A Taste of Higher Education: Exploring a Culinary Arts Degree Through Arts-Based Approaches

Val Thompson

A taste of higher education: exploring a culinary arts degree through arts-based approaches.

Thesis submitted in requirement for the degree of PhD The School of Education The University of Sheffield September 2009

Abstract

Information about how students experience their first year in higher education is of particular importance to policy makers, institutional managers, and tutors seeking to implement the governmental agenda of widening participation. Experience however, is a complex notion. Bruner (1986) argues that it is impossible to completely know another’s experience. Moreover, he maintains that the articulation of experience is consciously, or unconsciously censored or repressed, and is dependent upon an individual’s access to narrative resources and adequate vocabulary. Re-presenting the articulated experiences of others adds a further layer to this complexity. In this study I take a bricoleur’s perspective to research, utilising a range of arts- based approaches and forms to attempt to meet the challenge of re-presenting the experiences of first year Culinary Arts Management students, focussing on the influences that have shaped their choice of vocational degree course, and the ways in which they negotiate their move into HE level study. Employing a range of approaches which are multi-sensory as well as arts-based, acknowledges and reflects the complexity of life lived and experience shaped by our sensory capacity, and the learning which we accomplish through sight, sound, touch, taste, and smell. What our senses also enable us to connect to, feel, and express, is emotion, imagination, and memory. Taking a multi-sensory approach to explore research questions therefore, exploits ways of understanding and meaning-making which we utilise in everyday life. Throughout the study the metaphor of a theatre production is used to provide coherence to the inevitable entanglement of research. Drawing on the notion of the play within the play, the reader/viewer/listener is implicated in the production, becoming part of a wider, fictional audience.

Acknowledgements

My sincere thanks go to: My tutor Pat Sikes for her support and encouragement, Malc Thompson, my husband, whose patience has been boundless, Jacquie Griffiths whose hawk-eyed proof-reading has been invaluable, Writer David Calcutt for many fascinating discussions, Members and performers of The Lichfield Poets, and Sue Fortune, Martin Trivasse and members of the Impact Youth Theatre Group for their voices, comments, and suggestions, Jan Vigar, Head of English, and six-form students at Norton Canes High School, and friends Sally and Dave Matthews whose script readings gave shape to later versions, Ben and Alex Thompson for their prodigious technical knowhow, Members of the FurtherHigher Project team for inviting me to be part of their work, Andy Roberts at ‘Citygate’ for his practical help and support, The Economic and Social Research Council for funding my scholarship,

Finally, many, many thanks to all the people who agreed to be participants in this study.

Programme Notes

Part 1 Production Notes p.1

1. Entrance Right p.2

2. The FurtherHigher Project / My Involvement p.6

3. Study Aspirations p.11

4. Eclectic Approach: Narrative p.14 Narrative Approaches to Research / Narrative Analysis p.16 Visual Approaches to Research p.19 Ethnography p.20 Performance p.22 Poetry and Poetic Re-presentation p.28 Writing as a method of enquiry p.31 Review

5. Key Texts: The Seven Basic Plots p.34 Communities of Practice and Beyond p.34 Running out p.35

6. Summary Notes

Part 2 Scenography p.38

1. Set 1: Widening Participation in Higher Education

2. Set 2: Food, Chef Training and Work Environments, and the Celebrity Chef

Part 3 Performance p.65

1. Programme 4: Radio Discussion p.70 Web-site Extract 1 from Research Report-Citygate College p.80 Extract 2 from Research Report-Dual Sector Institutions p.83 Photograph Gallery p.86

2. Programme 5: Radio Discussion p.89 Web-site Extract 3 from Research Report-The Culinary Arts Management Course p.97 Extract 4 from Research Report-Foundation Degrees p.103 Extract 5 from Research Report-Celebrity Chefs, Career Journeys, and Imagined Futures p.107

3. Programme 6: Radio Discussion p.136 Web-site Extract 6 from Research Report-Timetable Talk: Monday p.145 Extract 7 from Research Report-A Performance Script: Between a Rock and a Hard Place p.171

Photo-Collages p.182

4. Programme 10: Radio Discussion p.186 Web-site: Extract 8 from Research Report-Charting Plots and Unmasking Themes p.194 Research Poems and Poetic Re-presentations p.210

Part 4 Noises Off p.217

Part 5 The Green Room p.244

Part 6 Dark p.270

Abbreviations p.vii Audio Tracks p.iii Glossary of Terms p.vi List of Charts p.iv List of Diagrams p.iv List of Illustrations p.v List of Participants p.iii List of Plates p.v List of Tables p.v Props p.v References p.273

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Participants

CAM Students: Alice Geoff Gerrard Gordon Lizzie James Matt Pariese Paul Skittles CAM Staff: Carol Mary Michael Peter

Citygate Staff: Graham Ron Vivienne

Former Student: Barry

Industry Representative: Phil

Audio Tracks – Rehearsal readings

1. Entrance Right

2. Radio Programme 5

3. Paul’s Monologue

4. The Proselyte

5. Between a Rock and a Hard Place

6. Timetable talk: Tuesday

7. The Green Room

Charts

Chart 1. Stories: general shape p.196 Chart 2. Plot identification process p.197 Chart 3. Overcoming the Monster Plot Summary p.198 Chart 4. Rags to Riches Plot Summary p.199 Chart 5. The Quest Plot Summary p.201 Chart 6. Matching the stages of the Rebirth plot to Paul’s interview conversations p.202 Chart 7. Matching the stages of The Quest plot to Alice’s interview conversations p.205 Chart 8. Adaptation and Transformation: from interview recordings and transcription records to ‘found’ poem p.256

Diagrams

Diagram 1. Key to references Collage 1 Panel 1 p.45 Diagram 2. Key to references Collage 1 Panel 2 p.48 Diagram 3. Key to references Collage 1 Panel 3 p.51 Diagram 4. Key to references Collage 1 Panel 4 p.54 Diagram 5. Key to references Collage 2 Panel 1 p.60 Diagram 6. Key to references Collage 2 panel 2 p.62 Diagram 7. Key to references Collage 2 Panel 3 p.64 Diagram 8. BA CAM Student participant educational and employment journeys into higher education p.119 Diagram 9. FdA CAM Student participant educational and employment journeys into higher education p.120 Diagram 10. Val: Which chef do you think has influenced you most? p.126 Diagram 11. Val: Which chef do you think has influenced you most? P.127 Diagram 12. BA CAM Imagined Futures p.131 Diagram 13. FdA CAM Imagined Futures p.132 Diagram 14. Example 1 from Latham (2004) p.258 Diagram 15. Example 2 from Latham (2004) p.258 Diagram 16. Example of Inspiration generated diagram p.261

Illustrations

Illustrations 1,2,3. Collage 1 Design Features p.41 Illustration 4. Collage 1 Panel 1 Selection of details p.46 Illustration 5. Collage 1 Panel 2 Selection of details p.49 Illustration 6. Collage 1 Panel 3 Selection of details p.52 Illustration 7. Collage 1 Panel 4 Selection of details p.55 Illustrations 8,9,10,11,12. Collage 2 Design Features p.57 Illustration 13. Collage Process 1 p.262 Illustration 14. Collage Process 2 p.262

Plates

Plate 1. Collage 1 Widening Participation in Higher Education p.42 Plate 2. Collage 1 Panels p.43 Plate 3. Collage 1 Panel 1 p.44 Plate 4. Collage 1 Panel 2 p.47 Plate 5. Collage 1 Panel 3 p.50 Plate 6. Collage 1 Panel 4 p.53 Plate 7. Collage 2 Food, Chef Training and Work Environments and the Celebrity Chef p.58 Plate 8. Collage 2 Lower Panel p.59 Plate 9. Collage 2 Central Panel p.61 Plate 10. Collage 2 Upper Panel p.63 Plate 11. Timetable Talk p.182 Plate 12. Sixty-six p.183 Plate 13. Power and Restraint p.184

Tables

Table 1. Radio Programme and web-site content summary p.67 Table 2. Transcript Transformation: Matt p.238

Props

1. FurtherHigher Project Aims and Objectives p.299 2. FurtherHigher project team members p.300 3. a/b Information for Research Participants p.301 4. Summary Notes Template p.303

Glossary of theatrical terms (Available from: http://www.theatrecrafts.com/glossary/results.php accessed 9th October 2008)

Black box : A kind of flexible studio theatre where the audience and actors are in the same room, surrounded by black tabs (curtains).

Dark : A venue that has been closed to the public. Some theatres go dark temporarily during production periods, when the next show is in preparation on stage.

Green room : Room close to the stage for actors to meet and relax.

Noises off : Stage direction to indicate a clatter/bang offstage to which the cast should react.

Glossary of professional kitchen hierarchy (Available from: http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/tv_and_radio/masterchef/training_index1.shtml accessed 1 st June 2008)

Aides : often trainees. This is usually the first port of call for those new to working in professional kitchens.

Commis chef : the first rung of the ladder for newly trained chefs. The commis will usually work under a chef de partie, learning basics such as vegetable preparation.

Chef de partie : responsible for running sections of the kitchen. The chef de partie will make sure the food goes out during service and will also cook. All the commis chefs will be expected to help the chef de partie during service.

Sous chef : essentially the head chef's right-hand man. The sous chef will fulfil any role the head chef asks him or her to do in their absence.

Head chef/chef de cuisine : the boss. Will plan menus, hire and fire staff and deal with suppliers and manage costs and budgets. Depending on their profile and other commitments, the head chef will often leave much of the day-to-day work to the sous.

Executive chef : larger establishments such as hotels will have an executive chef. This person may have much the same responsibilities as the head chef of a restaurant but on a larger scale. They may be responsible for planning the menu and setting the agenda for the style of the cuisine served.

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Abbreviations

A Level Advanced Level BA Bachelor of Arts BTEC Business and Technology Education Council CAM Culinary Arts Management DfES Department for Education and Skills ESRC Economic and Social Research Council FdA Foundation Arts (Degree) fDf Foundation Degree Forward FE Further Education GCSE General Certificate of Secondary Education HE Higher Education HEA Higher Education Academy HEER Higher Education Empirical Research HEFCE Higher Education Funding Council for England HEI Higher Education Institution LSC Learning and Skills Council LSN Learning and Skills Network MEG Mixed Economy Group NVQ National Vocational Qualification QAA Quality Assurance Agency RWE Realistic Working Environment TAFE Technical and Further Education TLRP Teaching and Learning Research Programme UCAS University and Colleges Admissions Service WP Widening Participation

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A blank page is both an exciting and frightening thing. In that blank pagepage is something or nothing. You don’t know until you’ve covered it. And there’s no guaguaranteerantee that you will know then. But it always remainsremains a chance worth taking. Harold Pinter ix

a taste of higher education

The on-line Encarta Dictionary provides a number of definitions for the noun taste including the following: 1. a small quantity sampled 2. an experience of something – a brief sample of something especially for the first time.

Selecting the word taste in my thesis title, ‘A taste of higher education: exploring a culinary arts degree through art-based approaches’, has been a purposeful choice, as for me it encapsulates the impressionistic, partial, subjective, suggested nature of the study which is present at a number of different levels.

Firstly the word acknowledges the fact that as an ‘outsider’ observer I tasted only brief moments within the journey of the educational institution within which this study is situated. This is a continuing journey; one which will evolve and unfold long after this study is completed. In this sense therefore, much of this study is concerned with a moment in time, within a brief interlude in this unfolding.

Next the word taste captures a sense of the incompleteness of the recounted experiences of the study participants; these are fragmentary samples of experiences on which each one chose to reflect. These are remembered experiences, sometimes fresh, sometimes stale, at times sweet, bitter, strong, muted, satisfying, memorable, insubstantial.

Importantly, the word taste also acts as a reminder that, as researcher and writer, my personal and professional experiences flavour the way in which I look, see, attend to, record, remember, present and re-present the institution, the course, staff and students, and others connected to it in some way.

Lastly it is also inevitable that you the reader/viewer/listener will bring your own tastes to the page/display/recording, and further add to the countless possible ambiguities of meaning to which such an account gives rise.

1 Part 1 Production Notes

I can take any empty space and call it a bare stagestage.. Peter Brook

We are all coperformers in our own and others’ lives. Norman Denzin

2 Production Notes

Production Note 1

‘Ten minutes to Entrance Right’. The second time cue has come. We stand cramped in a dim, neon-lit corridor. Our feet shuffle on the uneven concrete floor. We all stare at a black door, mesmerised by what we imagine to be on the other side. I stand behind Simon and in front of Janet. We have rehearsed our order of entrance over and over again, but still Sarah asks in a whisper where she should be. We are hot. Our anxieties manifest themselves in different ways; lips are repeatedly licked; starched saliva is forced down tight throats; air is gulped and driven into constricted lungs. A hint of the sharp smell of sweat drifts about the confined space; we all recognise its aroma and what it signifies. Our final cue is given. The black door opens, and we get a fleeting glimpse of the faces of the audience illuminated by the bright house- lights. We enter the performance space and stand in front of our chairs. The house lights dim, and the stage lights are brought up to create a faint glow. We sit, and I feel a wave of adrenalin course through my blood which causes my heart to shudder. It stills. And as if from some other place, I hear these words travel across the expectant silence:

Lichfield. The cathedral close. The dark before dawn. Shadows on the waters of Minster Pool, Stowe Pool. Dreams are stirring, Shades of the present and the past waking. Many voices, many tongues 1 Many lives lifting their songs .

The performance has begun.

1 Stone City VoicesVoices: an Arts Council England funded two year collaboration between writer David Calcutt and The Lichfield Poets. Performed at The

Lichfield Festival in The Garrick Studio Theatre July 12 th 2008.

This narrative excerpt is important to this study because it exemplifies my involvement in writing and performing as part of a poetry group and all the related experiences that this has brought. This is an involvement which has influenced my thinking, approach, and ideas about research. Brian Roberts (2008) in his overview of the many ‘manifestations’ (p. 1) of what he describes as ‘performative social science’, (p.1) writes about his gradual realization of the interconnection between his leisure interest in the artist Kandinsky and his research interests: There seemed to be lines of interrelation – a pattern that I had not fully realised in my own reading and research - in terms of social relevances, modes of inquiry, and issues of representation shared between, at least some, parts of artistic and social scientific endeavour that had an historical basis and informing current explorations from both ‘sides’ (p.3).

The two ‘sides’ which influenced me had begun to intermingle in a less spontaneous way, in that having used poetry as a means of re-presentation in previous research (Thompson, 2006), I had sought to develop my skills and hone my craft by joining a poetry group. I had purposefully set out to reawaken a past interest in poetry as a way of contributing to my developing views about aspects of research, especially my views about re-presentation and how research, and the outcomes of research, is, and could be, disseminated. What I had not envisaged was the extent to which these ‘sides’ would blur, mingle, complement, and inform each other. Almost simultaneously I joined two groups. One a group of poets interested in writing and performing and about to begin a complex project involving many participants, Stone Voices . The second a group of researchers undertaking a large scale piece of research also complex and involving many participants, the FurtherHigher Project . These are the sites from which this thesis has come into being.

The FurtherHigher PProjectrojectroject: http://shef.ac.uk/furtherhigher/index.h tml See Prop 1 for FurtherHigher project Aims and Objectives.

This study is set against the backcloth of strategies to widen participation in higher education. Within it I look at two broad topics, firstly the experience of higher education interpreted by first year students on a vocational degree programme, and secondly alternative approaches to data presentation and re- presentation. Through these topics I explore certain themes which have emerged as part of the research process, these being continuity and change, adaptation and 4 transformation, and aspiration and outcome. These themes permeate the study in different ways, at different levels, and to different degrees. Firstly they can be traced at the level of government policy to widen participation in higher education, next through institutional policies and practices, and finally in the detail and nuance of individual reflection on higher education experience. Secondly they become apparent both in my thinking and understanding regarding widening participation, and importantly, my ideas about how a study such as this might be presented. I am aware that the words which I have chosen to represent these themes can be hazy, are subject to interpretation, and some are polysemic. However, for me these words, and the themes they represent provide a means through which to begin to make sense of some of the many and diverse facets of this work. Throughout the study I employ terms drawn from the world of theatre and performance as imagery which serves to provide an organising framework for the whole. I throw a metaphorical ‘black box’ over the heaving, shifting, tangled, See Glossary of Theatrical Terms - complex, chaotic entity which research is, Black Box. The Green Room, Noises but acknowledge, through aspects of this Off, Dark - in Programme Notes imagery, that some fragments will escape, will become the ‘untidiness’ of research, will become the mess which John Law(2003) argues it needs to be: ……………messy and heterogeneous, because that is the way it, research, actually is. And also, more importantly, it needs to be messy because that is the way that the largest part of the world is. Messy, unknowable in a regular and routinised way (p.3).

