Author: Stephanie Martindale

Faith & Religion in the Arts & HE

  • Visit the Religion, Belief and Faith identities UAL website and answer the questions:
    • How could you apply the resources to your own teaching practice?
    • How could you integrate the research/work your students do on this subject into your teaching/professional practice?
    • Can you cite examples? You will share your thoughts within your groups and comment and share further resources you use in your own context.

I particularly enjoyed reading about Pen Portraits, an icebreaker activity created by Angela Drisdale Gordon, Head of Further Education at UAL. The activity involves the students asking each other a list of questions before sharing the answers to encourage students to open up about their interests. This is a simple yet effective tool that I could utilise in my own teaching practice to encourage students to explore alternative interests and ethical viewpoints.

This activity also encourages the teacher to share their own answers which for me, then adds a ‘trust-building’ element to this exercise, where students get to know the tutor a little better. My belief is that trust between the teacher and student is critical in the teaching-learning environment to help facilitate learning and the objective learning outcomes.

For me, the nature of this activity being a direct way to ask each other their views and opinions is important to encourage the exploration of new and/or unfamiliar cultural practices and belief systems and to inform notions of identity.

In order to encourage student to draw on different cultural references in their work in my own teaching practice,I would encourage students to explore places of cultural reference relevant to their own projects. For example at present, the 3rd year BA Interior Design students are working a project for which the concept of the designs must be based within the King’s Cross area. As a teacher, I have encouraged students to explore places like the Aga Khan Centre (located in King’s Cross) but I could develop this further by encouraging visits to the Black Cultural Archives which is not located in Kings Cross but may still provide significant cultural insight to inform the development of ideas and concepts within their projects.

A particular reference from the Religion, Belief and Faith identities UAL website that interested me was a video entitled ‘A Brief History of Religion in Art’. The video discusses an-iconism (prohibition of the visual depiction of the divine) within art across centuries in history and how in more recent times the modern representation of the ‘divine’ in religion has taken more human-like form. It was interesting to see how depictions of the divine, in Islam for example, came through patterns and symbols and iconographic reference in textile design.

I would encourage my students to visit the Religion, Belief and Faith identities UAL website to cite examples like this and to encourage them to think about how historical practices in art to depict concepts of faith and religion can inform their own work. For example, the Interior Design students who I work with who have chosen to design an interior space which would encourage communication amongst the public could use influence from historical depictions of faith or religion to inform their choices about the interior design – the patterns and symbols that could be utilised on chosen textiles, materials and architectural design could be used to encourage discussion around faith and religion by the users of the space.

● Choose a minimum of 3 headings from the ‘Religion in Britain: Challenges for Higher Education.’ Stimulus paper (Modood & Calhoun, 2015) The PDF can be found on Moodle. Discuss two things you learnt from the text and one question/provocation you have about the text. Write a min. 100 word reflection or no more than 5 minute vlog

The three headings that I reviewed from the Modood & Calhoun (2015) text were Multiculturalism (page 6), Changes in religious demography (page 8) and Minority identities (page 9).

The first heading, Multiculturalism identifies multiculturalism as the ‘institutional accommodation of post immigration ethno-religious minorities’ as a construct of equality. It discusses the global spread of multiculturalist sensibility despite becoming an unpopular construct in the public.

The second heading, Changes in religious demography, discusses the occurrence of secularisation across the 20th century and the rapidly changing religious demographic in Britain as a result of immigration.

The third discusses how minority groups ­define identity according to colour or nationality although religion takes precedence, particularly as faith is expressed on personal beliefs and shared practices such as diet and ­­dress.

One thing I learnt from these readings is what multiculturalism really means as a social construct and vehicle for equality. In defining what multiculturalism looks like in the public sphere, the text suggests the following:

  • anti-discrimination
  • sameness of treatment
  • toleration of ‘difference’ but respect for difference
  • equality as the accommodation of difference in the public space, which comes to be shared rather than dominated by the majority
  • The abandonment of the pretence of ‘difference-blindness’ and allowing others, the marginalised minorities, to be visible and explicitly accommodated in the public sphere.
  • reversal of marginalisation but also a remaking of national citizenship so that all can have a sense of belonging to it

I’ve always thought about multiculturalism in a more simplistic way, as a construct that promotes equality and acceptance of multi-faith/race/colour identities, but as a result of ‘tolerance’ rather than being ‘accommodating’.

