I joined CALD’s Research and Publications Project with the idea of co-creating a blog post with Pre-Sessional 10-week students for publication on the CALD blog. I was originally interested in “students as agentic actors rather than objects of research” (Charteris, 2020), so I hoped that meetings with the students would suggest the topic of the blog post and provide pedagogical insights to research further. This research idea evolved through a blog post I had co-authored with PS6 students in 2021, as well as in discussions with Kevin Haines around contextualising the idea broadly within Students as Partners research, among other critical perspectives.
an-interview-with-anya-pavlova-rp-2022-donna-maclean-et-al.-1
The reality of conducting research during a disruptive summer of heatwaves, Covid outbreaks and intense study for the students necessitated an agile approach to co-creation. Below is a journal entry from my first meeting where I pitched the research idea to potential student participants. It illustrates a key consideration for the project:
12.07.22. First contact.
The students were hot, and eager to get away from my project proposal. Some feigned invisibility. I sought to reassure them and explained again that the project would consist of just three 45-minute meetings.
“But how long are the meetings?” Asked a student after listening carefully and nodding.
I was thrown, but explained again calmly, “45 minutes.”
“But how much time is that?” Asked another student, concerned.
I said, “Three meetings of 45 minutes”.
“But will it take a lot of time?” an interested student looked up and enquired earnestly.
“45 minutes”.
“Yes, what about the time. Is it a lot?” Agreed another student, looking at me equally earnestly.
Behind me on the 85 inch screen, in size 56 font, it read “This will not take a lot of your time. Three meetings of 45 minutes”. The timetable was explicit.
Profound student anxiety about time was interfering with the ability to comprehend language. Time stared them in the face, amorphous, blind, infinite, without frontiers. We were looping. Answering the question was a return to the question. It was not what they were asking me.
“You can withdraw from the project at any time, if you feel you don’t have time,” I offered.
“Ah, ok.” “Oh yes.” “Ah.”
This was repeated, translated, repeated, shared and understood. Breakthrough.
Consent forms were signed. A door was ajar.
After this first meeting, I thought of ways to minimise the time burden for participants. I never ran over time. Several blog ideas emerged from discussions with the PS10 participants, and one was to interview a former IFP student who had already taken and passed the summative reflective presentation assessment they had to submit themselves. This assessment requires students to evidence their development of course ILOs during and even beyond the course of study they have undertaken. Due to the war in Ukraine, Covid quarantine restrictions and the complications of Visa requirements, several of the 2021/22 IFP cohort remained in Bristol during the summer to complete a pre-sessional course. The PS10 students discussed and created interview questions for one IFP student, Anya, who had achieved high marks in the Presentation of Claim, or reflective presentation. With time constraints and heatwaves in mind, instead of requiring all the PS10 participants to organise and conduct further meetings and an in-person interview with Anya, I facilitated this process by interviewing Anya using the students’ questions. The interview is presented in the form of an ‘artefact’, as the subject of the lived experience of artefact creation during PBL (problem-based learning) and ARC/ALC tasks (academic reading/listening circles) on the PS10 course was discussed in detail by the participants in our meetings and will form the subject of a subsequent blog post and further research.
Reference
Charteris, J. Roseanna Bourke and Judith Loveridge (eds.): Radical Collegiality Through Student Voice: Educational Experience, Policy and Practice. NZ J Educ Stud 55, 267–269 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40841-019-00152-1.
Many thanks for sharing this Donna! I really like this idea and it’s good to see some familiar names from the summer pre-sessional. As a teacher I confess that I didn’t get involved, and often failed to remind and/or encourage students to participate. I think if it were written in to the course then students and teachers would get more involved.
Hi Jill,
Thank you for loaning me your group of students! They were all very diligent and creative and it was great getting to know them. That’s an interesting idea, to write collaborative action research into the PS course somehow. I’ll suggest it.
What an excellent, engaging idea! And you describe the students’ “time anxiety” and consequent challenge of co-creation very vividly. It seems it was worth it though, and we have to say thank you for making Anya’s interview artefact available for the IFP too. It clarified the task and many IFP students could connect to the process that Anya describes far more meaningfully than simply reading some elaborate Task instructions on a dead Word document. When is the next co-created blog going to appear? Or is that over to everybody else?!
Hi Nick,
Thank you for these comments, I feel encouraged to keep collaborating! 😍
I found using it in class was very helpful too, as a jigsaw reading. Students had a WIFM motivation to read it, knowing that this was related to a high scoring reflection task.
The next co-created blog is due to appear here around the start of the pre-sessional.
I wonder if your students could co-create a musical text with you? 🎸🎵❔