Tag: blog

Intervention Reflective Report

Content warning: suicide

Introduction 

My intervention aims to create positive studio cultures through having dedicated mobile-phone free studios, agreed in a co-design process with students[1]. Underpinning the intervention is a desire to support students’ positive wellbeing and mental health. This is informed by the teaching context of my role as Year 2 (Y2) Leader for the BA Fine Art (BAFA) at Chelsea; my own positionality and lived experience; and my professional expertise in my art practice.

The BAFA course has a large cohort of students, and in 25-26 cohort will be approximately 180 students in 2Y alone. We will have 14 different studio rooms across 3 different floors of B-Block at Chelsea. In my role as 2Y Leader I have undertaken Mental Health First Aider training (completed Autumn 2024).

Mental health is not just a field of interest for me but grounded in my own lived experiences. I disclosure this with some hesitation, as Gupta et al (2023 p.1646) points out that for lived experience researchers, “…their credibility… and the knowledge they produce may be doubted, for example by epistemic injustice where they are perceived through the stigmatised lens of a service user and their place in a hierarchy”. However, as hooks (1994 p.76) states, “I know that experience can be a way to know and can inform how we know what we know. Though opposed to any essentialist practice that constructs identity in a monolithic, exclusionary way, I do not want to relinquish the power of experience…” I am encouraged by feminists like bell hooks to view the personal as political. I have had a varied journey through periods of my own mental ill-health, and have had counselling, specialist trauma therapy and CBT. I have also experienced the loss of both a wider family member and a close friend to suicide. The most challenging dynamics I face in my role are where students’ mental ill health triggers these experiences.

In my art practice I have produced extensive work and research around the interplay between mental health and digital cultures [Beales (2017)]. In my body of work ‘Are We All Addicts Now’[2] I focused on how behavioral psychology was employed within mobile apps to keep ‘users’ on device. I have also worked extensively as an artist in mental health contexts, for example, undertaking a residency in the NHS’ only clinic treating online behavioural addictions (2021)[3].

Context – Macro and Micro

The Office for Students’ Equality of Opportunity Risk register (2024) lists ‘Mental Health’ as one of 12 risks negatively affecting students’ progression and completion. UAL’s Access and Participation Plan found that 3 groups of students are exposed to equality of opportunity risks. They are:

  • students from areas with the most deprivation (ie Index of Multiple Deprivation (IMD) Q1-2 areas).
  • students from Black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds in general and Black students in particular.
  • disabled students, especially those with mental health conditions and multiple disabilities.

There appears to be limited intersectional analysis of how these categories overlap, but it is clear from my teaching experience that this is often the case.

The 2Y BAFA Course Student Survey (CSS) results have recently been released and whilst there is some very positive and encouraging data, the lowest performing area (69.4%) is the question about the Mental Wellbeing Services (Fig 1).

Fig 1. 2Y BAFA Chelsea CSS 24-25 results

A national survey [Baker and Kirk-Wade (2024)] found that among those aged 17 to 19, 10% had a probable mental disorder in 2017, rising to 23% in 2023 (emphasis mine), a sharp increase. In 2025-26, these are the 19–21-year-olds on the 2Y. However, in Chelsea’s specific context, student disclosures of mental health conditions are only 3.4% according to the UAL Dashboard. Our experience on the BAFA is more in line with the national picture, with the team regularly dealing with high levels of mental distress amongst our students. There is evidently, a culture of non-disclosure[4], which is a larger research topic which deserves some sustained enquiry.

What we do know, is that only 69% of our 2Y students agreed that the mental support services provision at Chelsea was well communicated.

Fig 2. BAFA Y2 CSS 24-25 Mental Wellbeing results

In 24-25 the onsite mental health support was only available for a couple of hours a week over lunchtime, in a room tucked away. It seems clear that with over 5,000 students based at Chelsea, there is a case for a dedicated mental health worker to be onsite at least 3 days a week in an accessible location. I am currently engaged in ongoing conversations to lobby for increased provision.

My intervention has been designed using a positive psychology approach[5] with a goal of developing positive studio communities. Whilst digital tools can enable positive collaborations (and I regularly use digital mediums in both my teaching and art practice) the mechanics of smart phone usage have a largely negative correlation to both mental health and concentration. There is a significant body of research evidencing that the dynamics around social media apps (reliant on smartphones) are the most problematic for mental health [e.g. Girela-Serrano, B.M. et al. (2022) p.1646]. The detrimental effects of media-multi-tasking and inability of students’ to self-regulate smartphone media usage, is increasingly evidenced [Dontre (2021) p.387]. In these extractive environments, users attention is the currency sold to advertisers, with the user rewarded in a process Moore [(2017)] terms ‘dopamining’. Instagram and other such platforms privilege the ‘glance’ at the expense of the ‘gaze’ [Zulli (2017) p.147]. In art practice, a deep and sustained, active ‘looking’ is an important part of visual literacy.

It is not just a question of teaching but of ‘being’ together. Given that face-to-face interactions have a strong correlation to quality of life[6], how can we encourage these dynamics in our studio cultures?

