The website is UAL website informing the reader on Religion, Faith identities. You could browse through the website and read different case studies.
I was fascinated in particular by 3 case studies that has been shared by Couse leaders of UAL. The first one is an ice breaker exercise which one of course leader has used during the years for new students in order to be making student to ask each other various questions from easy to deep questions. This creates a sharing and conversational environment which helps people get to know each in a friendly manner. The questions could range from :”What is in your Fridge”, to ” Tell me about your faith”. The idea is to create an easy conversation around more deep and sensitive matters like faith. Other case studies and reflections in similar manner have attended to issues surrounding our positionality and faith which opens your eyes to aspects relating to these sensitive yet important manners.
How could you apply the resources to your own teaching practice?
The case studies in particular addresses how we can create an unbiased and conversational atmosphere in our classrooms as educators. Some of them have mentioned how we can use our own positionality as lecturers and share them with our students whilst asking them to share theirs. identity is very personal yet important matter.
How could you integrate the work your students do on this subject into your
teaching practice?
Case studies as examples for best practice:
As per the case studies , we can co-create the positive teaching environment by sharing our own positionality and our own stance with our students and ask them to share theirs. By being open and accepting and being conscious of this we can create a more positive and dynamic learning environment. Through this we will be co-creating our learning journey as educators and students.
Articles for source of discussion:
There are also fascinating and interesting reading lists listed which mainly focuses on art and religion and its impact on modern art. Certainly by knowing the resources are here I can either individually use different relevant resources or guide students to read and benefit the link for further reflection.
Can you cite examples?
Interestingly since I am Business Studies lecturer, I had never had the chance to address my line of studies from this angle, however all these resources are strongly important for research proposals and topics that I am supervising. I am planning to adopt these topics and resources when I supervise research students. Faith and Identity and its impact on fashion designer career/ choosing a career, studying influencers who convey strong identities through these lenses.
22nd July 2022 @ 6:15 pm
Hi Shahpar,
I appreciate your honesty in admitting that you have never had the chance to address faith within your line of studies. I have also shared these moments of realisation throughout this unit, and it has been most rewarding to see how these realisations prompt future development/lines of research within our practices.
As an embroidery designer who works within the fashion sector… I am really interested in your reflection moving forward about Faith and Identity and its impact on fashion designer career paths or students choosing career pathways.
Whilst I am aware that the book I am about to recommend is disappointingly biased in the sense that it only explores one religious’ identity (this being Christianity) … might I suggest that you look at it purely as a starting point of understanding how one identity of faith plays out in different places of work. The book The Character of Fashion by Simon Ward features interviews with different roles within the fashion industry… from designers to models, educators and retailers exploring how they manage their faith alongside their work. Just to reiterate, it is just a starting point… or even a conversation starter with your students to this line of enquiry… whereby you could critique as a group its lack of diversity or draw comparisons with other religious identities within the field.
Please do keep me in mind as this idea progresses and develops- I would love to see!
29th July 2022 @ 4:44 pm
Thank you for your thoughts Shahpar. I completely agree with co-creating with your students. With my limited teaching context, what I took away was to not be afraid of not knowing certain topics/ subjects. Any unfamiliarity with subjects or cultural contexts, go back and research so that students are getting relevant support/ feedback. I realised the importance of open dialogue and as you’ve mentioned, sharing about your positionality with your students and asking them to share theirs – this I believe can enable you to break the teacher-student hierarchy.
While reading your post and the resources that were given, it made me reflect on the lecture that we had on Decolonising Higher Education by Dr Tran, Dr Idowu, B and Kibirige, N. on the culture of talking about uncomfortable subjects and the value of embracing that discomfort.