Category: Action Research Project

‘Lewis Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland’ (Bell, 2018)

Tutor feedback on ethics form 

I identified 1:1 interviews with current UAL MA students (graduates of the Graduate Diploma Textile design) as the method for my data collection ‘Interviews are a common and worthwhile technique for gathering data, useful in many research projects’ (Kara, 2015, p.82). Lindsay Jordan’s ‘Ethical Enquiry Form: A worked example’ had been shared with us and I committed to a target of 15 participants to interview, this was the same number in Jordan’s sample study. ‘Interviews are time-consuming, thus in a (short) project you will only be able to interview a relatively small number of people’ (Bell, 2018, p. 210). However, I was interested in the creative potential of the materials which interviews can produce ‘Conducting interviews is always a creative process, because interviewer and interviewee work together to create meaning’ (Hollway, 2000, p.11). 

It took me some time to put together my ethics and consent forms and what was submitted was approved quickly with a couple of amends e.g., clarifying all data was anonymous and timelines for withdrawing from the study. Frederico commented that he felt that the project was well underway with the different steps of the research and the ethical considerations the research may elicit having been looked into. However, he did highlight that I would need to think about my Action Research Cycle intervention, whether this was to be implemented during the unit timeline or afterwards. ‘Research as an activity is suffused with uncertainty, uncertainty is closely linked with creativity’ (Bell, 2018, p. 10). Significantly, I wasn’t clear on what the intervention would look like or when it would be implemented.  

Interviews 

McKinney argues that in many ‘post-colonial contexts, we continue to implement language policies that have clear discriminatory effects (and) despite our (institutional) principles of non-discrimination and redress of past inequalities’ (McKinney, 2019) my research was increasingly highlighting this to be the case with our approach to referencing at UAL. The students who I was interviewing were talking about the difficulties they have in referencing texts from their own language aswell as seemingly minor problems around identifying authors first and surnames, which can become time consuming and confusing. Furthermore, I was becoming increasingly aware of the problems with my own data collection and the contradictory position, I was presenting ‘Traditional research methods, such as surveys, interviews and focus groups, are rooted in Western colonial cultural ways of knowing’ (Gobo, 2011, p.423). I realised that although the interviewees were comfortable with me (I had previously been their Course leader) and were confident in talking to me openly I was not entirely avoiding the ‘interviewer effect’. I had determined to adopt a neo-positivist approach to interviewing, however on occasions it was difficult to remain neutral and not deviate from the structure of the interview. Despite interviewing a small number of participants (16 in total) I was gathering a lot of data and finding it difficult to identify how to analyse and present it appropriately. It was as Kara describes ‘messy’, ‘when we present research, it is not possible to reveal everything about that research. We can show that research is messy and complex, but we cannot show all the mess or every facet of the complexity’ (Kara, 2015, p.141). 

ARP Intervention 

The ARP workshops and peer group tutorials have been essential for the development of my project and helping me to unpick my research ‘mess’. A timely conversation with a peer led to a meeting with an IP specialist within the UAL Careers and Employability team who was interested in the project. We are now developing a workshop together for UAL fashion and textile students as the intervention. Dieffenbacher argues that the ‘moodboard’ used by fashion and textile students to collect images for inspiration facilitates the act of appropriation. Image referencing is discussed during my interviews and students responded insightfully, determining a theme. It is exciting to be able to take the research back into the discipline as a tool for students. 

References 

Alonson, L.; Le, K. (2020) The Language Warriors: Transcending ideologies on bilingualism in education. Action Research 0(0) 1–21. Sage. 

Alvesson, M. (2012) Views on Interviews: A Skeptical review. In Interpreting Interviews. London: Sage. https://methods-sagepub-com.arts.idm.oclc.org/book/interpreting-interviews/n2.xm 

Bell, J.,Waters. S (2018). Doing Your Research Project : A Guide for First-time Researchers, McGraw-Hill Education, 2018. 

