Author: Claire Anderson

“The social model of disability says that people are disabled by environmental, attitudinal, or procedural barriers, rather than by their impairment or difference”. (UAL, 2019). During my microteach one of my colleagues made reference to attitudinal disability in response to a task which I had asked everybody to complete, this was an important reflection helping me to think further about designing for inclusive learning aswell as inclusivity and diversity more broadly. 

I had structured the session around examples of materials common to the textile designer’s toolkit e.g., cotton calico, a range of yarns, wool etc. inviting each participant to choose a material, get to know the material and share their initial thoughts and ideas on their chosen material. This material exploration related to a research project which I had participated in, the ‘Hands of X project’, a collaboration between Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design and the Institute of Making (UCL), which aimed to expand the palette of materials available to wearers of prosthetic hands.  

Feedback on the microteach included participants appreciating feeling as though they were part of the research project and focus groups; as though a safe space had been created; enjoying the content; being introduced to new materials, resources etc. My tutor also noted that the ‘object’ was in fact what had been created during the session, rather than the materials I had brought, which was important for me to also recognise.  

Unfortunately, my timings were off, and I ran over by 7 minutes trying to cover too much within the microteach, this is also important for me to reflect upon for future planning. When designing taught sessions, I am often concerned about lack of content rather than too much – I do not want to stand in front of a group of students with nothing to offer them. However, it is critical that I remember students must have opportunities for processing information appropriately. 

I had not delivered this session to my own students, however following the microteach I can see the potential in developing it into a design thinking workshop opening up discussion on inclusivity and the social model of disability linking to the language of textiles and materiality.  

Institute of Making. (2017) Hands of X [Online] [Accessed 25 March 2022]  Available at: https://www.instituteofmaking.org.uk/research/hands-of-x

UAL Student Disability Service. (2019) Guidance for Inclusive Teaching and Learning. [Online] [Accessed 25 March 2022]  Available at: https://canvas.arts.ac.uk/documents/sppreview/3550bb2f-db31-4a28-8223-6a13d80001e7

Le Pavillon d’Amide jacket was the object which I found most easy to describe and engage with during our analogue and digital object-based learning task. There was a familiarity and a pleasure in the aesthetic as I deconstructed the fabrics and materials. I enjoyed this session and our group and cross cohort discussions.  

Notably I believe it is important for textile Design students to have object-based learning with linked up visits to Art Galleries and Museums embedded within their course structure ensuring students have the opportunity to interrogate objects for information about composition, techniques and materials and position these within cultural and contemporary design contexts.  

For example, I have previously taken textile design students to Museum archives for inspiration for a ‘disruptive pattern material’ project brief exploring examples of camouflage within the Museum archive ranging from natural camouflage ‘protective colouration’, often cited as evidence of the theory of evolution to tweed, the original hunting camouflage, produced in various colours and designs according to seasonal hues of the local countryside. 

Significantly through textile focused critical studies semiotics seminars I was able to discuss the relationship of signs and symbols and their interpretation within disruptive patterns using examples such American designer Adelle Lutz’s unconventional materials and strategies exploring clothing as a communicative medium for the surreal “Urban Camouflage” costumes featured in David Byrne’s film True Stories (1986). Lutz has explored the idea of clothing as a simultaneous mechanism of concealment and revelation, beginning with the notion of dress as the most superficial construction and representation of identity.  

Following our seminar on object-based learning in art and design, I became interested in Laird’s paper on experiential and object-based learning in nature. Laird states that nature “is the context for our original cultural heritage and offers infinite possibilities for object interaction and evocation” (Chaterjee, H, 2021, p. 166). I have previously explored foraged ‘waste’ materials in natural dye workshops with students. However, I am keen to revisit how to position different approaches to object-based learning within future taught sessions acknowledging that textile traditions “offer us a way to re-establish physical and cultural connections” (Hemmings 2006) with the natural world working towards improved sustainability. 

Byrne, D. (1986) True Stories [Film]. Warner Bros. United States.  

Chaterjee, H (editor). and Kador, T (editor). (2021) Object-based learning and well-being: exploring material connections. Routledge. London.  