The imagery I have chosen ostensibly compartmentalises my thesis tidily into a number of parts. However, it has been carefully chosen to enable the inherent complexity and ‘messiness’ of research to be represented. The imagery creates the notion of a clearly illuminated on-stage space, ostensibly organised, planned and directed; a place for enactment which is well-rehearsed. But this is also a place of illusion, a place where versions of realities are created and where audiences are challenged to consider and question these realities. In this place the audience is required to suspend its disbelief. There is also an off-stage space, a place of dark, shadowy passageways, sudden exits, trapdoors, fly lofts, and untidy corners. A place where words are lost, mistakes are made, questions are asked, and ‘noises off’ are generated.

Here, in Production Notes I provide you, the reader/audience, with information related to The FurtherHigher project, the part I played within it, and my particular research aspirations. I discuss the theoretical underpinnings of 5 my eclectic approach to research which blends aspects of ethnography, narrative, and writing approaches, as well as creative, visual, and performance methods and methodologies. I also present key texts which have influenced the way in which I have approached certain aspects of my study. In the second part, entitled Scenography, I introduce you, the reader/viewer to what I consider to be the main broad contextual areas within which this study is located. The first being widening participation (WP) in higher education; and the second, food, chef training and work environments, and the celebrity chef. Here I have additionally utilised the visual dimension of the overall metaphor, capitalising on this fundamental element of theatre. In the creation of each piece, I use collage to present material which I have gathered over the research period, utilising articles and images from newspapers and magazines, as well as more traditional texts such as academic journals, books, and reports. In Performance I take the notion of the play within the play and extend it to create a form which provides a creative space in which reality and fiction are merged. A fictional series of radio programmes and a connected web-site are used to explore key areas of interest. Here you the reader/listener/audience member are introduced to the research participant players, including myself as participant/player/researcher/narrator and I present significant scenes related to the context of the study and its participants. I focus my attention in Noises Off on two aspects of the research process, interviewing and interview transcription, and tell the story of my experiences. In doing so, the impact made on research outcomes through different approaches to these processes, is brought sharply into focus. In the fifth part, The Green Room, I explore in detail the approach which I have used within the study; this is an approach which weaves together aspects of performance, poetry, narrative, writing, visual images, and ethnography. This eclectic, multi-sensory approach is crucial to my ambition that aspects of this study, through a variety of creative dissemination methods, will reach a wider audience than is usually possible for a PhD thesis. For me, access to a wider audience is a form of action; action which has the potential to provoke and inspire others. This could be both in relation to issues raised by aspects of the substantive elements of the study, as well as the approaches utilised. Generating interest and further action goes some way towards acknowledging the contribution of the research participants and demonstrating my appreciation of their support. Here too I revisit the claims made by researchers using different approaches, and also consider the outcomes of my research aspirations.

Part 4 Noises Off, and Part 5 The Green Room, have been positioned purposefully. My intention here, is to provide you, the reader/listener/viewer, with an opportunity to consider questions prompted by Part 3 Performance, prior to the presentation of any mediative commentary of my own. Crucially too, this arrangement foregrounds the study participants. Dark , Part 6, closes the study. This closure acknowledges the part which its audience will play in continuingly drawing meaning from what is presented. This is a closure which opens up further possibilities.

Production Note 2 The FurtherHigher Project My involvement

This study sits snugly at the centre of a matroyshka-like larger research project. The aim of this larger project, The FurtherHigher Project, is to examine the impact of the division between further and higher education on strategies to widen participation in undergraduate education. The outer casing of this Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) funded research, entitled Universal Access and Dual Regimes of Further and Higher Education , is the work related to policy which includes some statistical analysis and an international comparison with analogous systems. Inside is the next casing in which a typology of dual-sector The term ‘dualdual sector’ is explored in : institutions is being developed from Part 3 Production 1 the analysis of national datasets. Simply put, dual sector institutions The next casing concerns the offer significant levels of both development of case studies of partner further and higher education. institutions arising from the fieldwork aspect of the project. Finally, at the centre, are the individual studies of curriculum areas within each institution, again developing from the fieldwork undertaken. It is at this most central point that my own work is situated. The team who have been working on this project (which formally concluded in July 2008) consisted of 14 team members each involved with various aspects of the work, and with each layer or casing headed by a Research Director.

A Teaching and Learning Research Programme Briefing Paper (TLRP, 2008) has been See Prop 2 for full list of team

produced which highlights key membersmembers.... points from the project to date.

Within the fieldwork aspect of the project, four dual sector institutions were chosen by the project directors from a number who, through their senior managers at consultation events, had shown an interest in participating; one in the north of the country, one in the Midlands, one in the south, and one in the east. From within each of these institutions a research partner was appointed to liaise with the research team, especially the fieldworker who would be working there. It was the responsibility of this research partner to identify curriculum areas and staff teams within their institution where students make a transition from further education (FE) to higher education (HE), both internal and external, who would be willing to take part. Prior to my joining the team, it had been the decision of the research directors that the primary method of data collection to be used in fieldwork would be interviews which would be undertaken with relevant individuals including teaching staff, students, and managers. The plan for this fieldwork aspect of the project was that students would be interviewed once at the end of their FE course, and then twice more. This was to be once within the first semester of HE and then once more at the end of the first year in semester two. Where possible, any students who did not make the move into HE would also be followed up. Other participants, depending on their work commitments, would be interviewed as and when it was convenient.

I was a PhD student member of the research team from June 2006 and due to staffing changes I was appointed in September 2006 as a 0.2 part-time research associate for a period of 16 months. This meant that although initially I was to concentrate on one particular curriculum area, Culinary Arts Management (CAM), I also became responsible, in one particular partner institution, for undertaking the vast majority of interviews across the two other areas of Early Childhood Studies, and Sports Therapy. In addition, I was the main liaison point between the research partner who works there and the team. As both a student and associate researcher, I was fully involved in all aspects of the project, attending regular meetings, contributing to decision-making related to all aspects of the field work, and attending training sessions and FurtherHigher ProjecProjectt Meeting meetings devoted to producing Monday 23 rd October 2006 1.15 – 4.00 a framework for the coding of Agenda Report of fieldwork studies data generated by the field • First phase reports work. At all times my ideas and • Coding framework for opinions were valued, and it was fieldwork data • accepted and expected that Second phase interviews. in my student role I would develop my own work, approaches and theoretical framework alongside those of the project. This led me to develop my eclectic approach, combining aspects of ethnography, arts-based, and narrative 8 approaches to my particular area of study, which was the first year of the CAM Foundation (FdA) and Bachelor (BA) Degree programme. Being part of a research team has had enormous benefits for an inexperienced researcher such as myself. These benefits include: having the chance to work closely with highly practised researchers with a great depth of expertise within their own particular fields; being involved in discussion and debate about the outcomes of all aspects of the project, especially the fieldwork, and thus having the opportunity to witness ways of working and approaches used by more experienced members; having the opportunity to learn new skills such as how to manipulate and utilise certain aspects of the data analysis software programme ATLAS ti. These benefits running alongside those more pragmatic advantages such as gaining access to a location in which to study, and having the co-operation and support of staff within that location. Working within the project meant that I had the benefit of having a place in which to carry out my research already established, and in addition, had the luxury of a dedicated research partner within that location with whom I could liaise regarding any practical matters that arose. Thus when I arrived in the college, staff had been briefed about the project and been made aware of the fact that the college senior managers had agreed to aspects of the fieldwork being carried out there. This meant that staff in certain curriculum areas had been approached by the research partner and their co-operation sought and given prior to my arrival. In fact when I asked the research partner why he had chosen the particular areas included in the project, his reply was that he had knowledge that the staff in those areas would be highly co-operative and interested. In addition, those areas had students whose profiles fitted one of the project’s objectives, this being to focus on students who were about to make the move from FE to HE within the institution. Thus I had contact with an ‘insider’ who gave me access to information which would not necessarily have been available if I had not been part of a team undertaking a piece of national research. In addition, the FurtherHigher project was funded by the ESRC and this, along with further validation through individuals in the team, who were, and are, senior members of staff at a number of prestigious universities and organizations, provided me with an associated kudos. However I also view some of these positives aspects as areas of tension. For example, the curriculum areas in which the research would be undertaken were selected by the research partner and I had no option about the area in which I would work; it was pure serendipity that it proved to be an area of enormous interest to me. More importantly, I had concerns that the staff with whom I worked had very little choice about their involvement. There seemed to be an expectation that as the whole project had been agreed by senior managers then the staff would take part. Again, although it transpired that the majority of staff was hugely helpful, welcoming and co-operative, I still felt an element of concern that 9 agreements made, through the ethical procedures produced by the project directors, may have been made under the shadow of the demands of senior managers. There were also other tensions too, many revolving around the pace and timing of the way the work was undertaken primarily because of the fixed agreements which had to be made by the research directors with the funding body ultimately responsible for the project. These were pressures and deadlines which were felt by all of the team members working on the project, but for me had important implications for the way in which my own work was conceived, shaped and performed. In practice this meant that I had only some tentative notions of the study I wished to undertake within the larger project, at a time in which I was cast headlong into the fieldwork. Time, however, ‘Real’ time is a complex notion. For was a crucial factor in the fieldwork, as it Dilthey (1986), quoted by was an aim of the project to seek the Fung(2006): ‘…time is experienced as the restless progression, in which the student participants’ perceptions of their present constantly becomes the past experience of moving from FE to HE in and the future the present. The present ‘real’ time ; that is the interviews were to is the filling of a moment in time with reality; it is experience, in contrast to be undertaken during the time that the memory or ideas of the future’ (p.149). students were making and experiencing this transition. Other concerns began to unfold more slowly as the project progressed, perhaps exaggerated by my dual role as PhD student and research associate. One hugely important factor was the interview process and procedure itself. At the beginning of my involvement with the project I had envisaged that I would be able to meet student participants more frequently or for longer periods of time to develop the type of narrative approach which I wished to employ; to allow time for what Susan Chase (2005) describes as the: ‘……transformation of the interviewer-interviewee relationship into one of narrator and listener’ (p.660). However, it soon became apparent that, unsurprisingly, the student participants were busy with study, part- time work and wider life interests, and to meet three times within the space of two semesters was itself a huge commitment. Thus my plan to meet participants more frequently was only possible with one student on one occasion, and it became clear to me that to demand any more time would have been unethical. This commitment also meant that some interview encounters were squeezed into time-slots which the student participants conjured into spaces between lectures or in breaks between working on assignments. These time-slots Wengraf (2001) describes the did not lend themselves to the kind of interview session as requiring a: ‘...generous provision of planned extended spaces which seem to be the time’ (p.198) which should be luxury of others working within a narrative utilised in an ‘unhurried’ (p.198) framework (for example Wengraf , 2001). fashion. 10

As part of the team I was given the opportunity to contribute to discussion about items which would be included in what was called an ‘interview schedule’. This schedule included notes about how the interview was to be conducted in relation to the various ethical guidelines which were part of the project. The schedule also provided the main objectives of each interview followed by series of questions with prompts. The interview was intended to be a semi-structured event, with the interviewer being given license to follow the conversation of each participant wherever it led. Any contributions which I made to this document and process were in relation to the overall project rather than to my particular areas of interest and ways of working. However, during the interview process I was conscious of the pressures of the agenda of the FurtherHigher project, made explicit through the schedule, and that any digressions which followed my own interests within this space seemed to be almost subversive. Nevertheless, digress I did, not only during interviews but also in adding the dimension of spending time in observations in a variety of settings within the institution as an additional means to explore student experience. Another key area in which I felt strain between my preferred ways of working and that of the project was in the use of the software tool Atlas ti. Although seeing the opportunity to learn how to use this programme as beneficial to my research training, it was an expectation that I would use it to ‘ code ’ all of the interview transcripts from my own area of study so that they could be used as part of the wider project. This had to be completed within a set time scale. Again, the dreaded spectre of external time demands on the project completion seemed to be driving the timescale of my own work. In the FurtherHigher Project each code In addition, although the ‘codes’ used was given a definition so that coding in this process were subject to could be undertaken by more than one person. lengthy debate amongst all fieldwork team members, they naturally fitted the wider project aims rather than being designed to match my specific research aspirations. In practice I added more codes which were pertinent to my areas of interest, and although this added to the time I needed to spend on this task, it enabled me to maximise the benefit of this activity. I also felt that in this form of coding the participant interview transcripts, I lost sight of the

individuals who had contributed to their Johnny Sal daña (2009) defines a code construction, and lost my grip on the as: ‘...a word or short phrase that narrative threads which were woven symbolically assigns a summative, salient, essence-capturing, and/or throughout them. evocative attribute to a portion of These areas of tension and difficulty, language based or visual data’ (p.3). manifest in the illustrative methods and 11 ways of working described here, emphasise that the term qualitative research is one which represents hugely diverse ways of working linked to a host of theoretical and epistemological positions which underpin them. Working as a team member of the FurtherHigher project has enabled me to gain, in a very practical and potent way, an insight into some of the many implications and complexity of choosing different approaches within a qualitative framework. Aspects of this complexity are examined in depth in Part 4, Noises Off and Part 5, The Green Room.

Production Note 3 Study Aspirations

I have both substantive and methodological aspirations for this study. My interest is in the exploration of the perceived experience of first year FdA and BA students in a dual sector institution of higher education, and how best to express and evoke this experience through different modes of re-presentation. In substantive terms, within the framework of strategies to widen participation in higher education, I consider various factors which influence student aspiration, career choice-making, and vocational higher education course selection. I also reflect on aspects of teaching and learning within this framework. Through turning the spotlight onto these areas, I wish to challenge aspects of this policy notion which assumes the efficacy and possibility of a single, linear pathway for young people from school to higher education, and then into employment. I also wish to question the practices of higher education which promote a transmission model of learning. In methodological terms I have attempted to use a range of arts-based, multi- sensory approaches to the re-presentation of research material, which I believe allows a nuanced response. I also consider the potential for using a spectrum of presentational forms to widen the audience for research. This audience potentially being policy makers, institutional planners, HE staff, students, and others outside of academia. In producing the study in this format, I consider that I am contributing to the groundswell of work which aims to extend the boundaries of research production and re-presentation, and which seeks to add further dimensions beyond conventional methods of knowing and telling.

Production Note 4 Eclectic Approach

In describing my approach to this study as eclectic, I am acknowledging the evolved, and through this writing, still evolving way in which I have set about the research. I have tried to connect the most appropriate ways of working to meet my own research aspirations, reflect my view of the purposes of research, and to underpin my thinking about ways to extend its audience. Norman Denzin and Yvonna Lincoln (2005) refer to researchers who work in this way as ‘bricoleurs’ (p. 12

4) with the outcomes pieced-together to form a bricolage. Undoubtedly choosing to work in this way has been shaped by my education, career experiences, and wider life activities and interests.

Turn s of the wheel

I was a ‘late developer,’ my mother said, ‘Surprised you got so many GCE’s,’ she said, ‘Perhaps give up the idea of working in a Post Office,’ she said, Went to college instead.

‘A College of Education’ the sign said, ‘A place to train to be a teacher,’ it said, Study English, Art, and Education, and practice teaching,’ it said. Got experience and street cred.

‘How about teaching 3C,’ the interviewer said, ‘They’re the bottom class, leaving next year,’ he said, ‘You can teach them what you like, there’s no particular rules,’ he said. Each and every day just dread.

‘Head of Remedial Department,’ the letter said, ‘In charge of staff, finance and curriculum,’ it said, ‘A post of responsibility, working with kids who are failures,’ it said, Poverty and deprivation inbred.

‘Bachelor of Philosophy,’ the certificate said ‘A university degree of distinction,’ it said, ‘A qualification in teaching children with difficulties in learning,’ it said. Towers of ivory, bricks of red.

‘Lecturer 2 Special Needs,’ the advert said, ‘Work in a College of Further Education,’ it said, ‘’We’re in the business of bringing talent to life, get students job ready,’ it said. Conflict and change policy led.

