I really enjoyed reading this article on pg.50-51 within the Shades of Noir terms of reference around Faith. My interpretation of the article is that is it short personal biographies of three women, a small insight into their lives and what is important to them – all through what it seems is a simple conversation.
It highlights the intersectional nature of each of their lives, and whilst they all have similarities each one is so individual. Different religious views, different sexualities, different occupations, different heritages. All women, all smart, all inquisitive and thirsty for knowledge and experiences.
I think its also interesting at the end of the article how the interviewer asks how the interviewee thinks they are perceived, who answers, but also states how they would like to be perceived. It’s important to be aware of both, but more focus should be put on the latter.
This has reminded me how important it is to take the time to get to know my students, to have conversations and learn about them. What do they like? What is important to them? How do they want to communicate themselves and their work to the world? Often as a sample room tutor my sessions are jam packed with skill delivery. I focus a lot of my time of making sure my students have the technical skills to create the garments they want to make, but I don’t give myself (or them for that matter) the time and space to have conversations to learn about each other. When you understand who your students are as individuals, what makes them tick, what’s important to them and what they want to communicate with their voice; the more you can adapt your teaching to support and nurture them as individuals.
While I try and do this as much as I can with the amount of teaching hours I have, especially with each cohort having 120 students; I think there’s always room for improvement!