Author: Francesco Mazzarella

Introductory presentation on ‘Decolonising Fashion and Design for Cultural Sustainability with Refugee Communities’.

For the micro-teaching session, I drew upon my current participatory action research project ‘Decolonising Fashion and Textiles’ in which I am engaging London-based refugees and asylum seekers in a reciprocal process of making and learning, through fashion and textile heritage. I chose this activity as I am planning to set up two students’ project briefs related to this research. Moreover, the focus of my micro-teaching was well aligned with UAL’s commitment to decolonise the curriculum, and resonant to some of the issues and questions raised by John Holmwood in 2008 in his paper on “Race and the Neoliberal University”, highlighting our personal responsibility to challenge the capitalistic system of current education.

For my micro-teaching session, I set up the following (flexible) plan: introductory presentation (5 minutes); drawing activity (5 minutes); collective sharing (5 minutes); Q&A (5 minutes). My micro-teaching created a safe space to make myself vulnerable as a Lecturer and share the challenges that I have also faced throughout my migration journey, and an opportunity to build empathy with the participants. Although the others liked how I created a quiet and safe environment for them to engage in purposeful making and sharing, I acknowledge that I could have simplified the session plan and crafted more time for the tasks and for a more in-depth conversation focused on the challenges and opportunities faced in decolonising design.

My micro-teaching created a safe space to make myself vulnerable as a Lecturer and share the challenges that I have also faced throughout my migration journey, and an opportunity to build empathy with the participants. Although the others liked how I created a quiet and safe environment for them to engage in purposeful making and sharing, I acknowledge that I could have simplified the session plan and crafted more time for the tasks and for a more in-depth conversation focused on the challenges and opportunities faced in decolonising design.

Throughout the day – delivering teaching in front of others, whilst also observing them, and engaging in their teaching activities – made each of us feel vulnerable. However, our tutor had a special ability to create a safe space in which we all felt open to take risks, try out new techniques, and navigate challenging circumstances (e.g. technical difficulties and time constraints). The diversity in pedagogic approaches was commendable, and I was inspired by each and everyone. While I think I was well organised, going forward, I intend to try out more embodied practices, include practical making activities, and create more space for deep listening and heartfelt reflections.

In this blog, I reflect on my learnings from the PgCert workshop on teaching artefacts. For this workshop, I chose the Assessment Brief for the Research Proposal unit which I teach across MA courses at LCF. The Unit exposes the students to a wide range of methodologies and methods and supports them in designing their Masters research projects. At the end of the Unit, they are required to write a proposal for their Masters projects, outlining their aim and objectives, contextualising their research, explaining their methodological choices, and including their ethics forms. The Assessment Brief informs the students about the Learning Outcomes (Enquiry, Knowledge, Process, Communication, and Realisation), and the holistic type of the formative assessment, amongst other important elements of the Unit.

Based on feedback I received, I will add hyperlinks to previous years’ examples into the Assessment Brief. I may also invite ex-students to share their experiences, and introduce informal open days for current students to receive feedback on their work in progress. I was also inspired to move to holistic assessment and ask the students to submit not only an essay but also a portfolio documenting their research process and critical reflection on the suitability of different research methods to their projects. I also liked the suggestion to co-design the assessment by inviting others (e.g. Course Leader and External Examiner) into the formative assessment.

The group discussion also reminded me of the importance to think about the individual student journey, but also to add some points for exchange amongst students. Padlet or blogs could be used to help students use their experiences as a starting point for their personalised learning journeys, to then define the research problem they want to focus on and write their own project briefs. It would be interesting to test the brief by gathering feedback from relevant industry professionals as potential future employers. I was also reminded of the importance to simplify the jargon of the brief, present it at the initial lecture, and add a glossary of terms to unpack key concepts; this is something I have already worked on. A good practice would also be to add visuals or a video explaining the learning outcomes. In fact, as highlighted by John Biggs in his book “Teaching for Quality Learning at University” (2003), it is fundamental that students know what they have to do in a course, and this can be ensured not only by framing clear learning outcomes, but also through briefings, meetings, and other supportive learning scenarios.

A quick snapshot on myself, my teaching practice, my pedagogic approach, and some open questions.

The introductory workshop in the PgCert provided me with an opportunity to meet other UAL colleagues who are undertaking the course with me. I really enjoyed the introductory presentations, as I learned about diverse pedagogic practices across the Arts and Design. We discussed the need to customise the learning experience for students, the importance of the layout of the classroom, and a compassionate approach to pedagogy, especially towards students with disabilities. My presentation focused on fashion design education and social justice. I referred to a paper from 2019 in which Tanveer Ahmed presents the concept of anti-fashion (i.e. all forms of fashion outside of the hegemonic capitalistic system) and highlights the need to integrate multiple perspectives and knowledges in the fashion system, going beyond the practice of ‘othering’ marginalised groups, and overcoming the binary between modern Western and traditional non-Western fashion design practices. The questions I posed to the group were amongst the most popular, and I was invited to chair one of the three breakout room discussions. We questioned how design students can evolve traditional clothing practices without engaging in cultural appropriation practices. We discussed the tension faced by designers being ‘parachuted’ into communities and argued for the need to facilitate co-creation processes. We highlighted the challenge of engaging all students equally and in meaningful ways, encouraging them to bring their lived experiences into the learning process, by setting up briefs that are localised, and allowing for diversity within them. Overall, my question ‘how could fashion design education address European colonialism, economic and environmental exploitation, and social injustices’ is still open for exploration, and I will continue to reflect on it throughout my PgCert and teaching practice.