UAL hosts an annual Education Exchange conference, and I applied to present with Adam Ramejkis a couple of months ago. Adam had approached me about participating with him in the WDWTWA event. After discussing my research direction and interests, we decided to apply to this conference as well. This conference is geared towards the wider academic community, specifically engaging with pedagogy and student learning.
The main focus of the 45-minute presentation and workshop was the design, experience, and reflections on the pilot series of sessions “Communication through intercultural lenses” Adam hosted for C&E students, and then to offer attendees a small experiential taste of the type of learning made possible through this format.
The opening keynote talk of the conference was from the Arts SU team, partially reflecting on the results from The Big Survey they conducted last year. One of the key takeaways was how many students emphasized the importance of collaboration, a point I used to frame the series of sessions.
To give an overview, this series of sessions met 7 times from January – June 2022, for 2/2.5 hours each time. The focus of each session varied:
• Different “cultures”?
• Identity/identities (and intercultural competences)
• Visualising collaboration
• Pause to reflect…
• Talking about values
• Open-source English
• An as-yet undefined space…
Earlier reflections of the some of the sessions:
Beginning with the deep dive into the concept of Cultures, that workshop included discussions between varying groups of people (from multiple groups of 4, to one-on-one, to the entire group of 20) used a variety of physical positions in the room, seated, standing, drawing and a fluidity that meant we got to engage with people’s lived experiences and theoretical ideas in deep, meaningful ways. The level of participation was exciting.
The second workshop as a discussion around identities was also a fascinating one (and timely as the war with Ukraine just began), ending with an in-depth brainstorm around competencies in Intercultural communication. Being a cohort that is almost entirely international, I was grateful to think about and have enumerated tactics for creating clear communication across cultural divides.
The third workshop was also based around communication. Beginning with a theoretical overview of elements of collaboration, we could discuss between C&E Courses strategies of collaboration, and components that made up our individual preferences. We all expressed a sense of relief to be given some scaffolding to think about the process of collaboration rather than being thrust into collaborative projects to figure out these dynamics on our own.
Reflection points presented:
• Tangible way to create spaces for cross-disciplinary community through discussion and iterative, repeated interactions
• Non-hierarchical engagement style allowed for an open and flexible dynamic
• Focusing on foundational common ideas like identities, cultures, values, and collaboration highlights some of the unseen labour involved in communication
• By exploring our differences, we found common ground from which to work together – lessons that translate to individual courses and beyond
• Collaborative and social learning journey
• The value and important of holding structured space for students
Reflection on the conference presentation:
Working with Adam on the presentation for the conference was similar to being in the sessions with him: the dynamic is so respecful and collaborative that working together was easy and even fun.
Moderator Clare Lomas who is the Head of Curriculum Development & Quality Assurance at London College of Fashion, commented about particularly appreciating the idea I raised of the importance of holding structured space for students to engage with each other. Another participant said that she was overwhelmed by all the information she had been getting from the conference (this was day 2), and that our presentation felt like a breath of fresh air—that we obviously really thought about how people learn and incorporated that into the structure of our time.