‘It is unlawful to discriminate,’ the legislation said, ‘to treat a disabled person less favourably,’ it said, ‘Reasonable adjustments, and disability equality schemes a duty,’ it said. Compliance and cost lock head to head.

‘This is the new staff structure,’ the e-mail said, ‘Look for your job and apply,’ it said. ‘We need to realign our outputs in line with government directives,’ it said. Raw resignation, integrity bled.

‘Take a new direction,’ the prospectus said, ‘Take a part-time course,’ it said, ‘A certificate in assessing and teaching learners with dyslexia,’ it said. Assignments written, books read.

‘Your role is to support learners,’ the guide said, ‘Meet their needs in academic writing,’ it said, ‘Look for ways which develop writing skills, ensure assignments are readable,’ it said. Square holes and round pegs.

‘Put in a proposal,’ the application form said, ‘Write 500 words and no more,’ it said, ‘Your application for an ESRC studentship will be considered in due course,’ it said. Faint glimmers, daylight ahead.

‘Come and join us,’ the web-site said, ‘We meet twice a month on Tuesdays,’ it said, ‘You don’t need to be experienced, just have enthusiasm and love poetry’, it said. Villanelles and sestinas eagerly read.

‘This is my path to where I am,’ the text said, ‘My professional journey,’ it said, ‘The experiences which have influenced my thinking and shaped my position,’ it said. Bare bones and memory threads.

Through this autobiographical narrative poem I have provided hints and glimpses of the experiences which I feel have shaped me as a researcher who is committed to action, and the development of inclusionary practices. It follows that I am interested in research which has a practical application, and which has the potential to make a positive difference especially within situations of inequity. This is the type of research which Laura Brearley (2008) maintains creative approaches to research aspire to be. This position is also manifest in my interest in developing alternative ways of writing and reporting research. These approaches are used both as a means to widen its audience, through the potential which such work has to be used in its own right, and make it, in my view, less remote, elite and inaccessible. I also consider that such approaches reflect my postmodern research position; a position which Denzin and Lincoln (2005), which I quote at length here, describe as contributing to their view that in research: ……..there is no clear window into the life of an individual. Any gaze is always filtered through the lenses of language, gender, social class, race and ethnicity. There are no objective observations, only observations socially situated in the worlds of – and between- the observer and the observed. Subjects, or individuals, are seldom able to give full explanations of their actions or intentions ; all they can offer are accounts, or stories, about what they have done or why. No single 14

method can grasp all the subtle variations in ongoing human experience. Consequently, qualitative researchers deploy a wide range of interconnected interpretive methods , always seeking better ways to make more understandable the worlds they have studied (p.21 italics added to original).

In taking an eclectic approach, I have tried to deploy a wide range of interconnected interpretive methods to weave a way of working. I consider that this mix, the complementary ways in which these approaches intermingle into the whole, goes some way to producing a way of working through which I can meet the challenges that researching the experience of others presents. It offers a place from which to do: ‘….this corner-of-the-eye thing’ (Meredith, 1991); to ‘view from a body’ (Haraway, 1991, in Conquergood, 2002); and it allows for the exploration of a postmodern view in which doubt, provisionality, partiality, and subjectivity are acknowledged (Richardson and Adams St. Pierre, 2005). In what follows I tease out the various threads from the weave and look at each in detail. I begin with narrative, and initially look at some of the discussion around definitions of the term ‘narrative’.

Note 4.1

Magpie

Magpie steps forward, steps, and steps again. Then she stands still; a sheen of iridescence bringing lustre to her back.

The narrative thread is itself a complex blend, and amongst narrative theorists debates concerning the nature and definition of narrative are ongoing (for example: Barthes, 1966, Prince, 1982, Bruner, 1987, Polkinghorne, 1988, Currie 1998, Porter Abbott, 2002, Rudrum, 2005). One early example of a definition is provided by Gerald Prince (1982): ‘Narrative, indeed universal and infinitely varied, may be defined as the representation of real or fictive events and situations in a time sequence’ (p. 1). Another more recent and subtly different definition, which omits Although ‘simply put’, Porter Abbott the inclusion of a temporal dimension, is utilises a whole chapter of his book to exploring a definition of narrative. provided by Porter Abbott(2002): ‘Simply put, narrative is the representation of an event or a series of events’ (p.12, italics in original). 15

More recently still, Porter Abbott (2005) provides a succinct and ostensibly straightforward definition: ‘….I define “narrative” as the representation of an action’ (p.540). However , this simplicity belies the vast, complex, highly contested and transitional world of narrative theory as exemplified by the work edited by James Phelan and Peter Rabinowitz (2005) in which they describe the discipline as: ‘experiencing a voracious spin’ (p.2). This spin can be illustrated by the views of David Rudrum (2005), in which he puts forward the argument that it is impossible to define narrative when use and context are omitted. He argues that:

It is even possible that there can be no such thing as a water-tight definition of narrative that can be given independent of context, and of the uses and practices to which texts are put: narrative practice is simply too vast and diverse a realm to make a simple definition workable (p. 201).

He presents an argument for a shift in thinking about and defining narrative, which makes the use to which a text is put central and from which emerges his view: .. that narrative is not a stable entity, and that positing ‘narrative’ as a category or concept foists upon it an illusory self identity and ontological fixity that narratives themselves, as dynamic acts, do not have. On this view, there is perhaps, a fundamental problem with the very idea of a definition of narrative, or a hard and fast line between narrative texts and non-narrative texts (p. 201).

Such a view, which I see as adding to the voracity of ‘the spin’, can give rise to confusion, and in his criticism of the obfuscatory complexity of the field of narrative theory, Carlin Romano (2002) extols the clarity of Porter Abbot’s (2002) earlier work which is an introduction to narrative. I have also found this work to be extremely useful in clarifying my understanding of narrative and terms used in narrative theory. In addition, the introductory summary provides a useful starting point for conceptualizing narrative as a research methodology: It is a universal tool for knowing as well as telling, for absorbing knowledge as well as expressing it. This knowledge, moreover, is not necessarily static. Narrative can be, and often is, an instrument that provokes active thinking and helps us to work through problems, even as we tell about them or hear them being told (p. 11).

Here Porter Abbott is emphasising the way in which the audiences of narrative and the narrator must assume active roles if narrative is to be a medium for knowing. This concept of narrative as ‘a tool for knowing’ is one which has been drawn on by researchers who use a narrative approach.

Note 4.2

Magpie

She turns her head as if listening, turns, and turns again. But she is watchful; a gleam of treasure flashes in the black jewel of her eye.

Within narrative approaches to research , Catherine Riessman (2008) identifies similar complexities to that within narrative theory, which is largely due to the varied ways in which narrative is understood and utilised by researchers from different fields and disciplines (for example see: McAdams, 1993, Amos Hatch and Wisniewski, 1995, Clandinin and Connelly, 2000, McAdams, Josselson and Lieblich, 2001, Clough, 2002, Andrews, Squire and Tamboukou, 2008). Echoing the perspectives of Susan Chase (2005), who identifies a number of major approaches to narrative enquiry, Riessman (2008) declares that: ‘Narrative scholars are a diverse bunch’ (p. 13). This diversity can be illustrated to begin with, by looking at two different approaches to the way that ‘data’ or ‘stories’ are gathered as part of this approach. They are drawn from different fields, both concerned with biography and life history. The first comes from within health and social care research, and the second within educational research. From the field of health and social care, Kip Jones (2004) provides an insight into a highly prescriptive interviewing technique which is used in what he refers to as a: ‘biographic narrative interpretive method’ (p.42). Within this technique, certain procedures are systematically undertaken, and what follows is my interpretation and summary of this approach which he describes in detail (pp. 42-44). 1. First the interview begins with a single ‘probe’ (p. 42) which prompts the participant to tell the story of their life. 2. The interviewer asks no further questions and aims to make no further interjections. 3. The interviewer takes notes and the session is tape-recorded. 4. When the participant has finished the participant is given a break in which they are asked to complete a short questionnaire of background information. 5. After the break the session is resumed with the interviewer using themes and stories from the first session as prompts for further expansion by the participant. 17

6. The participant is given the opportunity to add things which might have been missed. 7. A follow up phone call is made to the participant to provide an opportunity to correct biographical details. 8. A third ‘session’ (p.44) is occasionally held where enquiries based on reflection and interpretation by the interviewer, are addressed directly to the participant.

In this approach, the interviewer attempts to make as few interjections as possible only involved in the process through the initiation of the event, and subsequently through making: ‘confirming utterances, making eye contact and unconscious body language’ (p. 43). Using this method, Jones ( ibid ) claims that: ‘a revolution in interview technique is accomplished’ (p.43), that through the practice of what he calls minimalist-passive interviewing: ‘the gestalt of the told story is not interrupted or broken’ (p.44). In contrast, Ivor Goodson and Pat Sikes (2001) describe what they refer to as: ‘interview conversations’ (p. 27) in which the interviewer and participant are engaged in: ‘…..relatively unstructured, informal, conversation-type encounters’ (p.28). It seems to me that of utmost importance for Goodson and Sikes ( ibid ), are the interviewer/participant relationship and the give and take of conversation. Also, it appears, the acknowledgement that participants are individual and: ‘Some prefer to be given detailed prompts, whereas others are quite happy to take their cue from key words or phrases’ (p. 28). Unlike Jones (2004), who uses a procedure which is intended to be replicated with each participant, Goodson and Sikes (2001) stress the need for the interviewer to be flexible with each participant, and to develop a trusting and positive relationship. This is developed through reciprocation which is a feature of conversation. These two briefly examined examples of different interview techniques employed Interview Techniques within a broad narrative approach, illustrate How interviews are conceived and conducted is discussed more fully the huge diversity of perspectives within this in Part 4 Noises Off. way of working. How researchers using narrative go about the analysis of the stories which their interviews seek to generate again reveals enormous variety. Jane Elliot (2005) describes this variety as a: ‘……multitude of different techniques and approaches that can be included under the broad umbrella of narrative “analysis” ’ (p. 37, italics and bold added). In attempting to control this umbrella, to stop it blowing inside out and scattering the diverse approaches to the wind, she draws on two somewhat different frameworks or typologies. These are put forward 18 in an attempt to classify the wide variety of analytic methods that have been utilised in research which has taken a narrative approach. In her view, these frameworks help to clarify some of their methodological and epistemological differences. The first is the framework proposed by Elliot Mishler (1995) and the second that provided by Amia Lieblich, Rivka Tuval-Mashiach and Tamar Zilber (1998). Elliot (2005) sees the main differences in these typologies being that in Mishler’s framework, the social context and function of narrative is included along with those of content and form. Versions of these three aspects are explored in detail and categorised by Riessman (2008) as ‘thematic analysis’, ‘structural analysis’ and ‘dialogic/performance analysis.’ In what follows I present my interpretative summary notes of each of these different categories: • Thematic Analysis: Here the primary interest is on ‘what’ is said rather than how, to whom and what for. This approach focuses on the ‘told’ rather than on ‘the telling’, it concentrates on participants’ reports of events and experiences. Taking a thematic approach examines what content a narrative communicates, rather than how the narrative is structured. • Structural Analysis: Here the emphasis is on ‘how’ the story is told rather than simply what is told. In this approach there is an added dimension of attention being given to how an account is put together, made whole, coherent, and understandable. It is interested in how the narrator uses form and language to achieve particular effects. • Dialogic/ Performance Analysis: This approach concentrates on the ‘who’ ‘why’ and for ‘what purpose’. Here both listener and questioner must be included and context becomes important and the response of the listener and ultimately the reader is implicated in the art of storytelling. These three categories are further extended to include ‘visual analysis.’ Here, Riessman (ibid) includes the way in which rapid development in visual technology is extending the boundaries of narrative approaches and analysis, and the ways in which social scientists are integrating words and images into their research. She gives examples of researchers who: ‘……tell a story with images, others who tell a story about images that themselves tell a story’ (p. 141, italics in original). This last form of analysis illustrates the way in which narrative research Remember: i n this most recent is in a state of flux, with innovative work, Catherine Riessman chooses approaches adding to the multiplicity to use the terms narrative and story interchangeably, unlike of shifting meanings of what it is to Porter Abbott who clearly defines be engaged in narrative enquiry. narrative as the ‘telling’ of a story/ how the story is told.

Note 4.3

Magpie

Her head bobs forward. Her black beak dips, dips, and dips again. Another trophy captured. Pica pica.

The new technologies referred to previously, make the use of visual approaches more possible for a wider group of researchers. John Grady (2004) puts forward the view that the use of visual material should be encouraged in social science research, maintaining that images are a unique form of data which can provide the researcher with opportunities to make their arguments both more lucid and vivid. Unlike practitioners in other domains who maintain that alternative approaches should be used only by those See Note 4.5 for discussion by with training and experience, Grady ( ibid ) practitioners using poetic approaches provides a guide for novices that includes within research. information on image production and interpretation. As well as image production in the form of photographs and video, Sara Pink’s (2001) conception of a visual approach is one in which the researcher also examines pre-existing visual material located in the context in which the research is undertaken. Such work, she contends, can provide an additional perspective of the context in which they are working to be used alongside images which they produce themselves. Pink ( ibid ) not only considers some of the practical and ethical challenges in using visual approaches, she also traces the history of their use in different disciplines such as anthropology, cultural studies, and ethnography, from the early 1960s to the present day. She notes the ongoing debate by researchers representing a variety of epistemological and methodological perspectives about its use and the status of its outcomes. From her perspective the most that can be expected from video and camera film, rather than recording reality is for it: ‘...to represent those aspects of experience that are visible. Moreover, these visible elements of experience will be given different meanings as different people use their own subjective knowledge to interpret them’ (p.24). This view is supported by Grady (2004), who sees the potential for images to: ‘...contain many meanings and sustain multiple interpretations’ (p.20). From this perspective, a visual approach 20 has much in common with others discussed here, in that it supports an interpretive position. At a more fundamental level, Caroline Knowles and Paul Sweetman (2004) argue that our understanding of the world is shaped by our senses, with Knowles and Sweetman (2004) are clear to point out that this view is one the visual prioritised. Research which made from a sighted perspective. They capitalises on this visual dimension to go on to note equality of accessibility understanding embraces a variety of limitations to the approach. forms. Douglas Harper (2005) for instance refers to using drawings to complement photographs in his work. In Parts 2 and 3 of this study I have utilised a range of visual forms which include collage, charts, diagrams, and photographs. In my aim to engage a wider audience for this study, I consider that utilising a visual approach which incorporates a range of visual forms enhances what is primarily a text based work.

Note 4.4

Magpie

Her head bobs forward. Her black beak dips, dips, and dips again. Another trophy captured. Pica pica.

The next thread to be teased out from the mix is ethnography. With its roots in anthropology, ethnography sets out to provide a description and interpretation of the social structure and culture of a social group (Robson, 2002).

Raymond Williams (1983) quoted in To achieve this, the researcher has John Storey (2001), contends that traditionally spent extensive periods culture is: ‘…..one of the two or three of time ‘in the field’ in an attempt to most complicated words in the English language.’ (p.1). gain insight into a particular social setting. During this time ‘in the field’, the researcher is cast in a role which ranges, according to Jerry Wellington (2000), across a continuum from that of complete participant to that of complete observer. However ethnography, like narrative discussed earlier, is a term which is used to describe huge diversity in focus, approach, and forms of re-presentation. This is not only in terms of the way in which fieldwork is conducted, utilising 21 various combinations of the fieldworker’s For Paul Atkinson et al (2001): participant/observer role, but perhaps ‘…ethnogethnogethnographyraphy escapes ready more so in how it is reported. summary definitions. In recent years, indeed, it has become a site of debate This diversity can be illustrated by the and contestation within and across review of ethnographic research by disciplinary boundaries’ (p.1). Tuula Gordon, Janet Holland and Elina Lahelma (2001) in which the focus is educational settings. Their review is organised within the areas of theoretical, conceptual, and methodological approaches which they consider have shaped the field. Within what they classify as ‘postmodern and post-structuralist’ (p.197) approaches, they identify the way in which researchers taking this approach strive to produce: ‘…multi-layered accounts with many voices’ (p.198) which reflect a shift away from more ‘realist’ (p.197) texts. This is a shift which has been explored some years earlier by John Van Maanen (1988) and I draw on his cautionary tale which identifies and critically evaluates a range of issues related to a variety of devices used to represent the results of fieldwork, the ‘tales’ which are told. His contention is that these devices reflected the epistemological debates of the day. This work is still hugely relevant, and I have found it useful as a way of considering and developing my own ways of working and writing. It clearly highlights the many challenges which the writing of ethnography poses and below I present my interpretation of specific aspects of Van Maanen’s (ibid ) critique, summarising it through the main types of ‘tale’ which he identifies, describes, and evaluates: Realist Tales. Van Maanen is drawing attention here to the ways in which these texts claim authenticity through an assumed authority on the part of the almost absent-from-the-text fieldworker/writer. In these tales the subject under examination is clearly bounded which enables the writer to reach tidy conclusions which again contributes to the apparent authority of the text. Confessional Tales . Here there is an attempt to represent the presence of the fieldworker in the fieldwork setting, along with detail of errors or difficulties which were encountered. However, in such tales there can be a drift to a pre-occupation with the method and not the subject of the work.

