The Reason Why

First of all, we would like to welcome everyone to this blog which will report back on and document the 2019/20 ILT funded innovation project examining how teaching using Radical Collections can impact upon BAME and other targeted groups, developing best practice and identifying both problems and opportunities in this form of pedagogy. This blog will primarily be updated by our Research Assistant, Siobhan Hyland, but will also feature content from our Project Lead, Daniel Jones, and our academic team members, Dr Paul Jackson and Dr Rachel Moss.

The idea for the project comes from several avenues. It builds firstly on previous work done by Dr Jackson, Daniel Jones and Siobhan Hyland, as well as former assistant Billy Mann, examining methods of using Radical Collections as ways to engage students with their learning and improve engagement, and therefore attainment. Previous projects also looked at the skills gaps that emerged from that which might hold students back from engaging with these enhancing activities. Since this work was carried out we have seen an increase in interest in this field with the University of London hosting a conference in 2018 on the impact Radical Collections can have on BAME engagement with archives and library studies, and the subjects that use them.

Discussing this with our new colleague, Dr Moss, we realised that there was an opportunity here to study these theories using the University’s position as an innovator in this area, but to take it further and consider whether there was truly an enhancing engagement effect to existing students, but also consider how it might be used with the wider community to commemorate and tell these histories. We also felt it was important to consider the potential negative impact that this material can have – it can be offensive to those not targeted by these groups, so could be more than that to people who engage and where that impact might resonate with personal experiences. it is assumed that these personal linkages deepens engagement, but does it raise safeguarding concerns, how should those be handled, and does it risk a trauma that potentially acts as a barrier to engagement and needs careful framing? We will, in this project, examine all of these things and hopefully mitigation that might need to be put in place, and create a best practice guide.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *