Month: January 2024

Changes in the Process

• I recruited less refugee collaborators than I had initially envisaged
• Two guest speakers couldn’t deliver their masterclasses due to illness, but their collaborators were able to go ahead on their own
• I used only 1 questionnaire (instead of 2), and refined the questions iteratively (thanks to feedback received at the group tutorials)
• I didn’t run a focus group, as I had already collected enough data (as agreed with my tutor)

Experimentation

• Variety of speakers and engagement methods
• Enhanced my flexibility, self-efficacy, resilience

Project’s Strengths

• Rich programme with informative sessions
• Ethical approach to the research, with space for listening
• Bridging diverse cultures and opening up opportunities for collaboration

Challenges

• Some refugee collaborators withdrew from the project due to personal issues
• Inequality between students (participating in this mandatory Unit) and refugees (volunteer collaborators)
• Putting collaborators on the spot using the refugee label
• Student disclosing sensible information about a refugee collaborator
• Dealing with heavy emotions, especially considering the on-going Gaza conflict in the background
• Room bookings in the new LCF campus
• Managing guests arriving at LCF at different times during the lectures
• Heavy workload for me

Time Management

• I conducted participant observations throughout the project
• Unfortunately, I started blogging quite late

Inspiration

• Transformative experience for students (as change-makers) and collaborators (as artists)
• Meaningful and powerful project outputs

Ideas for the Future

• Collaboration with Dr Malé Escalante on the Collaborative Unit for MA students at LCC, and potentially beyond
• Feeding into new international DESIS Cluster and elective unit at LCF
• Collaboration with LCF colleagues to contribute to embedding social purpose in the curriculum
• Feature in symposium (at LCF) and exhibition (at the Barbican) as part of the ‘Decolonising Fashion and Textiles’ research project
• Sharing teaching resources on a potential digital platform
• Future journal article publication

Feedback on the Project

Findings from the analysis of the data collected through the evaluation questionnaire highlighted the success of the project. In fact, 65% of the respondents rated the quality of the project as ‘very good’ and 35% as ‘good’. 55% of the questionnaire respondents agreed that the project met their expectations, and 45% strongly agreed with this statement. More than half (53%) of the people who filled in the questionnaire strongly felt that the project made them feel they have the agency to create positive social change. The project also aided the participants in gaining new knowledge, as evidenced by the fact that 78% of the questionnaire respondents strongly agreed with this statement, and 25% agreed with it. 75% of the people who filled in the questionnaire said that the project made them feel strongly connected to their own and other people’s cultural identity and heritage. Almost everyone (88%) felt strongly that their participation in the project made them become more aware of ethical issues related to designing for social change.

Safe Space

The project participants said that the support received from me and Seher as supervisors, our attitude and tone contributed to creating a safe space when bridging students and refugee collaborators. This was also ensured by the professional, considerate and mature attitude of all those involved in the project. Crucial to creating a safe space was the support that we (as supervisors) offered in handling the ethics forms, and aiding the students in considering the ethical implications of their projects involving refugees. The workshops delivered by Adam Ramejkis on intercultural communication were also deemed very effective in supporting this safe and ethical learning process. The project allowed space and time for conversations amongst team members to get to know each other, share insights on life journeys, and open up to their own vulnerabilities, as part of a transformative experience. As one student said:

“The project did encourage me to open up about my vulnerabilities, and allowed the refugees to speak about their journeys in a safe environment as well”.

The students were constantly reminded to honestly acknowledge their feelings, practise empathy, respect each other, and understand other people’s needs. Although the brief focused on the heavy subject of displacement, one team aptly decided to focus their project on happy memories (related to food) rather than bringing up traumatic memories. In this context, making (arts and crafts) became crucial to creating an amicable space to talk about personal identities, having a common goal towards cultural sustainability.

One refugee collaborator highlighted that the project created a safe space “during the meetings had, but also having a common goal. The honesty of the project members in expressing their feelings made me feel very close”.

Ethical Connections Across Cultures

The analysis of the data collected highlighted that the project successfully connected diverse groups which wouldn’t have otherwise meet, and focused on finding cultural communalities (e.g. based on stories of food) that create a bridge between different worlds.

As stated by one student, the project contributed to “shifting mental spaces towards empathy rather than being scared of learning about other cultures”.

Another student said that the project “removed a lot of stigma I had towards refugees. I even forgot people I was interacting with were refugees”.

As a result, the participants practised empathy for other people’s struggles and respect for diverse cultural heritages. The project created a safe space for respectful and mindful conversations, based on active listening. The lectures, seminars, tutorials, teamwork and student-led workshops effectively contributed to “awakening to the sensitivities and perspectives of other people”, offering tools and approaches to challenge own prejudice and bias.

As said by one student, the project offered “tools and new ways to think without prejudice. Listening became so important, so I definitely feel like this is my approach to work and life”.

Shifting Perceptions and Narratives

The project was deemed as a transformative experience as it exposed students to the realities and hardships of refugees, and contributed to their understanding of the long and challenging process they have to go through in order to get the refugee status and rebuild their lives. The project participants were exposed to a wide range of cultural backgrounds, and understood that people flee their countries for very different reasons (e.g. war, violence, poverty, and so on). As a result, the students showed much more respect for refugees, in light of the challenges they face. One student stated:

“A lot of things have changed since this Collaborative Challenge has started. The main lesson I learned was that we should always be thankful for whatever we have in our life, and we should work towards a better future”.

Understanding the hostile environment for refugees in the UK contributed to inspiring an activist mindset in students, who became more committed to advocate for positive policy change. Through their participation in the project, the students understood the need to challenge the stigma associated to the refugee label (e.g. often used to describe people seeking jobs or lacking something). Instead, the project brought to light that refugees had successful lives in their countries, and yet face many barriers to integrate in society.

One student said to have “learned that refugees are delicate yet more resilient than the average human, and that their strength is something to learn from, and embody as individuals”.

The project also highlighted the complex and multi-layered identities of everyone, especially refugees, whose identity shifts as they rebuild their life in the new place of resettlement. Through this project, the students played an active role in celebrating the talents and aspirations of refugees, as well as their diverse approaches to fashion, their identities and heritages, which can bring a positive contribution to a society, making it more diverse.

Privilege, Prejudice, and Power Dynamics

Throughout this project, the students challenged their own ego, considered the power dynamics at play in collaborative processes, and shifted their roles (from students to facilitators of co-creation). In this regard, one student said:

“As a student at LCF and in life one must put aside the sense of self and ego, and open-mindedly behave like a sponge and be welcoming to new perspectives that may not be something one is familiar with”.

Findings from the data collected through this project also highlighted that nobody is equal, and there are imbalances even between home and international students. Nevertheless, the students approached the project with an open mind, engaged in critical reflection, practised empathy towards others and respect for diverse and new perspectives. In particular, the sessions on ethical storytelling and campaigning contributed to making the students aware of their own bias, constantly reminded them of their privilege, and highlighted the importance of acknowledging our own positionality when listening and speaking to others. Findings from the data collected through the questionnaire highlighted that active listening was crucial for this collaborative project in order not to impose own beliefs and design ideas, and to not elicit triggering memories. As stated by one student, this entailed:

“Listening with mind, not just with ears”.

As a result of this collaborative project, all the participants learned about other people’s views and journeys, and designed artefacts and campaigns that represent diverse perspectives. In this regard, one refugee collaborators said:

“I found the existing differences of opinion very natural and the way the team dealt with them very mature”.

Decolonising Design

Based on feedback received, the project contributed to decolonising dominant design practices. Such an approach was based on a listening-first perspective, as well as unlearning inherent knowledges and relearning new viewpoints. The students looked up non-Eurocentric artists to inspire their designs, got consent from their refugee collaborators, and drew from UNHCR, the Good Trade Model of Opportunity Employment, and the 6 pillars of social innovation as models of empowerment of their refugee collaborators. They worked towards decentring language, going beyond English, and allowing their refugee collaborators to speak in their mother tongues and customise the artefacts using a plurality of languages and techniques. With the view of developing projects which are not merely led by students representing a Western institution but embracing a plurality of knowledges and approaches, this decentred process entailed “working in solidarity ‘with’ refugees rather than assuming an ‘helper’ attitude”, as stated by one student. The students critically reflected on the meaning behind the artefacts they designed, in order to produce authentic outputs, and were mindful of how best to represent and credit the refugee collaborators.

