At the beginning of workshop 2a, we started with five different aphorisms, and voted for one that we most aligned with; ‘Education does not change the world. Education changes people. People change the world.‘1 Paulo Freire, a Brazilian radical educator and theorist’s aphorism gained the most traction, it was his short concise statement that aims to break the onus on the educators themselves, that us as a group of educators felt collectively desperate for the pressure to be taken off, moving away from our roles having a direct impact on changing the world, but instead liked and agreed with the idea that we could change a person or shift their viewpoint and that could then lead to them changing the world in some way. We discussed as a group, Friere’s words and his firm belief that education was a means to building a ‘critical consciousness’ that would enable people to create change in their lives.
My grandmother Jane Ogborn died on January 9th, shortly after I started this Pgcert. She was a life-long educator – her other lives Guardian obituary is linked here. In the days after her death we were inundated with letters and emails from past students and colleagues thanking her and noting how her approach to teaching and reading helped guide them and left a lasting impact. This experience was similar to the first part of workshop 3a where we noted down our understanding, insights and expectations relating to assessment, and then were asked to find common themes amongst them. What stood out for me was how quickly everyone could recall a personal learning experience, evidencing how those takeaways, whether good or bad, stay with us forever. I wrote about my GCSE English teacher Ms Totah, who had a profound effect on me, aged 16, who loved reading and writing but didn’t understand how to get this across under ‘exam conditions’.
Jane had received a letter in December 2021, from one of her past students, who noted she gave her ‘structure and affirmation. I felt that you saw me and that your lessons were a safe escape. I have survived and thrived! It really does just take one person to make a difference and for me that person was you.’ Education can and will always be a means for change.
What does this mean for my own teaching practice? She describes a learning environment as a ‘safe escape’, I see this as directly mirrored in my role, working with and knowing hundreds of students from a diverse range of backgrounds, our spaces are often a safe haven for many. When we feel safe is when we can fully let creativity flow. I feel communities are built here, and whether it is a successful workshop delivery or a silly conversation with students about star signs, I want to them to feel seen.
We can too often find our students become very bogged down and stressed when it comes to assessment criteria, noted here by Phil Race ‘you’re there to learn, they keep telling you, but however much you learn (or don’t learn) it’s what you’re found to have learned which counts. Actually, it’s not quite as simple as that. It’s how well you can show what you’ve learned which counts. Nor is it as simple as that! It’s how well you can get your act together, in the right ways, at the right times and in the right places, to show what you can do with what you’ve learned that counts.‘ 2
This notion of ‘right place, right time’ in terms of assessing made me think about my students, those who I regularly see in the darkroom when they are meant to be in class. As a technician, I don’t do any formal assessment or marking, but have started to see an interesting split between students who, I feel, are here to ‘study’ and students who are here to ‘make and use our facilities’. This is, in part, down to time management, and the allowance given by scheduling. I feel this really highlights a breakdown in communication between academic and technical staff, where, if we knew more about our roles and responsibilities we could work together to harness and help students achieve what they want to within the assessment criteria and framework. As a technician it is really important, particularly for the students sake, that other staff understand what they are actually asking students to do and why.
They may see technical workshops as aligned constructively within their ‘curriculum’, but I always thought gaining technical skills and making should be embedded and at the forefront, not considered an afterthought and a quick off-the-cuff decision made 3 weeks before deadline because the student has seen an image they like on instagram and wants to replicate that. If we are to embrace ‘learning through doing’ then shouldn’t the doing be considered as important as the reading?
I have witnessed this working harmoniously, where I’ve collaborated with academic staff on unit design to help students weave a natural learning skillset enabling them to achieve their goals and hit the assessment criteria, and those students felt most importantly seen as practioners and people, and we felt fulfilled as teaching staff. It is what I hope to bring forward in my discussions with academics over timetabling, as we are finding our students constantly wanting more, but I feel it is important for them to know why they want it and how then best to utilise it.