1645 Words
Introduction:
This report reflects my position as course leader on the Fashion Styling and Production (FSP) course at London College of Fashion.
The report’s intentions are:
1. To address the awarding gap that is ongoing on the course, particularly in level 6.
2. To encourage a greater sense of belonging on the course.
1. The course currently has an awarding gap of 21% between Home White students and Home Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (B.A.M.E) students who are awarded first or 2:1 degrees. The Ethnic Representation Index 2023, found that average the nationwide average was 12.3%. One its key aims is to drive change in addressing this institutional and structural issue at UAL, stating all students must “feel a sense of belonging”. (Mba, Lloyd-Barsley, Weigel, Longville, 2023)
2. Students have previously responded via the National Student Survey, that their sense of belonging on the course and in the college is low. This creates a series of challenges such as low attendance and attainment, which exacerbates the awarding gap.
Positionality:
The intervention I propose reflects my position as a British white male, I am aware that my position has the potential to unintentionally negatively impact the intervention. Therefore, I have attempted to ensure that my position does not impede the intervention design. I have conducted research and liaised with colleagues at LCF, to reduce any negative influence that my own position or preconceptions may have on the intervention proposal.
In my academic practice, I bring my values of inclusion and equity wherever possible. I come from a working-class background, as a result, I do not take my privilege as a course leader for granted. I am aware that education for many students is an incredibly difficult space to navigate, with the rising costs of education and living. This is further impacted by the pressures of finding employment, both during university education and immediately after graduation.
Context:
I propose a mixer event for students across all years of the course that I lead. The intervention will have gaming at its core, gaming as a form of community building and to foster a sense of belonging for all students on the course. I have previously co-designed two mixer events between the FSP and Creative Direction for Fashion (CDFF) course. While the previous mixer events were moderately successful, I feel that there is much more that can be done. It is with the added experience on this PgCert, and the Inclusive Practices unit, that I now feel empowered to enact positive change. I see the intervention, with its focus on belonging, as a form of social justice, with the aim of the mixer to address the two points raised in the report’s intentions.
Reflection:
I had a tutorial with Amberlee Green, where we discussed the aims and intentions of the intervention. Of particular use was the discussion around how structured the mixer should be. I had originally planned that there would be an element of structure. However, on discussing the intention behind the event, to encourage the students to view the teaching spaces differently, and to see them as ‘their’ spaces, we decided that as limited a structure as possible was beneficial. The title ‘Teaching out, Social in’ came up as a potential, I like this a lot.
When discussing the intervention in our group presentations, I found helpful feedback from my peer group. When discussing structure and the previous mixers, I mentioned that they typically had an ‘ice breaker’ activity, but that this too felt like too much of a structured teaching type aspect of the event. One peer stated that they “live in fear of the ice breaker.” I think that ice breakers can be unhelpful and perhaps produce awkward situations. This is particularly relevant when we think about language.
A key aspect of my reflection is language. I lead a course that has a large international student cohort. I am aware from previous experience that activities with a social emphasis can rely on language, the ‘ice breaker’ for example. Therefore, I propose the use of gaming to circumvent the focus on language as a means of communication and socialising. During one of the previous mixers, I noticed that when one student brought out a pack of cards, there was an instant shift in the group dynamic: The space became more relaxed with the focus on the card game itself; the initial explaining of rules, playing the game, and conversation during the game. To summarise, interaction took place during the game that achieved the desired outcome of the mixer: socialising.
What I found particularly powerful, was that during the game play, the student who had brought out the pack of cards discussed their home and the fact that card games and different forms of gambling were part of their family dynamic, as they all worked in or owned bars and clubs in Los Angeles. So, in effect, the game initialised a wider conversation about heritage, family, place, and culture.
The emphasis on gaming in my intervention is something new to me. Therefore, I wanted to understand more about the social aspect and value of games and gaming.
I discovered that much contemporary discourse on gaming considers the idea of ‘communities of play’. On watching a recording of research conducted at Texas University A&M University, the speaker commented on the social value of game play for the audience, as well as the players, which can “support meaningful engagement in smaller groups”. (Hamilton, Garretson, Kerne, 2014) I had not considered the spectator aspect of gaming and found it highly relevant to the intervention. The presenter stated that to have a space to engage in the observation of game play can lead to conversations formed around interests, cultural backgrounds, relationships and social media data, thereby allowing participants to form smaller sub-communities outside of the game play itself.
