The Microteach sessions delivered by colleagues were engaging and informative, there were two in particular which I enjoyed and learnt from. In both of these examples I experienced learning as Lave and Wenger describe it through ‘legitimate peripheral participation’ (Fry, 2009, p.347). Both colleagues positioned themselves as the ‘old-timer’ who enabled us as students to access their ways of working through their tacit knowledge.
Significantly one of these examples was delivered by a colleague who teaches within my own field of textile design, however, is from another specialism within the discipline. During this session the teacher was able to use their expertise to challenge me to think differently about structures and technicalities subject specific. This will be impactful in aspects of my future teaching.
The second example was from a different discipline where we considered inputs, outputs and processes. Within this short microteach I had learnt enough to enable me to think further about how we translate digital coding traditionally embedded within hard electronics into soft and flexible structures relevant to the textile design student.
Earlier this week I presented at the CCW Design School Assembly on ‘Smart Textiles: beyond knit, print, stitch and weave… supporting a new area of curriculum development’. In recent years funding for textile design within secondary education has decreased, influencing recruitment at undergraduate and beyond. However, the potential to apply the different specialist languages of textiles across disciplines is expansive and is indicative of sustainable and innovative textile futures.
I left the microteach session feeling inspired by colleagues and optimistic for future developments which contradict this quote from a Vice article in 2015, ‘Britain’s universities, once places of radical learning and intellectual curiosity, are being turned into bland corporations designed to churn out workforce drones with safe middle-of-the-road opinions and harmless middle-of-the-road minds’ (Rickett, 2015).
Fry, H (ed), Ketteridge, S (ed) & Marshall, (ed). (2009) A Handbook for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education: Enhancing Academic Practice, Third edition. Routledge, Taylor and Francis Group
Rickett, O. 2015. What the Hell Are Britain’s Universities For? Vice News. [Online]. [Accessed 25 March 2022]. Available from: https://www.vice.com/en_uk/article/nnqaqm/universities-pissed-off-academia-bu siness-corporate-oscar-rickett-438