Impressionist Tales . In this form an iterative process of interpretation feeds into the Remember:: Van Maanen identifies writing process. Fieldnotes are only used four additional ‘tales’ – Critical Tales, Formal Tales, Literary Tales as a basis for writing and this writing reflects and Jointly Told Tales. the chaotic, complex, ephemeral nature of the particular area under review. Here writing is completed but never finished. Van Maanen’s conclusion is interestingly farsighted: 22

The reality of fieldwork itself will no doubt remain chaotic, unpredictable, and always beyond the control of the fieldworker. But the ways of presenting fieldwork and its results have changed and will continue to change (p. 138).

It is here perhaps, in the review of what he calls Literary Tales in which the conventions of dramatic reconstruction, extensive use of dialogue, representation of emotions, and strong story lines are utilised, that Van Maanen clearly anticipates the development of a wide range of techniques and ways of working and writing, which have now become more routinely employed by researchers taking an ethnographic approach.

Note 4.5

Magpie

Her head bobs forward. Her black beak dips, dips, and dips again. Another trophy captured. Pica pica.

Some of this range of methods of re-presentation are reviewed by Denzin (1997), who includes poems, scripts, and short stories that are performed before audiences inside the broader frame of performance texts within what he calls an ‘interpretive ethnography’ (p. xii). For Denzin ( ibid ) these texts have the capacity: ‘….. to make experience concrete, anchoring it in the here and now’ (p.91). For Dwight Conquergood (2002) this possibility is much extended by his view of the potential of performance studies research which he describes as follows: Performance studies struggles to open the space between analysis and action, and to pull the pin on the binary opposition between theory and practice. This embrace of different ways of knowing is radical because it cuts to the root of how knowledge is organised in the academy (p. 146).

For someone who wishes to use performance as an element of re-presentation within research, I see this as a potent perspective. It is one which Conquergood (ibid ) elaborates more fully through an exposition of his view of the dominance of knowledge generated through writing and texts. This is over that of knowledge generated through embodied experience, orality, and practice. He concludes by identifying a hybrid approach in which researchers create performances as supplements to their written research and then goes on to list the following reasons for taking this approach: …..:they deepen experiential and participatory engagement with materials both for the researcher and her audience; they provide a 23

dynamic and rhetorically compelling alternative to conference papers; they offer a more accessible and engaging format for sharing research and reaching communities outside academia; they are a strategy for intervention (p.152).

These reasons very much echo and feed into my own views put forward earlier concerning the purpose and potential of research, and lead to a review of one way of working which seems to me to capture some of this hybridity. This is readers’ theatre. Robert Donmoyer and June Yennie-Donmoyer (1995) describe readers’ theatre as: …..a staged presentation of a piece of text or selected pieces of different texts that are thematically linked. Selections are sometimes performed by individuals and sometimes read chorally by the ensemble or a subgroup of ensemble members. Staging is simple; scenery is normally limited to stools and ladders; props are used sparingly, if at all; and theatrical lighting, although it enhances the dramatic impact of a readers theatre production, is not required (p.406, bold added).

Remember: speech used in Whilst advocating a more theatrical form, interviews becomes text once it has Johnny Saldaña (2005) does acknowledge been transcribed. What and whose that this type of performance has the speech does it become when using advantage of being highly portable and readers theatre techniques? Further discussion in Part 5 ,The Green inexpensive to stage. Room. Denzin (1997) identifies two performance forms, one representational and the other presentational theatre. My interpretation of his view is that the representational form seeks to create an illusion of reality through a variety of acting techniques, sets and props. In the presentational form however, the performer is not subsumed by a role and there is no reliance on realist theatrical tools such as scenery or lighting; thus readers’ theatre can be classified as a presentational form (Donmoyer and Yennie-Donmoyer, 1995). Here without the distractions of the trappings usually associated with theatre, the audience is: ‘…..invited to create meaning from what is suggested rather than what is literally shown’ (p. 406). This participatory role of the audience is further extended in forum theatre which Denzin (1997) describes as providing the opportunity for audiences to become co-performers and be involved in post production discussion which can also lead to script modification. In his review of performance texts, Denzin ( ibid ) does register a note of caution. My interpretation of this caution is that what he refers to as: ‘the natural performance text’ (p. 113), echoes the realist tale identified and criticised by Van Maanen (1988) referred to earlier. Denzin sees a field which is: ‘……caught between those who produce ethnographic performances that report on and reproduce reality on stage and those who critique reality and its representations’ (p.114). Again, for someone like me, who wishes to employ aspects of performance as a means to 24 widen the audience for research, this is a salutary warning. One which foregrounds the need to examine and make explicit those components which Bryant Keith Alexander (2005) considers are necessary for anyone engaged in performance ethnography . These being in his view, the need to make explicit the purposes, desired effects, and methods used in gathering and reporting knowledge. These are elements which have contributed to the development of his construction of what he calls: ‘an integrative and reflexive ethnography of performance’ (p.432) and which has moved some distance from his initial description of performance ethnography as: ‘…the staged re-enactment of ethnographically derived notes’ (p. 411). My interpretation of this latter version being that Alexander’s ( ibid ) view is one in which the performance/text should grapple with, and integrate into the performance in some way, the methodological concerns of the researcher/writer/performer. In what follows I provide a brief critique of some examples of different ways in which a variety of researchers have used performance as a means of re- presentation. The examples that I have chosen range across time and place. They include examples of forum theatre, ethnodrama, and readers’ theatre as well as work which can now be accessed through multi-media on-line journals and through video player connections to the internet. They perhaps represent researchers who are traversing the cross-roads identified by Norman Denzin’s (1997) sixth moment . In discussing these works chronologically I begin with that of Jim Mienczakowski (1995) in which he reports on: ‘….an ethnographic study in which health consumers and health professionals within a detox unit contributed data and participated in extensive validation processes in order to see their polyphonic narrative publicly performed by actors’ (p.360). The work ‘Busting’ was preceded by a pilot study in which another report/script ‘Syncing Out Loud’ had been used to evaluate ways of working. This included elements of forum theatre and extensive use of participant validation both in the script development stage and as part of the forum theatre approach. The scripts in ‘Busting’ use verbatim accounts of participants recorded during interviews. Actors, who were given observational opportunities at the detox unit, then performed the parts. It is Mienczakowski’s view that forum theatre provides the opportunity for each successive audience, both academic and non-academic, to contribute to the meaning-making and educative potential of the piece. According to Mienczakowski, the final full length play has been performed in clinical settings and university campuses.

How important is it that Mienczakowski Where does this form sit in relation to has a background in theatre, TV and radio? such things as Documentary Does this give him validation to use this Storytelling, Dramatised

approach or ‘merely’ the skills? Documentary, Docudrama, Reality He also uses actors who visit the setting to Theatre, Verbatim Theatre? observe. A host of ethical concerns are raised by this approach. This relationship is discussed in Part 5, Time within this project seems to be in The Green Room. abundance. 25

Using a very different approach in its construction, Darryl Pifer (1999) presents a performance text concerned with race relations in which the characters and events have been created through a combination of observations in a high school, his own experience, and newspaper articles. The text also includes some autobiographical reflections through the character of an academic researcher included in the piece. The construction, including the description of scenery and props for each scene, seems to me to indicate that this is ethnodrama of a representational type, and would require quite complex staging. Unlike the forum theatre work of Mienczakowski (1995) described earlier, at the time of writing, Darryl Pifer’s work had not been performed. Readers’ theatre is the approach which Wanda Hurren, Milissa Moskal and Niki Wasylowich (2001) employ in their exploration of what they describe as being watched/watcher in the ongoing process of becoming teachers. The piece, entitled ‘They Are Always Watching Me’ is intended to be flexible and to allow for substituting, in their words: ‘...any number of performers who would like to add their own personal experiences of being watched/watcher in school spaces’ (p.336). Acting as performers of their own characters in the cast, they integrate theory into the piece through an original device in which a character moves to a bookshelf and reads from an academic text with dialogue which sometimes includes a reference to the author’s name. Hurren et al ( ibid ) report their intention of using the piece in teacher education programmes, however I consider that their own involvement in the reading might limit the piece. Different again is the DVD ‘Ready or Not?’ (2007) produced through collaboration between Theatr Iolo and researchers at The University of Bristol as part of the ESRC Home School Knowledge Exchange Project. The focus here is on children transferring from primary to secondary school. The DVD has six scenes: Introduction, Issues on Transfer, Why use Drama, 3 Months Later in Secondary School, and ‘Ready or Not?’ a Play in Rehearsal. In the notes on the back of the DVD, the producers propose that it can be used in a number of different ways including discussion between parents and teachers, in initial teacher education courses, and as an in-service training tool. Of particular interest to me here is the final scene, the play in rehearsal which I saw performed in July 2007 at the Arts- Based Educational Research Conference in Bristol. As a play in rehearsal, it has many features of readers’ theatre as the performers read from scripts and there is minimal use of props. It was in fact performed in a standard university It would have been interesting if the lecture theatre. Like the work of Mienczakowski theatre group had explored the way in which younger actors might have been (1995), the play was performed by professional used to play the part of the children in actors who take on a number of roles including these scenes. a narrator who introduces the characters in each 26 scene. For me, the reading was able to explore the powerful emotions experienced by both children and parents and, as Martin Hughes, one of the research team commented, these emotional moments are captured most powerfully through drama. He also commented that before the DVD production, all other more conventional routes to disseminate the work had been explored. It is worth noting that this ‘Play in Rehearsal’, has been totally produced by Theatr Iolo members under the What might have been the outcome if artistic direction of Kevin Lewis who this had been a joint production between the research team and the theatre group? ‘synthesised’ the twenty minute performance from an enormous amount of case study data, including interviews and workshop dialogue. This was done, interestingly, without any input from the research team (information from conference notes). The final example is the piece by Kip Jones (2007a) which he describes as: ‘an auto-ethnography/auto-biography/auto-ephemera audio visual production’ (video.google), and is accessible in video format via the internet. As accompaniment to the piece, the script for the video and a traditional academic text describing the work and its underpinning methodology are provided (Jones,2007b and c). These are also available online via the journal Forum: Qualitative Social Research. The script has footnotes which As an autobiographical piece, JJJones is Jones refers to in the academic text as able to avoid wrestling with the ethical representing the ‘scholarship’ (online concerns raised by using the dialogue reference 5) of the piece. Originally a of interview participants in performance pieces. These are video which was presented to audiences difficulties which Mienczakowski may at a number of universities, in its present consider are addressed through form, it now has the potential to be participant validation. accessed by innumerable diverse audiences worldwide. Like the DVD version of the ‘Ready or Not?’ Play in Rehearsal described above, this piece is different from the other three described because it is performed through a video format rather than as a piece of ‘live’ performance. In ‘live’ performance the audience can play a part in creating a reciprocated production, and each performance is unique. These five examples of performance approaches to re-presentation from Australia, USA, Canada and the UK, illustrate a diverse range of approaches to the re- presentation of research, and which ostensibly act as modes of dissemination. They illustrate the potential of new technologies to enlarge the scope of what it is possible to create within an art-based approach. However, they also raise questions related to ethical practice, perceived and actual audiences for such work, and the legitimacy of the use of such approaches by researchers with no formal background or training in the field of performance. This latter question is raised in a highly appropriate way through the ‘embodied writing’ (p.243) of D. Soyini Madison 27

(2006) in which a performer sitting under a spotlight surrounded by books on performance speaks: Lately, more than ever, I’ve found myself bristling at those who are not ready or willing to put in time with Performance: to honour properly, to learn sufficiently, to work skilfully, and to believe heartily in her possibilities. What I want to say is: I love performance most when I enter into it, when it calls me forward shamelessly, across those hard-edged maps into spaces where I must go, terrains that are foreign, scary, uninhabitable, but necessary. I must go to them to know myself more, to know you more. I enter performance as a witness and doer. Performance is hard work (p. 244).

These sentiments are echoed by some researchers working with poetry and poetic re-presentation, and I include this discussion in the following review. Before that however, I enter a performance of sorts, following a call to write this piece which reintroduces the notion of ‘interconnectivity’ put forward by Roberts (2008) at the beginning of Part 1. I don’t know if you are like me, but I often have more than one book ‘on the go,’ as my mother used to say. I have downstairs books and upstairs books. The downstairs books at the moment are academic texts; to be read upright; to be read with highlighter pen at the ready; to be read with notebook at hand. These are books to be sieved and drained; books to be read with the magpie’s eye. The upstairs books open lazily; these are books to transport the imagination to other times or places; books which allow glimpses into the created worlds and lives of others; pages, paragraphs, sentences, and words in which to luxuriate. The magpie is caged. Here, now, two books have become muddled, unsure of their place. Each is a similar size paper-back; each has a shiny cover of muted tones slashed by a title in white lettering. Each book is additionally confused because each holds a secret; for in a pocket attached to the inside of the back cover sits a DVD(s). These books are confused about where they should be and what they should be. With one I am listening to/watching/reading poets ‘perform’ their work. In the other I am listening to/watching/reading researchers ‘perform’ their research. I have a suppressed feeling that I want to experience the poets without magpie sitting on my shoulder. I want to sit back and be transported. But magpie is determined and, with her sharp beak of interconnection, pecks persistently. Book One : Book Two :

Dancing the Data In Person 30 Poets

Edited by Carl Bagely and Mary Beth Filmed by Pamela Robertson-Pearce Cancienne (2002) and edited by Neil Astley (2008) 28

Note 4.6

Magpie

Her head bobs forward. Her black beak dips, dips, and dips again. Another trophy captured. Pica pica.

The next thread in my eclectic approach is the utilisation of poetry and poetic representation within research. This is not a new concept, the epic poems of English physician, inventor, scientist, and poet, Erasmus Darwin (grandfather of Charles Darwin), serving to illustrate this long history. According to Desmond King- Hele (2003), at the time of their original publication (1789, 1791,1803), the poems, concerned with Darwin’s research views of evolution and the origins of life, were widely read and reached a broad and diverse audience. Using more contemporary examples, Ivan Brady (1991) provides an insight into the history of ethnopoetics within the field of anthropology tracing what he refers to as ‘the pioneering work’ (p.x) of a number of writers since the early 1970s. Since that time the form has gathered pace with it being the view of Zali Gurevitch (2002) that within social science writing ‘the poetic moment’ (p.403) has been reached. Researchers working in diverse social science fields such as The claims which researcher/poets put education, health, and social work forward for utilising this approach are discussed in Part 5, The Green Room. have turned to the poetic form as an approach to the re-presentation of their ‘data’ (for example see: Baff, 1997, Finley, 2003, Rapport, 2007, Weems, 2008). In doing so, they use a variety of ways of working and offer a range of levels of insight into the processes through which their work is produced/created. Few writers however, attempt to fully explore or explain this process; how their work emerges from the mass of papers, books, journal articles, newspaper cuttings, audio recordings, interview transcripts, field notes, post-it notes, scribbled notes, cryptic notes, illegible notes written in the dark, at night, and in the fog of semi-wakefulness which are what I have found to be an inevitable part of research practice. A committed proponent of poetic representation, Laurel Richardson (1992) describes using a range of poetic devices such as repetition, off- rhyme, meter, and pause to ‘fashion’ (p.126) a 36 page transcription of an interview into a 3 page poem. She describes the final piece, Louisa May’s Story Of 29

Her Life, as: ‘…a transcript masquerading as a poem/ a poem masquerading as a transcript’ (p. 127). Cynthia Poindexter (2002) describes the way in which she developed her skills and techniques over time from a method in which she candidly describes as relying upon her: ‘…..gut feeling and literary hunches’ (p.708), to a more deliberate one in which she pays attention to: ‘…..respondents’ sequencing, pace, tone and phrasing’ (p.709) as part of the process. Using found poetry, Alison Pryer (2007) introduces her poems by attempting to describe her method of creating her poetry; explaining how in editing and arranging fragments of original texts, new texts in new forms are created. More detail in relation to the consideration of the methods which writers utilise when representing research data as poetry is provided by Carol Langer and Rich Furman (2004) who differentiate between what they call research poems and interpretive or creative poems . In constructing their research poems Exact is a tricky term to use when they report using the ‘exact words’ discussing the results of transcription. (p.1 on-line journal) of a research This is discussed further in Part 4 Noises Off. participant but use line and stanza Compression -Langer and Furman also breaks as well as compression which refer to this somewhat clinically as they see as an essential poetic tool in data reduction, essentially terms used to mask significant editing. creating research poems. In a study which explores and uses poetry in three different ways, as data, as a means of data representation, and as a process of enquiry, Rich Furman, Carol Langer, Christine Davies, Heather Gallardo and Shanti Kulkarni (2007) use a poetic structure, the tanka . This is used as a template through which to compress what they consider are the essential elements of their data. This technique is employed in earlier work (Furman, Lietz and Langer, 2006) in which a comparison of exploring the use of the tanka with that of the pantoum as structures within which to compress research data is described by the authors.