This is something that we also reflected on in the group presentations, whereby the gaming is in a sense secondary, it is a vehicle that allows the social aspect to take place. As an audience, spectators can observe without the pressures of needing to engage directly, while allowing conversations to evolve.
The emphasis in the intervention will not be about a ‘winner’ or ‘champion’. Rather, it will be about fun, with the intention of breaking down institutional barriers.
Inclusive Learning
I referred to the UAL website Belonging Through Compassion, developed by Liz Bunting and Vikki Hill. This emphasises the value of community building activities as a form of social justice. It suggests that creating spaces for socialising encourages students to “get to know us, each other, themselves and our interconnectedness”. (Bunting, Hill, 2025) I hope that this will result in a greater sense of belonging, thereby improving attendance and attainment.
Furthermore, the concept ‘third place’ is prevalent within gaming contexts as well. Ray Oldenberg coined the term, which he defined as “a great variety of public places that host the regular, voluntary, informal, and happily anticipated gatherings of individuals beyond the realms of home and work.” The key emphasis on third places is that they “promote social equity by their informality, provide a setting for grassroots politics, create habits of public association, and improve well-being.” (Oldenberg, 1989, 2023) In this context, the mixer event can be viewed as an inclusive ‘third place’.
Evaluation & Conclusion:
Returning to language, I am aware of my own blind spot regarding the many student positions and identities. Of relevance here are perceived language barriers, social and cultural norms. To overcome my own blind spots as much as possible, on July 1st 2025, I met with Dr. Eve Lin and discussed my ideas in relation to their research paper. Eve shared their perspective that how quietness is perceived, usually by white teaching staff, reflects a cultural power imbalance, particularly regarding Mandarin speaking students. Eve mentioned that from an East Asian perspective, education is centred on passive learning. Students in East Asia are taught not to speak out. Therefore, we discussed the importance of not singling out students to encourage them to speak in front of others in the mixer. Eve suggested this would be “actually quite cruel”. In East Asia, to speak out is to be punished, so quietness is not due to shyness, it is rather due to not wanting to make a mistake.
Eve suggested inviting students to bring snacks, to use food a s away to communicate, as food is the central social ritual in East Asia. Food and eating can therefore be viewed as a form of communication. With this in mind, I intend to invite students to bring snacks, something that they like, to go with the games that they like.
We discussed the pressures placed upon international students to achieve high grades, that this can overwhelm the social aspect of university life. However, Eve pointed out that regardless of the student’s priorities, in terms of grades and degree, they need to understand the need for social skills in terms of teamwork, networking and team building to succeed in industry. In this light, the mixer can be framed to develop social skills and networking. We both agreed that this could be a helpful ‘hook’ to encourage all students to attend the mixer event.
While, in tutorial discussion, Amberlee suggested that to invite students to bring a game that reflected their personality or taste would be a good addition to also asking students to bring a game that related to their culture or family, as the word family may be a trigger for some students.
Therefore, I will ensure to make it explicit that the activity is a social context, not education, as then students will not feel they are being observed or tested, so they will hopefully feel more secure and relaxed in the mixer. While I will invite students to bring a game that is not dependant only on family or culture.
References:
Mba, D , Lloyd-Barsley, C, Weigel, A , Longville, S. Ethnic Representation Index 2023.
Available at: arts.ac.uk/ethnicrepresentationindex
(accessed 01.07.25)
Hamilton, W. Garretson, O. Kerne, A. Streaming on twitch: fostering participatory communities of play within live mixed media. 2014.
CHI ’14: CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. Ontario, Canada.
Available at: https://dl.acm.org/doi/abs/10.1145/2556288.2557048
(accessed 27.06.25)
Oldenburg, R. The Great Good Place 1989/2023. Available at: https://www.pps.org/article/roldenburg (accessed 27.06.25)
In conversation with Dr. Eve Lin. On their paper An Autoethnographic Narrative of Chinese Students’ Quietness: A Reflection on Experiences of Learning and Teaching in Fashion. (Lin, 2024) 01.07.2025.
Bunting, L & Hill, V. Belonging Through Compassion
Available at: https://belongingthroughcompassion.myblog.arts.ac.uk/teaching/ (accessed 30.06.25)