What I have become more aware of from this reading, is the depth of what it means to create a true multicultural society, which extends beyond just acceptance, but branches into the application of layers of inclusive practices (for example, the democratisation of rights which have been reserved for privileged, dominant groups); practices which require meaningful reflection, to identify behaviors, attitudes, policies and procedures that have created resistance in achieving of multiculturalism.

The second thing I learnt from the readings is the extent of the change in the religious landscape across Britain and the level at which secularisation has occurred. British Social Attitudes (BSA) surveys have identified a decline in the number of Christians and in the level of church attendance. In turn, it appears that there has been a shift towards ‘spirituality’ or ‘belief without belonging’ where statistics have identified that ‘belief in a spirit or life source has remained steady at around 35%–40%, and belief in the soul has actually increased’ vs. a decline in the belief of a personal god from over 40% to less than 30% in recent years.

This change can be attributed somewhat to immigration, particularly considering that figures suggest that in 10 years’ time, around one in eight new adults will be of a minority faith, but that the figure for London (a hub for migration) is double the English average.

In my opinion, this change can also be attributed in small part to the rise of the more conscious movement for beliefs and practices e.g. veganism, spirituality, sustainable living etc. and a greater acceptance of what might normally be described as ‘alternative’.

Teaching & Learning Seminar – 17.02.20 – Thoughts

I really enjoyed the group participation studies from last week’s teaching and learning seminar. For me, the activities provoked a heightened sense of self-awareness, for example I became more conscious of my degree of participation in some activities which was visually represented through the number (or lack of) playing cards acquired.

I am usually very anxious within group speaking tasks as I fear my opinions are not valid – perhaps a sense of ‘imposter syndrome’ occurs in scenarios where my knowledge/values/opinions are called for (what feels like judgement) by others. This, and the fact that I have a preference to hear and learn from others, means I feel as though I am often quieter within group scenarios (although others say they do not notice this)

Thinking about why this is a common personal experience for me in group scenarios, I relate back by asking to what extent my personal history plays in my experience of learning. How did this imposter syndrome feeling manifest? Why? How has this limited my learning capabilities? Despite this, and during this particular session, I actively participated in all discussion points in every game. The group was collaborative and I felt as though the discussions we had were varied, with depth and well informed.

My experience here is relative to the theory of understanding that Gadamer highlights, namely the importance of participation and the state being ‘outside of oneself’ as crucial for understanding. He says ‘this ‘opening up’ to meaning ‘other’ than your own is crucial if any common understanding is to be reached’. I feel as though my experience of the games during this session and the learning outcomes for me are aligned with Gadamer’s participation theory of the engaged player discussed in the chapter.

This leads to me to assume that such activities could be applied in my own teaching work to encourage group participation and achieved learning outcomes as an ‘engaged player’ to enhance understanding.

The second activity, the band marking matrix, was also an enjoyable task. I am someone who myself likes to work closely alongside the relevant marking criteria to self-assess my standard of work in order to identify areas of improvement. We had an interesting discussion, talking about the parameters between two grades and the associated band descriptors. I recognise this task as a good goal setting exercise to encourage an aspirational work ethic from students.

Task 3 was centred on the design, practicality and implications of the TEF awards; a quiz was created to represent the TEF in terms of the key performance indicators: the ‘flags’, differentiating metrics, set algorithm designed to result in a specific ratio of awards metrics and written statement.

As someone who did not complete the pre-session quiz, I was unable to be an active participant in the quiz game when it came to the results/receiving flags and so it did feel a little exclusive at times. For this reason, my attention span and engagement during this part of the session declined somewhat.  If I were to recreate a similar type of task in my own teaching environment, I would create the game to be a little more inclusive of all participants within the room to ensure a collective learning environment, for example by creating a mini ‘live’ game to be played by the non-quiz answering students at the same time.

Having said this, I do also appreciate that this task was meticulously designed with a view for students to explore and unpack the successes and/or flaws of the TEF awards and I feel as though the objective of the activity was met.

In the final activity, we worked in groups to explore what values and knowledge is required in higher education teaching to ensure content is taught well. What we identified was that the values that we thought should be inherent were around empathy and compassion in contrast to those outlined in the UK Professional Standards Framework (UKPSF) which seem less intuitive.

In addition, when reviewing the same for ‘knowledge’, we aligned more closely with the UKPSF and related knowledge to the context of professional discipline. This task was relative to the 3 case studies (themes: Planning, Teaching and Assessment) expected as part of this unit which are required to meet the requirements for Associate Fellow of the HEA. It was interesting to see where our opinions were aligned with the UKPSF ‘standard’.