Inclusive learning

Intersectionality is very important in any discussion around mental health as I have already intimated. Specifically in relation to mobile usage, Disabled students might need more access to their phones as an access requirement for multiple reasons e.g. as a reasonable adjustment to record a seminar or to arrange taxis, to access support networks or to correspond with medical professionals. There are other groups who may need to access their mobile more. International students can use translation software and this needs to be normalized rather than stigmatized. Simply, any intervention would need to be sensitively co-designed with students who need to be given space to articulate valid reasons why they might need access to their phone in a studio environment.

Reflection 

I found both tutor feedback and peer feedback very helpful. I was concerned in advance that this may be perceived as a ‘Luddite’ position by both tutors and peers, as in the past I have found debates about technology usage binary rather than nuanced. However, peers Andrea and Umi both reflected that they ask students to turn off mobile phones in taught sessions. Whilst I am seeking to extend the scope to cover the context of self-directed studios, I was encouraged to find some of my concerns about mobile phone usage shared.

Interactions with tutors have encouraged me to value my embodied expertise as someone with lived experience with mental ill-health. Their input has caused me to reflect more deeply on what researcher self-care and well-being mean in this project, and in my teaching role more generally. As Audre Lorde (1998:131) says, “Caring for [oneself] is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation, and that is an act of political warfare.” I need to find on-going ways to safeguard and recharge myself.

I also reflected on the role of studios in the context of fine art pedagogy and how this differs to a design or architectural approach although these are often conflated [cf. Corazzo (2019)]. The studio within artists’ practice has a distinct contribution [Salazar (2013)], one that is under pressure from various factors such as pressures on space, increasing student numbers and financial pressures on students’ limiting their time in studio spaces.  

Action 

Through the reflective process initiated by this report, I have rethought the scale and design of my intervention. Rather than my instinctive response to be over-ambitious and roll it out across my year group (7 tutor groups in total) I will start with a simple intervention in my own tutor group first. Only when and if, I can evidence efficacy, will I try and scale it up across the other tutor groups. This will help minimise the management I will have to do of my 2Y team, in terms of getting them to deliver something that is at such an experimental stage.

Evaluation of your process

As a neurodiverse person I can be very expansive in my thinking [7]. This can be challenging to manage and can tip into overwhelm. Trying to design an intervention that makes a positive contribution can feel paralyzing as there are so many systemic issues at play within mental health[8], many of which are out of my control. The territory demands multiple interventions but there are always limitations on resources.

The input I have received from tutors and peers has made me question the sustainability of the interventions I already make in my role. I need to consider how I regulate my own workload so I avoid burnout. We teach because we care, but if we don’t place limits on caring, particularly whilst doing affective labour that chimes with our own lived experience, we can run out of energy to care at all.

It is also clear I need to involve students not just in the design but also the evaluation of any intervention and need to embed this as part of the Action Research design process.

Conclusion 

This Reflective Report has made me open to redesigning my intervention as part of the Autumn’s Action Research unit. I want to consider in my depth the ethical considerations for myself and others. As part of this, I want to start with more research to understand ethnographic research methodologies and investigate relevant co-design models.

1650 words (not including footnotes)

Bibliography:

Baker, C. and Kirk-Wade, E. (2024) Mental health statistics: Prevalence, services and funding in England – House of Commons Library, House of Commons Library, UK Parliament. Available at: https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/sn06988/ (Accessed: 26 May 2025).

Beales, K. et al. (2017) Are we all addicts now? Digital Dependence edited by Bartlett, V and Bowden-Jones, H. Liverpool, UK: Liverpool University Press.

Carr, A., Cullen, K., Keeney, C., Canning, C., Mooney, O., Chinseallaigh, E. and O’Dowd, A. (2020). Effectiveness of positive psychology interventions: a systematic review and meta-analysis. The Journal of Positive Psychology, 16(6), pp.749–769. https://doi.org/10.1080/17439760.2020.1818807.

James Corazzo (2019) Materialising the Studio. A systematic review of the role of the material space of the studio in Art, Design and Architecture Education, The Design Journal, 22:sup1, 1249-1265, DOI: 10.1080/14606925.2019.1594953

Dontre AJ. ‘The influence of technology on academic distraction: A review.’ Hum Behav & Emerg Tech. 2021; 3: 379–390. https://doi.org/10.1002/hbe2.229

Girela-Serrano, B.M. et al. (2022) ‘Impact of mobile phones and wireless devices use on children and adolescents’ mental health: A systematic review’, European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 33(6), pp. 1621–1651. doi:10.1007/s00787-022-02012-8.

Gupta, V., Eames, C., Golding, L., Greenhill, B., Qi, R., Allan, S., Bryant, A. and Fisher, P. (2023). ‘Understanding the Identity of Lived Experience Researchers and providers: a Conceptual Framework and Systematic Narrative Review.’ Research Involvement and Engagement, [online] 9(1). doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s40900-023-00439-0.

Hill , A. (2024) ‘Group of 17 London Secondary Schools join up to go smartphone-free’, The Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/article/2024/jun/06/group-of-17-london-secondary-schools-join-up-to-go-smartphone-free (Accessed: 23 May 2025).

Hooks, Bell. ‘Teaching to Transgress : Education As the Practice of Freedom’, Taylor & Francis Group, 1994. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/ual/detail.action?docID=1656118.
Created from ual on 2025-07-14 09:14:21.

