It seems very ironic and strange that after working during so hard during my Masters at discovering, understanding and developing knowledge of teaching in graphic design I am currently in a teaching within an institutional environment that is in antithesis of my own research. Ahh…the revelations of real life practice. I mentioned all these warning signs in my exegesis of how and why graphic design teachers might find themselves in an institutional environment, which inhibits any sort of good teaching and learning practices. Let’s see…what did I mention? Oh yes. A teacher is less likely to engage students to help develop a deep learning environment if the institution makes this impossible. “To help build an aligned curriculum…you must understand the forces that affect its design…forces include institutional criteria, teaching and learning support and departmental perceptions of the learning environment.”
So how come I am in this situation? Just as other teachers, I find myself in a place where economic circumstances have brought me to teaching 28 hours a week of technology related courses. They are not even courses I am interested in but management has forced a situation where I had no choice to accept or lose much work. I have spoken to management and coordinators but I feel I have exhausted my voice. I don’t feel I need to mention here why 28 hours of face-to-face teaching is impossible, done well. Or how what effects on learning can an unaligned curriculum have on the students because I have already spoke all about this before. The only thing I can think about now is what am I learning from this situation.
I am starting to understand now, actually how powerful are those ‘forces’ within a learning environment. Primarily, I now feel that a teacher can study all the pedagogical literature they can, finish a degree in graphic design teaching, try to insert aspects of an aligned curriculum into their teaching and learning activities but its pretty much inconsequential if there is no institutional support. I have realised that the departmental perceptions and institutional agendas and pressure can really make or break a learning environment. This is really unfortunate because I am sure there are many other teachers in a similar position that are quite capable of developing deep teaching and learning experiences in graphic design. Are you one of them?
So what is one to do next in this situation? Give up and carry on? I think not! When I got into design education, I knew the road was not going to be easy. I also understood at some point I would have to make some important decisions and have the ability to negotiate with the ‘higher powers’ within a design department. I think it is part of my duty as a researcher and design teacher, especially in respect for what I have done over these years. So, I think it is about time I see if I can organise a meeting with these ‘institutional forces’ and see if I can present my findings. Who knows, maybe something will change or maybe not, but at least I can say I have tried. This is really important to me as a design educator because now I think I have the ability and knowledge to confront such an issue, which is not an easy one to tackle as a new teacher.
Maybe we can start some sort of online group. Are you a new/sessional teacher who is teaching in a private institution with similar circumstances? Please contact me through my blog. Let us see if we can start some sort of global conversation on the topic.
Wish me luck.