Above: Powerpoint slides presented in the peer to peer session - with responses noted
I was nervous about the peer to peer session with Jade, Jess and Daniel. I had met them all previously but we hadn’t actually spent much time together. I had heard both Jade and Jess make comments in the IP sessions, and if I’m honest was a bit in awe of them. Both coming across as well-informed, critical thinkers and articulate experts in their field. I often feel like I’m not upto scratch in terms of thinking critically (imposter syndrome? my brother once described me as being as deep as a puddle. We were teenagers at the time). I have never enjoyed the theoretical academic portion of work in any of the studies I have done. I don’t see it as an area of strength for me.
In my tutorial with Victor. I was pleased with the feedback I received. I was honest with him about my initial intervention piece and how I had asked a friend (with whom I was on holiday at the time – she is a midwife who has a teaching portion within her role) to read it. Her feedback was very direct, she didn’t hold back; she said it was just waffle, focused more on my positionality and she couldn’t understand what I was actually proposing. Hmph. Back to the drawing board (well, iPhone as I decided last minute – stupidly – not to bring my laptop on holiday!) and I critically tore my intervention apart. Putting my practitioner’s hat on, I wrote the intervention as though I were writing a planning design report. I supported my thinking with some research, and ran the new piece through Grammarly to check spelling and grammar structure. And then I tentatively handed it back to my sunbathing friend. This time she said. ‘Well done, very clear & I can understand what you are proposing. Now get me a cocktail!’ phew!
In Victor’s feedback, he genuinely seemed interested in the intervention I had proposed and he gave me insightful suggestions and research to follow up on.
I prepared my intervention piece, ready for the peer-to-peer session, which sadly looked like the world’s blandest PowerPoint presentation.
Jade gave her presentation first, and WOW. It was amazing. The presentation started with her positionality, which clearly set out her personal journey to learning and the connection to her practice. The intervention focused on enhancing the technical handouts that go to students. She was reflective about her practice and had been able to identify where she (and her colleagues) could build more inclusivity within the technical information offered to students. We offered her constructive feedback on testing this – perhaps using anonymous questionnaires to gauge how students felt about the support for technical tasks. Daniel, suggested it might work better as an analogue rather than digital tool and Jess, agreed that students love a handout (my experience too!) but that Jade may want to consider the sustainbility aspect – by only printing out the minimum and laminating them and locating them in clearly visible places in the studio space.
Daniel presented his intervention next. He admitted to struggling with academic references, as he came to teaching through being a practitioner. Dan’s invention involved rethinking a workshop that he delivers to BA students, in which students create a poster. His intervention would include an exhibition of the posters, which he said was difficult to visualise, even theoretically at this point, due to the course moving location, stating that it would be difficult to test (although I believe the intervention can be hypothetical). He included a great range of research and reference points. I think we were all very excited by Dan’s proposal, maybe because he was looking at ways to improve an existing piece of curriculum, and also, he showed outcomes from the previous workshop. Jess made a great suggestion that this could be a ‘guerrilla exhibition’, and leading from that, I suggested that he could pick a location (Peckham? culturally diverse), hence avoiding the uncertainty surrounding where the course would be located. Jade questioned whether there would be great value in the workshop if it was run across the 3 years of the BA, resulting in an evolution of ideas from the same students, enabling them to reflect on how their positionality might change.
For Jess’s intervention, she set out her positionality stating that she actively … TBC
Fig 1. Still taken from Migeul Jirón's animated film, 'Sensory Overload' (2013)
My thinking behind this intervention was primarily driven by a strong commitment to improve inclusivity, which I proposed by redesigning the traditional teaching space layout to create a more inclusive and support the physical learning environment for all, especially those students with invisible disabilities, such as autism spectrum disorder (ASD), ADHD, anxiety, and sensory processing challenges. Drawing from existing research and lived student experiences, I aimed to create a space that supports autonomy and wellbeing, while aligning with contemporary industry practices that acknowledge the impact of space on participation and belonging.
In my practice, I teach Architecture and Spatial Design, and I also serve as an Academic Support tutor at the UAL Foundation. In the 24/25 Academic year, I witnessed (in both roles) a significant increase in students disclosing neurodivergence (often accompanied by physical disabilities). So, wearing the two teaching hats (although I felt like these were the six metaphorical hats, as described by Edward de Bono “a simple, effective parallel thinking process that helps people be more productive, focused, and mindfully involved” firmly in place, when deliberating the intervention I wanted to implement, I had to consider what could be done to improve the learning experience for students within the teaching space.
Within my professional background in Spatial Design, I worked for many years as a workplace designer, a sector I thoroughly enjoyed and learned a great deal about (spatial) ‘need and desire’ from the experience. Although I advocated the ‘redesigning’ of traditional classrooms (a term I find to understate their value to the level of education for FE and HE students) as a significant need for students, I was also aware the intervention would be considered as a radical proposal. Fortunately, I have found one potential opportunity to realise this idea. The UAL Foundation (UAL FAD) doubled its size by merging CSM and CCW foundation courses and relocated us to the LCF site at Lime Grove, beginning in September 2025. This, I felt, was a significant opportunity to see a practical rationale for spatial change to the teaching space.