Dieffenbacher, F. (2018). Fashion Design Pedagogy: Is Fashion Education guilty of contributing to the problematic discourse around cultural appropriation? 

Gobo, G. (2011) Glocalizing methodology? The encounter between local methodologies. International Journal of Social Research Methodology 14(6) 417– 37. 

Hollway,W., Jefferson,T. (2000) Doing qualitative research differently: free association, narrative and the interview method. London: Sage. 

Kara, H. (2015) Creative research methods in the Social Sciences: A practical guide. [electronic resource]. Bristol: Policy Press. https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/ual/detail.action?docID=6193498  

McKinney, Carolyn. (2019). Researching Language Ideologies. Qualitative topics in language teacher education. Routledge

Citation Knowledges and systems in Chinese undergraduate education  

I support the students on the Graduate Diploma Textile Design course to develop advanced research skills to better equip them to progress onto further postgraduate study. As a course leader I have a responsibility to support my students by asking questions on how to improve their experience and to be accountable.  

Notably I am a textile design practitioner and do not have a language background. I do not teach Harvard referencing and also make mistakes (evidenced within my ARP submission). However, in agreement with Li. et al, I would argue that citations are important rhetorical devices in research writing, and as such valuable to my students learning.  

‘Over the past two decades, various studies have investigated L1 and L2 learners’ use of citations and have demonstrated that it is a more challenging task for L2 learners to use citations appropriately and effectively since cultural, psychological and educational factors play important roles’. (Li. et al, 2021). ‘L1 is a speaker’s first language. L2 is the second, L3 the third etc.’ as defined by the British Council (British Council, no date).  

Within my teaching I had identified, as many colleagues have, that some students from mainland China need introductions to HE citation conventions – not just the basic approaches per Cite Them Right etc. but the whole notion of critical thinking and consciously building on and/ or showing awareness of the work of others in relevant fields. In order to better help my students, I wanted to understand what their previous experiences of citation practices had been acknowledging that ‘writing (and research) activity cannot be separated from its social, historical, and political contexts’ (Ren. et al, 2022) and that citation is part of community making.  

English for Academic Purposes 

For advice on my research topic, I contacted a number of colleagues including the UAL International Student Experience and Language Centre team, and more specifically the Senior team. I was interested in whether they might be able to recommend literature on and around this topic as I was unsure whether it was already common knowledge for teams who work more directly in this area.   

I have removed names and context from the email excerpt below, however felt that this response was indicative of the potential of the research, which was encouraging.  

‘That’s a very interesting and specific question!…I’m afraid I can’t immediately direct you to any literature in this area, however, I’m copying in my colleagues, ******  **** and *** *******, who may be able to be more helpful.  I’ll also have a look in the English for Academic Purposes journals for you as I’d be surprised if there isn’t literature in this area in those.  

Obviously, we in the Language Centre would be really interested to hear the conclusions you reach through this research project – please keep us posted’. (Anon, 2022). 

I never received any references and did follow up directly with the colleagues referred to in the email but did not hear from them, however I would also like to acknowledge that this was at a very busy time in the academic year, when people are multi-tasking. My independent searches in the English for Academic Purposes journals have been helpful which makes me think that this team does have some valuable knowledge on the topic but unfortunately have not had the capacity to engage at this time.  

Other UAL teams contacted included Academic Support, Chelsea College of Arts Library, Educational Development and Intercultural Communication. All expressed an interest but were unable to suggest any projects or written publications. I wasn’t certain if this just meant the topic was just a bit too dull. 

Citation and the Research Imagination 

However, a great group tutorial session with ARP peers followed with an email from John O’Reilly sharing Dear Science and the chapter ‘Footnotes (Books and Papers Scattered about the floor) by Katherine Mcittrick. This was inspiring and for me reinforced the relevance of this research and its wider context ‘critiquing white and patriarchal citation practices and how they can “justify on- going forms of domination.” (McKittrick, 2021, p. 19) and the role as a white educator I play in these.  