Hudson, D., 2024. ‘Specific Learning Differences, What Teachers Need to Know: Embracing Neurodiversity in the Classroom’. Jessica Kingsley Publishers.

Jones, C.H. and Whittle, R. (2021). ‘Researcher self‐care and caring in the research community’. Area. doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/area.12703.

Lawrance, E.L. et al. (2022) ‘Psychological responses, mental health, and sense of agency for the dual challenges of climate change and the covid-19 pandemic in young people in the UK: An online survey study’, The Lancet Planetary Health, 6(9), pp. 726–738. doi:10.1016/s2542-5196(22)00172-3.

Lee, P.S.N., Leung, L., Lo, V., Xiong, C. and Wu, T. (2010). Internet Communication Versus Face-to-face Interaction in Quality of Life. Social Indicators Research, [online] 100(3), pp.375–389. doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-010-9618-3.

Lopez-Fernandez, O. et al. (2017) ‘Self-reported dependence on mobile phones in young adults: A European cross-cultural empirical survey’, Journal of Behavioral Addictions, 6(2), pp. 168–177. doi:10.1556/2006.6.2017.020.

Lorde, A. (1988). A burst of light: Essays. Ithaca, NY: Firebrand Books.

Moore, G. (in press). Dopamining and Disadjustment: Addiction and Digital Capitalism. In V. Bartlett, & H. Bowden-Jones (Eds.), Are We All Addicts Now? Digital Dependence (68-75). Liverpool University Press

Moriña, A. (2024) When what is unseen does not exist: disclosure, barriers and supports for students with invisible disabilities in higher education, Disability & Society, 39:4, 914-932, DOI: 10.1080/09687599.2022.2113038

Officeforstudents.org.uk. (2024). Equality of Opportunity Risk Register – Office for Students. [online] Available at: https://www.officeforstudents.org.uk/for-providers/equality-of-opportunity/equality-of-opportunity-risk-register/ (accessed 13 July 2025)

Salazar, S.M. (2013). Studio Interior: Investigating Undergraduate Studio Art Teaching and Learning. Studies in Art Education, 55(1), pp.64–78. doi:https://doi.org/10.1080/00393541.2013.11518917.

UAL Access and Participation Plan (accessed July 2025) https://www.arts.ac.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0030/458346/University-of-the-Arts-London-Access-and-Participation-Plan-2025-26-to-2028-29-PDF-1297KB.pdf

UAL Dashboard CSS results (accessed June 2025)

Zulli, D. (2018). Capitalizing on the look: Insights into the glance, attention economy, and instagram. Critical Studies in Media Communication, 35(2), pp.137–150. doi:https://doi.org/10.1080/15295036.2017.1394582.

Footnotes:

[1] See my Intervention blog post https://kbealespgcert.myblog.arts.ac.uk/2025/05/26/ip-unit-intervention/

[2] ‘Are We All Addicts Now?’ (2017) exhibitIon by Katriona Beales at Furtherfield https://www.furtherfield.org/are-we-all-addicts-now/

[3] See public event with the Arts and Health Hub which disseminated the outcomes of this residency https://www.artsandhealthhub.org/events/residency

[4] See Moriña (2024) When what is unseen does not exist

[5] Positive psychology is “for example, setting valued goals, imaging one’s best possible self, using signature strengths, savoring past or present pleasures, finding flow, being grateful for positive experiences, developing optimism, strengthening relationships, practicing kindness, developing grit, being courageous, engaging in post-traumatic growth, and practicing forgiveness (Parks &Layous, 2016; Parks & Schueller, 2014)” [Carr et al (2020) p.749]

[6] Lots of research to evidence this. See for example a study mapping quality of life in relation to internet usage across 4 Chinese cities. “Contrary to our expectation… Internet use for interpersonal communication cannot predict people’s quality of life, while face-to-face interaction with friends and family members can. The result was the same across the four Chinese cities.” [Lee et al (2010) p.383]

[7] I was diagnosed with dyslexia whilst a postgraduate student at Chelsea in 2011. This has been very helpful in terms of understanding how I can rapidly process visual information but find processing oral information difficult. I also resonate with the following: “dyslexic students feel overwhelmed by perceived ‘big’ tasks. They tend to see the magnitude of the whole project…” [Hudson (2024) p.36]

[8] See Lawrance, E.L. et al. (2022) ‘Psychological responses, mental health, and sense of agency for the dual challenges of climate change and the covid-19 pandemic in young people in the UK: An online survey study’

IP Unit: Race – Challenging the Room of Silence

It’s difficult to write anything meaningful about race as a white academic in a position of leadership in Higher Education, let alone in a mere 500 words. In attempting to do so, what follows is part of a personal commitment towards allyship and a wish to be held accountable to the on-going responsibility to continue to educate myself. I do this as a human being, and to best serve all the global majority [1] students [after Campbell-Stevens (2020)] that are on the 2nd Year of the BA Fine Art at Chelsea.

