The Other Voices Project: Collaborative Learning and Publishing

Paper

The Other Voices Project involved working with a group of BAME students in a series of creative writing workshops and culminated in publishing a volume of their narratives in book format. From the online call for participants, to the digital design, publication and dissemination of this anthology, the digital process was a critical factor in this teaching and learning project. In facilitating learning through story-telling, we not only privilege BAME voices, but actively address the BAME differential in attainment while allowing a space for alternative narratives; what Freire termed 'the fruit of the lived experience of these students as individuals'. Personal accounts from BAME students tell us that they do not feel heard or do not feel connected to either the learning materials or the teaching process. This calls for an experiential approach to curricula intervention; for developing models which attend to the alternative lived experiences of diverse social groups and a moving away from the traditional normative viewpoint. The affordances of the digital and online sphere are critical in reaching, connecting and maintaining diverse audiences and communities.

Narrative plays a central role in cognition, helping students to make sense of the sometimes inhospitable culture in which they exist. Narrative-centred learning environments could enable BAME students to be actively involved in motivating activities where their own narrative journeys could be articulated and celebrated. By enabling students to be constructors of narratives, we can promote the profound meaning-making activities which define constructivist learning. Personal narrative can be used as a tool for exploring the process of meaning-making and ideology formation and reconstitution. Furthermore, by engaging students in narrative work, students are encouraged to think of solutions; to visualise their way out of dominant ideologies by which they feel bound; story-centric problem-solving. A narrative-centred learning environment promotes thought-provoking opinions and experiences, privileging diverse narratives and experiences.

Gerrig (1993) suggest that readers experience narratives by being transported to the author's temporal and social situation and secondly by performing the narrative, drawing inferences and experiencing emotions as if they were adopting the persona of the author. Narrative plays a central role in memory by providing an organising structure for experiences and for knowledge.

Narrative-centred learning environments combined with digitally enhanced learning would thus offer to address the pedagogical goals of learning effectiveness and motivation. Constructivist learning puts emphasis on the active role of the learner in making sense of his own world vis-à-vis taught material. Because of the active nature of narration, learners share their experiences through readers' immersion in their narratives through co-construction, exploration and reflection. The digital version of this anthology facilitates wide dissemination. If we enable students to explore narrative potential, we will also facilitate their learning of the positions of power, of stakeholders, and of meaning-making. This connection-making activity links motivation with a celebration of unique or under-represented lived realities.

This critical inter-culturalism recognises that the tastes and interests of the elite in society are often institutionalized as legitimate knowledge. Inequalities of respect and recognition in education are rooted in the symbolic realm, in patterns of interpretation, definition and communication. As far back as 2002, Archer et al established that cultural dissonance exists between the universities practices and those students from diverse class, ethnic and racial backgrounds and exacerbates their failure and alienation from the education process. The current differential in attainment calls for a radical reconfiguring of the methods we use to teach and to facilitate empowerment. Developing students' own voices will add resilience to strive for social, economic and ecological well-being. Recognising diverse the value of diverse narratives will enable students to expand and meet the needs of the hybrid nature of creative careers. UAL policy already recognises that developing empathy for others is a core element of creative practice. Students should understand the value of alternative subject positions so that they can recognise that what they offer as practitioners is valuable and valid. In this way, the publication of this project enhances the experience of all students. Self-efficacy and self-belief will be enhanced by this recognition, enabling students to respond positively in various settings and promote inclusion and change.

Takeaway

This session will outline how cross-disciplinary co-creative projects can enhance student experience and staff collaboration, through an analysis of the project execution from concept to finished product. This session will illustrate this example of a live project that allowed different students to get involved in a variety of different ways – getting wide ranging benefits for different student experiences from the one central concept.

The presenters will examine the intrinsic affordances of digital sphere in the execution of this project; examining digital and print dissemination opportunities for creative outcomes (as well as impacts of digital in the production process – from collaboration to printing).

The takeaway from the session will be the importance of the digital in the design and execution of curriculum development projects; from the advertisement of the project, the call for participants, the sharing of work during the project, the collation and design of the finished product and the dissemination of the finished product. We will outline how a traditional book format, which has an intrinsic material value to the project participants, is enhanced by simultaneously existing in the digital format.

The session will provide a useful discussion of practicalities for complex projects of this sort which engage a range of staff and students. The project allowed students to link creativity and form in their production of text and physical artefacts. The digital learning element was key in promoting students' confidence and skills base.

The session also provides a space for the consideration of ways to engage underrepresented students, share experiences and enhance learning opportunities.

Our findings from the execution of this project provides many lessons for understanding a new generation of learners. It is an example of a live project that allowed different students to get involved in a variety of different ways – getting wide ranging benefits for different student experiences from the one central concept.

Abstract

The Other Voices Project offered students the option to participate in creative writing workshops, based on equality of condition and critical inter-culturalism, to develop their writing skills and their own unique authorial voice. The project culminated in producing a collection of students work, which was intended for dissemination in print and electronic format.

Once the text was developed a group of students from MA Publishing took on the role of managing the work to publication, extending the overall project with this collaborative approach. It built on an approach to experiential learning through co-creation project, making use of the opportunities at LCC to make crafted book that extended the creativity of the writing into the form itself. The project simulated the working environment of a publishing house: with editorial and production meetings and discussions over budget and timescales.

Drawing on student talents, for instance for design, illustration and editing, provided an opportunity for students to set their own learning agendas, challenging themselves through, for example, learning new print techniques. It was important to have the flexibility of using LCCs facilities and a freedom to make publishing choices with a dedication to the concept as a real enterprise. New generation learners increasingly learn best from being actively involved in, participating in, and constructing their own learning around projects.

Co-creation projects like this also help draw upon the UAL Creative Attributes Framework, applying learning objectives from publishing projects of this sort to help students gain lifelong learning competencies: these projects allow them to be proactive, agile and enterprising while the creative writing itself connects story telling with self-expression and explorations of identity.

In this way it highlighted inclusivity and diversity as areas of praxis within UAL. Situated within an 'equality of condition' framework; this project aimed to reduce the current scale of inequality by privileging voices other than the traditionally dominant, (e.g. white, educated, hetero-sexual, middle class, male, etc.). Publishing and promoting the diverse narratives of BAME students in a digital format provides UAL the opportunity to engage in 'critical inter-culturalism'; encouraging members of different social groups to engage in a critical dialogue from which everyone can learn.