It wasn’t that long ago that I was a student, so the whole process of going back into full-time or part-time education did not feel that daunting. I think the one thing that I completely forgot about was the full scope of reading academic papers that can be sometimes laced with Socratic dialogue that feels almost impermeable. I think that having dyslexia and dyspraxia I underestimated my comprehension of reading academic papers. The process of reading the articles proved to be more frustrating as I had to read over the papers numerous times and then, verbally articulate it to myself conversationally to make sense of what was written. I have been looking at the upcoming weeks and I think that the idea of presenting has made me a little anxious. I think on paper I feel completely fine but, sometimes presenting can present some difficulty when words you use in your everyday vernacular looks and sounds foreign. I was reading an academic sparks journal: On the spectrum within art and design academic practice Luca M. Damiani, Media Artist, and Associate Lecturer, BA (Hons) Graphic and Media Design, London College of Communication, where the artist and lecturer Lucia. M. Damiani talks about being an academic professional and artist, and how it interlinks with her diagnoses with Asperger’s; on the autism spectrum, neurodivergent thinking.
Neurodiversity…? Figure 1: Luca M. Damiani, My Neurological Interconnections, remix of neuroscience test-study diagrams (2017)
Reading the article, it was interesting learning about other aspects of your everyday senses changes as result of having a learning disability. I knew that that the brain differs in terms of how neurons are connected and effects how it may sometimes effect communication depending on your diagnosis, but I was unaware with the extensive areas effected “which brings differences in thinking, in seeing, in filtering, in analysing and responding to what surrounds us (i.e., sound, smell, light, colours, space, images, data, objects, etc). These differences in thinking affect aspects of perception and interaction, such as learning, literacy, speech, socialising, communication, relationships, talents and the ability to focus and concentrate” – (Daminai, p17,2018). I came across Luca M. Damiani, artwork titled: My Repetitive Coping Patterns (2017) where she talks about her coping strategies and how I could inherently use my disability to construct and create a way of dealing with the anxiety around speaking and presenting whether digitally or physically. This made me think about my experience in higher education and how this may or may not have affected my participation in tutorials, crits and how my peers may have viewed this. I also thought about how dialogue, which is a powerful tool in terms of communication, would have been for multilingual, overseas students and reflectively the type of conversations we had and what discussed. This related to the introductory lecture we had at the beginning of the year, which developed into other areas of interest and research.
During the first introduction lecture with Victoria Odeniyi, HE researcher, presents the Reimagining Conversations research project, looking at the multilingual student experience at UAL I never thought about how silence constituted more a difference or the use of colloquial language. I think that it resonated, also being bilingual, how I thought about communication and its importance in articulating myself. I Looked at the internationalisation of East Asian students, research paper so I thought about BAME students and how differences in our educational heritage constituted silence. The main differences illustrated in Victoria’s lecture and from what I found out from reading numerous research papers there was secondary research into:
- Exploring the difficulty of reading body language in another culture.
- Attitudes towards international students
- The misinterpretation of silence
- Assumptions about criticality
Which provided the basis for a deeper framework for discussion.
The lecture by James Wisdom, HE consultant, on The Context of Higher Education made me think about the polarisation of education which was incredibly important in understanding a false meritocratic system employed within the education system. Although there was a lot of data, I think that it did not fully represent ethnic minority students who do not benefit from the education system in comparison with their white counterparts and who ultimately become the pawn in the deeply institutionalized racial system of the cultural majority. Reading books such as:
- Natives, Race and class in the Ruins of the Empire
- Pedagogy of the oppressed
- Black and British: A Forgotten History
What is evident is that ‘BAME’ students even through the education system are further marginalised and still end up being disenfranchised. The colonial chancery of colonial attitudes still present in all institution’s is still politically rife and either through wilful ignorance, blindness or sheer ignorance it remains unchallenged. It made me ask the question – “If the cost of going to university represents the earning lost by the students whilst learning, when race, class, gender comes into place it does not fully represent the realistic nature of employment discrimination and that opportunities are given to white men and women. Diversity becomes subject to institutional mandate used as a useful recruitment tools, that offer and enables colleges / Universities to demonstrate their inclusivity to diversity.
Therefore, the earning potential of ethnic minorities is considerably lower. So, who really benefits from the education system ?
Bibliography
- Akala, Natives, Race and class in the Ruins of the Empire, Two Roads, 2019
- Vol 3 / Issue 1 (2018) pp. 16-25 Spark: UAL Creative Teaching and Learning Journal On the spectrum within art and design academic practice Luca M. Damiani, Media Artist and Associate Lecturer, BA (Hons) Graphic and Media Design, London College of Communication)
- P. Friere, Pedagogy of the Oppressed, Penguin Classics, 2017
- R.E. Lodge, Why I’m No longer Talking to White People About Race, Bloomsbury Publishing, 2018
- Vol 3 / Issue 1 (2018) pp. 26-32 Spark: UAL Creative Teaching and Learning Journal Citizens of somewhere: How a cross-cultural discussion group offers opportunities for intercultural understanding Sarah Macdonald, Academic Support Lecturer, London College of Communication
- D. Olusoga, Black and British A forgotten History, Macmillian, 2016
- Y.Adegoke, E.Uviebinene, slay in your Lane, Fourth Estate, 2018