As the discipline of Architecture and Spatial Design is my specialism, I aimed to examine the layout of the spaces to allow for more fluidity for those with invisible disabilities. This would incorporate more modular setups to encourage movement, choice and small group collaboration, thereby reducing stress and support self-regulation. Applying approaches that have been in use for some time in commercial workplace design is a good place to start reflecting on inclusive teaching spaces. Gail Napell, a sustainability and inclusive design strategist at Gensler, Interior Architecture firm, has answers. ‘Inclusive design makes spaces and places healthier, safer and more convenient for everyone. Inclusive design goes that extra step, to say, “Let’s look at all the aspects of a human being – not just our physical size and shape, but also mobility, age, gender, race, socioeconomic status, cognitive abilities or disabilities.”
Through further research, I became intrigued by the work of Dr Katie Gaudion, Senior Research Fellow at The Helen Hamlyn Centre for Design, Royal College of Art.Her research primarily focuses on how design can enhance the physical environment for individuals with autism. Gaudion has worked on several initiatives that develop tools to connect, communicate, and engage with neurodivergent/autistic people and their support networks, enabling them to be active participants in the design research. Putting Gaudion’s ideas into practice has resulted in a wide range of outcomes, including the utilisation of colour-coded designs with message cards to help neurodivergent individuals understand and interact with sensory environments in the built environment. In the recent webinar Designing for Neurodiversity, hosted by The RIBA Journal, Gaudion opened her talk with an animated short movie, ‘Sensory Overload‘, directed and animated by Miguel Jirón, that was created for Mark Jonathan Harris’ and Marhsa Kinder’s “Interacting with Autism”. Launched in. 2013, the animation ‘gives the viewer a glimpse into sensory overload, and how often our sensory experiences are stretched by everyday life’. Thought-provoking and direct, it acutely addressed issues and responses similar to those of students I witness in my practice. Gaudion advocates for greater guidance through practical aspects, such as lighting, wayfinding (including graphics and signage), materials, finishes, and spatial layouts, to create inclusive spaces.
In her contribution to the BSI’s PAS6463 Design for the Mind, she argues that her guidelines are insightful and shouldn’t be used as a tick-box exercise. Gaudion explored this further with research at the RCA, carrying out a project called Space in Mind, collaborating with neurodivergent staff and students to consider sensory, social and emotional experiences. Overall, the key theme was how to foster a sense of belonging in a spatial context. I agree with Gaudion that inclusive design doesn’t mean you are designing one thing for all, but you are designing a diversity for people to participate with.
Fig 2. Illustrative poster for 'Design for the Mind', and cover of the PAS 6463 (2022), contributed to by Dr Katie Gaudion
One of the key influences on my decision-making process for this proposal was recognising that learning spaces are never neutral – what suits one student will inevitably not suit another. As highlighted in the feedback, spatial design can either facilitate inclusion or reinforce marginalisation. This understanding shaped my efforts to develop an environment that actively invites participation rather than unintentionally excluding neurodivergent learners. I found it particularly valuable to consider how design choices—such as lighting, acoustics, materials and layout—could help reduce sensory overload and foster a sense of safety and comfort.
Feedback from colleagues and peers confirmed that this is an often-overlooked but pivotal area of inclusive design. In the peer-to-peer presentation with Jess, Jade, and Daniel, they highlighted the potential for this intervention to support a wider range of learners than initially anticipated, prompting discussions about the potential for this to become a student-led activity and the need for more considered investigation of the proposal’s scale. My tutor Victor’s comment that the work aligns well with LO4 (Realisation) was reassuring, as it indicated that the intervention was moving beyond theory into thoughtful, practice-based implementation.
A significant challenge I encountered was the lack of a unified framework that combines neurodiversity and inclusive spatial design. While existing guidance from UAL and sector-wide frameworks like Advance HE, and their strategies provide a starting point, I had to synthesise insights from several sources and adapt them to fit and develop the specific needs of my initial thinking for the intervention. This required critical engagement with ongoing debates, around policies concerning, decolonisation of curricula, freedom of expression and EDI policies to ensure that the intervention doesn’t reproduce existing hierarchies or assumptions about access.
Another area of complexity emerged when reflecting on intersectionality. My tutor’s feedback prompted me to think more deeply about how race, gender, religion, or class may interact with sensory needs (Crenshaw). This was a significant moment, as it opened a richer, more nuanced understanding of spatial marginalisation and the potential for exclusion. I now view this as a key area for future development, where user co-design and inclusive consultation processes could help shape more reasonable and unbiased outcomes.
Ultimately, after receiving the feedback, I identified several potential risks. One is the possibility of unintentionally creating separation or division, or an overly controlled environment that could stigmatise some users. As with any proposal to spatial changes, especially within an educational lens, balancing safety and flexibility remains a core concern, and I will continue to iterate on the thinking around the design to maintain user interaction. How would this proposal be achievable? Reflecting and acting on peer feedback suggestions, I reconsidered my approach, and I believe that by offering students the opportunity to address inclusivity as a more challenging but applicable outcome. By generating a questionnaire that can be integrated into a workshop (an icebreaker task, potentially?), students could consider responses from an intersectional perspective to promote inclusivity, considering the types of questionnaires that students could engage with. To include questions such as ‘What space would help you learn and work in the optimum way, respecting everyone’s learning needs? Can you visualise any quick fixes you would want to change in this space? Asking students to record their thinking (activities similar to the IP workshop brainstorming sessions, see Fig. 3) and generate ideas in their sketchbooks, listing changes and making a visual mind-map in response. I would propose that this be done face-to-face in small groups, so that peer discussion can foster debate on inclusivity from their intersectional lens. Allowing students to consider adjustments to the studio space according, giving personal consideration to their comfort and activity needs, thereby granting them agency.
