Shades of Noir (SoN) Website
I have been trying to decolonise our references on our MA Graphic Branding & Identity course and move away from euro-centric reading lists, so having some time to explore the SoN Website gave me the opportunity to peruse through the Creative Database, especially under Graphic Design. As a woman of colour, I am especially keen to find and share more diverse designers and thought leaders in the branding world, so this will be a fantastic resource to refer to in my teaching lessons when quoting and showing work from various designers.
I can already share the work of the first artist on there, Maram Al Refaei, with one of my students who is working on repositioning the Arabic language to Gen Z for her Final Major Project so this is definitely a website that I will keep coming back to for references.
Education/Pedagogic Resources/Database on diigo.com was also a useful find using keywords. I had a look at #Branding and have bookmarked the section to return when putting together my lesson plans.
My question is – how are these people curated? Is there an opportunity for students and staff to add to these people?
‘A pedagogy of social justice education: social identity, theory and intersectionality’ Hahn Tapper (2013)
I enjoyed reading the part about identity, as it is a crucial part of our course so perhaps I could integrate that section in the beginning of our course, get set the tone of “creat[ing] experiences with, and not for, students” as we are constantly trying to get this point across in a cohort of students where a majority is from Eastern Asian countries where the teacher is seen to have all the answers.
“Education is the key to enacting social justice (Freire 2006)” reminded me of my positionality of power as a teacher and that we have a responsibility as “medium-makers” from the RISD Room of Silence film to promote and ensure social justice.
“Witness Unconscious Bias” video
Josephine Kwhali echoes Professor Shirley Anne Tate’s message about unconscious bias being an “escape clause.” We should be more conscious by now. With my position of power as a teacher, I could use this resource in my Racism in Design lecture, specifically how many products are designed with white people and white skin in mind (e.g. automatic hand soap dispensers) or with white people as the target audience.
I’ve become increasingly ‘conscious’ of my bias in our admissions process, as we look for students with cultural capital and make it virtually impossible for students without a computer and internet to apply. It reminds me of how Inclusive Practices discusses how ” the ‘traditional’ Art and Design admissions practice of deploying portfolio examinations and interviews is ‘mysterious’ to ‘non-traditional’ applicants, and while based in ideas of meritocracy in selection, may yet result in ‘[re-privileging] the privileged … [as] a form of social closure’.”
The Breaking Bias and EDI training feel more like a box ticking exercise than it is truly effective. I’ve highlighted this in my PRA with my Course Leader in hopes of increasing the proportion of BAME students (UAL Anti-racism action plan). We actually have a majority of international students however most of them are from from Asia so there could still be more diversity in our course.
‘Retention and attainment in the disciplines: Art and Design’ Finnigan and Richards (2016)
It was certainly interesting to read about our Inclusive Practices unit as a case study for HEA and provided the context and reasoning behind the pedagogical approach.
“Students see themselves as the experts in their practice and look to lecturers for feedback to extend or strengthen their work.” Even as an MA tutor, sadly in my experience I don’t think the student see themselves as experts and look to the tutors as the “experts.” I even remember that I, myself, when studying my MA didn’t see my as an “expert” of any sorts. As much as I agree wholeheartedly with Freire’s ideas in Pedagogy of the Oppressed, I constantly find that the students keep coming to us for the answers – something we keep having to remind them that they are the “experts in their practice.”
“Therefore, it is important to build trust with the student group to ensure that the students will find their voice. The tutor’s role here is key. If conceiving and making work is a key role for students, and the work itself produced is emotional, then the relationships with tutors are intrinsic to its development.” I really liked this quote delineating my role as building trust with students rather than helping them produce their work because I could never understand their identity and lived experiences.
“They perceive that some tutors’ preferences have a large role to play when it comes to getting a good grade. According to Sabri (2015) if they are at odds with the tutor’s aesthetic they often leave their own ideas and follow the guidance of the tutor.” I am very aware of the power dynamics as I am the person grade them, as is the same while I am currently a student myself on the PG Cert. I had implemented a new system, as opposed to the past where students are assigned a tutor, they can sign up with any tutor they would like. This is to reinforce the notion one tutor’s opinion is simply that, and shouldn’t be the final solution.
The discussion surrounding the ‘crit’ provided a new perspective of a form of assessment we had become used to in art school. “The ‘crit’ should be seen as a process wherein the community supports the individual to create their work. The work of Blythman, Orr and Blair (2009) which critiques this assessment process also provides a useful guide for Art and Design tutors to use to make more
explicit this form of assessment and for it to be used in a more supportive way.” I had never believed a crit should be intimidating and a forum to tear up one’s work, however it is good to be reframe it as a supportive community.
Bibiography
Bhagat, D. and O’Neill, P. (2011). Inclusive Practices, Inclusive Pedagogies Learning from Widening Participation Research in Art and Design Higher Education. Available at: https://ukadia.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/Inclusive_Practices_Inclusive_Pedagogies.pdf (Accessed 22nd June 2022).
DiAngelo, R. (2017) Deconstructing White Privilege. General Commission on Religion and Race of The UMC. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DwIx3KQer54 (Accessed: 22 June 2022).
Freire, P., (1970). Pedagogy of the oppressed. 1st ed. UK: Penguin.
Hahn Tapper, A., 2013. A Pedagogy of Social Justice Education: Social Identity Theory, Intersectionality, and Empowerment. Conflict Resolution Quarterly, 30(4), pp.411-445.
Malatesta, I. (2017) How Designers Can Fight Unconscious Bias: Powerful Lessons from Vectors SF. Design Observer. Available at: https://designobserver.com/feature/unconscious-bias/39628 (Accessed: 22 June 2022).
Mkhize, N., Pett, S. and Mangcu, X. (2015) What a less Eurocentric reading list would look like. The Conversation. Available at: https://theconversation.com/what-a-less-eurocentric-reading-list-would-look-like-42068 (Accessed: 22 June 2022).
Richards, A. and Finnigan, T. (2015) ‘Embedding Equality and Diversity in the Curriculum: An Art and Design Practitioners Guide’. York: Higher Education Academy Available at: http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/sites/default/files/resources/eedc_art_and_design_online.pdf (Accessed: 22 June 2022).
Room of Silence, (2016), Available at: https://vimeo.com/161259012 (Accessed: 22 June 2022).
Shades of Noir [website] (2010) Available at: www.shadesofnoir.org.uk (Accessed: 22 June 2022).
Witness:Unconscious Bias, (2016), University and College Union. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6XDUGPoaFw (Accessed: 22 June 2022)
Thank you for the insights into some of the experiences you have had with Race within your teaching practise. I shared some of your reflections, citing the same quote by Hahn Tapper around co-creating experiences with the students. I think this links to your acknowledgement towards the end of the blog about power dynamics between students and lecturers. As a white woman I am becoming increasingly conscious of how that might further that imbalance in the relationship. If we acknowledge the power imbalance, how can we co-create authentic experiences with/for our students? I think this links to Friere’s ‘Banking Model of Education’ and your observation on the expectations of students that we are the experts.
Your comments on the Crit is something I have also been thinking about, I’d be interested to hear how the student-selection of tutors is working in practise. It’s logical that students have the option to choose a tutor with insight into their research or personal or practise-based identity, but what happens to those who feel like there is no-one for them? Does this burden some tutors more than others? If you are considering reframing the Crit my Tutor on TPP shared this resource http://q-art.org.uk/portfolio/art-crits-20-questions/ which has some alternative approaches to facilitate different learning styles within the Crit.