Hemmings, J. (2006) Sense of Identity: Contemporary Scottish Textiles. [Online] [Accessed 15 March 2022]  Available at: http://www.jessicahemmings.com/sense-of-identity/

In my current role of Graduate Diploma Textile Design (GDTD) course leader, I manage the organisation of all areas of the course including learning, teaching and assessment of students aswell as the student experience through the design, development and delivery of the curriculum.  

Therefore, this seminar which considered approaches to designing and planning with group discussion focused on examples of unit and project briefs was significant. More specifically in linking outcomes, assessment and the student experience with reference to the quality agenda established by the Quality Assurance Agency (QAA) and key literature including Davies’s paper Learning outcomes and assessment criteria in art and design. What’s the recurring problem? challenges and opportunities were highlighted.  

Markedly, as described by Davies, when I began teaching in 2016, I did not understand how what I was expected to do fitted into the ‘whole’, instead making sense of modules within my own professional experience (Davies, 2012).  More recently I have been involved in course design and development and consequently have a fuller understanding of how things fit together. However, learning from peers and discussing different teaching modes in the session was valuable for reflection in addition to identifying examples of best practice.  

The brief which I shared as a sample was the Bio-Inspired Textile (BIT) Design brief (also known as bio-informed design, biomimetics and biomimicry) which students had worked on within the 60 credit Unit 1 of the course. The brief is part of the BIT research project led by Professor Veronika Kapsali (London College of Fashion) and Dr Cathryn Hall (Centre of Circular Design). The brief’s assessment evidence links explicitly to the Learning outcomes and assessment criteria enabling students to clearly see how what they were being asked to do would be assessed. This is an example of good practice however as noted above it is only now, in my sixth year of teaching that I am confident in understanding the connections between learning outcomes and assessment criteria. 

In addition to the BIT text brief, which was located on the students Moodle page, the researchers had created a password protected resource within their own project website for the students to access independently. Resources included reading lists, recorded video presentations and a Miro board for work in progress, peer review and feedback. Notably the website was beautifully curated and visually engaging. Students commented that this created a feeling of value appreciating the attention to detail. These resources were personalised providing a highly supportive context enabling the students to develop their knowing of what to do whilst also becoming better self-regulated learners referencing Nicol and Macfarlane-Dick’s proposed seven principles of good feedback practice: Facilitating self-regulation (Nicol, 2016) 

Davies, A. (2012) Learning outcomes and assessment criteria in art and design. What’s the recurring problem? [Online] [Accessed 28 January 2022] Available at: http://arts.brighton.ac.uk/projects/networks/issue-18-july-2012/learning-outcomes-and-assessment-criteria-in-art-and-design.-whats-the-recurring-problem

Kapsali, V (2021) Bio-Inspired Textiles [Online] [Accessed 14 March 2022] Available at: https://www.bioinspiredtextiles.com/

Nicol, D. and Macfarlane-Dick, D. (2006) Formative assessment and self-regulated learning: A model and seven principles of good feedback practice. [Online] [Accessed 28 January 2022] Available at: https://www.reap.ac.uk/reap/public/Papers/DN_SHE_Final.pdf

Since 2021 with colleagues, I have been exploring the process of introducing decolonial textiles pedagogy within the Textile design programme at Chelsea College of Arts, and more specifically a focused project within the Graduate Diploma in Textile Design course written with the textile artist Raisa Kabir. Decolonisation within higher education is at risk of becoming a buzzword without in reality achieving change (Crilly, 2019). However, the ongoing lived impacts of the colonial on knowledge production and more specifically textile knowledge production demands an active response within the context of textile design education. 

It was Crilly’s article discussing Decolonising the library: a theoretical exploration from a recent UAL’s in house journal, Spark, which I shared during our introductory tutor group sessions. Within the article reference is made to Mignolo and Walsh’s description of a specific ‘coloniality of knowledge’ and ‘epistemic totality’ as a characteristic of Eurocentric knowledge. This is seemingly significant to the Decolonising Textiles Tools project which explores textile making, designing, and using tools that are de-centered from euro-centric technology and thinking frameworks.  