In the “The Room of Silence,” a short documentary about race, identity and marginalization at the Rhode Island School of Design, RSID alumni Eloise Sherrid uses students’ firsthand testimonials to expose what it feels like to be on the receiving end of white privilege in a familiar art school format; the crit. In the video, students talk through common experiences of being met with a ‘room of silence’ in response to works about race or cultural identity. As one of them elucidates “if no one wants to say anything how are we going to get any feedback?” And another, “I need you to say something about this, otherwise how am I supposed to learn?” The video illuminates how white students’ and academics’ lack of racial and cultural literacy means that often global majority students’ work is met with silence. Students repeatedly share about their experiences of not receiving critical feedback, even when are asking for it, and how damaging this was.

This is not an experience confined to US design students. One of CSM’s 2024 Changemakers Hugette Tchiapi outlines her experiences of exactly the same situation whilst studying Fashion. “Imagine the scenario. You are a Black fashion student developing an assessed project that has specific roots in your culture or ancestry. As your tutorials progress, it becomes clear that your assigned tutor lacks the foundational knowledge to be able to deliver clear, meaningful feedback on your project. Meanwhile, your peers are given numerous references from their feedback sessions. They move forward with multiple conceptual frameworks and ideas that they can use to strengthen their project. Your tutorial feedback notes are filled with gaps.”

Simply, tutor and peers’ lack of cultural and racial literacy damage the learning environment and outcomes for Global Majority students. Hugette has used her experiences to devise Fashion FeedBlack, a tool for designing inclusive crits [2].

According to the Ethnic Representation Index [Mba et al (2023)], UAL has 30.9% BAME students (sector-wide terminology) and an awarding gap of 10.9%. It is clear there is much to do. Rethinking crits so they are more racially and culturally literate is one place to start.

Action:

Develop a Fine Art inclusive crit pedagogy focusing on asking questions rather than making assumptions.

Prioritise my own ongoing education in areas of cultural or racial ignorance.

546 words

References:

Black Artists and Designers (BAAD) and Sherrid, Eloise, “The Room of Silence” (2016). Racial Justice. 18.
https://digitalcommons.risd.edu/archives_activism_racialjustice/18

Channel 4 Entertainment. (2020, June 30). Heartbreaking moment when kids learn about white privilege | the school that tried to end racism [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1I3wJ7pJUjg

Campbell-Stephens, R. (2020). Global Majority; Decolonising the Language and Reframing the Conversation about Race. [online] Available at: https://www.leedsbeckett.ac.uk/-/media/files/schools/school-of-education/final-leeds-beckett-1102-global-majority.pdf.

Hooks, B. (1994). Teaching to transgress: Education as the practice of freedom. New York: Routledge.

Mba, D., Lloyd-Bardsley, C., Weigel, A. and Longville, S. (n.d.). Ethnic Representation Index 2023. [online] Available at: https://www.arts.ac.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0010/410212/ERI-Ethnic-Representation-Index-2023-PDF-1.2MB.pdf. Access the ERI 2023 data here: https://public.tableau.com/views/ERI2023Published/ERIDashboard?:language=en-US&:display_count=n&:origin=viz_share_link&publish=yes&%3AshowVizHome=no#1

TEDx Talks. (2023, March 2). Diversity, Equity & Inclusion. Learning how to get it right | Asif Sadiq | TEDxCroydon [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HR4wz1b54hw

Tchiapi, Hugette (2024) in CSM Changemakers Publication https://learnteachcsm.myblog.arts.ac.uk/files/2024/07/CSM-Changemakers-2024-Publication-online.pdf

The Telegraph. (2022, August 5). Revealed: The charity turning UK universities woke [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRM6vOPTjuU

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[1] “Global Majority is a collective term that first and foremost speaks to and encourages those so-called to think of themselves as belonging to the global majority. It refers to people who are Black, Asian, Brown, dual-heritage, indigenous to the global south, and or have been racialised as ‘ethnic minorities’. Globally, these groups currently represent approximately eighty per cent (80%) of the world’s population” p.1 Rosemary Campbell-Stevens (2020) see Bibliography for full citation.

[2] See https://learnteachcsm.myblog.arts.ac.uk/files/2024/07/CSM-Changemakers-2024-Publication-online.pdf

IP Unit: Faith (Prefer not to say?)

The UAL Dashboard shows that across at Chelsea specifically, 58.1% of students stated they had no religion. Of those who identified as having a religion, the three largest categories where Christian (11.7%), Prefer not to say (9.6%) and Muslim (6.1%).

The shortcomings of the data collection that UAL does around protected characteristics prevent any engagement with an intersectional analysis of these figures as each characteristic is treated as a standalone category. No analysis is possible about how much those who identify as having a religion overlap with other protected characteristics such as race and ethnicity. This creates a lack of comprehension, even institutional blindness, of where there may be layers of systematic discrimination e.g. for the black female Muslim Curating student I met at a recent opening.  

I am personally interested in the ‘prefer not to say’ category. Building from my Disability blog I wonder again about non-disclosure in these contexts. The students selecting this option have chosen to identify themselves as having a religion but would ‘prefer not to say’. Why is this? Is it personal preference or the fear of institutional or peer bias? As Nicole Brown (2022) has pointed out in relation to disclosing Disability status, there is a cost-benefit analysis that is happening in these hidden moments of decision-making. There are questions to be asked here about why the cost is too high to disclose, and what the institution can do to be a space that is inclusive of faith as a protected characteristic under the 2010 Equality Act.  

