– 3 STUDENTS WITH AUTISM
- ‘Sharpening pencils while everyone else is finished’
NOT KNOWING STUDENTS’ DISABILITIES
– at the Mary Ward Adult Education Centre
With regards to my teaching practice, I was a teacher for Fashion Design, teacher on the Access Course and Professional Development Course and conducted class visits observing and assessing teachers’ performance at the Mary Ward Adult Education Centre, London from 2003-2008. Working at the Mary Ward Centre equipped me with the most crucial foundation for my academic practice in that I not only was introduced to such varied responsibilities including unit writing and observation but more significantly, had the benefit of meeting the most diverse students including social and ethnic backgrounds, disabilities and age.
One of the most memorable students was a tall young man with Asperger’s Syndrome who could at times create an intimidating atmosphere among the mostly female members of the group due to his height and loud voice. The concept of time was difficult for him to grasp and therefore, he was still sharpening his pencil when the other students had finished their task.
The Mary Ward Centre had a similar approach as CSM in that they did not disclose students’ different disabilities or trained the teachers prior meeting the students. However, I managed to develop a successful working method by creating copied templates from the student’s unfinished drawings so that he eventually accomplished numerous meticulously completed drawings and succeeded in creating a rich portfolio of various pieces of work.
Interestingly, as we have advanced a lot in neuroscience in recent years we are beginning to focus on and acknowledge neurodiversity much more which for instance is reflected in the various BBC TV programs about autism or features on social media and consequently, I have only been aware of 4 students with Asperger’s Syndrome on BA womenswear in recent years. One of the students I supported to get an assessment at UAL who was then diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome.
- ‘Visible and invisible disabilities and rooms without windows and low ceilings’
SUPPORTING STUDENTS WITH DISABILITIES PROPERLY REQUIRES A LOT OF EXTRA TIME & MONEY
– at CSM
In 2016 I met my first student with Autistic Spectrum Disorder on the BA Fashion Design Womenswear at CSM. However, at first, I did not know that this student had a lifelong condition because at CSM teaching staff does not know whether any of their students have a lifelong condition unless the students decide to disclose it to the disability service and receive an ISA – individual support agreement form. Even if the member of staff knows that the student has an ISA, they still will not know what the condition is unless the student decides to disclose it to the member of staff.
During tutorials and especially during Crits I was unable to understand what the student was saying as their sentences simply did not make sense. At first, I blamed myself thinking it is because I am a foreigner despite usually not having any problems understanding students but since nobody said anything neither staff nor students, I thought it must be me. I got increasingly frustrated to the point that I simply explained to the student that I cannot understand them and asked them to prepare tutorials and crits through writing down their thoughts and reading them out loud. From then on communication improved immensely and it marked the beginning of a friendship (after graduation as I don’t become friends with students while they are on the course).
Entering the final year of studies, the student faced many more issues when trying to fulfil the final year requirements than the student and I had anticipated. However, when we finally managed to set up a meeting between the student and the disability adviser, the actual meeting which took place in a small room with low ceiling and no windows due to lack of space in the college did not go according to plan.
The aim of the meeting had been to establish more physical support for the student. However, the student who felt immeasurably uncomfortable in the small room without windows had decided to not disclose any of her impactful issues and to declare that they were fine. Additionally, I only learned after the meeting that it was a difficult endeavour to secure physical support such as pattern cutting help since the student had a mental as opposed to a physical disability (and in addition Asperger’s Syndrome was not described as disability at that time). Consequently, I had a lengthy telephone conversation with the disability adviser on our day off questioning furiously the existing system.
Unfortunately, we never got the necessary support through the disability service. Eventually, the head of the BA Fashion utilised her own course budget to pay an extra pattern cutter to come in and help that student for a few hours because the student would have been unable to finish their graduate collection and therefore, would have not been part of the fashion show which constitutes the absolute highlight of any CSM Fashion student. The student graduated with an A and was selected for the prestigious press fashion show consisting of less than a third of all fashion students.
- ‘Dancing on tables’
KNOWING STUDENTS IS VITAL
at CSM
In addition to being the BA pathway leader for womenswear I am the BA pathway leader of the final year fashion print students and I have been asked to do my PgCert this year, 2023. I met the final year fashion print students in the second week of Spring Term in January who had been neglected for quite a few weeks because the last BA fashion print pathway leader had unexpectedly left. Despite my 20 years of teaching experience this constituted still a challenging task because I had to quickly understand who the students were as people, what their projects were about and significantly gain their trust so that I could enable them to reach the required high standard within their work.
Only last week I realised that I had let my focus slip in that I had not registered to what extent one of the students struggled to get their work completed in time for their hand-in date. I had been trying to explain to the student what steps they needed to take in order to follow their time schedule on a weekly basis however, the student seems unable to follow a different order than the order they have decided in their head and in addition this order seemed to continuously change according to the student’s mood. This means if they decided to create a gigantic paper mâché mask they will investigate this first disregarding how many times I had asked them to complete their prints and garments first.
As I felt the urgency on the day of our tutorial, I attempted a slightly stricter tone and felt afterwards that this may have had a negative effect on the student. However, as I did not know anything about the student other than that they had an ISA and my own observations over the past few weeks I had to try a different strategy as nothing had worked so far. In the evening at home, I decided to write to the disability adviser asking for support.
Significantly, I received another email that evening from the student rep explaining how frightened the class was by the student’s frantic behaviour expressed among other things through dancing on the tables in the cramped studio. Not having much space in general and being a very messy student with lots of random stuff on and around the table the students were frightened that the student would hurt themselves or other students working nearby.
I tried to calm the student rep by confirming that I had already emailed the disability advisor for which I was criticised the next day as I was not permitted to disclose in any way to another student that this particular student may be disabled. Many emails followed and somebody called the student the next day concluding that the student was fine. I also had made time to speak to the student in person during my lunch break and witnessed the student’s rapid mood changes and various facial expressions which were clear signs that this student was very overwhelmed. However, those were signs somebody on the phone would not see. In addition, the student can speak calmly and tends to change their behaviour in certain situation or with certain people.
The student didn’t get support and handed in unfinished garments for the final deadline. As the student’s behaviour worsened after the assessment fashion show two students cried and emailed me again as they did not have any other support. I was not able to help as it was my day off and I was not in college. The student had been rude, loud and sworn at them. The students had no energy left to bear the student’s behaviour any longer as they had done for four years. However, more importantly, the students felt the university was ignoring their need to feel save while their peer with a presumable disability was able to act out threatening behaviour without the university taking any action.
I had started writing this blog a few weeks ago and now have arrived at the end of an even more challenging week. First thing Monday morning I was told that one of my fashion print students with mental health problems had taken an overdose Sunday evening. Luckily, the student had called my 85-year-old colleague who had then taken the student to the A&E. I then hurried to the hospital on Monday, took with my student’s permission their unfinished collection out of their accommodation and ensured completion of the collection by our technicians in college so that the garments could be in the fashion show on Tuesday. Meanwhile my other student’s behaviour escalated further during this week of 2 days of fashion shows resulting in more rude behaviour to their peers. As my colleagues and I tend to say ‘we did not sign up for this’ – our role as pathway leaders has changed drastically.
Concluding, if I had known the students for longer this would have not happened but also if a new, unexperienced member of staff would have taught this group of students such as the pathway leader who unexpectedly quitted it would have most likely been an even more devastating result. The system of how to approach students with disability at UAL is not working and needs to be reconsidered. There should be a system put in place when a tutor takes over a new class, the disability team needs to speak to the tutor about certain more extreme cases or at least a general warning to prepare the tutor to watch out as there may be more challenging students in the group.