Fig 3. IP Brainstorming session, each of us giving ideas to set standards for Ways of Working
This intervention has highlighted the importance of intentional, inclusive spatial design as a lever for equity in education. I think the feedback I have received has deepened my understanding and provided me with valuable direction for future refinement. In my view, this is fundamental to creating a diverse and inclusive approach that ensures all individual students feel valued, are able to participate fully, and achieve their full potential.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
De Bono, E. (1985). Six Thinking Hats. London: Penguin Books
Sensory Overload (2013). 1 January. Available at: https://cargocollective.com/mibaji/Sensory-Overload-Interacting-with-Autism (Accessed: 15 July 2025).
Neurodiversity & the Built Environment – PAS 6463:2022 (no date) BSI. Available at: https://www.bsigroup.com/en-GB/insights-and-media/insights/brochures/pas-6463-design-for-the-mind-neurodiversity-and-the-built-environment/ (Accessed: 15 July 2025).
Crenshaw, Kimberle’ Williams (1989) “Demarginalising the Intersection of Race and Sex: A Black Feminist Critique of Antidiscrimination Doctrine, Feminist Theory and Antiracist Politics.” University of Chicago Legal Forum 1989:139–67, p. 149
Fig 1. Heterotopia Concept collage, Bella Fula, UAL FAD student 23-24, investigating traditions and cultures, like African scarification rituals, that reflect belonging.
We were asked to review and respond to several sources, from videos to academic papers. I found the sources to be very broad, which, to some extent, confused me about how to approach the content for this blog piece.
From all the source material, I was left with the questions: how does all this material help us learn to embed positive change?
In the paper Racism Shapes Careers Rhiann Garrett explores statistics through intersectionality and CRT. She looks at students who have regularly experienced the impact of white privilege and structure on their career path, finding themselves often overlooked for promotion, asked to undertake extra tasks, and frequently observed by other racialised students. She includes a survey of 22 PhD students, from diverse cultural backgrounds, who recognised that often they might have to ‘give up’ part of themselves to fit within academia, and that one student felt their ‘drive for righteous indignation’ would be eradicated if she were to remain in academia.
The second paper, Alice Bradbury, explores the significance of how the CRT could construct a framework for education policy analysis by investigating early years bilingual learners and how they are assessed. Identifying significant gaps in support for children in the earliest formative education who do not have English as their first language.
In the video ‘The charity turning UK universities woke’, Dr James Orr, professor in Philosophy of Religion and Ethics at Cambridge University, focuses on the inferred influence that Advance HE has on promoting inclusivity, through its Athena Swan and Race Equality Charters and incentivisation schemes and the need to address the existence of systematic racism in academic institutions. Within the context of the video, Orr uses vox pops of students to respond to whether they feel free speech is restricted in higher education. There are some contradictory answers, but most say they don’t believe their right to free speech is limited. But is he asking the right questions?
Of the three video sources, considering racism through different educational ages, the 4-minute Channel 4 short, “The School that tried to end Racism”: I found this the most emotive piece.
Fig 2. Above, The school that tried to end racism; snapshot of start line before questions.
Fig 3. Above, The start line once questions had been asked.
The video starts with a teacher stating that they will be running a race, but the starting position in this race will be decided by a series of questions that the teachers ask. As the questions are asked, some students move forward. But for others, the divide widens, and the inequality of their position becomes clear.
The pupils who haven’t been able to progress vocalise the unfairness, and one pupil turns to his friend, stating that ‘none of us are white’. The teacher then asks if it’s a fair way to start a race. One pupil says he feels alone, another says it’s frustrating that all the white kids are at the front. One (white) pupil recognises that it’s unfair that they’re not all being allowed to start from the same point. Dr Nicola Rollock, Professor of Social Policy and Race at King’s College London, comments in the video:
“People often confuse privilege with being wealthy or being rich, and it isn’t about that; it’s about having to live with the consequences of racism.”
The video was an excerpt of a 3-part documentary that documents a school in South London taking part in a trial on unconscious racial bias. The school was aiming to move away from ‘colour blindness’ as an anti-racism policy.
This is an issue addressed in Reno Eddo-Lodge (2022) ‘Why I’m Not Talking to White People About Race’. She says in a piece she wrote for the Guardian in 2017,
“This emotional disconnect is the conclusion of living a life oblivious to the fact that their skin colour is the norm and all others deviate from it. At best, white people have been taught not to mention that people of colour are different in case it offends. They truly believe that the experiences of their life as a result of their skin colour can and should be universal. I just can’t engage with the bewilderment and the defensiveness as they tried to grapple with the fact that not everyone experiences the world in the way that they do.”