Transformative Learning

The data analysis revealed that one of the outcomes of the project was the development of a wide range of skills (such as critical reflection, ethical thinking, listening and communicating, teamwork, systems thinking, project planning, time management, problem solving, creativity, design and making, workshop facilitation, negotiation, film making, advocacy), and the learning of new methods and techniques (e.g. interviewing, sewing, embroidery, etc.). The project participants also developed new personal qualities, such as empathy, patience, flexibility, professionalism, and punctuality. One refugee collaborators stated:

“I improved a lot of skills in myself, like communication, teamwork, and finding mutual goals while we stay creative”.

Limitations

The main issue raised by most of the questionnaire respondents was related to the “tight timeframe” of the Unit and its “fast pace”, which didn’t allow enough space for the project development. While the length of the Unit is a larger issue which I have limited influence over, the students argued that they could have been reminded about it more explicitly at the outset of the Unit, in order to be better supported in shaping more feasible projects given the time available. Some students also raised issues with timetabling, as some of the planned workshops clashed with other lectures they had to attend for other Units. The students also deemed challenging to find suitable times in which all team members could meet and work on their collaborative projects, given that they came from different courses and had very different schedules. While the students really liked the masterclasses and found them “very inspiring and educative”, they suggested planning all the sessions earlier on, in order to better inform their choice of the sub-brief (artefact, storytelling or legacy) and inspire their project development.

A key issue which was raised through the evaluation questionnaire was that the relationship between students and refugee collaborators was not very clear. In fact, while the students were undertaking this project as a mandatory Unit as part of their Masters, the collaborators were volunteering and perhaps some of them didn’t commit to the projects as much as the students were expecting. While this is a valid point, I would not feel comfortable pushing the refugee collaborators to attend all the sessions, especially considering the significant challenges they face in their lives, I could in the future involve more people so that each team has more than one collaborator. This (i.e. having two refugees per team) is something I had planned initially, but unfortunately the participant recruitment process was not as successful as I wanted. Although the students appreciated the connections I made with refugees and my invitations to participate in the student-led workshops, some teams didn’t get many participants, and they suggested more time was needed for recruiting more people. Another valuable suggestion made by one student was to enable collaboration with students from other disciplines (e.g. studying public policy) in order to better inform the designs and make the projects more realistic. I would like to implement this idea in the future, although I acknowledge the difficulty of collaborating with other institutions due to tight timetables and differences in curricula and learning outcomes. To some extent, I am already doing this, by collaborating with Dr Malé Escalante who is setting up a related project brief for the Collaborative Unit to be undertaken by MA Service Design students at LCC in the Spring term. Finally, the students raised issues related to collaboration; they suggested more support from the supervisors was needed to ensure all team members equally engage in teamwork, and that communication amongst team members goes smoothly.

Recommendations for the Future

The analysis of the questionnaire responses revealed some valuable recommendations for the next steps of the project. An interesting suggestion was to invite people with lived experience to provide students with feedback on their projects, but also to encourage community members to lead on the implementation of the concepts designed by the teams. In fact, one student said:

“This project is very cool, but it is in a way a safe bubble. Most of us share similar views, so it could be interesting to invite people from outside the bubble for sharing some real life feedback”.

As recommended by one student, it would be valuable also to show the project outputs to policy makers in order to influence policy change. This is something that Citizens UK is willing to do, and they are already in contact with the students – e.g. to support their existing free bus campaign for asylum seekers, or advocate for better safety for LGBTIQ asylum seekers in contingency hotels. The students are also aware of the need to refine their artefacts (making them more aligned to people’s cultures and less generic, and develop physical and digital outputs for greater dissemination), improve the outlined enterprise model, collect more stories of refugees and produce further campaign videos, and develop social media campaigns and exhibitions for promoting the projects. In this regard, I am already planning an exhibition to be delivered at the Barbican in July, to showcase the students’ projects alongside the outputs of my larger research project.