Becky Allen PG CERT

At the start of my Action Research Project, I conducted a short questionnaire in the early stages of it’s development, in order to better understand how students think about progression or comprehend my questions (Pew Research Centre, 2024). The responses were transcribed and arranged thematically to draw parallels between responses.

The short survey was designed to research the following questions:

1. What might prevent students from coming into the studio?
2. Is there anything that would make students feel more welcome or supported in the studio?

The reason for this line of enquiry was to understand if there was anything preventing students from accessing progression workshops and what could be done to create a more inclusive environment for students to attend. The studio environment is consistent throughout the 3 years of BA Illustration and may at times echo those found in professional working environments (Orr and Shreeve, 2017), so it is important for students to feel able to comfortably access the space. Furthermore, the Progression workshops I run aim to prepare the students for a professional world, so understanding how students access the studio is significant for understanding how they may respond to the workshop content.

Through the gathering of answers, it became clear there were many perspectives on the above questions, and these encompassed practical, sensory and psychological issues. They also ranged from being specific to the progression workshops to a wider view on the studio. Orr and Shreeve also noted that :

‘Individual sensory experiences of space affect everyone working in them and may potentially affect learning within the studio, depending on particular local conditions and their impact on individuals.’
(Orr and Shreeve, 2017)

Here is a link to the responses gathered from my Short Questionnaire

Focus Group Experience and Responses

After reflecting on new ways to recruit participants to engage with a focus group, I abandoned the blanket email approach and instead decided to ask students in person whilst on a year group field trip to Dungeness. As students had formed small groups and were in a relaxed setting, it felt much more personable to approach students and take names of those willing to speak to me. This proved vastly more successful than my email and I gathered about 14 names. It also proved insightful to speak to the students in person, as it revealed reasons why my first attempt fell flat. For example, I originally organised the group on a Wednesday, but as this is a non-teaching day at UAL, many students work elsewhere that day and are rarely on site. They also mentioned that it takes a long time for some of them to travel to Camberwell, so weren’t prepared to come in for a 30 minute chat. It was also encouraging to receive genuine advice from the students, and hear their suggestions on how to successfully organise students to speak to me in a focus group. They suggested times that they were on site but between sessions, such as our Monday critical practice talks, which would be an effective day for students to speak to me as, in their words ‘ they had nothing better to do’!

To further help attendance by students, I followed up any interested students with a personalised email (Kreuger, Casey, 2021) to remind them of their interest in the focus group and invite them to the session. The focus group was held in the canteen (at the students request) and snacks were provided to help make the meeting seem more relaxed and comfortable.

For my focus group, I wanted to use a semi structured interview style with open ended questions so that I could explore topics in depth in an organic way. I compiled a list of questions that you can see here. 

I gathered consent and gave each participant an information sheet at the start of the session, and made an audio recording whilst writing my own notes. The main responses have been transcribed and categorised by question. They can be seen below or here.

Reflection

This was the first focus group I have run, and I think there are a lot of things I could to do to improve my technique. I found it hard to stick to the questions and and I felt compelled to listen and respond to student’s feedback which at times strayed away from the focus of the meeting. For example, many students used this as an opportunity to voice complaints about the course and particularly mentioned needs related to neurodiversity that was important to hold space for and listen to. In this way, I found the students responses extremely helpful for other aspects of my teaching and the course in general, so I aim to take this feedback to our programme director to act on this in positive way. 

When on track, I found that I gathered meaningful and insightful responses related to my role, progression and how to make students feel more comfortable attending these sessions in the studio. It was also an opportunity to personally connect with the students in an informal setting which I hope will be more beneficial to their learning. I aim to take my insights from their responses to my fellow transition tutor colleagues in our next meeting to plan together our support for progression throughout all three years.

After holding my first focus group, I understood that these participants were those more confident in speaking up, observed from their readiness to speak in front of others in group learning situations, and are more active and visible in the studio environment. This made it easier to sign them up to join me for the focus group. Their voices, opinions and suggestions are all extremely valuable and insightful, however it is also important for this research to hear from those less present in the studio and those with quieter voices. It is one important aim of this project that I amplify these voices so that I can enact change within my teaching and benefit all students that partake on the course. My teaching, especially in terms of progression is aimed to help all students access the support they need to feel a sense of progression throughout third year and into life beyond university. With that in mind, I have sought alternative ways to gather feedback that is alternative to ‘in person’, on site focus groups. For those that might prefer the safety and anonymity of their private space, I have designed a questionnaire to be sent out digitally to all third year students. The aim of this is to encourage differing perspectives and experiences in order to turn up new information (Converse, Presser, 2011). 

Throughout the survey I am to test a variety of answering tasks, designed to engage the respondent’s active attention (Converse, Presser, 2011). I will use both open and closed questions, and offer different routes of questioning depending on the given answers.

Here is my Feedback Questionnaire sent to students.

After learning from my experience recruiting for focus groups, I decided a singular email will not garner many results, so instead I will piggyback (Krueger, Casey, 2001) on the progression workshops I an running and ask students to complete the survey at the end of the workshop. 