Some of this hesitancy is likely driven by what is happening in the wider socio-political sphere, what Simran Jeet Singh (2025) identifies as fearmongering about religious groups by politicians to accrue power. Whilst Singh is talking about his own context in the US, similar prejudice is very evident in the Islamophobia in political discourse in the UK. A most recent example is Keir Starmer’s ‘island of strangers’ speech that drew parallels with Enoch Powell (Syal 2025). This is complicated by high profile British Muslims publicly supporting Reform, such as the party’s Chair Zia Yusuf, and much of the last decade of anti-immigration rhetoric spearheaded by other prominent Muslim figures like Priti Patel and Suella Braverman.

I would speculate that another contributory factor in the ‘prefer not to say’ choice, is the paucity of attention given to religion in the wider fields of both arts academia and contemporary art practice. Whilst there is a contemporary trend (with strong art historical antecedents) towards pagan and occult expression in art practice (see Marciniak (2019), established religions as a serious area of contemporary practice and research are quite a non-sequitur. As Gilbert et al argue in an interesting study in the field of cultural geography “religion has been given little or no attention in academic discussions of vernacular creativity, while arts policy as it developed in the United Kingdom in the post-war period has had a strongly secular focus” [Gilbert et al (2018) p.1].

These observations aside, the historic oppressions, persecutions, genocides, corruptions and colonising done by established religions surely holds responsibility for the secular turn. I have my own, at times conflicted, positionality to consider here as a white person who does have a personal faith, yet is strongly LGBTQ+ inclusive and wants to actively play a part in decolonisation, and as an artist in the field of contemporary art practice.

UAL generally has a strongly secular feel, with religious holidays often the taking place without interrupting the academic calendar. An example of how this impacts students came to my attention recently, when one of my exchange students who comes from an Italian institution queried why Easter didn’t align with the UAL Spring Break, as it meant she was unable to go home to celebrate the most important holiday of her year with her Catholic family.

Another issue I have found at UAL is that the Quiet Space and Prayer Room facilities are one and the same. The designated space at Chelsea is in a small, dark and quite damp room in the basement of C-Block. It is supposed to be open but is often locked and needs a key code to access it. This one room is the place that students of faith are supposed to pray in, and the one that Disabled and Neurodivergent students are to use if they are feeling overwhelmed. I don’t think these uses are compatible and so neither group are adequately catered for.

As an action moving forwards, I am going to set up a meeting to start a dialogue with the multi-faith chaplaincy team to understand their role more, and how we can work together to support an inclusive environment for people of faith or none on the 2Y of the BA Fine Art.

792 words

Bibliography

Akhtar, P. (2025) Zia Yusuf: The British Muslim Driving Reform’s transformation into an election winner, The Conversation. Available at: https://theconversation.com/zia-yusuf-the-british-muslim-driving-reforms-transformation-into-an-election-winner-256003 (Accessed: 26 May 2025).

Brown, N. (2022) Wellbeing in higher education podcast: Ableism, Dr Nicole Brown. Available at: https://www.nicole-brown.co.uk/wellbeing-podcast/ (Accessed: 23 May 2025).

Gilbert, D. et al. (2018) ‘The hidden geographies of religious creativity: Place-making and material culture in west london faith communities’, cultural geographies, 26(1), pp. 23–41. doi:10.1177/1474474018787278.

Marciniak, C. (2019) Wicked! modern art’s interest in the occult, Frieze. Available at: https://www.frieze.com/article/wicked-modern-arts-interest-occult (Accessed: 26 May 2025).

Singh, S. (2025) Challenging Race, Religion, and Stereotypes in Classroom, Trinity University, YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0CAOKTo_DOk (Accessed: 26 May 2025).

Syal, R. (2025) Starmer accused of echoing far right with ‘island of strangers’ speech, The Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2025/may/12/keir-starmer-defends-plans-to-curb-net-migration (Accessed: 26 May 2025).

UAL Dashboard Data 24-25 (Accessed 26 May 2025)

IP Unit: Hidden Disability and Mental Health

According to the UAL Dashboard, across CCW 18% of our students have declared a Disability. Chelsea specifically has a slightly higher rate with 18.5% of our students having declared a Disability, of whom 3.4% declared a Mental Health condition. These statistics are at odds to the general populace. In terms of Mental Health alone, a 2023 survey [see Baker and Kirk-Wade (2024)] found that among those aged 17 to 19, 10% had a probable mental disorder in 2017, rising to 23% in 2023 (emphasis mine). In 2025, these are the 19-21 year olds on the 2nd Year (2Y) of the BA Fine Art.

I don’t have space here to unpack all the reasons behind the sharp rise in mental ill health amongst young people, but research shows that COVID and the climate crisis are contributory factors [Lawrance et all (2022)]. In terms of mental health alone, there is a disconnect of around 20% between the national statistics (23%) and the student disclosed statistics at Chelsea (3.4%). From my experience as Year leader for 2Y, I would say the national picture is a much more accurate reflection of my students’ mental health.

