Making Academic Support a Destination Worth Visiting: Pedagogical Strategies for Moving Past Obstructions
Introduction
The intervention will use my role as an Embedded Academic Support Tutor at Central Saint Martin’s to focus strategies on improving the experience and efficacy to which Contextual Admissions (CA) students are supported throughout their first year of University. In Spatial Practices, around half of the hundred or so first years are CA students, yet there is little in the way of extra support for them given demonstrable ongoing difficulties with study. These students are often from disadvantaged backgrounds. According to the Office for Fair Access:
‘while more disadvantaged young people are in higher education than ever before, the discrepancies between institutions and the numbers of those students leaving before completing their studies continues to grow.’
(Gilbert, 2019)
What is a Contextual Admissions Student?
There are four ways a student can be eligible for CA status when applying for a place at Central Saint Martins:
- ‘You have spent time in care.’
- ‘You have come through UAL’s Outreach insights programme.’ (This is a course run by CSM which involves new project work, portfolio construction and a guaranteed interview).
- ‘You come from an area in England in deciles 1-4 of the Index of Multiple Deprivation (IMD), which measures deprivation in England.’
- ‘You’re from an area in the UK with low rate of participation in higher education.’
(UAL, 2024)
Until this academic year (2023), once a place is gained, the title is attached to the student throughout their time as an undergraduate but remains confidential, appearing on a master register only. It has no bearing on assessment and the students do not receive any extra support.
Recently however, faculty members involved in teaching widening participation students feel strongly that they should not have this label attached to them throughout their learning. This could be interpreted as well-meaning, but does not negate the fact that there is an annual recruitment drive targeted at admitting students who are proven to struggle [Appendix 1] and yet current support does not reflect the complexities and nuances of their needs. Access is easier, progression may not be.
Positionality Statement
I have three roles at central Saint Martins which coalesce to provide a good understanding of the challenges students face educationally and experientially throughout their undergraduate studies. As a design tutor, I have sound knowledge of course content, assessment and the process of facilitating design projects. My other role as embedded academic support tutor allows for deeper insights into areas of particular difficulty related to learning, many of which are shared, but also wider pastoral issues which affect students. My third role, working as part of the admissions team, selects and interviews prospective students, where careful consideration is given to CA applicants. As a team we are guided to ask ourselves ‘why shouldn’t this student be given a place?’, in contrast to non-CA students: ‘why should this student be given a place?’. This is significant, apart from the special dispensation, because I am able to gain a brief understanding of where they are starting from personally and professionally in higher education.
CA students are diverse, representing different genders, sexualities, race, abilities and disabilities. As a white, cis, heterosexual man approaching middle age, there are clear limitations to my understanding of experiences across such a large section of people.
I can relate to certain challenges faced by CA students having been only the second member of my family to attend University. I was educated at a local comprehensive school and had to rely heavily on the student loan system. I am from a multicultural part of South London and have been used to exchanging experiences and information with diverse groups of people.
I am aware however that I score highly on measurements of privilege (Bryan, 2022) and would have less in common and less insight into the experiences of students from areas considered to be ‘low’ on the index of multiple deprivation.
Student fees are considerably more than when I was studying which is compounded by a cost-of-living crisis. The impact made by media, various social and political landscapes as shaped by global and local events will contribute to unique world views held by new students each year.
Approaching Inclusivity
The bulk of this report names and investigates Contextual Admissions students as main protagonists. It is problematic however to publicly spotlight these individuals for a number of reasons. Firstly, the label is imposed on them by the college and may signify something about the individual’s identity they are not willing to disclose. This can lead to what Cate Thomas calls ‘Identity threat’, (Thomas, 2022) where:
‘participants may be placed in the situation to reveal hidden parts of their identity which leads to vulnerability and unpredicted exposure in the workplace.’
(Thomas, 2022)
Secondly, we must be careful not to position CA students in opposition to others thus creating the kind of hypervisibility that leads to stigma or concealment by the student of any known or hidden disability which may otherwise have been addressed. (Thomas, 2022)
It is well known in inclusivity discourses that what benefits the minority, benefits the group as a whole (Parapride, 2023). This does not mean the two should be treated separately but considered parts of the whole with different needs. The strategy therefore is not for the intervention to target a specific group but an event available to all, which hopefully marks the first step in fostering an inclusive community.
Barriers to Academic Support Online (ASO)
There are some barriers to students which hinder the efficacy of the current ASO provision:
Support is a ‘dirty’ word
I’ve heard informally from students that academic support signifies lack or that the need for it can feel disempowering. There may also be some transference from CA students not wishing to be seen as different.