  • Values and Knowledge descriptors for a ‘good teacher’ as outlined in the UK Professional Standards Framework vs. a PG Cert team brainstorm about the values and knowledge requirements of a ‘good teacher’

I do wonder whether this task could be remodelled to focus on the inherent traits of a good student. For example, as the teacher, I could ask the students to look at what values they think they need to be a ‘good student’. I think this type of activity is important in the learning environment in order to build good teacher/student relationships, set boundaries and outline expectations of each other.

Overall, I enjoyed the activities within the session. After completing the activities, I do feel as though the energy in group participation must be equal or similar in order for the true learning outcome of the task to be realised. For example, all participants must be willing, engaged and active in ‘play’.

Because of this, to maximise my in-class participation and engagement I have identified that I should aim to improve my knowledge by working my way through the PG Cert reading list at a quicker pace and also improve organisation skills particularly with a view to complete all pre-session tasks.

Disability in the Arts & HE

Article for Deaf-Accessibility for Spoonies: Lessons learned from touring Eve and Mary Are Having Coffee while chronically ill (Khairani Barokka)

This written piece by Barokka powerfully depicts the (often covert) bouts of pain she experienced while touring her performance piece, to illustrate the very nature of that same pain as a result of chronic illness. In her own words, she created the tour to ‘illuminate the pain where the sighted saw none’.

Barokka has approached the production of her work holistically in the context of accessibility for the disabled by making it accessible to all including those with verbal or hearing impairments. In my own teaching practice, adopt some of the elements of Barokka’s approach to the delivery of her production, including:

  • Performing in wheelchair accessible venues
    • Although my teaching practice does not involve performance, it is possible for me to consider the use of wheelchair accessible rooms for teaching or ensure places visited/recommended to visit for assignment-related tasks are wheelchair accessible for those with physically disabilities
  • Provided the script via a Google document and link provided for the deaf/hearing impaired audience members, who were also given iPads/phones to read the poetry
    • I will consider providing teaching materials/session resources via early digital access for those who are hearing impaired. Although it is most likely that any teaching budget provided may not include the provision of iPads/iPhones, I can seek to incorporate the students own digital devices into the teaching session content to improve engagement of those with specific learning requirements.

Other small but crucial changes that I can implement in my own teaching include:

  • Not making assumptions about a person’s illness just because their pain does not physically present itself to the eye
  • Being empathetic to those who are experiencing chronic pain or any other disability-related pain (physical, emotional or psychological) and acknowledging the mental health issues of those

Nowness: A film by Todd Selby interviewing Christine Sun-Kim

In the short film ‘Nowness’ by Sun-Kim, she explains how she was confused about the ownership of sound growing up, describing how it ‘belonged’ to those who could hear and not herself as a deaf person. For me, this provokes thoughts around perception within the teacher/student relationship; as the teacher, am I aware of how those with visual/hearing impairments perceive my teaching content? How can I adapt my work to ensure that it can be interpreted comfortably by those with visual or hearing impairments?

Sun-Kim goes on to explain how she wanted to ‘explore sound without a mediated interpretation of what sound is’. Immediately, this draws my attention to the historical pedagogic practices and narratives around disability that have been exclusive and oppressive of disabled students. Why have those who are not hearing-impaired assumed ‘ownership’ of the perception of their own sounds and other senses? In order to challenge this and take a step towards dismantling socio-economically constructed relationships between the perhaps dominant (able-bodied) and the dominated (disabled), a more inclusive learning environment for both teacher and students must be created in the classroom. This could be done by introducing more inclusive teaching practices, for example:

  • Introduce the works of critical pedagogy academics (e.g. Paulo Freire (1968). Pedagogy of the Oppressed ) to dismantle oppressive perceptions around disability
  • Referencing work of artists/academics who are considered disabled for an alternative narrative and encouraging students to do the same in their own work
  • Varying teaching methods to include ways of learning through visualising, listening and/or doing

Interview with Vilissa Thompson, creater of #DisabilityTooWhite

The viral hashtag #DisabilityTooWhite was created by Vilissa Thompson. Thompson calls out the lack of representation for disabled people of colour from the ‘organisations that are supposed to empower us’. This is a very impactful statement, because it begins to put into perspective the scale of social injustice experienced by disabled POC – the organisations that are supposed to empower us are most certainly those within large organisations such as education systems and media outlets for example.