As educators the mental health of our students has a direct impact on how students engage with us and learn, and should impact our pedagogy. Hence, the non-disclosure of students’ mental health conditions raises particular challenges. Whilst visible Disabilities have their own distinct concerns, particularly in a building as inaccessible as Chelsea’s, I am concerned that invisible Disabilities are remaining hidden in a context where students must disclose in order to be seen. Why, as these statistics suggest, are students unwilling to disclosure? There is support (albeit limited) via the Disability service, and students with an ISA (Individual Support Agreement) can get two-week extensions on deadlines.

A starting point to truly trying to address students’ reluctance to disclose would be to understand more fully, the personal and external barriers students face that prevent them from doing so. As Moriña summarises the most common external factor students’ identity is faculty themselves. “Many students with invisible disabilities find that faculty members are neither informed nor trained to support them and contribute to their inclusion.” [Moriña (2022) p.919]

Dr Nicole Brown has raised this as a critical issue, asking how visible people with Disabilities in teaching or academia are [see Brown (2018)]. If students can’t see themselves represented in staff, how can we say we are truly creating inclusive environments for teaching? This creates a self-fulfilling cycle where ableism is not tackled. Are students choosing not to disclosure their Disability due to the perceived cost of being stigmatised, marginalised and categorised in a context where they are not represented? This might be particularly true in the case of mental health where there are strong social stigmas at play, particularly when we take into consideration different intersectional cultural, class and gender-based factors.

What is clear to me, is that in my role at UAL I have the opportunity and responsibility to visibilise my own invisible Disabilities. By doing so, I can contribute to a more inclusive working and learning culture at UAL, for both staff and students.

521 words

Bibiliography

Baker, C. and Kirk-Wade, E. (2024) Mental health statistics: Prevalence, services and funding in England – House of Commons Library, House of Commons Library, UK Parliament. Available at: https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/sn06988/ (Accessed: 26 May 2025).

Brown, N. (2022) Wellbeing in higher education podcast: Ableism, Dr Nicole Brown. Available at: https://www.nicole-brown.co.uk/wellbeing-podcast/ (Accessed: 23 May 2025).

Brown, N. and Leigh, J. (2018) ‘Ableism in academia: Where are the disabled and ill academics?’, Disability & Society, 33(6), pp. 985–989. doi:10.1080/09687599.2018.1455627.

Lawrance, E.L. et al. (2022) ‘Psychological responses, mental health, and sense of agency for the dual challenges of climate change and the covid-19 pandemic in young people in the UK: An online survey study’, The Lancet Planetary Health, 6(9), pp. 726–738. doi:10.1016/s2542-5196(22)00172-3.

Moriña, A. (2022). When what is unseen does not exist: disclosure, barriers and supports for students with invisible disabilities in higher education. Disability & Society, 39(4), 914–932. https://doi.org/10.1080/09687599.2022.2113038

UAL Dashboard (Accessed 26 May 2025)

Blog post 4 : Ambiguous Pedagogies, Uncertain Territories

Annie Davey’s (2016) article ‘International Students and Ambiguous Pedagogies within the UK Art School’ raises all sorts of questions about the assumptions at play underneath the fine art pedagogy prevalent in Chelsea and most art schools. I am not only involved in teaching some of these assumptions but also have been taught them myself, through my foundation (2000-01) undergraduate studies at Liverpool School of Art (2001-05) and then at Chelsea where I did a PGDip and MA in Fine Art (2010-11).

Actively not knowing is a central part of the way contemporary artistic practice is configured, drawing heavily on the legacy of conceptualism. My own approach has been influenced by contributing to a research group set up by Jacob Jacobsen to explore John Latham’s idea of AntiKnow (Jacobsen 2006), see images below.

Davey’s article draws on Austerlitz and I followed the research trail to read ‘Mind the Gap’ Austerlitz et al’s (2008) article. “Students entering higher education often seek ‘clarity’ but a central, although largely unspoken tenet of art and design pedagogy would appear to be the centrality of ‘ambiguity’ to the creative process.” [p.127 Austerlitz et al (2008)].

This quote echoed two conversations I recently had with students following their Unit 6 feedback. Both are engaged international students with English as their first language. Both had received B (very good under the UAL Level 5 Marking Matrix). Both were unhappy with this, and wanted to know exactly how to get an A. They wanted clarity and whilst at least one of them was dissatisfied with the ambiguity I was offering in return. “…For those students unfamiliar with the benefits of risk and for whom uncertainty feels far from necessary, productive state these implicit values can be met with confusion and diminished confidence” [Davey (2016) p.380].

There are invisible barriers at play. I’ve had a lot of positive feedback about the course from students, but I recently received some that evidenced that some students felt very much at sea in this ambiguity. I hosted an open meeting welcoming anyone who wanted to voice any frustrations or concerns, and it was illuminating. What became clear was that some students who have not benefited from an arts-based education prior to starting their BA, feel really lost by the ambiguous nature of what we are asking them to do.  

Perhaps one of the tasks is to fully conceptualise what our ambiguous pedagogy is, and to do this we must clearly define what we mean by ambiguity. “Rowland argues that there are two different kinds of ambiguity and makes the distinction between vagueness and uncertainty (Rowland 2003). This allows us to differentiate between not taking the process far enough to identify issues and possibilities (vagueness) and the recognition of multiplicity of routes and interpretations with porous boundaries (uncertainty)… There is also a danger of inauthentic ambiguity where there is a discourse of acceptance of diverse outcomes but beneath is a hidden curriculum open only to the privileged few.” [p.142 Austerlitz et al (2008)]. This is a very helpful distinction between vagueness and uncertainty, and one I will be taking forward as I develop the pedagogical frame for Year 2.

