of what Ade describes as having found an “opportunity to shine” (ParalympicsGB, 2020, 03:50). Their socioeconomic success makes them rather exceptional too. As Caroline Ellison, Professor of Ageing and Disability at UniSA in South Australia, points out, “there is often an intersectionality between disability and homelessness or disability and poverty” (UniSA, 2023, 26:49). Thus, an evaluation of Ade’s and Christine’s experiences is likely not representative of intersectional disability in general.
Notably, an awareness of their exceptional success, led them both to using their influence for raising awareness. Ade’s scope of influence is international, working with Rotary, he shares in a interview “[…] it was a no-brainer for me to start working with Rotary International to try and spread the word and help, sort of try and eradicate polio.” (Rotary, 2025, 04:18), and as the new Chancellor of Birmingham City University he states: “To be in a position where I can influence is humbling and empowering.”
Christine raises awareness of the needs of the deaf, exemplified in an art project using large-scale captions with poetically unusual, thought-provoking content. She realised that “[…] scale equals visibility and visibility can shape social norms.” She further urges her audience “If you don’t see us we have no place to be.” (Art21, 2023)
“[…] scale equals visibility and visibility can shape social norms.”
Christine Sun Kim (2023)
Talking to other teachers on the product programme, the most frequent impairments are mental health struggles (see fig. 2 disability 6 way FDD) and language barriers. Currently, our student cohort on the MA Innovative Fashion Production (IFP) course is International Asian only (see fig 3. Fee Status IFP) with a large minority of students with low English capabilities. To mitigate the language barriers, I am planning on integrating closed captions in more teaching situations, extending their current use from lectures to seminars. For creating spaces to consider students with mental health struggles and neurodivergence, I am thinking of ways to reduce anxiety, for example by considering noise sensitivity (ParaPride, 2025, 3:46) and re-thinking classroom participation models. I’m concluding with paraphrasing Chay that a place where everyone gets to participate is a better place for all (ParaPride, 2025, 6:57).
Art21 (2023) Christine Sun Kim in “Friends & Strangers” – Season 11 | Art21 1 November. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2NpRaEDlLsI&ab_channel=Art21 (Accessed: 1 May 2025)
Birmingham City University (2024) Ade Adepitan MBE | New Chancellor of Birmingham City University25 October https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dYpysAkaARM&ab_channel=BirminghamCityUniversity (Accessed: 2 May 2025)
ParalympicsGB (2020) Ade Adepitan gives amazing explanation of systemic racism 16 October. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KAsxndpgagU&ab_channel=ParalympicsGB (Accessed: 2 May 2025)
ParaPride (2023) Intersectionality in Focus: Empowering Voices during UK Disability History Month 2023 13 December https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i7GmJ0uFv_s&ab_channel=Rotary (Accessed: 5 May 2025)
Rotary (2025) World Immunization Week 2025: A Conversation with Ade Adepitan 30 April https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i7GmJ0uFv_s&ab_channel=Rotary (Accessed: 2 May 2025)
Shakespeare, T. (2010) “The Social Model of Disability.” The Disability Studies Reader. Ed. Lennard J. Davis. New York: Routledge, 2010. 266-73. Print. (Pre-print copy.) Available at: http://thedigitalcommons.org/docs/shakespeare_social-model-of-disability.pdf (Accessed: 1 May 2025)
UniSA Justice & Society (2023) The Social Model of Disability (ft. Caroline Ellison) n.d. September. Available at: https://open.spotify.com/episode/4NSNHlg6PKHGL6h15iDeyD?si=f1fe4e9df4574307 (Accessed: 1 May 2025)
Wikipedia (2025) Ade Adepitan 7 April. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ade_Adepitan (Accessed: 2 May 2025)
Recently, two students were asking for a conversation to clarify upon the feedback and grade I had given them. They felt they had been treated unfairly as they didn’t receive the highest mark within their working group, even though they had done “all the work”. Whilst the others had done less. The unit Business Models and Fashion Production asks students to working in groups alongside individual tasks connected to the group work.
In a private conversation with both, I had the chance to explain to the students how their work is marked against the learning outcomes and assessment criteria based on specific examples from their own work. I think that both students only then properly understood the learning outcomes’ meaning and how to improve in the areas they fell short on, namely in process and knowledge. I found the conversation lead to a satisfying result on both sides and illustrated the student’s learning journey (see fig. 1) and the teacher’s (see fig. 2).
This experience illustrates three stages of student learning gain opportunities. The first, learning is happening by doing (Willcocks, 2018). However, it also highlights that doing alone does not capitalise on the full learning gain potential (fig.1. bar chart 1). Engagement with feedback (Gibbs, 2015; Brooks 2008) helps the learner to identify shortcomings and prompts further reflection and criticality. Lastly, feedback discussion (Brooks, 2008) encourages the student to question not only their work with a another person (Vygotsky, 1978), but an opportunity to question the teacher’s decisions and debate the work, furthering skills such as criticality, negotiation and autonomous learning.
Whist I matched the student’s learning journey against learning gain (fig.1), I decided to highlight the depth of understanding for the student’s learning needs on the teacher’s learning journey (fig.2). This is because of the following experience.
Subsequently, in the seminars on the new unit, I gave both students pointers to where and how they have a chance to work on the skills which they haven’t mastered yet. Catching myself doing it, I realised that I got to know the learning needs of these students much better than those of the students I haven’t talked about the feedback to. Through the feedback discussion, my memory was altered and alerted (fig.2).
Based on this experience, I agree with Brooks (2008), that It is not more feedback the students need, the value lies in providing fewer, but specific, meaningful examples (ie. Student’s own work) which should act as a point in case, applicable to further similar tasks.
