“How can I work with first-year BA Illustration and Visual Media (BAIVM) students in group tutorials to develop a shared way of talking that helps them meaningfully engage with confusion?”
This question went through several iterations and was developed through critical friendship, group tutorials, and by following the steps for formulating a research question in Becoming a Teacher Through Action Research (Phillips and Carr, 2013, pp. 54–60). I found the “Spheres of Influence” framework particularly useful as a way of conceptualising questions that align both with my ARP ambitions and the unit’s encouragement to critically analyse how social justice issues impact students’ experiences. As noted in Action Research for Professional Development: Concise Advice for New Action Researchers (McNiff, 2002), “The question ‘how do I improve my work?’ contains a social intent.”
As discussed in my EAP, I am interested in how confusion can be productively leveraged within Year 1 BAIVM group tutorials. I meet weekly with a group of 25 first-year students. There are no individual tutorials scheduled in the first year, and the course maintains strict parity between staff in group tutorial delivery; for example, we cannot supply written feedback and must rely on verbal communication. Responding to varied student experiences within such a rigid framework can be challenging, and predictable social dynamics often emerge, where students confident navigating the linguistic and cultural frameworks of higher education are more vocal and therefore more supported. This is a social justice issue as much as it is a communication issue as ”the bureaucratization of language will typically serve to amplify power differentials by giving more credibility to those who accept [them]” (Nguyen, 2021, p. 29).
My intentions for the ARP are therefore twofold: to help students develop a more positive and productive relationship with confusion, allowing them to deploy it as a tool for understanding, and to develop a shared language that enables them to speak to their experiences of confusion, recognising that “having an understanding also involves having the capacity to communicate that understanding” (Stevens, 2013, cited in Nguyen, 2021, p. 18).
In line with this intent, and in writing my question, I created two spheres of influence (below). Placing “self” at the centre helped me reflect on my relationship with confusion as a staff member, student, and practitioner. I understand confusion as an important emotion that invites complexity and is an essential part of practice. My aim is to review my teaching in order to help first-year students develop a similarly productive relationship with confusion. Coupled with my interest in interrogating the constraints of the BAIVM Year 1 group tutorial format (discussed in more detail in my EAP), this led to a research question that frames confusion positively and places an emphasis on verbal communication.