The tanka is a Japanese form of poetry The pantoum is a complex French poetic which uses a set rhythmic pattern. See: structure derived from a Malaysian http://www.americantanka.com/about. form in which lines are repeated in a set html order. http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/pr See: The Ode less Travelled by Stephen mMID/5793 Fry pages 241 -242.

These examples provide a glimpse into the ways that these researchers use combinations of craft and creativity to shape their work. This craft is considered by some researchers who use this approach to be an essential skill, and echoes the concerned sentiment of Soyini Madison (2006) referred to earlier. Encouraging researchers who wish to develop their social science writing in more creative ways, 30

Richardson (2002, 2005) suggests a number of strategies for those interested in utilising poetry which includes immersion in the form. By this she means: ‘…..take a class in poetry, attend poetry workshops, join a poetry circle, read contemporary poetry’ (2002, p. 881). Whilst she appears to be conscious of being overly prescriptive, my view of her inclusion of this lengthy advice reflects some of the concern shown by others critical of the way inexperienced writers are turning towards poetry within their work. One such commentator is Jane Piirto (2002) who, declaring herself to be both a literary writer and researcher, questions the use of art-based practice such as poetic representation by those with no background within this domain. Like Richardson, she argues that researchers wishing to use art- based forms should take classes in the disciplines in which they wish to develop their work. Whilst welcoming the possibilities which the fusion of what she refers to as the ‘fields’ of art and education and the specialist ‘domains’ (p. 432) within them, she concludes with a warning in relation to researchers who merge their practices: ‘But let us not confuse the quality of and their qualification for rendering, making marks, embodying and distilling. Let us not confuse the seekers with the masters. Let us not confuse the poetasters for the poets’ (p. 444).

Both Lisa Percer (2002) and Sandra Faulkner (2007) take up this debate, arguing strongly that researchers interested in poetry as a means to re-present research should be fully aware of poetic traditions and study its craft. However Percer acknowledges that her wish that scholars who choose to use alternative forms such as poetry are as well versed in their craft as they are in the conduct of social science research: ‘is an unrealistic one’ (p.8). Interestingly none of those researcher/poet/creator/producers of the work which I have reviewed here, allude to the oral origin of poetry or include discussion of the possibilities which performance poetry might offer. These performances could be undertaken with audiences during ‘live’ presentations, or through recordings on DVDs, or in the formidable auditorium of This is not a view that all poets would cyberspace. Whatever the means through share, especially those whose work uses which poetry can be accessed in its oral the shape that it occupies on the page to form, I support the view of the poet Basil complement its effect. The concrete poetry described by Jeffrey Wainwright Bunting (1966) quoted in the work edited (2004) is an example of this type of by Neil Astley (2008) that: ‘Poetry, like ‘writing for the eye.’ music, is to be heard. It deals in sounds…… .. Poetry must be read aloud’ (p.20). A differentiation between reading aloud and performance poetry is made by Cornelia Gräbner (2008). She argues that poetry reading:‘…mobilises the voice of the poet as a reading, not as a speaking voice’ (p.80), whereas the characteristic of performance poetry include: ‘…sonic, 31 theatrical, and musical elements’ (p.80). From a different perspective, James Fenton (2007), discussing the possible future of what he terms ‘poetry reading’ (p.15) by poets to ‘live audiences’, makes a distinction between poets and actors as performers: We are performers, when we read or recite, but we are not performers in the sense that an actor is a performer. We do not for instance, dramatise the emotional events of a poem as if it were unfolding before the eyes of the audience (p.15).

This view is reminiscent of the distinction referred to earlier, between presentational and representational forms, in which audiences of presentational work assume a participative role and adopt responsibility for co-production within the performance space. To return to Donmoyer and Yennie-Donmoyer (1995), this is where creation comes through suggestion rather than literal representation and this is a place which poetry also inhabits. Eloquently echoing creative writing teacher Natalie Goldberg’s (2005) advice to writers to ‘show not tell’ (p.116-119), poet and critic Jane Hirshfield (1997) writes: ‘Poetry steals its way into meaning; by the time the intruder is recognised, the task is already accomplished’ (p.125).

Note 4.7

Magpie

Her head bobs forward. Her black beak dips, dips, and dips again. Another trophy captured. Pica pica.

In this review of the differing approaches which I have woven within this study, I have presented glimpses of certain aspects of the research process which other researchers who have used similar means, have adopted, promoted or evaluated. These include methods used which generate data (interview, observation, photography), approaches to analysis within narrative research (thematic, structural, dialogic/performance, and visual), and a number of examples of ways in which researchers have used performance as a form of re-presentation (poetry, readers’ theatre, forum theatre). The crucial thread which binds each of these strands together is writing ; the type of writing which becomes what Richardson (2005) refers to as: ‘…a dynamic creative process’ (p.960). This emphasis on process means that writing becomes a method of enquiry rather than being solely the means through which other methods are expressed, and is fundamental 32 to my eclectic approach. It is also implicit in one of my study aspirations, which is the exploration of ways in which to widen the audience of research. One of Richardson’s (1990) earliest publications includes a very pragmatic section on approaches to writing strategies for ‘reaching diverse audiences’ (p.10). Here she includes practical solutions to writing books, academic papers and mass circulation articles. What I see as common to these different forms is the need for the writer to be clear about the audience/s of the intended work and the purposes for which it has been created. However, whatever the overall intentions of the writer, for me a clear objective should also be to motivate the reader to keep reading. In her exposition of writing as a method of enquiry, Richardson (2005) uses the seemingly taboo word ‘ boring ’ Remember: both Laurel Richa rdson and (p. 959) to describe her view of much Darrel Caulley write about boredom in qualitative writing. Concurring with this academic writing from positions of extensive experience and, additionally view, Darrel Caulley (2008) draws on the in Caulley’s case, from that of techniques of writing ‘creative non fiction’ retirement from academia. (p.426) as a means to combat boredom in research reports. He explores the use of a range of strategies including scene by scene writing, the use of active verbs, conversation, syntax, tone, simile, and metaphor. He also describes the use of realistic detail which he maintains can conjure images and emotions in the reader. For writer and critic Al Alvarez (2005), this attention to detail is essential for writers wishing to develop their own unique voice: … finding your own voice as a writer means – or is the equivalent of – feeling free in your own skin. It is a great liberation. Yet the only way to achieve it is through minute – the minutest - attention to detail (p.38).

Alvarez also maintains that whatever the voice or ‘style’ (p.42) the writer chooses to adopt, it must be one which is: ‘alive and urgent enough to take hold of the reader and make him understand that what is being said really matters’ (p.42). Through my writing, and through the choices I have made in using alternative approaches to re-presentation, my aim is to produce a study which is ‘alive and urgent’ because it is my belief that what I have to say does matter.

Note 4.8

Magpie

Her head bobs forward. Her black beak dips, dips, and dips again. Another trophy captured. Pica pica.

In reviewing this range of work related to my particular approach I have uncovered a number of important issues which need to be discussed in greater detail. In summary these issues relate firstly to the complexity and apparent contradiction inherent in the diverse methods used to generate data within qualitative research, particularly in the use of interviews. Secondly is the importance of purpose in different approaches to writing, presentation and re- presentation. Thirdly are the claims made by researchers using different approaches, and lastly the eligibility of researchers to employ arts-based, and often multi-sensory, methods . These issues are explored in Part 4, Noises Off, and Part 5, The Green Room. In what follows I review some key texts which have been influential to the development of ideas and approaches which I have employed within this study. In my choice of texts, the interconnectivity between my research and wider interest in writing poetry, and performance is illustrated once more.

Production Note 5 Key Texts

Note 5.1 It’s a chill, damp November morning and Lichfield city centre is unsurprisingly quiet. I join a small queue of people waiting to take part in a writing workshop at The Garrick Theatre. We grumble that we are left to wait in the cold but our grumbles are short lived as the doors open on the dot of ten o’ clock and we all smell the warming aroma of coffee and hot chocolate. The twelve of us take our drinks upstairs to The Viking Suite which is to be our home for the day, and chat about our expectations. The venue is rather inappropriately named, as the ‘suite’ is a single room sparsely furnished with black plastic chairs and school room tables. The focus of the workshop is ‘Story’, and writer and poet David Calcutt begins by asking us to introduce ourselves to the group and to share our thoughts about what we are hoping to gain from the event. It’s fascinating to meet a group of people who want to develop their writing skills for such diverse purposes; the woman who is writing stories for her grandson; the young man who is hoping to carve out a career as a poet; the man ‘from advertising’. David begins by talking about ‘story’ and defining it as a sequence of events in which characters make the events happen. He draws our attention to the difference between storyline and plot: the storyline being specific events which happen in a particular story, and plot being the overall general outline, 34

such as a protagonist being sent on a quest, and the adventure which then ensues. Someone in the group mentions a theory that there are only a limited number of plots through which all stories are woven, and David refers to the work of Christopher Booker. I eagerly scribble the reference down in my notebook and then get on with the business of writing an attention grabbing first line of the scene setting section of my story. From somewhere the line comes into view: ‘The smell of urine is not so strong on Wednesdays.’

I have drawn on the first section of Christopher Booker’s (2004) vast four part treatise The Seven Basic Plots in which he provides a typology of plots . I have found this a valuable and interesting means through which to examine and make sense of certain aspects of the complexity of data gathered within my research. In my study I have utilised Booker’s (2004) typology of the plots of stories as a template through which to explore their potential as an approach to narrative analysis. In the first part of Booker’s (ibid ) work, he argues that there are seven basic plots through which all stories are told. However, he goes on to explain that these plots are Porter Abbott (2002) comments that plot is a ‘vexed term’ (p.194). He not mutually exclusive; in some stories explains that in different traditions, there can be overlap, and in others the plot can mean: story, the order in which story might be shaped by only one aspect of a story is told, or the chain of causally connected events in a story. the plot. The possibility that all stories can be organised within a limited number of plots is not a new one, and Booker provides a short review of other writers who have looked at this question including the writer Joseph Campbell . Not included in this review is the work of Vladimir Propp .

Campbell ( 1993) argues that within The Russian scholar Vladimir Propp’s the myths of the world, there is one (1927(1927)))) work is concerned with universal hero within a common story. narrative structure. This ‘morphology’ In the adventure of the hero, the story (p. xxv), or study of the form of the begins with ‘The call to adventure’ ‘fairy tale’ (p.19) led to his (p.49). identification of a number of ‘functions’ (p.21) within the tales which he considered as being universal.

Later in this study, I use Booker’s (2004) typology as a means through which to try to make sense of the mass of fragmented detail which individual student participants discuss in interview conversations. Here I also utilise the elements which he identifies as the general shape of a story, in an attempt to organise the overall shape of the ‘story’ of the student participants within this study. 35

Note 5.2 The second texts which I have found of interest are Situated Learning by Jean Lave and Etienne Wenger (1991) and Communities of Practice in Higher Education by Mary Lea (2005). The former text has been drawn on extensively by a range of researchers, particularly within education, and workplace learning (for example see: Avis and Fisher, 2006, James and Biesta, 2007, O’Donnell and Torbell, 2007, and Felstead, Fuller, Unwin, Ashton, Butler and Lee, 2005). In the latter text, Lea (2005) explores the concept of communities of practice as: ‘… a way of understanding learning as practice’ (p.181) within higher education. Rather than using the concept to explore the development of teaching and learning practices, she examines its potential as a heuristic through which to examine ways in which learning does or does not take place, and how learning and full participation in communities of practice can be limited. It is with these communities of practice within higher education that exclude or limit learners to the periphery of participation that Lea seems most drawn. She identifies a number of activities which convey students to the margins of communities of practice such as procedures for assignment submission, group or collaborative teaching and learning activities and, in particular, language practices in higher education described by the term academic literacies . In each of these examples Lea ( ibid ) sees the potential for using the notion of communities of practice and peripheral participation as a means to examine, question, and challenge practices which exclude or limit membership in ‘an academic community of practice’ (p.193). She concludes by encouraging more work to be undertaken: We need to understand much more about the lived experience of today’s students and the importance of different communities of practice in the learning process, which challenge the simple notion of the novice student on the periphery of the central academic community (p.195).

As an element of Part 3 of this study, I take up Lea’s challenge, utilising a bricoleur’s perspective of the concepts of communities of practice and peripheral participation to explore particular features of teaching and learning on the CAM degree course at Citygate College.

Note 5.3 For more information about poets in The final text which has been influential residence see: to my thinking and approach is the work http://poetrysociety.org.uk/content/arc of poet David Hart (2006) Running Out . hives/places/residencies Also see Part 5, The Green Room for views on being a Unusually for poets presenting a collection poet in residence by educational of their work, Hart includes a section that researcher and policy advisor Lesley mixes poetry with prose which provides an Saunders (2006). 36 insight into the world of the poet in residence . Running alongside the poems, Hart includes a commentary on how certain of his poems came to be written and discusses issues of ethics, voice, ownership and purpose. He talks of poems being ‘wholly my own’ (p. 92) or ‘not my poem’ (p.90) when explaining their construction either through the selection of the words of people he talks to, or through creation from observation or found texts. These are important questions which researchers also consider when making decisions about representing or re-presenting the stories or views of research participants. Hart’s work is imaginative and powerful, and, for a researcher who is interested in alternative approaches to presentation, it provides a fertile stimulus for ideas.

Production Note 6 Summary

In these Production Notes I began by introducing the overall metaphor which I have chosen to act as a framework for my writing, this being a theatrical performance. This is an important metaphor, as it provides a structure for both myself, the writer and creator of this text, and for the reader, unfamiliar with the context in which my research has been undertaken. It is a metaphor which also enables the often less visible aspects of research to be considered. Through the ensuing Production Notes, glimpses of my educational and career pathway influential to my research position have been provided, and my perspectives of the benefits and drawbacks of working within a larger project described and considered. Key texts have also been introduced, as well as my study aspirations. Most importantly, I have illustrated the fusion between my wider arts- based interests, particularly poetry and performance, and my research interests and approach. Crucially I have additionally considered aspects of the bricoleur’s approach that I have adopted, which draws on, and weaves together elements of narrative, performance, ethnography, poetry, visual, and writing approaches. All of these approaches are important to me as they each provide a different means through which to grapple with the challenge of representing experience, both my own within the research setting, and that of its many participants. This challenge is eloquently described by Jeanette Winterson (2000) in her preface to Virginia Woolf’s (2004) ‘The Waves’: To try and tell the truth about life is to admit that truth is not found in one place, but swarms plankton-like in any scoop of water we draw up. The sense is in the pattern and the pattern is always changing. The pattern looks different in different lights. We try to make an order but our order is always provisional and the trick is to know that and not get caught in the hero-certainties of too much sun (p.x).

These Production Notes have been presented in a linear, organised fashion which belies a shifting, evolving, organic reality. This is a place in which notes

cancancan also be

lost; cease

to be

significance;

lose their meaning;

become illegible;

contain conflicting

information;

and

lie discarded in unruly heaps.