In Asif Sadiq’s TED Talk, he argues that traditional diversity training is biased, stereotypical, and fails to create the desired inclusive and equitable workplace. He considers that education, not just in a conventional classroom but also experiential learning (has he been reading Bell Hooks?), as a whole needs to be critically examined, as it often lacks diverse perspectives and regularly fails to provide representation for underrepresented groups. Different learning styles and neurodiversity must be taken into account to create effective education that leads to meaningful change, he concludes his talk with this:
“ For learning to be impactful, it has to be continuous. It’s for all. Not an Us/ them game. We must own the journey. True change goes beyond box-ticking. “
UAL has generated valuable data on diversity demographics within the university. It has solid policies on anti-racism within the university. Critically, there is some level of box-ticking happening. But it does promote Zero tolerance. I carry this through into my own teaching space; there is no room for racism.
Every year I have a diverse cohort of students from wide cultural backgrounds. In academic year 23-24, I had a young, black male student (from here on in I will refer to him as D). In the early weeks of the course, I could see D was struggling to engage. One colleague complained that he wasn’t doing any work. Why wasn’t he excited to be on the course? My answer was that I wasn’t surprised he might not be enjoying it – how could he? There was no representation for him to be inspired by on the teaching team (We are mostly white tutors). Whilst I couldn’t give D the representation that he desperately needed, I did my best to engage with him and listen to him. I ensured that he had relevant research sources, reflecting the global majority, where he could see there was representation for him.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Bradbury, A., 2020. A critical race theory framework for education policy analysis: The case of bilingual learners and assessment policy in England. Race Ethnicity and Education, 23(2), pp.241-260. Read pages 241-247.
Garrett, R. (2024). Racism shapes careers: career trajectories and imagined futures of racialised minority PhDs in UK higher education. Globalisation, Societies and Education, pp.1–15. Read pages 2-5 & 7-11.
Eddo-Lodge, R. (2017) Why I’m no longer talking to white people about race, The Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/may/30/why-im-no-longer-talking-to-white-people-about-race (Accessed: 14 July 2025).
When I read the question above, I felt a bit overwhelmed. It’s so huge that I asked myself, “Where do I begin?” And I realised that, as an able-bodied (mostly) rational human, I had just identified a very leading question that I imagine most people who have a disability ask themselves all the time. Where do I begin? How do I do this/get there/work this out … It must be endless. The idea that disability is only a visible and/or physical thing is a bias. Disability doesn’t exist as an isolated concept, and everything impacts other things, often unintentionally.
Fig 3; Snapshot of data taken from the UAL Active Dashboards, utterly bewildering categories that offer no clarity.
In the reference pieces we were asked to watch an interview of Ade Adepitan by Nick Webborn. Adepitan considered whether there are opportunities for people, regardless of race and disability. Adepitan, a black, disabled paralympic athlete and TV presenter, was reflective but clear and responded with a challenging question;
“… as a society, do we want to tackle inequality?”
He considered that although inequality has been discussed for many years by successive governments, he has experienced it through an intersectional focus (Crenshaw). He could see (over the last 20 years) that there were multiple schemes discussed and touted, but none of these had come to fruition in meaningful change. He felt that while overt discrimination doesn’t happen, systemic discrimination still exists and is evident as barriers to employment and opportunities.
Fig 2, Installation view of Christine Sun Kim’s “Time Owes Me Rest Again.” (Photo: Hai Zhang. Courtesy the Queens Museum.)
In Christine Sun Kim’s “Friends and Strangers”, she addresses how her disability intersects with her experiences in the hearing world. Expressing her life as ‘one big echo’ and noting that sign language (which she uses to communicate instead of lip reading) is full of echoes, repetition, and patterns, which reflects her experience of growing up deaf. Kim uses diagrammatic art pieces to explore the impact of being deaf in a hearing world. Her path to becoming an artist was not easy, was regularly excluded and told ‘no’ due to her deafness. More recently, having relocated to Berlin and as a mother to a young child, she has experienced a level of support (less cost, free childcare) enabling her to work at a greater scale (spatially), bringing ‘visibility’ to the awareness of how deaf people exist in the hearing world through her art.
In the film, she addresses a presentation with the quote from writer Sara Nović’
“I can one hundred per cent promise that you learning sign language is easier than a deaf person learning to hear”.
Having taught a profoundly deaf student (Male, Asian) on the UAL foundation academic year 22/23) made me reflect on my practice when I saw Novic’s quote, which Kim had presented, and this ties in with the practice of “engaged pedagogy” that I always strive for in my practice. In her book, Teaching to Transgress, Bell Hooks proposes an engaged pedagogy that challenges traditional teaching methods. She believes that education should be a dynamic, interactive process, allowing both teachers and students to be involved in learning and knowledge exchange. She proposes that teachers (tutors, lecturers) must demonstrate some vulnerability to empower students to take risks. With this in mind, I wondered how my student – let’s call them F – could have had an enhanced learning journey. When we (specialist ASD team) knew we would have a deaf student, we met with him to discuss how we could ensure that they would be able to work and integrate in the studio environment. I decided that choreographing how I delivered information to the class was key to ensuring that F – and the other students – would receive instructions and guidance for work. Working in a complex space (columns, room divider furniture) was not ideal. Each session involved logistics: a projector and a secondary screen, both working for digital information, and a whiteboard used for analogue signposting. I would gather students in a centralised seating area so that they could see me and ensure that F had visibility of my face (F does not use BSL, he has a cochlear implant and uses lip-reading), whilst also ensuring I did not have my back to the other students. It was a challenge, and I checked in with F regularly to ensure they understood. F completed the foundation and is currently studying architecture at CSM and reported that their experience was good and enriched by small changes.
