Comments and Feedback from Verity Cleary: Specialist Costume Technician, Performance Programme
(Notes taken during an in- person meeting at CSM on 27/06/2024 at approx. 12.00pm)
- Verity commended the visual and interactive elements of the process
- She noted the way in which this would encourage critical reflection
- Verity pointed out that the traffic light system would not be suitable for colour-blind students!
- The potential for individual identity and the voice of the technical staff to be heard within this process was of interest, and she wondered if the student voice could be brought in too.
- Suggested that this could also be used in relation to very specific curricular projects, as a reflective tool
- Verity suggested pushing the embodied process further, and making it a tactile process.
- Verity wondered how the will the modifications and changes be actioned more specifically.
- In noting that this process is about changing the aims of a risk assessment, she commented that it is a ‘re-definition of the tool’.
Comments and Feedback from Michael Ste-Croix: Technical Manager, Performance Programmes
(Notes taken during an in- person meeting at CSM on 27/06/2024 at approx. 12.00pm)
- Michael immediately looked to the transferability of the idea, and the ways it could be used for events and performances as well as for spaces.
- Michael initially understood the idea as a broadening of the idea of risk that includes physical hazards, as well as issues of access. I found this interesting in that I have previously thought of it as a separate process, in addition to risk assessment.
- Michael wondered if, in relation to his earlier comment, it could be used by the students themselves, as part of their process.
- Michael suggested that the process would benefit from being even simpler, and transferable, to make it easier to understand, and useful to more people.
- He suggested that his own intervention design could be used in conjunction with mine.
Reflections and Moving Forwards
Critical Pedagogy
This intervention should be as Verity says, a ‘redefining of the tool’. Currently, risk assessments are for the institution, in order to lawfully protect it from accusation, and abide by its duty of care. What if a risk assessment was for the student, and for social justice? This approach is, as Miriam suggested, very much one of critical pedagogic practice (Friere, 1970), and I am interested to see how this re-framing will affect the design and process.
Design
Verity immediately pointed out, in relation to the inclusivity of the design, that some students are colour blind. So, even though both risk assessments, and the traffic light system we use across the college in our workshops for machine safety use this system, it is inadequate. Verity raised this, because she has had experiences in the workshop and studio environment with students who are colour-blind. This is one example of how the experiences of technical staff, and wide communities of pedagogic practice are invaluable in the process of designing tools for the development and improvement of learning spaces. I will also reconsider the design of the process of assessing – could it be more tactile, as verity suggests, and could it be simplified, as Michael suggests.
Transferability of the Template
As Michael suggests, this could be a transferrable template, used in more than just spaces. Like the model of risk assessment is used as it stands, it could be used a bit like an ethics form – a parallel Miriam also drew. This relates to an intervention another technical colleague is deigning (Faust Penyra) relating to his initial meetings with students about the staging of their work. In this instance, Faust, as technical manager, may request that they complete a risk assessment. However, if a risk assessment which was more expansive were to be used I this scenario, it would allow the ethics and possible damage caused by performing something which is, for example, racist or discriminatory, to be looked at, considered, and reduced or managed in some way. It would create space and time for those conversations, and provide a framework for them. This may well be something that already exists in the sphere of the academic, and in conversations between academic staff and students.
Diverse Identities and Identity Threat
Verity was very interested the power of bringing in individual identity, and the ways in which this would provide space for voices to be heard. We discussed at length, that it might be most useful as a cumulative process, and ideally it would platform the technical voice, and/or the student voice. We then discussed the conundrum of wanting the space to be ready for students before they enter it, and how it can be vulnerable, and a barrier to have to reveal your identity, and ask for help (Thomas, 2022). This is a dichotomy which continues to emerge.
Additional Tools
Michaels rubix cube (Figure 1) is of interest in that it could be used in order to generate imagined identities, in a very similar capacity to the first part of Thomas’ persona pedagogy process/activity (2022), alongside my risk assessment, which is essential a scenario based activity. However, it may end up being too simple, and also still has the same potential to perpetuate unhelpful stereotypes, due to the biases of the person embodying the persona, which is not theirs, and not real (Thomas, 2022). However, though it is useful to think critically about the possible barriers a space might present for others, this should not replace the involvement of real, lived experiences being represented.
Figure 1
Action
I also took away from this conversation, a need to focus on the outcomes and actions. How will they be recorded, kept, and presented? How will change be affected? I will also reconsider the design of the process- could it be more tactile, as verity suggests, and could it be simplified, as Michael suggests?
References
Freire, P. (1970) Pedagogy of the Oppressed. New York: Bloomsbury Academic
Thomas, C. (2022) ‘Overcoming Identity Threat: Using Persona Pedagogy in Intersectionality and Inclusion Training’, Social Sciences, 11(6), pp. 249. Available at: https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci11060249 (Accessed: 5 July 2024)