Conference pre-recorded sessions

What does it mean for an educational leader to approach learning disruptively during institutional change? How might one unsettle that which is already in jeopardous flux? 

As the Director of Higher Education at a London-based Ballet Conservatoire, I reflect on the troubled hope of disruptive pedagogies utilising a queer(er) positionality. I consider what it means to lead a teaching community guided by the aims of critical pedagogies during a period of significant change. Arising from this reflection are insights of unsettling leadership and precarious certitude. 

Central School of Ballet is a small-specialist provider of higher education. Over the last two years, since my appointment, the school has moved premises, appointed a new executive team, completed a quality and standards review, become a self-registered provider with the Office for Students, navigated embodied practices through pandemic lockdowns and faced significantly impactful funding cuts. In a parallel redefinition of purpose, on a personal level my appointment as leader in an aesthetically-different setting obliged a shift from being a studio-based teacher of twenty-five years to the other side of the desk where my influence on/in the learning environment is less directly connected to learners. 

This paper is an in-depth reflection of the conflictual experiences of applying the principles of critical pedagogy such as demonstrable care, student empowerment and collective effort (hooks 1994) in an institutional culture and leadership role of fecund potentiality, resistances and destabilisation. Pivotal in this reflection is the enactment of leading queerly. To queer is to disrupt the normalizing, privileging, compulsory, and dominant modes of social organization that characterize historically heterosexist and normalizing cultures (O’Malley et al., 2018). Thus, to lead queerly is to engage with the discomforting forces of disruption that are potentially transformative at the individual, collective, community and institutional level (Quilty 2011). 

Disruption has occurred through the cultivation an inquiry-oriented School culture. For example, staff development initiatives have foregrounded embodied knowledges, strategies of inclusion and relevant frameworks of learning enhancement. Consequently, the disruptive influence of queer flows through teachers and learning support staff who are increasingly enabled to ask questions of their pedagogical approaches and seek to ‘spoil’ (Madison 2012) their own practices. The hope in this emergent culture is that teacher inquiry models transformation through the vulnerability of not knowing and collective effort of stimulating learning.

References

• hooks, bell. (1994). Teaching to transgress: Education as the practice of freedom. 
• Routledge. Madison, D. S. (2012). Critical Ethnography: Method, Ethics, and Performance. 
• Sage Publications, Ltd. O’Malley, M. P., Asher, N., Beck, B. L., Capper, C. A., Lugg, C. A., Murphy, J. P., & Whitlock, R. U. (2018). 
• Asking queer(er) questions: epistemological and methodological implications for qualitative inquirers. 
• International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 31(7), 572–594. 
• Quilty, A. (2017). Queer provocations! Exploring queerly informed disruptive pedagogies within feminist community-higher-education landscapes. Irish Educational Studies, 36(1), 107–123.

My doctoral research seeks to take an original approach to understanding what students want from their higher education (HE) teaching interactions. A key objective of the research is to empirically investigate students’ understanding of value in HE teaching processes, with value defined as the student’s perception of what they want to happen in a teaching situation in order to accomplish their desired objectives.   

The research aims to contribute to the body of knowledge on lean higher education (LHE).  It adopts Womack and Jones’ (2003) five lean principles as the foundation of a lean approach, focusing specifically on the first principle: precisely specify value by specific product.  An early finding from the literature review was the lack of consensus on the definition of the term value, particularly within the public sector where it cannot be validated by customer purchase. This, coupled with the many complexities of the HE system, mean that a recognised barrier to successful LHE implementation is the poor understanding of value in HE (Radnor and Bucci, 2011; Nadeau, 2017). 

The selected definition of value is aligned with means-end theory (Gutman,1982), which underpins this research, and has informed the methodology.  Primary data will be gathered through semi-structured interviews using a laddering approach to move the respondent through different levels of abstraction.  When respondents have specified what they want to happen in teaching situations, they will be asked ‘why is that important to you?’ repeatedly, with the aim of identifying the consequences of those happenings and personal objectives addressed by those consequences (Reynolds and Gutman,1988).  Only a small number of laddering applications in an HE context have been found - further reinforcing the originality of this research. 

The current state of the research is that a comprehensive literature review has been undertaken, the methodology has been approved, and primary data collection is starting shortly. The conference presentation will include a summary of the work undertaken to date, including: key findings from the literature, proposed methodology, and any early findings from primary data collection.  This is aligned with the theme of democratic education because it is an example of staff and students working together - the intent is to use insight gathered from students to inform teaching practice where possible.