In my own experience, during 18 years of UK state funded education, I would say I know how it feels to have no representation as a POC within the learning/teaching environment and also within employment settings. I have been conscious of this for as long as I can remember and I would say from experience it has moulded some of my expectations and perceptions of the world and certainly my personal identity. I feel as though I can connect in some way to Thompson and her concerns. However, this is exacerbated, as there are people who are black AND disabled and are experiencing another layer of intersectional marginalisation beyond what I have experienced – that’s two fundamental pillars of the equation of identity to be overlooked and undervalued.

Thompson goes on to say ‘We feel isolated and outcast when you don’t see people who look like you, not just racially but disability-wise’. The fact that her hashtag went viral with much support but also with many critiques shows that there are a silenced, but wide-spread group of people who feel marginalized, but then there also exists a group of people who have institutionalized narratives engrained into their core and wrongly disagree with another person’s (subjective) feelings. Furthermore, the disparities between being black and being disabled are highlighted as Thompson discusses the gap in ‘minority’ communities when it comes to representation of disabilities; she calls out African American organisations in particular.

In reflecting on some of the advice that Thompson offers, I can apply some of these suggesting to my personal character, but also myself as a teaching in the learning environment:

  • Understanding my able-bodied privilege or encouraging others to acknowledge their white and/or able-bodied privileges
  • Speaking up when I see things that aren’t ok or perhaps could better represent disabled POC
  • Become allies for disabled POC by acknowledging and taking the time to understand their truths

UAL Disability Webpages

The UAL disability service provides support those who are considered disabled or with specific learning differences e.g. dyslexia. As someone who is entitled to the help that this service provides myself, I find these pages to be very useful.

One thing that has made my experience of this service easier, is the complete lack of judgement or bias from the support team. Those who provide the support service are understanding, compassionate and accommodating to your needs and I did not feel ashamed to discuss my support requirements. This is important as I do not feel like I could be so open and honest with perhaps a tutor or teacher who may not be so experienced in dealing with someone with specific learning requirements.

Moving forward, I will be encouraging all of my own students to explore the UAL disability pages and/or actually visit the office for face-to-face discussions. I feel as though it is important to offer this to all students and not just those who are knowingly disabled or with specific learning requirements as there may be someone who is not aware that they could be entitled to support that hasn’t had this realised yet.

I would also consider explaining to my students my own experiences with the UAL disability support team to show that like them, I am human and I do need to make adjustments in the learning space – this may then be less daunting and could encourage students to seek advice.

To conclude on summarising all reference material discussed above, an awareness campaign on dominance vs. marginalisation of those that have disabilities is needed to progress past the marginalisation that disabled POC experience today (Applebaum 2001).Ultimately, I feel as though as a teacher, more exploration is needed on my behalf to grasp a better understanding of the experiences of disabled POC. As a teacher, it is important that I can model the correct behaviours that improve accessibility and encourage inclusivity and diversity and dismantle the institutionalised concepts that innately exclude and oppress marginalised groups. In doing this, I would expect a trickle-down effect on my students, which I hope can encourage them to adopt similar behaviours which they can also apply beyond education and into the creative work field.

References

  • ‘Deaf Accessibility for Spoonies: Lessons from touring Eve and Mary Are Having coffee while chronically ill’ – Khairani Barokka (PDF on Moodle in ‘Blogging Tasks’ Reading materials’)
  • Nowness: A film by Todd Selby interviewing Christine Sun-Kim
  • #DisabilityTooWhite article / interview with Vilissa Thompson
  • UAL Disability Service Webpages

Additional references:

  • Applebaum, B, 2001. Raising awareness of dominance: Does recognising dominance mean one has to dismiss the values of the dominant group? Journal of moral education. Vol. 30, No. 1.
  • Anthony J. Nocella, 2008. Emergence of Disability Pedagogy. Journal For Critical Education Policy Studies, 6, (2), pp. 77 – 94. DOI: http://www.jceps.com/wp-content/uploads/PDFs/6-2-05.pdf
  • Beckett, A.E., 2015. Anti-oppressive pedagogy and disability: possibilities and challenges. Scandinavian Journal of Disability Research, 17(1), pp.76–94. DOI: http://doi.org/10.1080/15017419.2013.835278

Pedagogies of Engagement

I’m finding this experience of ‘blogging’ quite interesting. Documenting my thoughts, feelings, ideas and opinions is very new to me and the fact that is it open for others to read brings me an unreasonable level of anxiety. But I do realise that that’s all part of the process, particularly as one of my personal development goals for 2020 is to push myself outside of my comfort zone and challenge myself. So onwards we continue with blog life…

Unfortunately, I missed my first Teaching & Learning tutor group session on the 20th January due to unforeseen circumstances. This meant that I was unable to present the presentation I had prepared about pedagogy to my peers. I did, however learn some valuable lessons on some pedagogic practices designed to enhance engagement, which I will outline below.