38 Part 2 Scenography

The scenographerscenographer visually liberates the text and ththee story behind it, by creating a world in which the eyes see what the ears do not hear. Pamela Howard

Scenography

In the World View section of her book, ‘What is Scenography?’ Pamela Howard (2002), quoted earlier, provides numerous and diverse definitions of the term scenography from artists and practitioners across the globe. Reminiscent of the debate surrounding the use of terms from the fields of narratology, and social science research, it appears that in the world of the scenographer there is also much discussion about meaning and function. This discussion is once again influenced by the individual position, situation, and experience of those engaged within the field. What Howard ( ibid ) provides is a personal in-depth response to the debate which, for a non-specialist like myself, proves to be a fascinating insight into a complex, creative role within theatre production. Characterising the scenographer as ‘a cultural magpie’ (p.35), she sees the challenge for the scenographic researcher to: ‘…know how to use an individual eye to ferret out the essence of the subject, hunt it down, and then decide whether or not to use it’ (p.35). In creating the ‘sets’ which provide the backdrop to this study, I have used my magpie eye once more to collect items for each design which currently seem to me to represent their essence. Each ‘set’ is distinct, broad and complex, however the inter-relationship between them emerges later, through the stories told by the research participants, and through the tales I tell of my own experiences both as an interviewer and observer/participant observer. Using a visual approach here is crucial, as it provides a means through which a huge mass of diverse material can be presented simultaneously to the reader/viewer. This simultaneity is made possible by the use of a collage form which is at once both ordered and disordered, highly suitable for providing a visual sense of the cacophony which the different voices within these diverse discourses create. Simultaneity is a fundamental aspect of collage, a non-hierarchical, highly accessible form which provides a democratising space in which power is given to the viewer. Here prioritising decisions about what to look at, for how long, and in what order, are made by the viewer as the eye roves about the collage surface.

Set 1 Collage: Widening Participation in Higher Education This collage illustrates the breadth of discourse related to higher education, and particularly widening participation in higher education, through the burgeoning diverse literature concerned with the topic. The breadth of discussion is one which Sir Howard Newby, the then Chief Executive of the Higher Education Funding Council England (HEFCE, 2005), sees as a very public affair: ‘Debates about who participates in higher education now take place on the radio and television, and in the press, as well as academic journals’ (p.3). This view can be illustrated by two 40 examples, firstly The Observer Newspaper (November, 2008), publication of a four page discussion under the banner headline: ‘What’s the Point of University?’ in its Review supplement, and secondly in the same month, the Radio 4 programme ‘You and Yours’ dedicating an hour of discussion at 12.05 pm, prime time radio, to the topic of widening participation in higher education. The presenter of the programme, Julian Worricker, was inundated by texts, e-mails and phone calls from listeners wanting to join the debate. One of his studio guests, Professor Kevin Bonnett, Deputy Vice-Chancellor of Manchester Metropolitan University concluded the discussion by observing: ‘Everything we’ve heard tells us that university matters, it matters to the individual, it matters to the economy…’. Widening participation also appears to matter to a great many academic researchers. An abundance is evident in the review undertaken by Stephen Gorard, Emma Smith, Helen May, Liz Thomas, Nick Adnett and Kim Slack (2006) of relevant research, and the contention of David Watson (2006) that this research field is ‘cluttered’ (p.2). My collage includes extracts from; government publications, HEFCE reports and strategy documents, material from Aimhigher, Action on Access, Foundation Degree Forward, The Higher Education Academy, published research in the form of journal papers, linked articles from what Jennifer Mason (2006) refers to as: ‘...“real world” texts’ (p.22) such as The Guardian and The Observer newspapers, electronic media (BBC News Education Web pages), and the internet. I acknowledge that it is not an exhaustive list of sources but covers a range which includes material accessible to wider audiences than those traditionally accessed for academic research. Additional material is included which represents more general concerns related to higher education, concerns such as the cost to students and parents of a university education, which have an important impact on widening participation policy and practice. Specifically highlighted are differences in the way that the term ‘widening participation’ is, and has been, defined and described. It is through these explicit or nuanced definitions that the countervailing forces of social justice and economics, inclusivity and stratification, equality and inequity, rhetoric and reality, and policy and practice are exposed. Thirdly the collage draws attention to the shifting nature and focus of widening participation in higher education, and the actions and activities which are the result of government policy. Finally, it illustrate s the way in which widening participation strategies fuel the commodification of higher education. This can be seen in the promotional activities of some of the bodies which have been created around the concept, or ‘product’ which widening participation has become, and which support and sustain policy. From such a perspective, like any other commodity, higher education becomes an item which needs to be marketed. The position can also clearly be observed within higher education institutions themselves. Claire Fox (2002) sees the higher 41 education sector: ‘…aping the market rhetoric of the rest of society’ (p.130) with university managers: ‘…as preoccupied with advertising campaigns, brand loyalty, and customer satisfaction as any other business enterprise’ (p.130). Collage Design Features The collage is comprised of four panels which I have linked through the use of illustrations taken from the Student Experience section of the HEFCE publication ‘Higher Education in England’ (2009, pp.52-59), and graphics from the Guardian and Observer newspapers used to illustrate articles concerned with higher education (see Illustrations 1a/b and 2 a-e below). The HEFCE publication illustrations act to unite the panels, while the graphics, which mainly depict higher education symbolically through the cap and gown worn at the graduation ceremony, provide visual continuity across all four. The panels are also linked by the central ‘Widening Participation’ graphic (Illustration 3a/b), a headline taken from the Education Guardian (16.9.08), and key words which emerged during the construction and creative process (Illustration 3c/d). Illustration 1

a b Illustration 2

b c d a

Illustration 3 d fees a b social justice c finance economic competitiveness fairness all who can benefit funding social and economic necessity future 42

Plate 1 Widening Participation in Higher Education Collage 168cm x 120cm 43

Plate 2 Collage 1 Panels

Plate 3 Collage 1 Panel 1

Diagram 1 Key to references Panel 1

References:

1. Aimhigher (2009) 2. Higher Education Academy (HEA) (2007) 3. Redmond, P. (2008) 4. Hinsliff, G. (2008) 5. Thompson, R. (2009) 6. Curtis, P. and Barkham, P. (2009) 7/8/9. Hogan, P. (2008) 10. Denham, J. (2008c) 11. Aitkenhead, D. (2009) 12. Kingston, P. (2008a) 13. Bawden, A. (2008) 14. Whitston, K. (2008b) 15. Shepherd, J. (2007a) 16. Curtis, P. (2009a) 17. Shepherd, J. (2009a) 18. Wilby, P. (2008).

Illustration 4 Collage 1 Panel 1 Selection of details

Plate 4 Collage 1 Panel 2

Diagram 2 Key to references Panel 2

References:

1. Warnock, M. (2006) 2. Curtis, P. (2008) 3. Curtis, P. (2009b) 4. Shaw, E. (2008) 5. Rammell, B. (2008a) 6. Meikle, J. (2007) 7. Shepherd, J. (2007b) 8. Meikle, J. and Lewis, P. (2007) 9. Shepherd, J. (2008) 10. Stubbs, J. (2008) 11. Novakovitch, M. (2009) 12. Tickle, L. (2007) 13. Thomas, E. and McDonnell, J. (2008) 14. Grace, J. and Shepherd, J. (2007) 15. a/b Hogan, P. (2008) 16. Smithers, R. (2006) 17. Whitson, K. (2008a).

Illustration 5 Collage 1 Panel 2 Selection of details

Plate 5 Collage 1 Panel 3

Diagram 3 Key to references Panel 3

References:

1. Aimhigher (2009) 2. Blackett, T. (2003) 3. Scotney, T. (2007) 4. Reay, D., David, M. E. and Ball, S. (2005) 5. Greenback,P. (2006) 6. Watson, D. (2006) 7. Watson, D. (2006) 8. Archer, L. (2006) 9. Layer, G. (2005) 10. Jones, R. and Thomas, L. (2005) 11. Jary, D. (2008) 12. Leathwood, C. and O’Connell, P. (2003) 13. Hatt, S., Baxter, A. and Harrison, N. (2003) 14. Beaney, P. (2006a) 15. Johansann, M., Kim, L., Storan, J. and Sörlin, S. (2006) 16. Bowl, M. (2003) 17. Crozier, G., Reay, D., Clayton, J., Colliander, L. and Grinstead, J. (2008) 18. HEFCE (2005) 19. Thomas, L. and Quinn, J. (2007) 20. Archer, L. (2006) 21. Thomas, L., May, H., Harrop, H., Houston, M., Knox, H., Lee, M.F., Osborne, M., Pudner, H. and Trotman, C. (2005) 22. Widening Participation and Lifelong Learning (2009) 23. Brennan, J., Little, B. and Locke, W. (2006) 24. Watson, D. (2006) 25. Doyle, M. (2001).

Illustration 6 Collage 1 Panel 3 Selection of details

Plate 6 Collage 1 Panel 4

Diagram 4 Key to references Panel 4

References:

1. Blair, T. (1999) 2. Action on Access (2005) 3. DfES (2006) 4. Action on Access (2007) 5. Rammell, B. (2008b) 6. Callender, C. (2003) 7. PricewaterhouseCoopers, (2007) 8. HEFCE (2006b) 9. HEA (2005) 10. Denham, J. (2008a) 11. Denham, J. (2008a) 12. HEFCE (2008a) 13. HEFCE (2008b) 14. HEFCE (2009) 15. Leitch, S. (2006) 16. Denham, J. (2008b).

55 Illustration 7 Collage 1 Panel 4 Selection of details 56

Set 2 Collage: Food, Chef Training and Work Environments, and the Celebrity Chef Each of the panels within the triptych is concerned with different aspects of the above setting. The lower panel evokes some of the complexity of the topic of food. In their book Food in Society , Peter Atkins and Ian Bowler (2001) argue that the complexity stems from a range and combination of dimensions including geographical, historical, economic, social, cultural, political, and technological factors. They note that in developed countries there is an increasing general interest in food, borne out not just by the number of television programmes and books dedicated to food and cookery, but also by the interest of the public in the links between issues such as food and health. From a visual arts perspective, Cynthia Morrison-Bell (2009), writing in the catalogue of a recent exhibition concerned with the topic of food entitled Pot Luck , sees food not just as a substance which sustains life, but that, what, where, how we eat, and with whom we share it, food: ‘...defines our personal lives and cultural habits’. The study of the interrelationship between food, culture, and society is a vast field, with extracts from the work of Roland Barthes (1957) and Theodore Zeldin (1998) just two examples to be included in the collage. The central panel provides an impression of aspects of the catering industry environment in which culinary art is practised and chefs are trained. This is a harsh environment according to gastro-pub owner Richard Coates, who describes temperatures of 47c and a great deal of physical work sustained across extensive working hours (Snow, 2008). Such features of the working environment of the hospitality industry kitchen are largely unseen by the public, and which according to J.D. Pratten (2003), contribute to the low retention of chefs in the industry. Pratten (ibid ) also cites the working environment as a major reason for the high drop-out from college catering courses. Michelin starred chef Marco Pierre White adds to the discussion, maintaining that colleges do not adequately prepare people for the industry, and the challenges of the catering kitchen culture (Lewis, 2007). It is a culture which chef and writer Anthony Bourdain (2001) describes as being based on a: ‘centuries-old militaristic hierarchy and ethos’ (p.3). The panel also highlights the way in which the highly recognisable, and ubiquitous figure of the chef in uniform, is used as an image to accompany newspaper articles concerned with aspects of vocational education and training in FE, HE, and the workplace. The upper panel draws attention to the phenomenon of the celebrity chef, and the way in which publications from the printed media have fuelled and sustained such a notion. Here the chef’s familiar face advertises a range of goods or own- brand merchandise, and through the visual imagery selected, undergoes a transformation and form of deification. However, such a depiction places the 57 celebrity chef in a precarious position, one in which any fall from grace is vociferously publicised. Once more I have drawn material for the collage from a number of different sources including newspapers, magazines, books, and journal articles. Additionally, I have incorporated a number of photographs which I have taken at Citygate College, as well as short extracts from fieldnotes, and interview conversations.

Collage Design Features The underlying scheme of each of the three panels which form the triptych have been approached purposefully and distinctively. In the lower panel I have used circular forms which are physically and visually linked, echoing the interrelationship between the various elements represented (Illustration 8). In contrast the central panel is highly angular and symmetrical. It mimics the stark orderliness of the catering kitchen, with the phalanx of chefs symbolising the militaristic workplace hierarchy (Illustration 9). Only two illustrations provide glimpses of the frenetic activity of service, and the untidiness of its aftermath (Illustration 10). Different again is the upper panel. Here I have juxtaposed the glorifying visual imagery used to depict the skill and creativity of the celebrity chef, with more mundane text concerned with some of their various enterprises (Illustration 11). Providing an overall link between the three panels are palimpsests (Illustration 12) which provide glimpses of extracts of text from a range of different sources including: fieldnotes, journal articles, newspaper articles, books, and participant transcribed interview conversations. Illustration 8 Illustration 9 Illustration 10

Illustration 11 Illustration 12

Plate 7 Food, Chef Training and Work Environments, and the Celebrity Chef Collage 84cm x 177cm

Plate 8 Collage 2 Lower Panel

Diagram 5 Key to references Lower Panel

References:

1. Hill, A. (2008) 2. Davies, C. (2008) 3. Boseley, S. (2008) 4. Campbell, D. and Asthana, A. (2009) 5. Shepherd, J. (2009) (c) 6. Barthes, R. (1957/2000) 7. Lawrence, F. (2007) 8. Borger, J. (2008) 9. Zeldin, T. (1998) 10. Wintour, P. and Barkham, P. (2008) 11. WRAP (2008) 12. Doward, J. (2008) 13. Campbell, D. (2007).

Plate 9 Collage 2 Central Panel

Diagram 6 Key to references Central Panel

References:

1. a/b Snow, M. (2008) 2. Clancy, J. (2007) 3. Kingston, P. (2008) 4. Katbamna, M. (2007).

Plate 10 Collage 2 Upper Panel

Diagram 7 Key to references Upper Panel

References:

1. a/b/c/d Thorpe, V. and Gousy, H. (2008) 2. Day, E. (2008b) 3. Gibson, O. (2008) 4. Pidd, H. (2008) 5. Cadwalladr, C. (2006) 6. Bates, S. (2009) 7. Day, E. (2008a) 8. Fleming, A. and Smithers, R. (2009).

Additional references in palimpsests: Ladkin, A. (2000) Toynbee, P. (2009).

65 Part 3 Performance

The best in this kind are but shadows, and the worsworstt are no worse, if imagination amend themthem.... William Shakespeare

The curtain opens. The stage represents a theatretheatre.... Johann Ludwig Tieck

The play within the play

A key feature of the last scene from William Shakespeare’s ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’, in which the character Theseus speaks the words reproduced on the previous page, is the performance of a play. The play ‘Pyramus and Thisbe’, performed by the characters Bottom, Snug, Snout, Quince and Flute, thus becomes the play within the play. According to Gerhard Fischer and Bernhard Greiner (2007), the play within the play has a long tradition, and is a device which has been utilised by many playwrights for a variety of tasks and functions. These tasks and functions, they argue, include its use as a point of self-reference and self-reflection, aiding the promotion of different ways of presenting perspectives. These devices and their functions are useful for the researcher, and here in Part 3, I have built on the notion of the play within the play extending it to create a form more complex than merely a thesis within a thesis, utilising an entirely different form. In Part 3 which follows, I have created a fictional series of radio programmes as a means through which to explore the topics and themes of concern in my study. In doing so, I have introduced a different form within the thesis. This form provides a creative space in which reality and fiction are merged, and a space in which to explore a range of different approaches to the presentation and re-presentation of my research material. It allows the immediacy of interview conversations to be re- created, and forges a link between participant contributions. It also provides the opportunity to create the illusion of a wider audience concerned with the issues under discussion, and in so doing, an appropriate place in which to use accessible, informal language. Here time can be manipulated enabling additional material to be introduced, and realist and impressionist tales purposefully juxtaposed. Importantly, it is a space in which my privileged position as researcher and writer is partly addressed, in that within the programmes, I too become a participant alongside the participants within the study. What follows next then, is a series of radio programmes complete with presenter and radio station web-site. This fictional series is ostensibly part of a wider season of programmes concerned with widening participation in higher education called ‘Higher Education Goes Public’. In programmes 4, 5 and 6, aspects of my research at Citygate College are explored using transcribed extracts from a number of participant interviews woven together by the dialogue which I have created for the fictional radio programme presenter, Clare Gayle. Programme 10, in which I am the only guest of the presenter, provides the opportunity to present additional material, as well as space to reflect on the different approaches that I have taken within my research. Through the illusion of a web-site connected to each programme, a range of material is introduced which is connected to, and extends the radio discussion. As an aid to the reader/listener/viewer, Table 1 that follows summarises each 67 programme. However, the reader may choose to follow her or his own pathway through and between each element. Enter into this world, make your own exploration.