With this experience, I regularly question how much further I, and my colleagues, can go to ensure inclusivity in our teaching spaces whilst promoting an improved, enhanced learning experience for those with and without disabilities. This is an area I want to explore further in ARP.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Crenshaw, Kimberle’ Williams (1989) “Demarginalising the Intersection of Race and Sex: A Black Feminist Critique of Antidiscrimination Doctrine, Feminist Theory and Antiracist Politics.” University of Chicago Legal Forum 1989:139–67, p. 149
Hooks, B. (1994) Teaching to Transgress; Education as the Practice of Freedom – Chapter 1, Engaged Pedagogy: p.13-22.
Adepitan, A. (2020). ‘Ade Adepitan gives amazing explanation of systemic racism’. Interview with Ade Adepitan. Interviewed by Nick Webborn for Paralympics GB, 16 October. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KAsxndpgagU ( Accessed April 2025)
Kim, C. S. (2023) ‘Christine Sun Kim in “Friends & Strangers” – Season 11 | Art21’. Interview with Christine Sun Kim. Interviewed for Art21, 1 November. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2NpRaEDlLsI&t=1s ( Accessed April 2025)
Fig 1. Alice Farrow, student, UAL Foundation, 2023-24. Heterotopia Project: A Secular Space
Within my teaching practice, I annually experience students from diverse cultural backgrounds that (mostly) reflect the global majority, including students whose lives focus on their faith or religion. I grew up with a non-practising Catholic father and an atheist mother, both of whom shunned any idea of organised religion and would regularly disabuse me of the suggestion ‘let’s go to church’. (They did enjoy Dave Allen’s take on religion, however.)
I am not religious, but I have close friends who actively engage in Christianity, Islam, and Judaism, and I support them in their choices.
UAL offers support through the Chaplaincy Service and celebrates the UN’s World Interfaith Harmony Week, an annual initiative on ‘Uniting for Peace’, since 2010. The university has five active student societies to support some of the 13 faiths (source).
The UAL EDI 22-23 states that (for staff) the university will.
“Embed a culture of inclusion and respect where staff feel safe to practice their religion and/or belief.”
There is no parallel statement for students. How is this fully inclusive for the students?
While the EDI Annual Report provides data only, the reporting data doesn’t fully reflect an accurate statistical view. Some data the EDI reports on fractional staff, not HPLs or arts temps, and the student data is based on home students only. It seems ‘skewed’ and not truly reflective or even inclusive of the total University population.
There is no suggestion of proactivity. Although the UAL EDI Annual report 2024 reports “We have Multi-faith Rooms at College sites, designed to be used for prayer, personal reflection or meditation” having taught out of several UAL buildings, I’ve observed that there is a lack of easily accessible, appropriate ‘reflection or faith spaces’ available for students in some of the existing UAL building stock *. How do we ensure that students who require greater cultural representation can practice and support their faith and beliefs? A reasonable assumption is that the university would need to improve its facilities and the representation of BAME and global majority teaching staff. The latter is not an overnight solution, and it is one that UAL actively works on.
In Simran Jeet Singh’s video, Challenging Race, Religion and Stereotypes in Classrooms, he states that a significant challenge faced in a diverse classroom is the tendency to club people together, noting that “no community is a monolith“. And that to challenge stereotypes, we (as educators) would be better placed to recognise differences with empathy.
I am keen to support students as individuals. I respect their right to social justice. I find the support from the institution for students who weave their faith and culture to be, at times, less than inclusive.
When teaching students (in 23/24), a group of young Muslims in my cohort found themselves without an appropriate place to pray and innovatively (some might say) used the goods lift lobby, adjacent to the studio space, to pray. I was appalled that there was no other available space for them, and I felt powerless to help them find a more suitable space (and I tried). However, when discussing this with them, their choice of space was clear. It was a mostly unused space that they used during the quietest time of the working day.
As part of my practice this academic year (24/25), I was aware that Ramadan and Eid would fall during term time, which would likely impact students’ focus and attendance. Before Ramadan, I initiated regular catch-ups with the culturally diverse Islamic students who would be observing Ramadan to ensure that I understood how it might impact their studies over the coming weeks. I told my students I (and the teaching team) would support them and made them aware of upcoming deadlines. To enable students to continue observing Ramadan and feel supported throughout their course progression.
Whilst I recognise the university does a great deal of good work in collecting data, for it to be advantageous and impactful, the data could represent the university population as a whole.
The university could consider better platforms for ongoing engagement with student feedback, such as town hall style student forums, rather than the digital student surveys, ensuring students feel heard and included.
A more consistent policy for dedicated reflective spaces to be utilised for multifaith purposes – for students and staff.
* I currently teach at the Archway Campus, and this statement is based purely on my experiences of teaching at that campus.
The intervention I am proposing involves a redesign of the traditional classroom layout to create a more inclusive and supportive learning environment for students with invisible disabilities such as autism spectrum disorder (ASD), ADHD, anxiety, and sensory processing challenges. Traditional classroom settings—with rigid desk arrangements, limited personal space, and high sensory stimulation, such as lighting and acoustics, can pose significant obstacles to meaningful engagement, levels of comfort, and academic achievement for these students.