As an undergrad student (6+ years ago), I always struggled with staying focussed and engaged with delivered teaching content during class. I often found myself daydreaming, scrolling on my phone and sometimes (regrettably in hindsight) even putting my head down on the desk for a mid-lesson nap. This led to poor-time management and disorganisation as I would usually end up spending additional hours at home trying to catch up on what I had missed in class due to my dwindling attention span.

So when I came across the journal paper entitled ‘Exploring student definitions of engagement: A reflexive approach to designing learning activities’ (Huggard, 2010), I was immediately drawn in to read more. The article explores the definitions of student ‘engagement’ from the perspective of the students themselves and seeks to identify various teaching methods to improve student learner engagement which align with students expectations.

This is in contrast to the institutionalised and behavioural-based definitions of engagement that have formed as a result of the rise in universal format of higher education. Mcfarlane (2015) identifies this as students ‘demonstrating more visibly that they are learning through participation in class’ and ‘sharing their ideas in public discussions’

To challenge this, the report goes on to identify two pedagogies of engagement (which were designed based on student definitions of engagement) which were of most interest to me as a teaching practitioner:

1. Problem Based Learning – learning that results from the process of working towards understanding or resolution of a problem (Smith et al., 2005)

2. Experiential Based Learning – learning encouraged through experience (Benecke and Bezuidenhout, 2011)

Problem Based Learning (PBL) is a student-led learning method through which students apply taught knowledge to real brand issues and build competencies for their creative industries. Case studies are considered to be an effective method of PBL which is effective in achieving greater engagement with unit learning outcomes, retention of material and cooperative interaction (Baturay and Bay, 2010) and (Meyers and Jones, 1993).

Traditional vs. Problem Based Learning outlined (Image: Springer Link)

In contrast, Experiential Based Learning (EBL), utilises active student participation to encourage learning through experience via practical, hands-on projects. This could include community involvement projects for example (Benecke and Bezuidenhout, 2011). Kolb (1984) identifies conflict, differences, and disagreement as key notions to drive the learning process in EBL practice.

Experiential Learning cycle outlined (Image: Grade Hub)

Given that both teaching methods have been developed reflexively in response to the student-definitions of engagement, one may assume that an increase in engagement could be measured in teaching sessions if PBL and EBL pedagogies are applied. Although the report did not assess this, I would be keen to apply particularly PBL tasks such as case-studies in my own teaching practice to very teaching content and enhance student engagement.

Furthermore, the report raised some questions for me:

  1. What variable factors can be identified that increase engagement?
    • The report did not approach student engagement from a holistic perspective, so I would be keen to understand what sociological, behavioural and/or psychological factors can be of influence
  2. How can we integrate technology and specifically the use of mobile phones in to lesson plans to improve engagement?
    • As technology has now become an instrumental tool for both teachers and learners, how can this be incorporated effectively to enhance rather than hinder engagement? This is of particular interest to me due to my mobile device, as mentioned earlier, being a hindrance to my learning as a distraction as an undergrad student.
  • Benecke, R.D. and Bezuidenhout, R.M. (2011) ‘Experiential learning in public relations education in South Africa’, Journal of Communication Management, 15(1), pp. 55–69.
  • Gibbs, G. (2014) ‘Student engagement, the latest buzzword’, Times Higher Education, 1 May. Available at: https://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/news/student-engagement-the-latest-buzzword/2012947.article (Accessed: 2 April 2015)
  • Huggard, E. (2016) ‘Exploring student definitions of engagement: A reflexive approach to designing learning activities’, Sparks Journal, 1 (1), pp. 5 – 18
  • Kolb, D.A. (1984) Experiential learning: experience as the source of learning and development. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
  • Macfarlane, B. (2015) Student performativity in higher education: converting learning as a private space into a public performance, Higher Education Research & Development, 32 (2), pp. 338–350.
  • Meyers, C. and Jones, T.B. (1993) Promoting active learning: strategies for the college classroom. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
  • Smith, K.A., Sheppard, S.D., Johnson, D.W. and Johnson, R.T. (2005) ‘Pedagogies of engagement: classroom-based practices’, Journal of Engineering Education, 94(1), pp. 87–101.