Table 1. Radio Programme and Web-site Content Summary

RADIO PROGRAMME 4 RADIO PROGRAMME 5

Discussion : Discussion : o The development of Citygate o Teaching staff perspectives of the College Culinary Arts Management o Dual Sector Institutions Course* o A former student’s reflections o The influence of celebrity chefs o Dual Sector Institutions

Web-site Material : Web-site Material : o Extract 1 from Research Report – o Extract 3 from Research Report – Citygate College The Culinary Arts Management o Extract 2 from Research Report – Course Dual Sector Institutions o Extract 4 from Research Report – o Photograph Gallery Foundation Degrees o Extract 5 from Research Report- Celebrity Chefs, Career Journeys, and Imagined Futures*

RADIO PROGRAMME 6 RADIO PROGRAMME 10

Discussion : Discussion : o Student perspectives of the o Citygate Revisited –update on the Culinary Arts Management institution and students who were Course part of the study o Student perspectives of learning o Using The Seven Basic Plots in Higher Education o Poetry and Photography

Web-site Material : Web-site Material : o Extract 6 from Research Report – o Extract 8 from Research Report – Timetable Talk: Monday Charting plots and unmasking o Extract 7 from Research Report – themes A Performance Script: Between a o Research Poems and Poetic Re- Rock and a Hard Place* presentations: Selection from a o Photo-Collages Collection*

* Denotes where audio material is available

Tran/Scription Notes which apply to all Programmes

BROADCASTS 4,5,6,10 TRAN/SCRIPTION NOTES

NB: The following tran/scripts are of the broadcasts of Programmes 4,5,6,10 in the series ‘The Case of Citygate College’ part of the season ‘Higher Education Goes Public’. The tran/script is an as accurate as possible record of the discussion; however the reader should be aware that there will inevitably be some differences between this record and the original discussion. Paratextual devices are used in the text including punctuation where this helps to clarify meaning (for example question marks). What is not included is any reference to utterances such as laughter, or groaning which may have been part of the broadcast. In addition, the tran/script assumes ordered turn taking by each participant. ‘Overlaps’ of speech are indicated by the use of two full-stops at the end of one speaker’s words followed by two full-stops at the start of the second speaker’s words which are begun with a lower case letter. This is carried out where different speakers words can be clearly differentiated.

Programme 4

RADIO CHOICE

Higher Education Goes Public: The Case of Citygate College

Radio VTT 9.30pm – 9.50pm

Many of us have children, or have neighbours, friends, or relatives who have children, who are considering moving into higher education and becoming part of the government’s ambition to see 50% of 18 -30 year olds having experience of higher education by the year 2010. The policy behind this ambition seeks to widen participation in higher education not simply increase it, and most recently disadvantaged and lower socio-economic groups have been targeted. This has been seen by some as a form of social engineering and by others a means to promote social justice. As part of a season of programmes looking at how this ambition is played out for staff and students in what are now clearly different types of higher education, this is the first of a number of ‘conversations’ based around Citygate College, a higher education institution which has a strong vocational focus. Rather than opting for the views of the principal or a senior curriculum manager, this first programme looks at the development of the college from its beginnings as a municipal school through the eyes of a member of the college’s property services team, as well as a student who studied there some forty years ago. We also get to know something about the term ‘dual sector institution’ as Clare Gayle is joined throughout the series by a researcher from The University of Sheffield.

Clare: Good evening everybody and welcome to our season of programmes ‘Higher Education Goes Public’ in which we have been looking at the changing face of higher education in this country. Those of you who listened to our last series will have heard discussion about the purpose and mission of the Russell Group which was formed in 1994. This is an association of twenty universities which between them account for the major share of research funding within the UK and are often described as ‘research intensive’ universities. In this latest series we turn our attention to a very different group which have been dubbed ‘dual sector’ institutions….these are institutions which straddle the divide between the further and higher education sectors……Tonight is the first of a series of programmes in which we take a look at one institution which fits this profile and this is Citygate College. The purpose of tonight’s programme is to give an insight into the way in which Citygate has developed over time; we take a brief look at its history through the way in which its sites and buildings have evolved and we get a glimpse of what it was like to be a student there some 40 years ago. I have with me three guests who represent different perspectives on what I believe is a fast evolving higher education institution. Firstly I’d like to welcome Ron Swain who is in charge of property services at Citygate…

Ron: Hello

Clare: Next, Barry Scott who is a former student of the college now working in a senior position at a college of further education

Barry: Good evening

Presenter: I’d also like to welcome Val Thompson, a post-graduate student at the University of Sheffield who has been part of a research team based at the college who I believe have been looking at the first year student experience of higher education …..is that right Val?

Val: Hello, yes that’s correct, part of the project has been looking at how students… who have studied in the further education section of their institution…then transferred into the higher education side…. interpret their first year experience, we have also followed up students who moved elsewhere….

Clare: …..OK, we’ll hear more about that later. Right, if I can turn to you first Ron, could you maybe start by giving us some background to the college. I believe that you’ve been a member of staff there for some time and that you were a student there too……

Ron: Yes, that’s right…I was in fact a student at Citygate in the 60’s, I was one of the first students there, it was a purpose built building. I left in ’68 and then I went back after spending time first as an apprentice in various London hotel kitchens and then working my way up to be a trainer for a big hospitality company…. I came back to Citygate in ’73.

Clare: So you went back as a……. ?

Ron: Lecturer……well I mean all the old guys that were there when I was a student, the majority were still there, it was like coming back and doing another apprenticeship there I can assure you…young whippersnapper. But I class myself as being very fortunate I have to 71

say that I had....I was one of the last I suppose…. that had the benefits of the experience of the old brigade……but we digress….

Clare: No problem Ron, it sounds a fascinating story perhaps we can go back to this a bit later…can I draw you in now Barry, you were a student in the ’60s too I believe?

Barry: Yes that’s right, a bit before Ron, I came much to the surprise of my parents who for the last umpteen years had been shelling out large fees and then suddenly discovered that if you had state education you got it for nothing….I mean father just couldn’t believe it that it wasn’t going to cost him a fortune sending me to university……..

Clare: Things are a bit different on that front now though with student loans and increasing fees………

Val: They certainly are, many of the students I interviewed talked a lot about the costs of going to university, the debt it entailed,….sorry Barry…. I interrupted you there…..

Clare: Also Barry, where did the idea to go to Citygate come from?

Barry: Well, from the age of twelve I wanted to go into catering and hotel management….and I’d asked around a bit, you know, if we went out for dinner that was anywhere good and said “well if you were going to a college where would you go” and the consensus came back that Citygate was the best and so we found out what the entry qualifications were and it seemed that if you had four ‘O’ levels then that was more than enough……

Clare: So that’s what you did….

Barry: ……so that’s what I did….we met up this one rainy morning and there were about 30 or so of us in this room and there was a selection process that took place then and your name was called and you were moved to one side of the room and we were trying to work out what the significance was, what’s the criteria for these people being selected, and it transpired it was the number of ‘O’ levels you got. And so they took 15 or 16, I can’t remember exactly how many now, students who had 5 plus ‘O’ levels and we were earmarked for this new diploma… this National Diploma as it was called then… Higher National now or probably degree level now I suppose and you weren’t given a choice in it, you were told that was what you were doing. The others did a thing called Hotel Management or Management something or other, they became the managers and we became the diplomas, and that was it, we kicked off.

Clare: And what was it like being a student then Barry, what was your day like?

Barry: It was a full day, about nine till five with a break for lunch, we had breaks for coffee of course in between because there was a natural gap between lectures because you had to get somewhere else and we would go to the coffee bars or the pub or what have you….and then at five we’d usually, most of us, a core of us, would go down to the reference library….

Clare: …the reference library?

Barry: …..yes there were no library facilities at college, and so each night we’d go to the reference library and we would do all the written work that was required for the course, work as a group so that again you are supporting each other, you came up with the right work and you weren’t duplicating time….and we’d probably go to the pub after that or we’d go and do a job somewhere, we’d go to work.

Val: This sounds just like many of the students in our present research….. a mixture of study and part-time employment…..

Clare: So what was the place like then, Barry? Did you live in halls?

Barry: I lived at home and I had a car. Travel and parking was not such a problem then and I drove into the city every day, knew all the back streets, knew all the quick short cuts and so on. With the sites....initially there was the Silver Street Passage site and there was a site for housekeeping which was adjacent in Sewell Street and then we had classes in the old university, we had them in Tame Street which became a bakery, we had them in what is now Central University which was then a technical college. There was a female hall in the form of a house up Stephens Road which had about 6 bedrooms and we used to go up there for housekeeping. As I said, there was no library or resource centre, we all did our work in the city reference library…..so you were never in the one place.

Ron: That’s right, the conception of the college onto one site wasn’t until the late 50s… there were lots of other bits and pieces around the city, there was catering and hairdressing and domestic arts, bakery and all that kind of stuff. And catering in particular was on temporary sites really, the main site in the 60s was Silver Street Passage, as Barry mentioned, which was a converted warehouse. Other than the accommodation there, the kitchens and the restaurants and the supporting classrooms and lecture theatres weren’t very many. The place you said was a female hall, Barry, was a converted Victorian house which was called the Prince’s Building. We also did the catering for students and the university lecturers at Central and we had some classrooms there, and that’s what we had originally.

Clare: So things were very spread about then….Val, I believe that you have done some research into Citygate’s history. What have you found out?

Val: Well, I’ve used the internet to look at the early history and it would appear that like other universities and higher education institutions in the area, Citygate began its life in the late 19 th century as a municipal technical school specialising in cookery and household science courses. There are archive records that show a cookery room was set up in the school in 1916 and classes being held in 1918. I’ve collected photographs as I’ve been working and one of them shows the college in what looks to be about the early ’50s.

Clare: Listeners can by the way look at these photographs and other materials from this series on our web-site which is at the usual address www.vttradio9/education/highereducation . Let’s go back to you Ron, because I should think that as your job changed from lecturer to your present role in property services, you have a real insider’s knowledge of the way the college has changed physically, which I should think has been influenced by, and had an influence on how it has grown and developed….. 73

Val: ….and don’t forget the importance of changes in policy and legislation which have moved it from local authority control to incorporation through the Further and Higher Education Act in 1992….and of course there’s been its designation as a Higher Education Institution in 2002.

Ron: Yeah…..I mean the building has evolved and is continuing to evolve. Now originally the main building was only designed for catering and bakery and it only went up to five floors, that’s what was the original design. So from the basement to the 5th floor was all it was in 1967. But then they decided to take in other bits and, as you say Val, incorporation took place over a 12 month period 91/92 and then in 92 of course we were independent, by which time we were starting to make headway with the finances. Because before that there wasn’t the money, and we were still part of the local authority. And after incorporation…during those periods this is when a lot of the changes took place because things had to be remodelled to take on new courses and we only had one building and we were becoming very successful and the building was very full, we had to keep knocking walls down and things like that. So from the 6 th floor to the eighth floor that was added to the building and then in about 19....we started then looking for other sites about ’93/4 because it was obviously that we were wriggling in our skin there a bit.

Clare: So you have developed even further……

Ron: That’s right. So we set about coming up with a design and specification and then we tried to look for longevity really, low maintenance that kind of thing. The site specification and the development of the site was influenced by that but we could only do it in stages because we hadn’t got the money to do the lot, if we had have done it would have been far more economical. But that was life, we hadn’t got the money and so we did Phase 1 which opened in 1996, that started to generate money. And then Phase 2 which was 1998, two years later or three years later....98/99 I can’t remember now exactly, and then we did Phase 3, the new halls of residence which was opened three years ago and the thing probably generates several million a year now which can be ploughed back into the institution. In the meantime of course we did purchase Bridgeway Place, two minutes walk from Spring Lane, we did that about five or six years ago before we started on Phase 3 and we’re now looking for more.

Clare: So in fact you’ve almost come full circle from being on lots of different sites in the fifties and sixties, coming into one, then expanding into two and now looking to extend out again even further….that’s interesting……and Bridgeway Place is the Further Education building? I’ll come to you in a minute Val to introduce us to this term ‘dual-sector’…..So Ron, Bridgeway Place…

Ron: ……Bridgeway Place was to be the same specification as Spring Lane, what’s seen as our Higher Education Building… there was to be no elitism, the students who were down there whether they be FE or HE had the same facilities there as they got in Spring Lane and the finishes that we started to incorporate at Spring Lane were incorporated down there again for longevity. Another funny story, I was thinking about that now, the Principal at that time..

Clare: ..when was this Ron?

Ron: ..going back a bit now, this is just a funny story really, where everyone was having a little dip in “shall we refurbish this and do this” the Principal did one thing and that was the floor covering on the stairs which is an absolute nightmare, it was an absolute waste of space. It was pink and horrible and never fitted properly and only lasted a couple of years and he vouched after that time that he wouldn’t do it again…and he never has, to be fair….anyway we put the floor covering on and everyone said... what a marked improvement… the floor covering’s been down there 10 years ….

Val: ….It’s so strange that you should mention the stairs, because I’ve taken photos, especially the red banisters, because when you look down from the top it’s fascinating seeing all the twists and turns……..

Ron: …..Well a lot of the....I don’t know, it was a whim of mine on the day probably…..or someone else’s….the colour schemes… the banding on the floors….what an inspired guess that was because when we had to deal with DDA you had to have colour contrasting for partial..

Val: ..of course, of course! Another piece of legislation which triggered changes …the Disability Discrimination Act 2001 brought in the legislation which meant that adjustments had to be made to the physical features of buildings by 2005… because before that education was exempt..

Ron: ..that’s right. And we’d already got it, I couldn’t believe it, even the stripes were contrasting. I thought “well bloody hell”.

Clare: Just to remind listeners they can see the photos that Val is referring to by looking at the web site….I will bring you in here now Val to talk to us about what is meant by ‘dual sector’ institution because I would think that a lot of our listeners will be unfamiliar with the term.

Val: I think there will be a lot of listeners unfamiliar with how post- compulsory education has developed generally, it’s really hard to keep up with the pace of change… for instance we have higher education institutions which also deliver further education level programmes, we have further education colleges which also deliver higher education level programmes, and which can now, of course, award their own degrees at foundation level…. and we have some higher education institutions which are not given the title ‘university’ and have their degrees awarded by a partner institution which is designated as a university....from a prospective student or parent point of view it must all be a bit confusing..

Clare: ..and then we have ‘dual sector’……

Val: …..and then we have this term ‘dual sector’. The research which I have been part of has been looking particularly at ‘dual sector’ institutions and Citygate can be placed in this category… our research applied the term dual sector to include all those organisations that offer both further and higher education however large or small this provision might be…elsewhere the term is used to describe a much narrower group of organizations

Clare: I wonder Val, if you could first explain for our listeners what these ‘sectors’ are..

Val: ..well, at the moment in England we have a further education, FE, sector with its own policies, practices, systems, regulation, and funding which is the responsibility of the Learning and Skills Council, the LSC, and then we have the HE sector, this time orchestrated by the Higher Education Funding Council for England, HEFCE. Let me give you an example of how these organisations are separated …each has its own budget and its own way of describing the amounts involved… so in 2006-7 the LSC budget for FE was 10.4 billion pounds and HEFCE’s recurrent funding for HE for 2008 -9 is 7,476 million pounds…

Clare: …well whether they describe this money in billions or thousands of millions, its still a lot of public money…..

Val: It is a lot of public money…and dual sector institutions are funded by monies from both of these budgets each being subject to different controls and regulations. So you can see that things can get complicated…..

Clare: OK…you mentioned that the research that you have been involved in has taken a particular application of the term dual sector… are there other definitions of the term then?

Val: Yes, but the term seems to be particularly tricky to define. For instance research at Thames Valley University, which took an international perspective, saw dual sector institutions as much more than simply being about the balance of student numbers in one institution between further and higher education. Their work looked at the extent to which these ‘duals’ were characterised by a strong commitment to both levels, FE and HE, and if there was an integration of educational processes, resources and structures. But perhaps most pertinently if there was what they called ‘seamless progression’.

