Peer tutorial with Catherine – 06/11/2024
Following the tutorial with Catherine and my peers, and some time spent considering the scope and timescale, I have decided to shift my research question, and therefore re-draft my ethical action plan. Although the research methods and much of the subject area will remain the same, I have redrafted my Ethical Action Plan accordingly. Despite shifting the focus and subject area, interestingly, much of the form below is the same as the first draft.
In taking a step back and asking a more open question, the subject areas I will need to make sure I have read around have narrowed to the costume industry and sustainability, and costume/performance pedagogy and sustainability.
Catherine’s Feedback: 21/11/24
Flo – thanks for submitting this. We discussed this together in the first tutorial but I acknowledge that your thinking may have superceded the ideas here. Apologies for the delay in getting this written feedback back to you.
You have written a really great rationale for your project here. For your presentation it will be important to augment this thinking with a couple of references that define procrastination, both in a general sense (perhaps something as simple as a dictionary definition?), and also in terms of university learning. Can you find any research that has been done into student procrastination? I did a 30 second search and found this which looks at least to have useful references within it: https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.783570/full
You have a long list of things you want to read about, and possibly this is too long a list to get through by the new year. So my advice would be to focus onto empirical studies that look at what works to combat procrastination.
And yes, read into how to conduct interviews! Svend and Brinkmann are good on this (books in library plus lots of articles online).
Your plan to devise a range of micro-interventions is great. How are you going to document them?
Make sure you do this in a way that is visible or easy to copy onto your blog.
When you say arts-based action research methods, which methods exactly do you mean? Let’s discuss in tutorial this week.
Good that you are checking in with the tutors. Have you also checked in with the course leader that you are doing this? Would be wise.
Have you located and tailored the consent form for your project? Do make sure you ask them to sign it.
Well done for thinking through the ethical parameters of your work so carefully. I look forward to seeing what comes of it over the rest of the term.
Notes on the changes I made/ action points
- Change of question from procrastination to sustainable practices – a question that does not make assumptions about the reasons behind the behaviour, but in seeks to support changing it/ supporting a shift towards more sustainable practices.
- My rationale, and the issues being addressed are very similar, but focussed in on a different subject, and therefore line of enquiry.
- I will continue to read further into research methods. I have taken arts based action research out of the equation, as I had no specific rationale for using it.
- I located the UAL research consent form, using this instead of the one that was later shared on the Moodle page.
- I have narrowed my subject area, and research methods, as advised by Catherine.
- I emailed the course leader of BA (Hons) Performance: Design Practice, and head of performance programmes for their permission to undertake this research. They both consented by email.
ARP 2024-5
Ethical Action Plan 2
Name of practitioner researcher: Florence Meredith
Research Question: How can we support (CSM performance program) students towards more sustainable costume practices?
| What is your project focus? Within my role as a specialist costume technician, I encounter the same issue again and again. Students often leave the realisation of their costumes until the last moment, even if it is a key part of their curricular outcome, coming to myself and my colleagues in a panic a day or two before a show deadline. This not only compromises the quality of the outcome, but often also leads to the last minute purchase of garments from amazon, or the wasting of materials that are bought in large quantities but not tested ahead of time, and therefore go to waste. This issue within the learning environment mirrors and feeds into the existing issues within the wider industry of costume, in which hierarchies that do not prioritise costume dictate the last minute changing/purchasing of low- cost fast delivery items and garments. This also leads to underdeveloped/unfinished work, stress, the students missing out on practical creative processes in which quality critical thinking could be taking place, which all feed into existing inequalities in the attainment gap within UAL. This not only makes it a climate justice issue, but a feminist issue, and a de-colonial issue. Costume practice is often undervalued, seen as insignificant, and possible to do with little or no skill, an attitude stemming from the western European, colonial, patriarchal undervaluing of the the skills required in garment production (and therefore costume), and the modern disassociation of this with real peoples time, skills, and hands in part due to the excessive availability of clothing at low cost. I would like to initially investigate ways of encouraging and enabling students towards more sustainable costume thinking and doing – this includes encouraging them to use the space, receive technical support, and use the resources we create and provide. I would like to do this by investigating ways of improving access, and removing barriers. |
What are you going to read about? Research methods: Interviews Focus Groups Surveys or questionnaires Workshops Subjects: The costume and performance industry and sustainable practices Costume pedagogy and sustainable practices |
What action are you going to take in your teaching practice? Several small interventions, which I would like to review in their design stages through a student focus group and a staff interview, before taking some forwards (then testing and reviewing those). My initial action ideas include (subject to change, dependant on subject reading): – Holding open, costume related workshops or activities which are accessible, (e.g. a clothes swap). Something which invites students into the space, but isn’t attached to a curricular activity. – Creating a charity shop/ sustainable suppliers map – digital or physical, more accessible than our current suppliers lists format (a grid list). – Producing accessible time-planning templates and creative time planning tools. – Communicating mini-deadline reminders, through email or visual display in the costume studio. – Highlighting sustainable practices through email or visual display in the costume studio. |
Who will be involved and how? I would like to interview or hold a focus group with UAL BA performance students (stages 2 and 3 only). I would like to engage UAL BA performance programme students in survey and/or other forms of feedback/data collection in attending a workshop, or interacting with a new resource. I would like to interview one or two UAL BA performance staff (technical, costume). |
What are the health & safety concerns, and how will you prepare for them? Potential health and safety risks in holding workshops in the costume studio – only those who have had a health and safety induction would be able to participate. |
How will you protect the data of those involved? Anonymisation of participants (particularly necessary if this is online) Only collecting necessary personal data Disposing of data as soon as it is not required Storing data in a secure format (locked in a physical drawer, or within a secure, private, password protected digital folder) Making any relevant passages in the blog password protected |
How will you work with your participants in an ethical way? Making sure participants are fully informed of what their participation will mean, and the scope of the project. This may include verbal clarification, and/or interview and focus group pre-amble. Transparency of my own positionality, values, attitudes, motives Voluntary involvement throughout, which can be can be withdrawn at any stage – making this very clear and communicating it regularly Asking for specific consent to use of photographs, names, and/or artworks produced Safe storage and archiving of consent forms and data until it is no longer needed and can be disposed of safely Working with students who are not my tutee’s so that they are not influenced by this, or feel obliged to take part Obtaining consent from course leader and program director of student participants |