Race Equality Charter Student Survey

 

Urging you all to take a moment to take part in this survey of race equality through  Middlesex University:

Message below from Professor Kurt Barling

Dear student,

 

The University has set out on a path to understand race equality at Middlesex and what this means in reality to students and staff.

 

When Revd. Jesse Jackson stood as a Democratic Presidential Nominee in 1984 he opened the door to a future President Barack Obama.  Our actions today can change the destiny of our community.  When Revd. Jackson came to Middlesex in 2013 he said that “As in learning and Fs in living, is a bad mark”!

 

 https://vimeo.com/638757053

 

Click on the play icon above or click on the link to play:  https://vimeo.com/638757053

 

The recent staff race equality survey had a fantastic response rate and we are hoping that MDX students will want to contribute to this conversation too by completing this brief 15-20 minute survey accessed from this link:

 

https://mdxl.eu.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_cGCoVOWkKxKTMZ8

 

The Survey is open for you to complete now and will have a huge impact on how we understand race equality perspectives amongst Middlesex students.  All the data collected in this survey is anonymous.

 

Please do take the time to complete the REC Student Survey.  If, in addition, you would like to be part of one of the REC Student Focus Groups or be individually interviewed, to extend the REC Teams knowledge with your insights, do get in touch with us at rec@mdx.ac.uk.

 

Many thanks for your support towards this important university work.

 

 

Professor Kurt Barling

Professor of Journalism

Race Equality Charter Self-Assessment Team 

Artefacts

Some great discussions last week with Module One students about the diagram/artefact part of this module and its relationship with the essay and this week with Module Three students developing ideas for artefacts that communicate their research inquiry process and learning.

Do...think creatively and imaginatively about your artefacts - they are not literal presentations, they should not be overly written (though they can use words, visually/verbally). 

Do...think about the indiciative word counts outlined in the handbook - this is not a requirement for written words - indicative - gives an indication of the time, energy and effort you would give to an essay of this word count/length, it is suggesting you give the same time, energy and effort to creating your artefact. 

Do...accept that, like an essay, the artefact is a process to engage with...it will likely need making/drafting and re-making/drafting before it is ready to share/submit.

Do...think about how best to share and submit your artefact. It needs to be in a digital form to be able to upload as part of your submission on Dec 10, for module three students, it is also shared as part of your presentations in January - think about how you would like to do this. 

 

Looking forward to seeing, experiencing them all soon!

Module Three session - schedule change

 Module Three's I need to re-schedule your session next week - this will now run 

 

Tuesday Nov 16th at 1800 (UK) 

Please make every effort to attend we will discuss the different modes of your submission - artefact, presentation and report.

MORE applications - Module Two

A note for those in module two on MORE applications:

 

Please do get these forms submitted 'Request Signature' by Friday Nov 5th, there is some room here for your supervisor to come back to you with comments for your attention/request you re-submit before the applications go to the Ethics Committee - but they must be in process with us by Friday 5th, unless you have discussed otherwise. 

 

Please check the simple things before Requesting Signature on your MORE application 

- dates of the research (Jan 31-May 6 2022)

- module of study (ACI 3633) This reflects the module of study that you will undertake the research on, not the module you are in now

- PI/Chief Investigator - YOUR SUPERVISOR not you here! 

- access to data and ownership of data gathered - You and Your Supervisor's names needed

- upload forms if recruiting participants to your research (PIS, Consent, De-Brief, data protection etc)

- research is to take place in a Public Space NOT private - ie not your home (zoom and other online platforms in the public domain count as public spaces)

- If no participants - only the Employer Consent form - if you are self employed, self-sign and state this

 

Do refer to the recording of the zoom session on this which is on unihub for your reference.

 

Data, Analysis, Reflection, Interpretation

 Today's session was with Module three students talking about data and what to do with it...  

I shared an short passage from Harry Wolcott's Transforming Qualitative Data, 

'No one ever flunked fieldwork...it would seem unusual for anyone to intitate fieldwork yet gain nothing from the experience. On the other hand it is not at all uncommon to complete fieldwork, accumulate a mountain of data, and have nothing to show by the way of a completed study...the greater problem for first-time qualitative researchers is not how to get data but how to figure out what to do with the data they get'. (Wolcott, H. 1994:9)

An articulation of this that may be helpful

 

'No one ever flunked fieldwork... YOU CANNOT GET IT WRONG!

...it would seem unusual for anyone to intitate fieldwork yet gain nothing from the experience. YOU WILL LEARN SOMETHING FROM THE EXPERIENCE OF GATHERING DATA EVEN IF THE DATA WAS NOT WHAT YOU HAD HOPED OR EXPECTED

On the other hand it is not at all uncommon to complete fieldwork, accumulate a mountain of data, and have nothing to show by the way of a completed study... ON THIS PROGRAMME WE ARE INTERESTED IN THE PROCESS OF YOUR LEARNING THROUGH CARRYING OUT AN INQUIRY NOT CREATING THE PERFECT RESEARCH OR FINDING ANSWERS

...the greater problem for first-time qualitative researchers is not how to get data but how to figure out what to do with the data they get'. (Wolcott, H. 1994:9) THIS IS ANALYSIS - WHAT YOU DO WITH THE DATA - INTERPRET WHAT YOU GATHER THROUGH THE LENS OF YOU/YOUR PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE - WHAT DOES IT ALL SAY TO YOU? WHAT ARE THE PATTERNS YOU SEE EMERGING, RECURRING THEMES ACROSS ALL THE DATA SETS (LITERATURE, YOUR OWN EXPERIENCES, FIELD DATA)?

Those that shared their data stories and processes as part of this discussion please do blog, comment and share your thoughts further from this session below...

DRAFTS

A note on DRAFTS - for those in module one sending draft essays in today and a reminder for module twos and threes as yours come in next week...

 
Drafts are intended to initiate a feedback dialogue (verbally via a follow up supervision OR written via email) with your supervisor, they are not usefully used to ask if things are 'right' or sent with an expectation of receiving corrections, by way of a pre-marking opportunity.

Please do receive feedback as an extended discussion of your work and send a draft with the Feedback Discussion Form, noting the specific questions you have on this draft of work that you would like to initiate a discussion with, asking if it is on the right track is not really opening a conversation and offers little in return.

Often feedback contains prompts for further reading, suggested texts/practitioners to look at, comments regarding the level of critical thinking/analysis in your writing over overly descriptive personal narrative approaches etc.. Feedback comments are not telling you to 'correct' something and re-submit, but more trying to help you to move your thinking and writing on as we see the process of your work developmentally.

With this in mind, when you have received feedback on a draft of work, please take time to read and consider comments made, come back to your supervisor asking to extend the conversation, arrange a supervision is you have further thoughts and questions as a result of the feedback, but please not to send a 2nd draft asking if the work is now correct, or continuous re-drafts up until the submission date.

 

A good practice note:

Please take the time to save your work with your name and module number - saving work as 'BAPP' or 'Lit Review' on your own computer might make sense but be mindful that as we receive multiple drafts titled that it is not helpful to know whose work it is!