To gather more information from students, I’ve decided to hold two focus groups. Although I have already gathered answers to 2 questions, I was mindful of the value of this type of data collecting after reading ‘Focus Group Interviews in Education and Psychology’:

‘Unlike more impersonal approaches to data collection (e.g., paper and pencil surveys), focus group interviews have the potential to bring the investigator closer to the research topic through a direct, intensive encounter with key individuals’
(Vaughn, Schumm, Sinagub, 2013)

In holding these focus groups, I was hoping to embody the 5 benefits identified by Hess (1968) to deepen my understanding of the student responses. 

‘1. Synergism (when a wider bank of data emerges through the group interaction),
2. Snowballing (when the statements of one respondent initiate a chain reaction of additional
comments),
3. Stimulation (when the group discussion generates excitement about a topic),
4. Security (when the group provides a comfort and encourages candid responses), and
5. Spontaneity (because participants are not required to answer every question, their responses are more spontaneous and genuine).’

My current list of intended questions can be found here.

These questions have been developed from my own observations and the feedback I have already received through the questions asked at the end of progression workshops. Although I have a set of questions already developed as part of research, I also intend for the conversation to flow naturally and for students to feel comfortable about sharing their experience; aiming for a synergy amongst the group (Kitzinger, 1994). The group setting is also active and aims to stimulate greater participation as students do not have to respond to every question (Vaughn, Schumm, Sinagub, 2013).

Update: 4/11/2024
So far no one has responded to my request to attend a focus group! This request was sent via email to 3rd years on 30/10/2024. There is clearly a need to address how I am approaching students for this session, and I need to figure out how to make the focus group more appealing, despite offering an incentive for students to attend – an abundance of snacks. I realise now that although offering incentives may increase the chances of focus group recruitment and participation, they are not always successful (Parker & Tritter, 2006). That said, Krueger and Casey identified that the researcher should also think about what might entice people to participate, and offer some or all of these things (Krueger, Casey, 2001). Their suggestions include:

• Financial Incentive
• Food
• Gifts
• Compliments
• Honour
• Enjoyment
• Community
  (Krueger, Casey, 2001)

To resolve this, I sought feedback from my colleagues to gather information on how I could change my tactics. This feedback was sought in person, so as not to add to any more administrative or e-mailing burdens. Some of the ideas cross over with Krueger and Casey:

• Hold a raffle for all attendees so one participant wins a prize (e.g. a sketchbook/materials) or create more incentives.
• Appeal to the student reps to send an email on my behalf
• Ask students in person in whole group situation – Dungeness trip, Monday Lectures
• Reach out to students from years 1 and 2.

I am very aware that students who don’t respond are most likely the people you really want hear from; quieter issues can be the ones that need to be amplified the most: 

‘One of the challenges of focus group research is getting people who are not interested in the study to participate.’
(Parker, Tritter, 2006).

Consequently, it is my main priority to reach and recruit as many students as possible, as the voicing of concerns, frustrations, and specific incidents could provide valuable data on my subject and yield more accurate information about what participants actually think than other research methods such as the questionnaires I have already used. (Vaughn, Schumm, Sinagub, 2013)

My Action plan to recruit more students therefore is as follows:

• Appeal to students during a whole year group setting. This will be our Year 3 trip to Dungeness on Monday 5th November. This responds to Krueger and Casey’s idea to ‘piggyback on another event that attracts the type of people desired’ and ‘recruit potential participants in person’.
• Ask student reps to attend and ask them to reach out to student peers. 
• Offer incentive such a gift (Krueger, Casey, 2001) of art materials for one attendee through a raffle. 
• Follow up any interested students with a personalised email (Kreuger, Casey, 2001)
  

Vaughn, Schumm, Sinagub (2013) Focus Group Interviews in Education and Psychology. Available from: DOI: https://doi.org/10.4135/9781452243641 [Accessed 25th October 2024]

Kitzinger, J. (1994) The methodology of focus groups: the importance of interaction between research participants, Sociology of Health and Illness, 16(1), 103–121. Available at:  https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9566.ep11347023. [Accessed 4th November 2024]

Krueger, & Casey (2001) Social Analysis Selected Tools and Techniques, Social Development Paper, no.31. Available from: https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/document?repid=rep1&type=pdf&doi=338b3fad4ac64a28e1b05e7899cd977acebd91f4#page=10 [Accessed 4th November 2024]

Parker & Tritter (2006) Focus group method and methodology: current practice and recent debate, International Journal of Research & Method in Education, 29:1, 23-37, Available from: DOI: 10.1080/01406720500537304 [Accessed 4th November

• Complete Ethics form ✓
• Create Progression Workshop content ✓
• Create tangible material for Progression Workshop ✓
• Add questions to the end of Progression Workshop content ✓
• Deliver 2 progression workshops prior to focus groups ✓
• Document my observations from Progression Workshops ✓
• Document feedback from Staff peer on Progression Workshop
• Capture output from students (booklet) and analyse ✓
• Run 2 Focus Groups for students ✓
• Send out Survey form to students ✓
• Reflect on student and staff feedback
• Plan next steps for future workshops
• Bring Feedback to Transition Tutor meeting for discussion ✓
• Analyse data from surveys, focus group and observations.
• Implement changes in response to analysis and feedback.
• Create presentation

Short Questionnaire:
Here is an example of the 2 questions I will ask students at the end of each progression workshop. They will each be given the questions on a small piece of paper that can be folded to protect the visibility of their answers: Questionnaire

Participation is voluntary and all students were made aware of the research focus, the anonymity of their responses and how they data will be used and stored.