T&L Introductory Lecture: A post-lecture summary of thoughts.

It’s been a fair while (almost 6 years) since I completed my undergrad studies at UAL. As a now late twenty-something year old with a business and a child (certainly two of the most time consuming things to ever exist), I never imagined that I would become a student again. The level of stress and anxiety that presented itself in the weeks before a deadline date was a certain deterrent for me to ever think about continuing studies beyond undergrad level – yet here we are. Its 2020 and I’m a post-grad student. Here is a summary of my current thoughts about being a student again:

A summary of feels as a post-grad student.

I have a lot of conflicting feelings presenting themselves already and it’s only week 2. I think this stems from my innate desire to excel at any task I assume vs. the idea of trying to juggle student/teacher life with my already time restricted lifestyle; the former requires more time and commitment than I potentially have to give but I am determined to make it work!

I was the first person in my family to ever graduate from University. This was an obviously incredible milestone to reach in my life, but had I been just one year younger in age, I potentially may have never even enrolled. There’s a wealth of reasons why, but I would say that the increase in student fees in 2012 as a result of the Browne Review (2010) was a pivotal factor in my decision; I began my BSc undergrad study in 2011 when fees were around £3.2k, thus narrowly missing the tripled cost of studying at university that would have most definitely bound me into a lifetime of colossal student debt repayments.

We discussed these changes to student fees in in this week’s lecture, in the broader context of the Higher Education (HE) timeline of events and influences in the UK since the 1950’s (see image 2). This particular event (fee increases) had a profound effect on my entire decision to attend university. Coming from a working class background, we were money-poor however I was always conscious about saving money while simultaneously getting the best value. My thoughts were – do I go now and save money while getting my degree or do I go later on in life (post 2012) and pay triple? The answer was obvious and I enrolled with pride in 2011.

Image 2: A timeline of events that have influenced the Higher Education landscape since the 1950’s

As an undergrad, I was also exposed to the emergence of new advances impacting the field of HE, the main one being the introduction of new teaching/learning platforms such as Moodle. I was resistant at first, but quickly got used to it (without choice). Fast forward to 2020, it has become clear very quickly that Moodle is a digital learning hub that is fundamental to navigating all PG Cert course units, briefs and assignments. This is also true for other platforms such as MyBlogs and Workflow and it is interesting for me to see the shift in using these as fundamental tools in teaching methods vs. the way they were used less dependently during my first stint in HE.

After this week’s lecture, I have a better understanding of how these digital platforms and tools can be integrated effectively into teaching methods. For example, the session plan created by Lindsay encouraged active participation by using GoogleDocs and Padlet during group discussions and brainstorming. This creates a learning space that facilitates the sharing of information and ideas that is instantly accessible even outside of the class session. It excites me that these platforms not only allow learning content to be developed and shared but it also enhances students’ learning experience bringing a mutual benefit to both student and teacher; I plan to develop and refine my own teaching practice to utilise some of these virtual learning tools alongside range of teaching methods to keep my lessons varied and create an engaging learning environment.

References:

Browne Review (2010), ‘Securing A Sustainable Future for Higher Education: An Independent Review of Higher Education, Funding & Student Finance’, Available at: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/422565/bis-10-1208-securing-sustainable-higher-education-browne-report.pdf (Accessed: 19 Jan. 2020)

And so it begins!

Hi, my name is Stephanie Martindale and I am currently studying for my PGCert in Academic Practice in Art, Design and Communication at UAL.

My field of discipline is business management, marketing and communication, primarily within the beauty and cosmetics industry.

I have worked in product marketing for around 4 years, specialising in research, innovation and product development working on concept ideation and task management through to the operational execution at European level. More recently, following a period of maternity leave, I have taken a step away from marketing to pursue lifelong personal dreams to own my own successful beauty salon; I am now a self-employed part time beauty practitioner and business owner, student and mother of 1. 

I am undertaking the PGCert course to develop my skills as a teacher in HE and apply enriching teaching content in practice. I’m also keen to observe myself as a learner but also reapply my academic and writing skills in a HE setting. I am beyond excited to push my own boundaries and stray far outside of my comfort zone to excel in my postgraduate studies.