08/01/2025
In our first TPP workshop we were given a collection of coloured cards describing significant world events, policies, and educational trends/innovations and, as a class, asked to make a HE timeline. We were also given blank cards and invited to add our own events. I enjoyed this activity; it was thought provoking and a good icebreaker. My peers on the PgCert are diverse and everyone had something different to contribute. This fostered lively discussion and knowledge exchange. Our final timeline was not perfect but overall, we assembled a sensible chronology. What I find interesting is that most decisions were driven by affect, we might not know exactly when something happened, but we had felt the consequences of it and therefore were able to locate it with relative accuracy.
We were then tasked with reflecting on the timeline and one of my peers made a good point that certain financial data was missing. Notably the rise in tuition fees in 2012 from £3000 to £9000 and the change from maintenance grants to loans in 2016. This sparked an insightful conversation about the implications, including access issues and shifting student demographics. Many people felt very strongly about the issue, me included.
I was troubled by one card which read “The murder of George Floyd” as I believe that placing emphasis on an individual can distract from the underlying systemic issue. Spotlighting someone’s murder also has the potential to be very triggering. Although I didn’t discuss this with my peers at the time, it seems that others felt similarly as someone added a handwritten card reading “Black Lives Matter”. I believe this is a good reframing: it is less triggering, acknowledges systemic racism and offers an affirmative lens rooted in collective action.