By replacing traditional rows of desks/tables with a more fluid, modular setup that encourages movement, choice, and small group collaboration. Desks and chairs should be easily movable, allowing students to adjust their personal space based on comfort and activity demands. This approach can reduce stress and supports self-regulation. Applying approaches that have engaged for some time in commercial workplace design feels like a good place to start. Gail Napell, a sustainability and inclusive design strategist at Gensler, Interior Architecture firm, has answers. ‘Inclusive design makes spaces and places healthier, safer and more convenient for everyone”
“Inclusive design goes that extra step,’ continues Napell, ‘to say, “Let’s look at all the aspects of a human being – not just our physical size and shape, but also mobility, age, gender, race, socioeconomic status, cognitive abilities or disabilities.”
Integrating commercial workplace design principles such as designated breakout areas within the classroom to enable small group work, peer collaboration, or one-on-one instruction with teachers/lecturers. These areas have been found (in commercial workspace environments) to promote personalised learning and offer quieter, low-pressure spaces where students can decompress or engage in focused interaction.
Where possible, I would hope to include sound-absorbing materials (e.g., carpeted areas, acoustic panels, fabric-covered or acoustic display boards) into the classroom landscape, to reduce ambient noise, which can cause discomfort for students with sensory sensitivities. Similarly, materials, furnishings and lighting should be sourced to minimise glare, harsh lighting, and visual clutter. A neutral palette (on walls and throughout furnishings) can promote a calmness to the environment, encouraging focus and emotional well-being.
References
Goodwin, M (2020) Making the invisible visible: Let’s discuss Invisible disabilities, ERIC Educational Resources Centre. Available at: https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1294871.pdf (Accessed: 27 May 2025).
Moriña, A. (2016) ‘Inclusive education in higher education: challenges and opportunities’, European Journal of Special Needs Education, 32(1), pp. 3–17. doi: 10.1080/08856257.2016.1254964.
Díaz-Jiménez, R. M., Yerga-Míguez, M. D., Relinque Medina, F., & Granados Martínez, C. (2025). Inclusion pyramid for university students with intellectual disabilities: input from the university community in European countries. European Journal of Special Needs Education, 1–15. https://doi.org/10.1080/08856257.2025.2486534
Jansen, D., Petry, K., Ceulemans, E., Noens, I., & Baeyens, D. (2016). Functioning and participation problems of students with ASD in higher education: which reasonable accommodations are effective? European Journal of Special Needs Education, 32(1), 71–88. https://doi.org/10.1080/08856257.2016.1254962
Moore, E. (2023) Making workspaces inclusive through design, ArchDaily. Available at: https://www.archdaily.com/1002463/making-workspaces-inclusive-through-design (Accessed: 26 May 2025).
You have presented your Artefact as the concept of a workshop on ‘Research Analysis’, that you hope to expand in focus and enable a cross discipline participation. This is an interesting proposition because a wider set of participants can help to bring a broader set of experiences to the conversation. With appropriately scaffolded and unpacked terms this could foster a much more inclusive and diverse space for students.
However, you may wish to consider your definition and application of diversity and inclusivity in this context. There is a deep and long colonial legacy of categorisation as a means of control. How do you intend to challenge this in the practice? How can you bring this more into focus within the activities? Have you considered these terms within the frameworks of Intersectionality and Critical Race Theory?
Additionally, I agree that a supporting ‘contextual bibliography’ would certainly assist in the scaffolding of more inclusive approach to the activity and perhaps will be a space to introduce some decolonial thought into the process. You may choose to consider how ‘inclusivity’ as a term exists as a remedy to ‘exclusivity’ therefore think about what may have been exclusive in this activity in the past and how it could be challenged in your next iteration of the activity.
Finally please find some further questions as provocations to support your evolution on this unit, with what we hope to be supporting resources:
How can you signpost and unpack the deeply entrenched terms within Architecture? Here is a resource with expansive additional and contextual reading lists –
This is a term I use regularly use in my teaching on the architecture and spatial design specialism. Often referred to as a point of reference usually connected to an object or site that acts as a catalyst to ignite or investigate an idea, theme, or approach.
I was confused with this not being an architectural project and the familiarity of my own understanding of the term. This left me feeling unconfident in generating a stream of thought that would be contextually relevant.
Talking to my peers and teaching colleagues, I took time to consider ‘artefact’. On part 3 of foundation, all students undertake a self directed project, with a focus on generating significant research to underpin themes & ideas. I recently delivered a workshop ‘Research Analysis’. Reviewing it I considered that this workshop has potential to focus on inclusivity at its core.
The workshop acts as a guide to techniques for organising, analysing and reflecting on research with the aim of developing thinking and ideas; with the students working in groups. Using visual research that students bring to the session, students are placed in groups where there are similar themes, for example: Social Engagement, Environmental etc. The students mix up their research (images) and as a group reorganise the research using a variety of different sub-themes. The activity is then student led and they record all their outcomes on workflow.
Reconsidering this workshop, the briefing would emphasise diversity and inclusivity (D&I) with a contextual bibliography to research as pre-task to support their themed approach. The research analysis workshop exercises and techniques – which are often ‘knolling’ (a type of organising)– to result in more engaged peer activities and would hopefully impact discussion to ensure more insightful debate. A think-rethink approach.
