UNIT 4: WORK CONTEXT

Through my readings of the governments Tertiary Education Strategy¹ and Otago Polytechnics’ Learning and Teaching Strategic Framwork²  (LTSF) I have identified our institutions strategies and philosophy as:

Mission:

 “We ensure that every learner enjoys an outstanding and successful learning experience that develops them to be capable, work ready, future focused, sustainable practitioners.”

VISION:

“Our graduates make a significant difference in their workplaces and in their communities.”

I have made connections between these and the Core Values as outlined in the Tertiary Education Strategy (TES)

STRATEGIC OBJECTIVES: (and their relationship to the TES’ Core Values)

1. Our graduates are developed to be capable, work ready, future focused, sustainable

Practitioners

-  1^st  core value (Expectations of Providers and Students - Polytechnics, pg.18

-  3^rd core value (Expectations of Providers and Students - Polytechnics, pg.18

2. Our programs are designed to be attractive to learners, accessible, future‐focused, efficient and

Sustainable

-  2^nd core value (Expectations of Providers and Students - Polytechnics, pg.18

 - 3^rd core value (Expectations of Providers and Students - Polytechnics, pg.18

3. Our teachers will be highly effective and enact our values

-  3^rd core value (Expectations of Providers and Students - Polytechnics, pg.18

4. Our support services will be holistic, individualised, accessible and timely

-  3^rd core value (Expectations of Providers and Students - Polytechnics, pg.18

5. Our physical and virtual learning environments will be inclusive and optimize learner success

-  3^rd core value (Expectations of Providers and Students - Polytechnics, pg.18

For me, through my learning on Practice Context, I have come to see the a big priority for me as an educator/facilitator is to encourage our learners towards reflection, not only on their own learning and their own current and future practice, but how they learn and what areas they need to extend or develop, both within their education at Otago Polytechnic and independently as they move into employment.

Throughout this module I have found some of the terminology confusing, in relation to the priorities, I would identify Otago Polytechnic’s Mission, Vision and Philosophy to be priorities, and these work with and alongside the Strategic Framework.

In the document of Otago Polytechnics LTSF, it outlines that OP’s Philosophy is to create the right conditions for every learner to succeed to their full potential and that this learning is accessible and individualised, experiential Learning. That Otago Polytechnic believes to achieve the richest learning it is to be facilitated through support and involvement from local networks and communities and through collaboration, producing Graduates who are capable, work ready, future focused and sustainable practitioners.  Through my involvement as an assistant teacher with the Year 3 Fashion students I am either achieving or actively working towards many of the outcomes expected from the governments’ and my institutions’ strategies. With my work involving predominantly 1-on-1 teaching interactions, mentoring and teaching many of my experiences as outlined below are directly relatable back towards these frameworks. I will be utilising these documents in my future practice, to reflect and act on areas that are lacking in my practice and to celebrate my achievements.

By creating a mindmap⁵ to do my Environmental analysis I was able to more clearly define my context on all levels and have realised this has been an important step for me – to see the big picture! I am working towards developing and streamlining this map in a digital format to further my understanding and practice moving forward. I will email you my completed Environmental context when I have completed it, for now, I have attached my draft, working copy.

It was difficult to sort my work practice and actions and how our school supports and reflects on the strategies into just one of the 5 and in some regards, it is impossible as they often relate to 2 or more of the 5 strategies². This discussion highlights some of what and how, we at Design (and I) do to try and achieve the aspirations set out in the Strategic frame work.

·         Experiential learning is a major focus within our school of Design, our students structured learning is taught primarily in studio (hands-on) situations. Where papers involve traditional-type lectures, they are often inter-disciplinary and we then take the students back into their discipline groups and their studios to unpack, reflect on and work towards individualised outcomes from the lecture content. They are also required to research and work independently through the use of online resources and Moodle, including video tutorials from both international online resources and through videos made internally at Otago Polytechnic.

·         In our support of the strategies, in Fashion our students have a requirement to complete at least 1 week of work placement and experiential learning within a business. This is a unit that I have responsibility over, to facilitate and secure the placements for each Year 3 fashion student. This does not have to be a fashion business, but one that they have identified (during self-reflection exercises) to be relevant to their ‘Future You’³ Plan. I see work placement opportunities to be hugely beneficial for our students as they are exposed to ‘real world’ industry practice and gain work-based experience that is invaluable for them as final year students to take them into employment. Students are required to reflect on their experiences during placement and present a report to the class on return. We also require the placement ‘employer’ to complete an evaluation on each student, which students have the opportunity to ustilise their ‘employer’ feedback as part of their portfolio/resume. The success of this unit and our students is indicated by the fantastic evaluations and continuing support (through offers of future placement opportunities) and occasionally job offers!

·         The Future You² workshops require students to not only investigate and reflect on what career they would like but to reflect on their own work, and on that of others – peers and aspirational practitioners (their favourite designers!). They are asked to reflect on this information again through identifying their influences, including their cultural identity and how these relate. They then utilise this new information and learning into projecting themselves 20 or 30 years into the future. The outcomes from ‘Future You’ are resoundingly positive both for the learners and for us as their educators (we gain a deeper understanding of each) but this project is initially seen by learners as ‘wasting time; and ‘irrelevant’.  Through our use of formal feedback, on both the lecturers and on the course, the students consistently identify their ‘Future You’ outcomes as being influential and highly beneficial towads their learning and see them as one of the most valuable to be work-ready.

·         As part of our assessment in Fashion we offer both summative and formative feedback during and after formal critique sessions, I am included in these and they involve both staff and the students’ peers. For both types of feedback the student is supplied with detailed notes and feedback and further opportunities to discuss the results with staff.

·         We promote sustainability on two levels that I can identify – In both our own personal practice and that of within their studio environments and also within their business economic strategies.  I encourage students to minimize the use of fabrics and to design,  pattern-make and cut sustainably. The students are exposed to documentation of bad, unsustainable and in-humane practices within our industry and are required to reflect on this information within their individual Collection Reports⁴ (Formally called Sustainability Report but now incompasses more information). In this report they are also asked to explore, explain and articulate how they will practice sustainable in future and in respect to how to run a business that is economically sustainable.

·         Year 3 students within the design school are involved with two interdisciplinary papers, both of which also involve working within groups and across disciplines to achieve a larger goal – for example the De-Brief Design exhibition held at the end of each year to showcase student work. This exhibition, through this paper has moved from being determined and the work done by staff to being primarily student driven (apart from budgets of course). My involvement is with mentoring the group of students working on different aspects of organising our fashion Collections show. 

·         In recent years we have formed a strong bond with secondary teachers in the design area, students visit local schools to promote the school and our exhibition and we offer discounted secondary student tickets to Collections. The benefits of this can be seen in the high level of secondary student attendance to the exhibition and Collections show, a more informed local secondary sector (towards the Design Programs) and a higher intake of local students than previously.

REFERENCES:

1         Ministry of Education (2009) Tertiary Education Strategy 2010-2015.

2         Otago Polytechnic. (2013). Learning and Teaching Strategic Framework 2013-2015.

3         Otago Polytechnic, School of Design. (2013) Interdisciplinary Design: Future You Workshops. (emailed to you)

4         Otago Polytechnic, School of Design. (2013) Fashion Design Studio 6: Collections Report. (emailed to you)

5         My personal Mindmap of my context and the realationships between my environments and the factors involved on  different levels. ( emailed to you)