Information Sheet
This is the information sheet I will give students in my focus groups: Information Sheet

Consent Form
This is the consent form I will give students in my focus groups: Consent Form

My Ethical Action Plan can be found here:
Ethical Action Plan

The progression booklet I mentioned can be found here:
Progression Booklet
(Please note this is a 2 page, double sided document intended to be printed and folded into a booklet, so please be guided by page numbering.)

Group tutorial feedback encouraged me to think more deeply about my research focus and question. Currently, My idea for my ARP is centred around engagement with Progression Activities that I run for the students as part of my ‘Transition Tutor Role’, however discussion with the group made me reflect on what this role is, especially as it was new the year I arrived. I have been developing it as part of my evolving experience on the Illustration course. My peers questioned what my job title means, and therefore essentially, what is my role? Although this was outlined to me when starting the position, the description was fairly vague:

‘The role will be predominantly in Year 3, where you would have one tutor group of 16 students. In addition to this, you will have oversight of the transition between Year 2 and 3. This could take the form of 4 days of workshops, for example.’

As my role has developed over the 2 years since my appointment, my focus on ‘progression’ seems to have overtaken the use of the word ‘transition’. Working closely with the year 3 team, we now describe my role as overseeing progression from year 2 to year 3, and throughout the third year.  

In conclusion, my job title feels entangled with my research focus, as perhaps there is a need to re-establish what my role is to students, so they are more aware of how the sessions I run, and how as a tutor I can support their progression journey. I will follow this up with my focus group sessions to find out what the students know/think about my role, and if there is anything I can include in my teaching or the studio that might augment the progression activities already offered. 

It is also worth noting that previously staff have made comments made about how I am/am not a ‘careers advisor’ and that students have also asked me where they can find careers advice or who to ask about this. This highlights a need to address what progression is in the context of the Illustration course and how my transition tutor role can support students and their progression routes.

I have been reading about how ‘Racism Shapes Careers’ (Garett, 2024) in the context of the progression workshops that I run for BA illustration third year students. This text highlighted how the ‘temporary and spatial experiences of UK higher education and related perceptions and imaginations shape career choices.’ (Garett, 2024)

As part of my initial research, I reflect on my positionality and its potential limitation for the scope of career trajectories available to the students I teach. There are many ways that my own experience may differ from a students current knowledge of how to think about the future, and I want to make it part of my research to understand how students career trajectories may be affected in ‘the early stages of building their careers from a racialised, intersectional perspective’ (Garett 2024), in order to make the progression workshops more inclusive and relevant to third years. 

The BA illustration course cohorts are made up of approximately 50% home students and 50% international students. I am aware that as a woman brought up from a middle class background in the UK, my field of reference of future trajectories is perhaps narrow, and there will be students’ work, ideas and plans that sit outside my cultural awareness. I therefore ask myself the question, how can the workshops support underrepresented or marginalised groups? And how can I promote change within them to reduce inequality? It is therefore through my action research project that I aim to understand ‘how identities and academic career motivations intersect’ (Garett, 2024)

‘Trajectories and mobility from one spatial context to another, be it within an institutional career or beyond, is influenced by factors such as ethnicity and gender, and their intricate social and spatial relationships (Cresswell 2010). Worth (2011) suggests transition theories must look to the future rather than the past to understand complex transitional periods.’ (Garett, 2024)

I also think it is important to mention that the role of ethics is very important in this context, and that it is not enough just to state my own positionality in this context, and rather that I need to be reflexive within my research practice in order to be an ethical researcher (Lenette, 2022). 

I have developed 2 questions to ask students as the first part of my action research, that will be posed at the end of each progression workshop this term. These questions aim to address why students may not access the studio, and what factors may prevent them from attending BA3 Illustration workshops including Progression activities. 

1. Is there anything that prevents you from attending progressions workshops? 
2. Is there anything that would make you feel more welcome or supported in the studio? 
   

Garrett, R (2024): Racism shapes careers: career trajectories and imagined futures of racialised minority PhDs in UK higher education, Globalisation, Societies and Education, Available from: DOI 10.1080/14767724.2024.2307886 [10th October 2024]

Lenette, C. (2022). Cultural Safety in Participatory Arts-Based Research: How Can We Do Better? Journal of Participatory Research Methods. Available from: https://doi.org/10.35844/001c.32606 [10th  October 2024]