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References:

Austerlitz, Noam, Blythman, Margo, Grove-White, Annie, Jones, Barbara Anne, Jones, Carol An, Morgan, Sally, Orr, Susan, Shreeve, Alison and Vaughn, Suzi (2008) Mind the gap: expectations, ambiguity and pedagogy within art and design higher education. In: Drew, Linda, (ed.) The Student Experience in Art and Design Higher Education: Drivers for Change. Cambridge, Jill Rogers Associates Limited, pp. 124-148

Davey, A. (2016). International Students and Ambiguous Pedagogies within the UK Art School. International Journal of Art & Design Education, 35(3), pp.377–383. doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/jade.12124.

Flattimeho.org.uk. (2025). ANTIKNOW RESEARCH REPORT | Projects | Flat Time House. [online] Available at: https://flattimeho.org.uk/projects/publications/anti-know-research-report/ [Accessed 18 Mar. 2025].

Jakobsen, J. ed. (2006) ‘ANTIKNOW RESEARCH REPORT’ published by FlatTime Ho

Blog Post 3 : What do formal educational settings have to learn from alternative pedagogical spaces?

My own teaching practice is informed by over a decade of experience as an artist educator in museums, galleries and alternative education spaces such as PRUs (Pupil Referral Units). Most of these projects were about facilitating creative learning in unaccredited but deeply important ways. One of the most significant was Supersmashers, an after-school arts club for care-experienced children in partnership with social services at South London Gallery. I was the lead artist on this project for 2013-15, and it deeply impacted my teaching practice; developing pedagogies about inclusivity, materials-based enquiry and the importance of play. Now my energies are focused in H.E. I still want to bring some of the energy and vitality of these alternative creative learning spaces with me.

On the 11th of March I went to the book launch of Anna Colin’s ‘Alternative Pedagogical Spaces: from Utopia to Institutionalisation’, where Colin’s reflects on her own experiences of setting up and then running the alternative art school Open School East between 2013 – 2021.  

Before I go on, I do have a fundamental question about how appropriate it is for formal educational settings to borrow from these alternative contexts? Is it a form of colonisation, the co-opting of the outside by institutions? My motivation is that I still want to be about creating possibilities as a human being, a parent, an artist, and a ‘teacher’. Within the formal education context, we are still, supposedly, about experimentation and creating possibilities and I think there is much to learn from alternative education spaces.  As bell hooks (1994) writes,

The academy is not paradise. But learning is a place where paradise can be created. The classroom, with all its limitations, remains a location of possibility. In that field of possibility, we have the opportunity to labor for freedom, to demand of our­selves and our comrades, an openness of mind and heart that allows us to face reality even as we collectively imagine ways to move beyond boundaries, to transgress. This is education as the practice of freedom. (Ibid, p. 207)

At the book launch Anna in conversation with Cindy Sissokho reflected on the necessity of reconfiguring the ‘how’ of the institution and as part of that a reworking of the notion of time. Colin (2025) surmises Barbara Adam “linear time (clock time, machine time, synonymous with temporal efficiency) is indifferent to change and infinite insofar as it excludes the concept of becoming” [Ibid p.109-10]. Art school is precisely about the process of becoming, and as such we must find ways of reconfiguring this linearity of time into something more fluid, more multi-modal and more playful. Anna raised the question as to whether institutional bureaucratic slowness can be reappropriated as a slow practice, akin to garden time.

Biesta (2022) argues that education is a practice of cultivation, drawing on Dewey; “His [Dewey’s] argument is that ‘since growth is the characteristic of life, education is all one with growing; it has no end beyond itself” [Ibid p.31]. This way of thinking about education as an organic process of cultivation opens many rich possibilities that move beyond the limits of the institution.

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Bulbs springing up in my garden

References:

Biesta, G. (2021). World-Centred Education. Routledge.

Colin, A. (2025). Alternative Pedagogical Spaces: From Utopia to Institutionalization. MIT Press.

hooks, b (1994) Teaching to Transgress : Education As the Practice of Freedom, Taylor & Francis Group, ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/ual/detail.action?docID=1656118.
Created from ual on 2025-03-12 11:20:09.

Goldsmithscca.art. (2025). Goldsmiths CCA — Alternative Pedagogical Spaces: From Utopia to Institutionalization event page [online] Available at: https://goldsmithscca.art/event/alternative-pedagogical-spaces-from-utopia-to-institutionalization/ [Accessed 11 Mar. 2025].

Blog Post 1 : Thoughts on Induction

During the induction, I was feeling very tired, almost delirious, and my eye was struggling with a rapidly flickering projector. I have a coloboma in my right eye [see RNIB (N.D.)]. This birth defect means that I struggle to regulate light intake in this eye, and it can trigger serious migraines. In most contexts where I can regulate light, I am not Disabled under the social model of Disability [Scope (2024)]. I can make a series of adjustments so that the environment is not disabling. I can turn off lights or use a dim computer screen or draw the blinds or wear sunglasses… In this context, despite asking, there was nothing that could (?) be done and the screen was left flickering in a way that meant I struggled to participate or stay in the room.  