How useful can it be?
Students are often surprised at how useful tutorials are and do not necessarily make the connection that I facilitate and implement the delivery of design briefs as a studio tutor as well as providing targeted support for the same briefs as a support tutor. One testimonial from last year reads:
‘I was supported during my diagnosis of dyslexia and was given many options to book an academic support session with Robert and the team.
I would often arrive to sessions with no idea of what and where to go with my assignments. I was guided through writing techniques, grammar issues and general topic improvement. I wouldn’t have been able to achieve a 2.1 grade without their support and a 1st in my 6,000-word dissertation.
Thank you!!’
(Ogunbowale, 2023)
There still remains a disjunction it seems between the messaging of the efficacy of ASO which is delivered verbally during introductory lectures and the positive experience of having a tutorial.
Online vs In Person
There are some drawbacks to the system operating online. Students frequently either cancel appointments at the last minute or fail to turn up. This might be less prevalent given the social implications of having to attend an in-person meeting. Online appointments can sometimes feel like they are disposable or a less important commitment.
The Intervention
The intervention is to be a live, in person pop up event with an experiential object-based learning activity at its heart, since:
‘Students who are actively involved with peers, faculty and staff – especially in learning activities – are more likely to learn, persist, and graduate.’
(Veronica Bamber, 2015)
Although a one-off event to be held near the start of the academic year, it is hoped to contribute to a collaborative studio spirit, develop mutual respect and establish a commitment to effective but also joyful working relationships, as:
‘The quality of student interaction with staff is key, rather than frequency of interaction’
(Veronica Bamber, 2015)
Held in the street at CSM, the space will be demarcated as a green and comfortable zone, using plants and informal seating such as bean bags. I am told from ASO faculty members there is a potential budget for this.
The main activity seeks to tackle a recurring problem faced by all creative practitioners at one time or another; how to produce when production has stopped or in other words, what to do when nothing is being done. The strategy is to move away from the limitations of the thinking mind and embrace more intuitive and automatic modes of production in order to move passed creative blockages:
‘The big moment came when it was decided to paint……….just TO PAINT. The gesture on canvas was a gesture of liberation, for Value- political, aesthetic, moral.’
(Charles Harrison, 1992)
The pedagogical approach has been chosen for:
‘the potential of object-based learning to address troublesome knowledge, make abstract concepts more concrete for learners……… recognizing the importance of non-verbal or embodied knowledge’
(Judy Willcocks, 2023)
The notion of embodiment is important, since the power of the activity at the beginning, hinges on the acquisition of knowledge through sensorial and haptic means. To aid concentration on this task, the purpose of the activity will not be revealed until afterwards, hopefully serving as a retrospective ‘light bulb’ moment. This might be a new experience for students, the exercise demonstrating the potential for alternative ways of thinking/working.
The Process
Make
1/ Lo tech, lo-fi and inexpensive materials such as wire or card will be used by each student to make a timed sculpture that uses tactics which distances them from too much conscious thought whilst making.
Play
2/ The individual sculptures are paired at random and adapted by both students to make a super-sculpture.
Analyse
3/ With the aid of word prompts, students assign potential meanings/uses to sculptures and reflect on how this juxtaposition brings about the potential for unique and unexpected objects.
Step one is designed to encourage free and exploratory production whilst steps two and three centre on the importance of collaboration and play in making sense of objects. It’s important to recognise:
‘how understanding itself only takes place in dynamic, interactive, interpretive process of working through meaning with others. A shared understanding is in this way an interpretive event that takes place in a play of presenting and recognising meaning’.
(Vilhauer, 2010)
The intervention suggests a radical approach to design where objects are post rationalised and the design process reverse engineered; we are taught as architects after all, that form follows function, not the other way round. This isn’t quite true however as designers often oscillate between recognised constraints and open-ended play in the pursuit of a breakthrough moment. It is this cycle which produces high standards of iterative work. This way of working also raises a larger philosophical question; ‘to what extent must objects be intentional?’ John Cage, in his use of chance operations continually attempted to distance himself from allowing unfavourable elements of self to infiltrate his work, instead being:
‘committed to eliminating personal expression in favour of revealing a more general truth’
(Piekut, 2013)
That the object made is neither good or bad, right or wrong, makes it transcendent and a thing more pure. I feel there is room for this kind of thinking especially in the often highly constrained profession of architecture.
I hope to implement and test this intervention at the beginning of the coming academic year.
