For my intervention I want to design a mode of working with a tutor group throughout a year that allows us to hold space for social justice, accessibility and collective care throughout the year.
This has been informed throughout discussions with my colleague Jayoon Choi who co-teaches social justice on the Illustration degree where I currently work and from feedback from other colleagues on the course.
I also want to build upon my blog group partner Kelly Harrison’s work. Kelly is designing an intersectionality visualisation exercise that I would like to incorporate into my intervention.
I still need to write my introduction statement and fine tune the logistics of getting feedback from students, but I feel proud of my idea so far.
Draft:
Step 1: Intro myself and the space to students
Maybe a video?
Or maybe organize an in-person intro.
Step 2: Share draft code of conduct (things that I want to uphold)
Social justice
Anti racism
Pro LGBT space
Neurodiverse and disability informed
Class divides?
Establish brave space as a context for being challenged
Step 3: Option to provide anonymous feedback and ideas (Agency for students)
What do you need in the space to feel seen and respected?
What do you need to feel included?
What do you need to feel confident?
Step 4: Make sure they know it will be read collectively at group meetings and workshops
Allow space for feedback and changes at every workshop
Verbal and anonymous throughout the year
It is ok to opt out from reading aloud but I will make it clear that I will push people to be brave and read together, and asking the group to provide a supportive atmosphere to cheer each other on.
Step 5: At the end of the year, we will compare the original manifesto with the most recent one.
The first film works as a good introduction to the social model of disability. However, when I watch it, I cannot help feeling frustrated at UAL. (University of the Arts London, 2020) The disability service works well at identifying diverse needs of students, but in my experience, there are many students who do not get accommodated appropriately. Mainly thinking about students with overwhelming social anxiety and/or immune deficiency.
My only evidence for this is the students I have met during my 4 years teaching and young people that attend the hybrid art school service that I run called Queer Youth Art Collective. In both workplaces I have met current and ex UAL students who have been unable to fully take part in the courses they were enrolled in. They have been failed by UAL who are happy to put them in debt by charging the full fee without providing the same level of education as other students.
(Photo of me with the 2024 cohort of Queer YOuth Art Collectives group exhibition “Dream This Silly”)
One thing from the other films that really caught my attention was in the third example where Christine Sun Kim mentions “the privilege to be misunderstood” and that “misunderstanding can affect my rights.” (Art21, 2023). Looking at the current climate in the UK this resonates with me. Benefits are being cut and recent changes to the equalities act actively harming trans people in the UK. Now more than ever we need to speak loud and clear in order to educate students, colleagues and people around us about what human rights actually are.
In my institutional teaching practice, my only introduction to better support students is by receiving ISA documents with loose guidelines on how to better support my tutees. But I have never been briefed by a manager around how to best achieve an accessible space or having the limitations for the classroom be fully acknowledged.
In unit 1 I identified issues around noise in our open plan classroom. So, I made plans to better support students with language barriers and students who struggle with sensory overload. The solution in short to this was to provide written workshop guides that can be translated beforehand, designed printouts themed around the workshop (ex a folded zine for a workshop around zines) and stating beforehand to students that they are allowed to use fidget toys and other sensory support tools during class. I want to continue to develop these ideas to include ideas of intersectionality, community care and student agency further in unit 2.
In reflection to this, I am starting to formulate an idea for my intervention. I want to create a teaching manifesto for my workshops and tutor groups, which will help the students get to know me and what I stand for in my reaching practice, while also giving them more agency to shape how we treat each other in the classroom. Instead of only offering students the option to opt out of difficult situations like public speaking or triggering topics I want to give them the responsibility to decide best practice to enable us to overcome these hardships together.
I will design this with the help of my peers and by researching and building ideas around transformative justice into my practice.
Bibliography:
University of the Arts London (2020). The Social Model of Disability at UAL. YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mNdnjmcrzgw [Accessed 19 Nov. 2021].
ParaPride (2023). Intersectionality in Focus: Empowering Voices during UK Disability History Month 2023. [online] www.youtube.com. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_yID8_s5tjc.
Qyac.org.uk. (2020). Queer Youth Art Collective. [online] Available at: https://qyac.org.uk/ [Accessed 2 May 2025].