References

• Gutman, J. (1982). A means-end chain model based on consumer categorization processes. 
• Journal of Marketing, 46(2), 60–72 Nadeau, S. (2017) ‘Lean, Six Sigma and Lean Six Sigma in Higher Education: A Review of Experiences around the World’, American Journal of Industrial and Business Management, 07(05), pp. 591–603. doi: 10.4236/ajibm.2017.75044. 
• adnor, Z. and Bucci, G. (2011) Analysis of lean implementation in UK business schools and universities, … Business Consultancy for the Association of Business Reynolds, T., & Gutman, J. (1988). 
• Laddering Theory, Method, Analysis, and Interpretation. Journal of Advertising Research, 28(1), 11–31. 
• Womack, J & Jones D (2003), Lean Thinking: Banish Waste and Create Wealth in your Corporation, Simon & Schuster

Feeling apprehensive about maths (which is commonly known as maths anxiety) is a condition, which affects approximately 17% of the UK population and up to 36% of those aged 16-25 (Maloney & Beilock, 2012; Maths Anxiety Trust, 2018).  Hence, the problem of maths anxiety is a widespread issue that affects many students who need to engage in mathematical activity as part of their degree program (Foley et a., 2017). The purpose of this study was to explore the extent to which maths anxiety affects undergraduate students enrolled in a computing program at Oxford Brookes University, with a view to support students increase their confidence, and to help us understand how the mathematics curriculum could be tailored for computer science programmes. This is an important area of investigation because maths anxiety can have a significant impact on students’ academic performance, motivation, and overall well-being. 

The study was conducted by inviting 170 first-year students enrolled in the compulsory Mathematics for Computing course to participate in questionnaires, an interview and a focus group activity, with the aim to explore how our computing students feel when they are undertaking mathematics activities. The questionnaires were designed to assess the students’ level of maths anxiety and their confidence in their mathematical abilities, and administered as a pre- and post-questionnaire to be able to contrast answers before and after the mathematics course. The interview was designed to provide a more in-depth exploration of the students’ experiences and feelings regarding maths anxiety. Finally, the focus group made use of creative coaching strategies, such as Lego Serious Play, to explore student perceptions of themselves as a mathematician (Dann, 2018). During this time, photos of their models were taken and the verbal responses from the group were audio-recorded. 

We will be presenting preliminary findings from this study, which potentially have important implications for both students and educators. We will aim to provide an insight into the extent to which maths anxiety affects undergraduate students enrolled in a computing program at Brookes University, and possible strategies to help mitigate the impact of this problem.

References

• Dann, S (2018) Facilitating co-creation experience in the classroom with Lego Serious Play. Australian Marketing Journal 26 (2018) pp. 121-131 
• Foley, A.E., Herts, J.B., Borgonovi, F., Guerriero, S. Levine, S.C. and Beilock, S.L. (2017) The Math Anxiety-Performance Link: A Global Phenomenon. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 26 (1), pp. 52-58. 
• Maths Anxiety Trust (2018) What is Maths Anxiety available at: http://mathsanxietytrust.com/maths-anxiety.html 
• Maloney, E. and Beilock, S. (2012) ‘Maths Anxiety: who has it, why it develops, and how to guard against  it’, Trends in Cognitive Science, 16(8), pp. 404-406.

The Future Leader’s Experience is a pilot two day programme run by Brookes Careers. The aim is to improve the confidence and employability skills of a group of second year students (held in mid January 2023). This is a core part of our careers programme, and has been updated from the previous iteration. In line with the Access and Participation Plan the programme targeted BAME students and students with low incomes, who received various Brookes bursaries. 

The FLE had a particular focus on developing skills such as: 

• Teamwork 
• Communication 
• Leadership 
• A creative approach to problem solving

The FLE was attended by 12 students and was recognised by the ILM (Institute of Leadership and Management). We initially had 30 students sign up for the programme, but had challenges engaging all the applicants. The programme consisted of two full days of workshops and team challenges covering topics such as leadership, MBTI personality testing and rebranding. 

The programme focused strongly on reflection including peer to peer, tutor led and self reflection. The sessions were practical, engaging and interactive. In order to gain the ILM recognition students had to create a reflective statement and action plan which was submitted via Moodle and marked by the tutors. Initial feedback (with the support of Samantha Child - Widening Participation Evaluation Manager) has been very positive with students feeling that their core skills have been enhanced. The students were asked how helpful the FLE had been and the average score was 4.7 out of 5. Brookes Careers also worked in partnership with Sam, to implement the Theory Of Change model. 

When asked if they would recommend the programme to a friend comments included ‘yes there's some great exercises and information to help me recognise my strengths and how to use them. It's a great and fun opportunity’ and ‘Yes it presents great tools that we can use to work on ourselves to become better employees and eventually better leaders’. 

FLE was a collaborative effort with much of the Brookes Careers team taking part. In addition the project involved the support of the following teams - ASA - Strategic Change And Planning, the Access and Participation Group, Learning Resources, Finance and Legal Services, and the Human Resources. Brookes Careers is currently reviewing the feedback from the team and students and plans to run the FLE again in the future.