On CA Students
I felt an unexpected connection to repeating students when examining their modules on UAL’s Online Assessment tool (OAT). Following their results through successive years and seeing the blockages preventing them from progressing, struck a chord with me. It means that while retention in the end might look favourable in a pie chart, the route to completion for some can be hard and enduring. It is unknown what the emotional toll of a three-year degree prolonged to four or five, has on an individual, how this eventually translates into the workplace and life beyond. I suggest minimising the difficulties faced by some CA students via quiet envelopment into the student body is detrimental and we need to have an open dialogue around this, as well as foster increasingly inclusive environments to help this group progress in as few steps as possible.
Word Count: 1,568
(without titles, quotes and appendix 1)
References
- Bryan, J., 2022. Warwick University. [Online]Available at: https://warwick.ac.uk/services/dean-of-students-office/community-values-education/educationresources/privilegewalk[Accessed 30th June 2024].
- Charles Harrison, P. W., 1992. Art in Theory 1900-1990, An Anthology of Changing Ideas. 1st ed. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Blackwell.
- Gilbert, J. H., 2019. Precariat insurgency: A means to improve structures of inclusivity in higher education , London: Institute of education press .
- Judy Willcocks, K. M., 2023. The Potential of Online Object Based Learning Activities to Support The Teaching of Intersectional Environmentalism in Art and Design Higher Education. Art, Design and Communication in Higher Education , 22(1), pp. 189.
- Ogunbowale, I., 2023. Experiences of Academic Support Online [Interview] (3rd September 2023).
- Parapride, 2023. Intersectionality in Focus: Empowering Voices during UK Disability History Month 2023. [Online]Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_yID8_s5tjc&t=1s[Accessed 10th July 2024].
- Piekut, B., 2013. Chance and Certainty: John Cage’s Politics of Nature. Cultural Critique, Issue 84, pp.134-163.
- Thomas, C., 2022. Overcoming Identity Threat: Using Persona Pedagogy in Intersectionality and Inclusion Training. Social Sciences , 11(249), pp. 1-5.
- UAL, 2024. Active Dashboards. [Online] Available at: https://dashboards.arts.ac.uk/dashboard/ActiveDashboards/DashboardPage.aspx?dashboardid=8600e447-d02a-4e7c-bccf-1301aec3a0b6&dashcontextid=638569175415455788 [Accessed July 15th 2024].
- UAL, 2024. Contextual Admissions. [Online] Available at: https://www.arts.ac.uk/study-at-ual/contextual-admissions[Accessed 10th July 2024].
- Veronica Bamber, A. J., 2015. Challenging Students: Enabling Inclusive Learning. 4th ed. London : Routledge .
- Vilhauer, M., 2010. Gadamer’s Ethics of Play: Hermenutics and the Other. s.l.:Lexington Books .
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[Appendix 1]
Data
Examining ‘Active Dashboards’, the UAL data platform, a difference can be seen between retention rates of all students and those on the IMD scale. The IMD scale does not include all CA students but is still a useful indicator of performance. ‘All Students’ have a 6.1% greater retention rate than ‘Home IMD Q1-2’ students and a 3.1% greater retention rate than ‘Home IMD Q3-5’ students.
Retention percentage of All Students
Retention percentage of Home IMD1-2
Retention percentage of Home IMD3-5
(UAL, 2024)
Whilst these figures are limited, they suggests that higher deprivation leads to less retention, a finding which is perhaps not unexpected. Whilst this difference, could represent approximately 8 students over an average 100-person academic year in Spatial Practices (we generally hover around this number) this is not a figure which would necessarily alarm the department. On the surface then, retention rates seem to be reasonable at CSM and oppose the statement from the Office of Fair Access, relating to significant numbers of disadvantaged people leaving study before completion. However, some initial investigations I have carried out which follow the progress of one spatial design cohort from first year to completion, reveal some interesting questions.
Of the 31 students beginning study in sept 2021 and listed as CA:
1 student withdrew or left after passing the first year
4 students withdrew or left after failing the first year
12 students failed and repeated first year
14 students progressed through to completion (sept 2024)
Of the 12 who repeated, 5 failed again in second year and 1 failed in third year, either to repeat, resubmit or decide to withdraw. These numbers would need comparison with other years and non-CA students to be credible, but what I suggest anecdotally from this study is that the number of repeating CA students is not only high, but that they bounce around the system, having difficult and protracted experiences throughout their undergraduate course.
I would like to pursue this enquiry by conducting further research in the hope of producing clearer and more credible findings.
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