Some students (on the ASD pathway) were already engaged with programs that held inclusivity at their core (eg, projects for Alzheimers patients, community and faith spaces, young people with mental health issues, spatial experiences for neurodivergent people – all these projects were generated by the 22-23 ASD cohort|) but the activity could be done cross disciplinary at the beginning of projects. I would want to develop this and integrate this into the Part 3 of FAD+ summer school and foundation next year.
Bibliography
Watts, C, (2022) How to Promote Equality, Diversity & Inclusion in the Classroom
https://www.highspeedtraining.co.uk/hub/classroom-equality-diversity/#:~:text=Promoting equality, diversity and inclusion in the classroom helps to,they feel safe and secure
Ofsted, (2019) Education inspection framework Equality, diversity and inclusion statement
This session I knew would be a really important one for me, given that we would be covering the ‘case studies’. But first we started about understanding reflection.
We worked in groups (Myself, Sakiko, Dee, Mathew) we were presented with a series of academic texts that we should each research, evaluate and reflect upon. I took the ‘Moon, J. (1999). Reflection in Learning and Professional Development : Theory and Practice. Abingdon: Taylor & Francis’. We each had 30 minutes to read. I admit that I struggle to read on screen and absorb the information, but I made a big effort to read and aim to evaluate it. It was probably the least digestible of the 4 texts to chose; and of the the first two chapters, I only managed to read the first one. In this chapter Moon, addresses views on reflection and discusses how Morrison (1996) writes that within teacher training, reflection is ‘a conceptual and methodological portmanteau‘. She goes on to discuss how defining the word reflection can often be difficult and too broad and depending on the context it can range from highly theoretical to pragmatic. Sometimes we can be unconsciously reflective when we say ‘let me reflect on this’. Moon also writes that we reflect for a purpose and that this can lead to a useful outcome and goes on to suggest that when applied to processes, the act of reflection is more likely considered to be “thinking” or “recalling”. I then read about applying the term ‘reflect’ to anticipated outcomes applied to complex or less structured ideas … at this point I felt my brain fry a bit. I found the ambiguity in Moon’s writing wasn’t giving me the clues to generate a conclusion – which I was hoping I would be able to do. I tried to create a visual map of how it might work. But I didn’t find this helped…
EEEK. this is hard – Harkins, S (2023)
I realised then that it was ok to not form a conclusion from reading a small section of a book and be able to evaluate it in such short timeframe. Accepting this, I continued to read Moon, and how she explores reflection in a broader manner. Moon explores how other writers (Van Manen, Level of Reflection ( 1977) and Schön, Reflection In and On Action (1983) considers categorisations, of ‘capturing’ reflection to understand a more pedagogic language for use in academia. She surmises that this isn’t always useful in common, everyday use of language and considers that if you apply this to, for an example a child who reflects on what they did when they last played with their favourite toy, this suggests that reflection could actually be a much simpler activity than the ‘portmanteau‘.
Once we had completed the 30 minutes reading, we feedback our understanding to our group and summarising key points from the pieces we had read. As I didn’t finish the Moon piece, I would suggest that the key point was that act of reflection is regularly a simple act and doesn’t have to be portrayed by complex language, but the act can be demonstrated and evidenced in significant theory for academic use.
Moving on from this, we worked in pairs to discuss and review our blogs. At this point my blog was still embryonic (ie barely started) as I found the WordPress interface to be more complicated than I had hoped. Sakiko was also at a similar stage. So we were fairly clueless and not able to help each other, which could have been funny but with time of the essence, I’m confident in saying that we felt stressed about it. Lindsay offered some help, showing us how to change themes and this suddenly enabled me to edit & upload my blogs. PHEW. I had developed my workflow pages. This is a platform I know well (it is used to record all student uploads on the foundation at CSM) and I was very confident in showing Sakiko what I had created – I offered to help her with her workflow & we agreed a date to meet. I also suggested that she contact Amy Urry, a colleague of mine (Amy and Sarah Leontovistch are the workflow and Moodle specialists on the Foundation course), to get some help with technical issues with workflow.
In the afternoon, Lindsay introduced the case studies that we need to produce as part of our assessment criteria. There are 3 clear titles for the pieces, Designing and Planning, Teaching and Support, and, Assessment and Feedback.
TPP Case Studies
We were given a template, an example of a case study and asked to pick one and start to generate notes surrounding the case study. I found this quite difficult to start, even though there were Padlet’s (online/digital platform that is a great tool for storing information and feedback to students, and also enabling students to interact and upload work and feedback – this was an essential digital tool during the pandemic) to support each of the themes, which offered some interesting discussion points. I selected the Assessment and Feedback case study as I felt it may be the most challenging for me. Catherine Smith had sent me an article on Feedback Literacy after she had observed me teaching a session. This offered some insightful thinking about feedback, which I made notes on. Further to this I had an online tutorial with Catherine (Smith) 08.03.2023 and we discussed the case studies in greater detail, which made writing the studies an easier process.
Today we explored Values and Ethics. Lindsay introduced the session asking us to consider ‘to what extent teaching is motivated, informed and structured by lived experience and/or acquired knowledge and/or professional and policy guidelines, and the inter-play between these three strands.’