The aim of the project was to enable students to critically engage with what it means to be a socially and environmentally responsible designer decolonising the way we imagine textile production. Students explored the relationship between low technologies and climate racism/justice through experimentation with low-impact design/making methods. 

In questioning how cultural imperialism affects textile identities related to place, land, culture, and language, students began to evaluate strands of global textile thinking. The critical intention of the project examines whether an embodied practice could innovate and make us think post industrially about textile design, altering our understanding of the euro-centric viewpoint of contemporary textile design education. 

Decolonising pedagogy and curriculum is a core area within the UAL Academic Enhancement Model support in 2021/22 and the resources include summary outlines aswell as reading lists. As stated ‘Decolonisation can change the student learning experience ultimately giving students agency and choice in what they study, and how they study it’ (Warner et al, 2021), ultimately helping to aid attainment aswell as collectively working towards more sustainable futures.  

References: 

Crilly, J. (2019) Decolonising the library: a theoretical exploration, Spark: UAL Creative Teaching and Learning Journal Vol 4 / Issue 1 pp.6-15. [Online] [Accessed 15 January 2022] Available at: https://sparkjournal.arts.ac.uk/index.php/spark/article/view/123/205

Warner, C., Arboine, J., Morrison, C., and Tran, D. (2021) Decolonising pedagogy and curriculum [Online] [Accessed 28 February 2022]Available at: https://www.arts.ac.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0035/228986/AEM-Decolonising-pedagogy-and-the-curriculum-PDF-224KB.pdf

During our first cross cohort session ‘Researching in your own institution’, with Dr Duna Sabri a colleague remarked that our discussion reminded them of the Sara Ahmed case when on the 30th May 2016 academic Sara Ahmed announced her resignation from her post at Goldsmiths on her feminist kill joys blog. Ahmed was protesting against what she claimed was a failure to address the problem of sexual harassment in the world of academia. I knew the high-profile case from reports in the newspaper and from the attention it rapidly gathered online – Ahmed quickly became a hero to many of us. Despite being respectful and in awe of Ahmed’s work and bravery, prior to this course I had not read much, if indeed any of Ahmed’s writing – but I was very pleased to see her name at the top of the final slide under ‘Relevant further reading’.  

‘To be heard as complaining is not to be heard. To hear someone as complaining is an effective way of dismissing someone’ (Ahmed, 2021, p.1).  

Significantly at the time of writing this I had recently been chairing two Course Committee meetings, one undergraduate and one postgraduate – the UAL terms of reference for Course committees cites the committee as providing ‘a forum for students to feedback on their academic experience’. Unfortunately, as a Course Leader within these committees it can become too easy to hear complaints rather than feedback especially when it becomes about issues such as recycling bins or heating, items which can feel out with the control of the Course Leader and less important than academic content for instance. In the introductory pages of Complaint! Ahmed writes ‘Those deemed tiresome complainers have something to teach us about complaint, to teach us about the politics of how some are received, to teach us what it takes to refuse a message about who is important, what is important’ (Ahmed, 2021, p.2). Not only should student feedback never be dismissed as complaints or be ranked in importance but at this time of climate emergency and in line with UAL’s Climate Action Plan to ‘teach students to develop sustainable practices’ (UAL, 2021) feedback on the lack of recycling bins and inadequately insulated buildings must be encouraged.   

Ahmed. S (2021) Complaint! Duke University Press, Durham  

UAL (2021) Climate Action Plan [Online] [Accessed 18 February 2022]Available at: https://www.arts.ac.uk/about-ual/climate-action-plan

I have approached the writing of this blog retrospectively, working from my notes rather than regularly updating in a timely way – this is the very opposite to how I encourage and expect my students to work – immediately it has been an important reminder that our students are all working within their own contexts and pressures, and this must be reflected within our (my own) teaching and understandings. As per the Unit brief, I am re-encountering myself as a learner, making connections between my own experience and that of my students – no matter how uncomfortable that may feel!