“Mess tends to have connotations of being sloppy, of not being a good researcher. By tidying away the ‘messy area’, however, we believed that research reports were not only giving researchers a false sense of what participation in research might look and feel like but also were not reporting what we were beginning to articulate as a valuable part of the process itself.” (Cook, 2009)
I feel an impulse to carve a clear path that explains my ARP similar to what we try and teach students: idea generation – research – experimentation – outcome, but now more than ever I can see that its not so straightforward. This project has gone through iterations and has unearthed many issues that can’t be “solved” but can certainly be acknowledged: unfinished building works, large cohorts, accessibility, student backgrounds. Narrowing down ideas was difficult because the issues are all interconnected. Here is where the mess comes in and where I had to identify what thread to pull.
It is Some students first time in UK education system and are not sure what the rules are. Expecting students to always take the initiative is not fair on them. Students that tend to use the print studio are the ones that already feel confident with doing so due to previous print knowledge (in school for example). These are some of the reasons I wanted to conduct this project, the more barriers I can lower, the better.
“in contemporary university, diversity encompasses language, background, ethnicity, class and financial background, age, sexuality, religion, disability, gender, previous educational experience and so on. With this comes a range of abilities, aspirations, motivations and behaviours…” “For these reasons, those of us responsible for teaching in higher education cannot make assumptions about the previous experiences and expectations of our students” (Bamber, 2015)
Students had no knowledge of technical spaces not being open, but they where not getting parity from last year’s cohort. Much of this relies on staff to “make it work” and when the goal posts keep moving, its difficult to plan accordingly. The project went through changes every time I received an email about the state of the workshops. As frustrating as this was, it made the project more focused and relevant – It felt like my project was important in the current climate and this fuelled me to continue.
The most inspiring part of the project was to see that many of my colleagues resonated and supported my ARP – it felt like a team effort and it became bigger than the PGCert. Without the intervention of my line manager, the enthusiasm of my colleague and the generosity of the print Technicians I don’t think it would have been possible. We where making this project work together, and it was benefiting our students noticeably. What could be more inspiring than that?
(From an interview with my Line Manager at UAL FAD) “With so many students on the course, we have been looking in the Illustration pathway for approaches which can introduce processes and open up access to technical facilities to a wider body of students.” (Alexander, 2026)
The interviews revealed that both academic and technical would like more collaboration and can see the benefit of embracing the large cohort. We can write and test more ambitious projects, expand the scope of what can be done with print and embrace collective learning. I am currently planning workshops for part 3 of the course with print staff.
The biggest barrier was shifting the culture of how to access technical. We need a new system that is ours, not a “this is how we have always done it” approach. Foundation has a chance to make something unique to us so why not try? We can look at how other colleges approach this as research, but we should only adopt what works for us. Change is how we keep current and relevant for our students.
An unexpected outcome from the project has been that Technical staff have ran workshops with other Pre-Degree courses. It is a model that has been expanded beyond my pathway and even Foundation. (From an interview with print technician at UAL FAD) “We ran an adaptation for another communication course on the pre-degree course and that was very similar and that went really well” (Davey, 2026)
What started as a way to solve a temporary problem has become something that can be integrated with more intention into how we teach. Its exciting to think that this project could provide insight into these new models of delivery.
References:
Cook, T (2009). The purpose of mess in action research: building rigour through a messy turn. Educational Action Research, Routledge.
Tjora, A (2006). writing small discoveries: an exploration of fresh observer’s observations Qualitative research.
Hackathorn, J. (2011) ‘Learning by Doing: An Empirical Study of Active Teaching Techniques’, The Journal of Effective Teaching, pp. 45 – 60
Bamber, V & Jones, A (2015), Enabling inclusive learning, ch 11, pp 154-168