Gibbs, 2015
“Changing what students do with your feedback can make more difference than changing your feedback.”
On my course, we currently don’t have feedback discussions planned into the curriculum. Therefore, I will advocate for a curriculum-embedded feedback discussion (Brooks, 2008). As a consequence, students would have to engage with their feedback in preparation (Gibbs, 2015, ch. 14), thus maximising on the learning for work already done benefitting both the learner and the teacher .
Finally, as Race (2005) points out, students need to be clear, that the feedback discussion and the resulting take-aways are serving them to do better on the next task, which is called feedforward. In the future, I will work out together with the student which skills they have acquired and how they are transferrable to future tasks.
In summary, clarity, specificity, practice, feedback and feedback discussion increases the student’s learning gain and the teacher’s understanding for student’s learning needs.
Brooks, K. (2008) AdvanceHE. Available at: chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/assets.creode.advancehe-document-manager/documents/hea/private/feature-kate-brooks_1568036673.pdf (Accessed: 15 March, 2025)
Fry, H. and Gibbs, G. (2015) A handbook for teaching and learning in higher education: enhancing academic practice. Fourth edition. Edited by S. Ketteridge and S. Marshall. Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge.
Race, P. (2013) ‘Making Learning Happen: A Guide for Post‐Compulsory Education. By Phil Race. Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Sage Publications, 2010. xi + 250 pages. ISBN 978‐1‐84920‐114‐8. $44.95.’, Teaching Theology & Religion, 16(1), pp. 102–104. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1111/teth.12018.
UAL Central Saint Martins (2018) Museum & Study Collection: Judy Willcocks Copenhagen Presentation. 27th June, (min. 10:23) Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M3O7MM5WuFo (Accessed: 15 March, 2025)
Vygotsky, L.L.S. (1978) Mind in Society: The Development of Higher Psychological Processes. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
When I started teaching and more importantly, with it – marking, I came to realise with revelatory appreciation the power and significance of Learning Outcomes. I experienced for the first time, how consequential they were.
Rewind to two years ago, before I became a teacher, I was one of UAL’s climate advocates for the product program at the School of Design and Technology. One of my tasks was to audit course handbooks (UAL, 2023) against UAL social racial and climate justice principles (UAL, unknown) with the aim to embed those principles in the taught content of all courses over a 10-year period.
At first, the annually repeated task seemed to be Sisyphus work, nebulous, using cryptic language that teachers struggled to understand, not to mention students. Why employ people to phase content into the course handbooks that no student ever read?
As weeks passed by, I had my recommendations for implementation prepared for talking to the course leaders, whose course content has not reached the final desired stage of The Shift yet. At this final stage, courses had the Social, Racial and Climate Justice Principles contextualised in the handbook, made them part of the course aims and objectives and had them assessed in at least one unit at each level (UAL-ADAL, unknown). All nice on paper, soon catching digital dust on an ignored Course handbook tile on Moodle, so I thought.
That was until I taught and marked. I realised then, for instance, if the Learning Outcomes ask to demonstrate a “comprehensive understanding of the environmental and social implications of fashion production” and evidence is missing in the student’s work, they will fail the unit.
Teachers are determining the LOs and “curriculum content […],thereby privileging institutional priorities […]”, the case in point here being the Social, Racial and Climate justice principles (Addison, 2014). In other words, the university not only shows that it agrees with the Social, Racial and Climate justice principles, but acts upon them, enforcing the engagement with them by each student.
Personally, I’m in favour of this measure, because it is arguably for the greater good of society, just as the state’s provision of services and infrastructure is also considered useful to society.
Thinking of Addisons debate of the Learning Outcomes, I think the importance lies in being aware of their benefits and deficiencies affecting diverse contexts within the education system. This allows me within my area of influence to counter-act the deficits proactively making the most out of the benefits the system has.
Taking another perspective, this experience also demonstrates how inaccessible learning outcomes were for me as an MA student. I read them but ultimately used the more specific assignment instructions for practice guidance and I used academic papers for guidance on how to contextualise.
As a teacher, I observe many students similarly struggling with the phrasing of learning outcomes (also see case study 3), until they are deciphered, demonstrated how they translate into an outcome and practiced by doing.
Therefore, I plan on creating a make the grade check list, similar to the one we are provided with now, which helps tying the elements of the learning outcomes back to specific elements of the assignment. I believe this will help the teachers and students alike. In fact, my course leader asks for precisely these kind of improvements after each unit run.
Addison, N. (2014) ‘Doubting Learning Outcomes in Higher Education Contexts: from Performativity towards Emergence and Negotiation’, International Journal of Art & Design Education, 33(3), pp. 313–325. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1111/jade.12063.
UAL- Academic Discourse & Action Learning (ADAL) (unknown) Embedding Climate, Racial and Social Justice Available at: https://www.arts.ac.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0037/399376/Embedding-Framework-Climate,-Social-and-Racial-Justice.pdf (Accessed: 17 March 2025)
UAL: (2023) Handbook Audit: Nest Steps for Courses and Programmes Available at: https://www.arts.ac.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0038/399377/Handbook-Audit.pdf (Accessed: 17 March 2025)
UAL: (unknown) Climate, Racial and Social Justice principles Available at: https://www.arts.ac.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0028/374149/principles-for-climate-racial-and-social-justice.pdf (Accessed: 17 March 2025)
The observation of my teaching practice by my peer Julia Redman and my tutor Kwame Baah took place on the 11th of February, 2025.
I observed my peer Julia Redman’s teaching practice on the 24th of February.