In small groups we discussed – What do we need to know in order to teach well? – What values inform the way we teach? We generated mind-maps in response, using different coloured pens to respond to the two questions:
Within our tutor groups I worked with Matthew and we approached the questions by reflecting on our own teaching – what did we know and had experienced to inform our responses. We also looked to what we knew of the University’s ethos and included decolonisation https://www.arts.ac.uk/ual-decolonising-arts-institute and decarbonisationhttps://www.arts.ac.uk/about-ual/climate-action-plan as sub-titles to the ‘values’, knowing that both of these are significant drivers in how we teach and the weight of both values on curriculum
Lindsay had asked us to consider how to differentiate the following: values, ethics, morals, beliefs, duties, principles or guiding principles and attitudes. We each took one to quickly research and had quite a robust discussion about how to order them – which we found to be quite a complex task in terms of considering their significance. Following this, Lindsay introduced us to the ‘UKPSF 2011’- ‘The UK Professional Standards Framework (2011) for teaching and supporting learning in higher education 2011 (UKPSF)’. Written by practitioners, it sets out a series of principles of good practice for HE that act as benchmarks; offering guidance to educators to develop and improve their quality of teaching, to enhance the learning experience for students. By setting out a series of values it asks us (professional educators) to stand think of ourselves as the learner and put ourselves in their shoes and by responding to students in this way – considering who they are? what do they think? we can shape the way we teach. We (educators) can become more flexible, delivering with transparency, compassion, bias and importantly, nurturing trust.
This then gives us rise to consider the term ‘professional’ and how it’s applied to academics. Lindsay spoke about how John Dewey, a significant American philosopher in the 20th Century, defined public – a group of people who, in facing a similar problem, recognize it and organize themselves to address it , stating the feasibility and formation of a purely democratic society. His theories help us consider what is professional (you are paid to do it) versus what is amateur (you do it for love). In the early 20th Century, general perception had been that the purpose of education was to instruct learners with a set of skills and knowledge to do a certain job, but Dewey notes, this limited view for vocational training also ‘applied to teacher training schools who attempt to quickly produce proficient and practical teachers with a limited set of instructional and discipline skills needed to meet the needs of the employer and demands of the workforce’ (Dewey, 1904)2
Lindsay discussed that professionalism really emerged within HE in the late 1990’s as a result of the Dearing Report3, which made ‘recommendations on how the purposes, shape, structure, size and funding of higher education, including support for students, should develop to meet the needs of the United Kingdom over the next 20 years’ (Dearing 1997:1), and the first publication of the UKPSF in 2006, bringing the rise of the academic citizen as opposed to the professional (MacFarlane, 2007)4. Here there sits a negative implication that there is a separation between academia & the professional world. Obviously, professional educators aim to reduce this, but this can be found to more complex with creative (art) education – with many specialisms never knowing or having the ‘right’ answer but having to know what the next question is. Lindsay explained that this has parallels with the ‘Overton Window’5 – a concept that surrounds the amount of things that are acceptable.
In our groups we then looked more closely at the UKPSF2011, looking more closely at the Core Knowledge and Professional Values,
Lindsay explained to that the policy hadn’t been reviewed in 11 years and neither she or Jon could give any reason as to why this framework wasn’t reviewed more regularly (especially given issues with pandemic/lockdowns and the impact on educating). We looked at the recently revised 2022 Framework and we had to identify what had actually changed.
UKPSF 2022Persil Liqui-tab
At first glance I failed to see anything other than the ‘Dimensions of the Framework’ – I felt had obviously only gone through a ‘rebranding’ process, it looked more like a Persil Liquid-tab and with my ‘professional’ designer hat on felt a bit tokenistic & rebranding for the sake of it (very cynical I realise), but looking more closely we could see that in the Core Knowledge section K1 (The subject material) from the 2011 publication, had been removed. Obviously recognising that as academic citizens we were
We were asked then to consider the terms policy, strategy, framework, guide, code and principle; We each took one term to investigate and research an example. From that we would consider what the order of importance (hierachy) is. I looked into ‘UAL Code of Practice on Educational Ethics’6 – Policy and Guidance for Staff. UAL does crucial and meaningful updating of its policies and this document (found on link below) included mention to all the terms listed in our task (confusing? yes!) However, as a group we surmised that these terms were a series of instructions that we might turn to in times of crisis, to support our thinking or use as declaration of intent. We didn’t totally agree in our discussion and also get the order right! But what an enjoyable debate amongst my peers.
Sadly in the afternoon, I couldn’t attend. I am a governor at my daughter’s school and we had Ousted inspecting the school (they had arrived that day 22.02.2023) and I was asked to attend a meeting with one of the inspectors on 23.02.2023, which meant I had a lot of research (swotting) to do on the SDP and most recent data delivered to the Full Governing Board. It was a truly terrifying experience that I hope I never have to repeat!
Action Plan:
Review what happened in the afternoon for today’s session. Read up for next week’s session
2 Dewey, J. (1904). The Relation of Theory to Practice in Education. Teachers College Record, 5(6), 9–30. https://doi.org/10.1177/016146810400500601
3 Dearing, R. (1997) Higher Education in the Learning Society. The National Committee of Enquiry into Higher Education. http://www.educationengland.org.uk/documents/dearing1997/dearing1997.html
4 MacFarlane, B (2007). The Academic Citizen. The Virtue of Service in University Life.