References 

Anon. (November, 2022) Citation Knowledges and systems in Chinese undergraduate education, email reply to Claire Anderson. UAL 

British Council. (no date) Teaching English. Teaching knowledge database. [online] [Accessed on: 04/01/23] Available from: https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/l1#:~:text=L1%20is%20a%20speaker’s%20first,close%20connection%20between%20the%20languages. 

Li, Q., Zhang, Z. (2021) An Analysis of Citations in Chinese English-major Master’s Theses and Doctoral Dissertations, Journal of English for Academic Purposes, Volume 51, Article 100982. [Online] [Accessed on: 04/01/23] Available at: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1475158521000266 

McKittrick, K. (2021) ‘Dear science and other stories’. London: Duke University Press. 

Ren, B., Zhu, W. (2022) A Chinese EFL student’s strategies in graduation thesis writing: An Activity Theory perspective, Journal of English for Academic Purposes, Volume 61, Article 101202.  [Online] [Accessed on: 04/01/23] Available at: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1475158522001229 

Facilitated by student librarian Bronwen McKie this workshop discusses the concept of “citational politics,” including how Indigenous traditional knowledge is devalued in academia through dominant citational practices and how we can challenge these practices. 

Introduction

As a course leader I present the Harvard referencing system to my new students at the beginning of each academic year.  

‘UAL advises that the Harvard Referencing Style is used for all taught courses. Cite Them Right Online is a referencing resource. It will help you to cite and reference just about any source and avoid plagiarism’ (UAL, 2022, Pg. 8). 

I work with colleagues in the Chelsea College of Arts library and academic support to help my students understand and apply the system and frequently signpost students to cite them right in tutorials and assessment feedback.  

Significantly, I am a white educator who works with a diverse student cohort with a majority of East Asian students and more specifically international students from mainland China. To date I have presented the Harvard referencing system without any consideration of what experience of referencing my students will have had prior to starting on the course.  

I have been leading the Graduate Diploma in Textile Design since 2019 and each year I have students from mainland China who find this aspect of their study difficult and will commit minor and sometimes major academic misconduct at formative and summative assessment points impacting on attainment and their student experience.  

I am therefore interested in researching citation knowledges and systems in Chinese education with the aim of improving the student experience of international UAL students from mainland China.   

Citation Politics 

Initially interested in discourse on citation politics and power structures created and perpetuated through citing practices. Citation ‘Overtime becomes a selective reproduction of a limited knowledge system, sometimes with little engagement; basically a ‘reproduction of the system of selection (citation) (Ahmed, 2013).

A group tutorial with my pg cert peers and 1:1 discussion with my tutor Rahul helped me to identify that this research supports the larger context however that my focus must be narrowed to tackle a specific social justice issue which students encounter but also where I recognise the impact on my students of my own positionality as there is the potential for students to centre my role, not only, because I represent the dominant group in the university but as ‘whiteness overarches society’ (Jang, 2017, p.566). 

References:

Ahmed, S. (2022) ‘Making Feminist Points’. Feminist Kill Joys Blog, September 11, 2013. [online] [Accessed 23 October 2022] Available from: https://feministkilljoys.com/2013/09/11/making-feminist-points/ 

Jang, B (2017) Am I a Qualified Literacy Researcher and Educator? A Counter-Story of a Professional Journey of One Asian Male Literacy Scholar in the United States. Journal of Literacy Research 2017, Vol. 49. pp. [Online] Available at: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/1086296X17733491 [Accessed 
on: 23/10/22] 

McKie, B. (2020) Decolonizing Citations [online] [Accessed 16 October 2022] Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YSqkdo91gn8 

UAL (2022). Unit 1 Research and Risk-Taking: Exploring your Practice, Graduate Diploma Textile Design Assessment Brief. UAL Chelsea, Camberwell and Wimbeldon (CCW).