My data collection tools where live workshops embedded into projects and interviews with print technicians and Academic staff involved. I identified the following ways of analysing the data collected:
- Field Notes and Observations: observing from both workshops, making notes.
- Thematic analysis of interviews: with Technical print staff, Academic staff and Line manager.
- Co-Authorship with Technical: collaborating, planning and reflecting with print technicians.
- Field Notes: Getting myself into the role of tutor and also observer for the session required me to step back from my usual role to embody the role of the researcher. I constantly observe when I teach, but this time it was more intentional and I undoubtably missed things. “In everyday life we take for granted, hence rendering invisible, the very things that would be relevant to the observer.“ (Tjora, 2006)
Bearing in mind that “Field notes are encoded with author’s conscience, understandings and interpretations” (Coffey, 1996) These where things that I observed:
Tjora (2006) talks about “bracket one’s own knowledge in a somewhat extreme manner and apply an “extra – naive” metaphor” – in this case Im mixing mundane naive observation with my experience of teaching to make my observations and use them to proceed with the APR. This observations are through the lens of my own biased experiences, and would not be complete without speaking to other people that were present. Because I use print to teach and in my own practice, I am biased towards if the workshop was useful or went well.
2. Thematic analysis of interviews:
After the interviews there is a clear sense from staff wanting to collaborate, but the lack of course wide policy is an obstacle – the increase of student numbers is something that everyone is finding challenging.
Themes that emerged:
Large cohorts: numbers are not going down, so shifting the way we teach and deliver technical resources has to adapt. This includes how to expose more people to technical areas at the same time – doing in session workshops is a model that is worth looking at. How feasible is it?
Ambitious scale: larger student numbers can mean more ambitious ways of applying print – rather than think about how to solve bespoke projects, are there ways of writing projects that incorporate print at a large scale? collaboration between students (or even pathways) can shift the usage of print from bespoke and editions to scale and visibility
Management intervention (show don’t tell): shifting cultures in management can only happen through evidential examples – if we run workshops that show the ambition, there is a higher chance that changes can be considered. My line manager mentioned that she couldn’t see what the students did, she was not on the ground floor, but at management level people had taken note of the model.
3.Co-Authorship with technical:
Crafting workshops in collaboration through conversation and understanding both technical and academic needs. how can we make this meaningful for both? We Identified the most popular print methods that needed to be “inducted”. It was important that the workshops where embedded into the project to deepen the leaning – according to the technicians, inductions can sometimes not be effective because students don’t retain the information. By linking them to a project, students understand the process in context. technicians were invested in having students learn to use the print methods in a more meaningful way.
Conclusion:
From my point of view, There are things I would like to try out after this ARP. Ive opened my approach to teaching by wanting to do more collaborative projects with technical and not just print. Im currently arranging access to other technical areas that could use similar models of accessibility. One of the things I Like about teaching Foundation is that it is only 1 year long, making the turnaround faster and the delivery dynamic – we can re-evaluate every year and try things (if it doesn’t work, we can change it!)
References:
Tjora, A (2006). writing small discoveries: an exploration of fresh observer’s observations Qualitative research.
Jones, L. (2010). documenting classroom life: how can I write about what I am seeing? Qualitative research.
Coffey, A. (1996) ‘The Power of Accounts: Authority and Authorship in Ethnography’,
Qualitative Studies in Education