I became Disabled by the environment and the lack of reasonable adjustments that were put in place. I found this a weirdly hostile experience for my first induction into the PGCert. It made me reflect on how important these interactions are and how quickly certain ‘scripts’ can get set within teaching environments. I found initially being vocal about my visual impairment meant that I felt vocal about other things, and I ended up feeling like I had been quite disruptive.

I wonder about being the disruptive one. Rigid environments demand a certain kind of behaviour; compliance. But what happens when you can’t be compliant?

I ended up wanting to sit with my back to the class because the flickering light, even in my peripheral vision, was so difficult to manage. When I wanted to be there, facing backwards felt like a pretty strong statement which I was almost forced into making.

Articulating access requirements is a kind of rupture – a refusal to participate in the way everyone else is. And this articulation is a rejection of a status quo, which automatically sets you at loggerheads with all kinds of power dynamics. I didn’t feel like my concerns about the projector triggering a migraine were taken seriously, and this also felt like a different kind of refusal. This, likely, was not because the staff didn’t take them seriously, but because the layout of the room was so rigid as to not allow alternatives. It may have been because of other factors as well, perhaps I didn’t articulate my own access requirements clearly enough? Whatever the reasoning, it made me wonder, how many of our interactions with ‘difficult’ or ‘disruptive’ students are because we are forcing them to be compliant to an environment or system which they fundamentally can’t participate in?

There’s a lot of potential to create or drive change by being forced into the position of the ‘difficult’. Writing about the decision to title a symposium about diversity and disability ‘Awkward Bastards’ Craig Ashley reflects “By taking a position of awkwardness, we are empowered to ask difficult questions, to challenge the legitimate ground where it is assumed or outmoded, and to propose alternative territories for the mainstream.” [in DASH (2016) p.13].

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References

DASH ed. (2016) ‘The incorrigibles : perspectives on disability visual arts in the 20th and 21st centuries’ Publisher: MAC Birmingham, 2016.

Gevers, I. (2009). Difference on Display. Nai010 Publishers.

RNIB. (n.d.). Coloboma. [online] Available at: https://www.rnib.org.uk/your-eyes/eye-conditions-az/coloboma/.

SCOPE (2024). Social Model of Disability | Disability Charity Scope UK. [online] www.scope.org.uk. Available at: https://www.scope.org.uk/social-model-of-disability.

Blog Post 5 : Critique of design critique…

Notes on ‘The design critique and the moral goods of studio pedagogy” (2019) Jason K. McDonald and Esther Michela, Brigham Youn University, USA

I feel uncomfortable with ‘design’ thinking which I see as being very task orientated, focused on usefulness and instrumentalised in some way… all things which I understand as making bad art – not always – but often. So straightaway I feel alienated by this article but I am interested in studio pedagogy so I’m going in…

p.2 ” The intrinsic ends of practice as defined as goods in the sense that, when achieved, people have experienced something that they recognise as good, and that allows them to define themselves as good practitioners, at least within the context of the cultural frameworks that lay claim upon them… And these goods are moral, both because practices have internal expectations of better or worse ways of accomplishing their own ends, and because pursuit of practice-specific goods is accompanied by “implications for others who lives are affected by what [that practice] bring(s) about”… I am instinctively not that comfortable about the idea of morality in the mix here, but of course it is in the mix, in every mix and the way it is contextualised here is helpful.

Summary from the article of the ‘moral goods’ of critiques:

FEEDBACK: getting feedback leading to the development of stronger work

INDEPENDENT THINKING: wrestling things out with your tutor, a space of challenging ideas together or in opposition

UNPREDICTABILITY: openness to new possibilities. Unplanned / unplannable teaching space.

IMPROVISATION: parallels to improv actors, improvising with students a conversation contingent on their input, ideas and work. This ideal of the “emergent environment” is important for the teacher interviewed, own sense of ‘self-cultivation’ – it’s a learning environment for staff too.

MECHANISM FOR INTERVENTION: a way of inputting into students’ process as it is underway as opposed to the beginning or end.

Interesting the description of th double-edged sword of critique: p.3 “a duality of potential help and potential harm”. This idea of harm is expanded on p.15 “if instructors think they know what is good for students, but their ideas are somehow limited or even inaccurate, they might overly emphasise their biased views and miss the bigger picture of what their practice might actually be able to accomplish”.

P.11 “…ONLY ONE WOMAN WAS INCLUDED AS A PARTICIPANT IN OUR STUDY. WHILE THIS IS CONSISTENT WITH THE PERCENTAGE OF WOMEN TEACHING AT THIS PARTICULAR UNIVERSITY….” Emphasise mine. Only 1 out of 6… I struggle with how I can take this article seriously at all… IN 2019… YIKES.

I wonder what differentiates feedback and critique? I would like the authors to define what they mean by critique as it isn’t contextualised enough for me.

References:

‘The design critique and the moral goods of studio pedagogy” (2019) Jason K. McDonald and Esther Michela, Brigham Youn University, USA