On the morning of Monday 10th of January we had our first tutor group meeting. It was an opportunity to get to know each other. We all presented a few slides about ourselves, our roles in UAL and other passions. We were also asked to share an article, image, or resource about pedagogy that we found interesting and raised questions about pedagogy.

It was a lovely and inspiring session. I really enjoyed when Emily asked us to share 3 things about ourselves. It helped us to know more about our fellow students on a personal level but also helped me to feel more comfortable and relaxed.

Slide 1 –

My first slide was an expression of desire to getting to know my PGCert colleagues. I love learning from others, whether through dialogues, sharing experiences or observing.

In July 2019, I went on a 1 year maternity leave. I returned to work in October 2020 and the whole situation had changed. I was still working at the Learning Zone at CSM, part of the Library Services and I was going into campus every two weeks. We were in bubbles so there were colleagues that I didn’t see at all apart from online meetings. I was so looking forward to share with them my experiences of being a mother but often our timetables wouldn’t coincide.

I think being a student again, especially after Covid 19 brings me a deeper desire to socialise and being with others.

Slide 2 –

My second slide is a presentation of my roles at UAL and myself as an artist.

I started working at UAL in 2016 as Learning Zone Assistant in the Learning Zone at CSM, after graduating from my MA in Fine Art from Chelsea College of Arts.

I learned so much in the Learning Zone and I really enjoyed working there. The Learning Zone is a very informal space, even though has many computers, printers, tables, sofas, etc. Almost a hybrid space between the students´s studio and their home. The students can pretty much do whatever they want to do, in a sense of play, meet, talk, work, watch films, eat, or simply be together. It is a very relaxed place. My role was to support the students with software, mainly Adobe, projects, portfolio, printing or simply to discuss their work.

In January 2020 I started my Associate Lecturer position at Chelsea as community tutor. In collaboration with Ocean Baulcombe-Toppin, we designed and developed community online events for the 1st year students on the BA Fine Art to foster a spirit of community and create opportunities to meet and collaborate. 

At that time my baby was 22 months and I would go to bed really early (I still do) so I could have a good first block of sleep. Because of that, I would be awake at dawn and I remember very fondly running sessions at 7 am GMT on WeChat for example, so students from overseas, in this case from China, could attend. The use of other platforms mean the sessions were more informal and also more people could have access.

As an artist, researching and reflecting while making is very important to me; the key aspects that I am interested to explore in my practice fluctuate between self-healing, image, object, contemporary philosophy, ecology and ontology.

I am a founder member of the artists studio Maxilla Studios (ACAVA) in West London where since 2016 I have been developing work with the local community.

Slide 3

This slide shows a few of my students preparing for their open studios. I am currently Tutor Group Leader at Chelsea on the BA Fine Art.

( I will write about the community workshops in a different post).

Slide 4 and 5

I was drawn to the lesson by Tania Bruguera in the book Akademie X Lessons in Art + Life because I found inspiring the idea of using the time at university as a time to discover oneself, not only our passions but also the things that fright us, or things that we are not so good at. I think about university as a safe place, a place for trying out things.

As a tutor, a role where I totally locate myself, I want to help my students with their practices, I want them to feel safe and have a sense of belonging, I want to ask them the right questions, facilitate discussions among them, make constructive criticism, be fair in their assessments, etc.

The other reason I was drawn to this lesson is because I don’t agree with one of the sentences (slide above). There are one million reasons why the students are not attending the classes, and probably the least probable is because they are not interested in it, especially at the beginning of the year.

It makes me think of the Podcast INTERROGATING SPACES Belonging in online learning environments by Liz Bunting, Vikki Hill and Gemma Riggs. It was mentioned in this first meeting and I had also listen to it last year while I was organising the community events.

Dr. Terrell Strayhorn offers some insight in fostering the feeling of belonging. “one way that we come to believe that we matter and we belong is… in the feedback that we receive from others… If you unpack mattering, what we know is that mattering has four dimensions:

1 people feel they matter when they feel important;

2 they feel that they matter when they know that other people depend on them;

3 they feel that they matter when they experience ego extension, that is other people care about just as much about me as I care about myself;

4 and also people feel like they matter when they command the attention of others”.

Dr. Terrell Strayhorn adds to “Find ways to tell your students that they matter to you. Use their names… make references to previous assignments”. Lastly, he also gives an example of a what a professor did when a student missed their class. This professor writes the student a letter; they send the student a summary of the class and say that they missed the student and that they were really looking forward to hearing their comments about the classes because of the student´s contribution last week. Finally they write ways that the student can contact them.

As a tutor, especially in the first year and in the first term, my approach has been gentle, trying to get to know each other, establish confidence and show them that I care about them.

This matter of belonging raises a few questions in me as an Associate Lecturer. As tutor group leader I want my students to feel that they matter, that I care about them.

Being an associate lecturer I have only so many hours assigned to go to college. A few times during the academic year (not counting with holidays in between terms) the students spend weeks without seeing me. I wonder if there’s a difference in terms of their sense of belonging compared with the students who have permanent members of staff as their tutors, who they see more often?

The session finished with a few suggestions of books that I am really looking forward to read, namely from Paulo Freire and Bell Hooks.