Clare: Can you explain this a little more?

Val: I’ll do my best. Their work uses a framework of a continuum to explore and explain duals…this has at one end institutions which strive to be seamless , where there is a wish to integrate further and higher education processes which would include progression from FE to HE, and at the other end those which are joined which gives them an opportunity to maximise opportunities for students, resources and services. Their research concluded that many duals are shifting back and forth along this continuum.

Clare: So why is there an interest in dual sector institutions at the moment?

Val: Well, researchers have been suggesting for some time that there needs to be a radical change to the present system of post compulsory education and training. For instance, in 1999 researchers at Leeds University published a paper which suggested that reshaping the present two sectors to one coherent system would benefit both widening participation as well as improve the preparation of students moving between levels of courses.

Clare: So in some ways, the dual sector institutions which you have talked about are already exploring this possibility?

Val: Yes, but the paradox is that government policy continues to keep the two sectors very much separate whilst promoting widening participation, seamless progression and lifelong learning.

Clare: You mean that although the government is pushing for more people to go to university, the separation of further and higher education makes this more difficult?

Val: Well that’s certainly the view of some people. But then we get into the trickier question of what we mean by further and higher education and whether they can or should be merged which I doubt we have time for now..

Clare: ..which we don’t have time for now….what would your view be of this ‘dual-sector’ term Ron? Where would you see Citygate on this continuum that Val has talked about?

Ron: Well in fact the higher education in a way subsidises some of the further education. But the further education helps the higher education in the fact that we have the facilities we have which they can also use, which otherwise they wouldn’t have if they were somewhere else, a higher education institution wouldn’t have the facilities we have here. I mean I think they benefit from each other. I think there’s a bit of snobbery in it that the higher education ones…

Clare: ..you mean the students?

Ron: ..yes….they think that the further education ones are not of the same calibre or whatever but they forget that some of the further education facilities and some of the skills that they would not see or have available to them somewhere else where there isn’t further education, those skills are also of benefit to them. So it’s by no means a one-way process…..

Val: It’s certainly not a total split is it? Because some of the higher education is taught over at Bridgeway Place and some of the further education is based at Spring Lane and lots of services are shared too with some staff teaching across both levels…..so in terms of the continuum I talked about earlier, Citygate perhaps sits slightly more towards the seamless end….I should point out that our research also shows differences in how these institutions operate, there clearly isn’t a single model which all dual sector institutions fit….

Clare: I think our listeners will have found this is the case with other types of higher education institutions too. Barry, I wonder if I can just come back to you now before we finish, to ask what happened when you finally finished your course.

Barry: Well, all but one of our group of fifteen successfully passed the course but we found ourselves in a ‘Catch 22’ situation of needing management experience to gain a position in management. I think graduates the world over will have experienced this frustrating predicament. But to cut a long story short, I ended up as a Junior Assistant Manager in a small hotel, lived in, and got £10 a week!

Clare: And look where you are now! Thanks for that Barry, unfortunately it’s time to bring this discussion to a close and I’d like to thank all my guests this evening for giving us the opportunity to listen to their stories and perspectives of the history and development of a ‘dual 77 sector’ educational institution as part of our series on higher education. Our thanks go to Ron Swain, Barry Scott and Val Thompson for giving us their insider and outsider stories and views. I’d like to remind all our listeners that they can access more information about this topic, including extracts from Val’s research report and the photographs which were mentioned….. all available on our website at www.vttradio9/education /highereducation . Next time we return to Citygate College to get an insight into one specific course, Culinary Arts Management, and what it’s like to teach and study on it. We will be joined by a group of tutors as well as bringing back Val Thompson to get her researcher perspective. Thank you for listening and goodbye until next time.

78 www.vttradio9/education/highereducation vttradi 9 Higher eeducationducation goes public ––– The case of Citygate College PROGRAMME 4 PROGRAMME 5 PROGRAMME 6 PROGRAMME 10

79 vttradi 9 Higher eeducationducation goes public –––the–the case of Citygate College PROGRAMME 4 Extract 1 from Research Extract 2 Dual Sector Photograph Gallery Report Institutions

80 vttradi 9 Higher eeducationducation goes public –––the–the case of Citygate College PROGRAMME 4 Extract 1 from Research Report

Citygate College

It’s 7.15am. Dark and cold. The city centre traffic has not built up to its usual early morning frenzy, and the wide roads which encircle Citygate are eerily quiet and I cross them with ease. There are lights dotted here and there in rooms on different levels of the eleven floor tower, a sign that life is stirring in the building. I join the small streams of people who are making their way inside and using their identity cards to trigger the metal entrance barrier. I collect my visitors badge from the reception desk and the security guard triggers the automatic gate which allows me to pass through. I walk to the small lobby area which gives access to the network of floors and corridors which make up the college. As I climb the stairs I can hear different sounds echoing down the spiralling stair well; the bang of doors opening and closing, the clatter of large metal objects, the dull thud of footsteps, and the occasional distant cry of voices. As I climb higher I come across small groups of people kitted out in their ‘whites’, the uniform which is the ubiquitous symbol of a chef; these are staff and students making their way to their kitchen classrooms ready for an 8am start. There are other people too, people dressed in blue, red, and white uniforms moving with purpose and intent. These are the cleaners, kitchen support staff and technicians; the behind the scenes teams who prepare kitchens, equipment and materials ensuring that everything is ready for teaching. I don my white coat and hat, enter the kitchen classroom on the second floor, and see a note attached to a tray of ingredients recording a delivery time of 7.30am. It’s warm in here and already there are seven or eight students beginning the preparation of vegetables. The pungent smell of onions is already heavy in the air and the production of sauté of chicken, dauphinoise potatoes, and French beans with chestnuts is already underway. 1

Scenes like these have been enacted at Citygate College over a significant number of years as the College, in very many different guises and locations, has been a centre for training in a diverse range of food related programmes of study since the late 1950’s. In fact Citygate started its life in the late 19 th century as a municipal technical school offering cookery and household science courses 2 and operated on a number of sites. In 1967 the college moved into what is now considered to be its main site but this building, originally five floors and now eleven, is a building which has evolved and continues to evolve to reflect constantly changing needs. Much of the development of the particular sites of the college can be contextualised within shifting policies, purposes and focus which have changed

1 From fieldnotes 12.1. 2007. 2 College web-site accessed 12 th December 2007. 81 locally and nationally over time. In the early 1960’s the main focus of the college was in FE level provision, however even at that time the senior staff and managers had an interest in offering diverse levels of programmes. As a result of the Further and Higher Education Act (1992), the college became part of the newly formed Further Education Sector and, with more freedom to develop than was possible under local authority control, it increased numbers and widened its programmes. In 2002 the college was designated a Higher Education Institution (HEI), and making this transition has had a significant impact on the way it has been developed. This is mostly due to the inherently different ways in which the FE and the HE sectors are organised, managed, and funded through government policy. In purely real estate terms, this has lead to the acquisition and development of additional sites. In close proximity to the main site is Bridgeway Place which opened in 2001 and this location has been designated as the focus for FE provision. Canal Side which is a purpose built ‘exciting and vibrant student village’ 3 is a ten minute walk away from the main site and opened its first phase in 1996. There have since been two additional phases which have resulted in there now being sixteen residential blocks which provide accommodation for 835 students. Both Spring Lane and Bridgeway Place reflect the college’s interest in maintaining and developing both its FE and HE focus and as such it might be described as a dual sector institution. Although the two main sites have a different focus, Bridgeway Place as FE and Spring Lane as HE, in practice this is by no means a complete separation of operations. The college’s dual-sectoredness can perhaps partly be defined at a practical level by the many resources and services which are shared. This applies to central services like student support, finance, and careers, as well as specialist teaching rooms. The result of this is that some HE students are taught for some aspects of their course at Bridgeway Place and some FE students are taught exclusively at Spring Lane. This is the case for all food related FE programmes and means that students who enter the college to undertake an NVQ Level 1 Basic Food Preparation and Cooking course, have the possibility of continuing their study within the same institution and site for the following six years to completion of honours degree level. It also means that students within these FE and HE programmes share rooms and resources and are sometimes taught within very close proximity. The college is well known in the food and hospitality industry. Phil 4, a country- wide manger for a large national hospitality company and who is responsible for establishing the development of a niche market in non-chain type pub restaurants, spoke of his view of applicants from the college:

3 College website accessed 7 th December 2007. 4 Phil: Industry Participant interview conversation 6.12.06. 82

..when I’m..when I’m given a CV with somebody who has a degree or a diploma or a qualification from Citygate College.. they would come up the list..because I know that..they would

be….have a..be disciplined..they would be well-mannered….in the main..they would be ambitious they would want to carve a career out above other colleges and universities and we’ve had a very very good track record of people who have come out of Citygate..there is something about their tenacity. The college also has close connections with a number of high profile chefs. This is evidenced by a corridor gallery of photographs of nationally and internationally recognised chefs who have visited the college or who have strong connections with it. For instance, Gordon Ramsey’s College Scholar Award competition was held at the college in 2004 and 2005, with Citygate students amongst the top prize winners. 5 With its long history of training within this vocational area, the college has very few competitors either local or national, especially any who are able to offer the Culinary Arts Management (CAM) course at FdA and BA level. 6 Nowadays however, students enrolling within this field of study both at FE and HE level account for only 10%7 of the overall enrolments at Citygate. Despite this low percentage however, food related programmes appear to have a strong presence within the Spring Lane site which emanates from the ground floor space dedicated to a food shop and restaurants, right up to the eighth floor ‘pub’. The fact that so many students are walking around in their distinctive chef’s uniforms also contributes to this feeling, along with the frequent and ever changing olfactory phenomena:

I walk down the stairs from the ninth floor Research Base and, as I descend, the air becomes heavy with the enticing rich aroma of warm butterscotch and chocolate. 8

5 College web-site accessed 12 th December 2007. 6 UCAS search 30.11.2007. 7 Information from Research Associate. 8 From fieldnotes 24.10. 2006.

83 vttradi 9 Higher eeducationducation goes public –––the–the case of Citygate College PROGRAMME 4 Extract 2 from Research Report

Dual Sector Institutions ‘Duals represent a growing and distinct type of modern university.’ (Garrod and Macfarlane, 2006)

In their paper ‘Scoping the Duals’, Neil Garrod and Bruce Macfarlane, quoted above, highlight the difficulty of defining a dual sector university. Unlike the further education based ‘Mixed Economy Group’ whose membership of 29 (of a total of some 400) further education colleges currently deliver the majority of all higher education (HE) in further education (FE), and which has membership based on student numbers 9, dual sector institutions have been defined more broadly. For example, in the FurtherHigher project, within which this study is placed, dual sector is applied: ‘….to all organisations within either sector that offer both further and higher education, no matter how large or small the respective provision’ (Bathmaker, Brooks, Parry and Smith, 2008, p.125). This application of the term encompasses a large number of institutions when based on figures from a recent report concerned with higher education in further education colleges by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE (a),2006). This report identifies 287 FE colleges offering higher education funded by HEFCE. An earlier report (HEFCE, 2004) identified 47 higher education institutions funded by the Learning and Skills Council (LSC). This means that in the FurtherHigher Project definition, dual sector is applied to both further and higher institutions and to a large proportion of the total number of FE colleges in England. From an international perspective, Leesa Doughney (2000), in discussing the potential of dual sector universities in Australia to support the notion of lifelong learning, narrows the definition to encompass only those HE institutions which: ‘….have significant proportions of their load in both TAFE 10 and higher education’ (p.68, italics added). This narrowing of the definition to those institutions which have more balanced proportions of both FE and HE student numbers is picked up by Garrod and Macfarlane (2006) in which they identify a number of institutions which classify themselves as dual sector on the basis of their equal commitment to both further and higher education. In so doing, they argue, these universities are attempting to break down the boundaries produced by sector division between FE and HE and striving to: ‘create a new type of institution’ (p.4). However, their

9 Currently a minimum of 500 full time equivalent (HEA, available from: http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/organisations/detail/HE_in_FE/The_Mixed_Economy_Group_of_Colleges (Accessed 5th August 2009). 10 TAFE – Technical and Further Education. 84 research highlights the huge diversity of the shape and nature of this type of institution, with Garrod and Macfarlane ( ibid ) identifying the defining characteristic of a ‘dual’ for them being the facilitation of progression for students between further and higher programmes. This progression between further and higher programmes is perhaps what makes dual sector institutions, be they defined narrowly or more broadly, of interest within the widening participation agenda. In theory, dual sector institutions should be well placed to ease progression between different levels of education, with students having the option to study at a different level within the institution with which they are familiar, or to move out into a different one. However progression is complex and often not linear as the FurtherHigher project has shown, with each dual sector institution in this study varying considerably at different levels within the organisation, in how progression is conceived, prioritised, and supported (Bathmaker et al , 2008). Dual sector institutions also draw attention to debate around the possibility and potential of merger between further and higher education. Smith and Bocock (1999) introduce the term ‘interface’ (p.284) between FE and HE as a means through which to explore widening access to a mass system of higher education. Used within the field of computing, the term interface is used to describe the common boundary through which information passes seamlessly from one device to the next. Using this metaphor, would merging FE and HE provide seamless progression via common boundaries for students? Smith and Bocock ( ibid ) identify two possible models of mass higher education: one in which the existing system of a separate FE and HE is perpetuated and boundaries become barriers, and one in which there is: ‘a single and more coherent system of post-compulsory education and training which replaces the traditional notion of the university and the college’ (p. 297). This notion of a redefined post-compulsory landscape is explored by Parry (2005) in his think piece contribution to the Foster Review (2005) and highlights the increasing role of further education colleges in widening participation in higher education. Here he puts forward proposals which seek to liberate dual sector FE colleges from working within dual regimes, but suggests more radically that the category or concept of further education should be scrapped to give way to what he describes as: ‘…a more open system of colleges and universities’ (p.13). Parry however, does not specify the shape or nature of this system or whether it should be of the seamless, merged style discussed by Young (2006). Young adds to the debate by introducing discussion of what he sees as the taken for granted meanings of the terms further and higher education. He also points out that post- compulsory is often used as an umbrella term for a fast changing provision, in which sector boarders are becoming increasingly blurred. Young argues against a fully merged comprehensive system, acknowledging the present difficulties with 85 sector divisions but concludes: ‘…there is little evidence that they will be solved by a boundary-less system where learners find it difficult to know either where they are or where they are going’ (p.4). This view is echoed in policy and political rhetoric which whilst espousing co-operation and partnership across sectors, indicates that there is little likelihood that such a system is on the government’s agenda (for example, Blunkett, 2000, Young, 2003, HEFCE, 2004, LSC, 2006). Dual sector educational organisations, whether demarcated as higher or further institutions, are increasingly finding themselves at the centre of debates about the future of post-compulsory education. Of interest is the degree to which students who select and attend these institutions are aware of this debate or the categorisation of their college or university as a dual sector institution. Also what is of crucial importance is the extent to which attendance at a dual sector institution impacts on students’ experience of higher education. These are areas which are explored within the FurtherHigher Project and later within this study.

86 vttradi 9 Higher education goes public –––the–the case of Citygate College PROGRAMME 4 Photograph Gallery

Citygate has been a centre for training in a diverse range of food related programmes of study since the late I mean the building has evolved and is

1950s. continuing to evolve 1. Photograph from college website, 2. Spring Lane entrance, completed in accessed 30.12.07 Summer 2007, 2008

I join the small stream of people who are making their way inside and using their identity cards These universities are attempting to break down the boundaries produced by sector to trigger the metal entrance barrier 3. The turnstile entrance at Spring Lane, 2006 divisions between FE and HE 4. Bridgew ay Place turnstile entrance, 2007

We put the floor covering on and everyone said….what a marked Bridgeway Place was to be the same improvement….the floor covering’s been specification as Spring down there for ten years….. Lane……….there was to be no elitism 5. Spring Lane main staircase, 2006 6. Bridgeway Place main staircase, 2007

The students who were down there There was no library facilities at whether they be FE or HE had the college, and so each night we’d go to the same facilities there as they got in reference library Spring Lane 8. Spring Lane Library, 2007 7. Bridgeway Place Library, 2008

In the mean time of course we did purchase Bridgeway Place, two minutes I walk down the stairs from the ninth from Summer Row floor Research Base and the air becomes 9. Bridgeway Place, 2008 heavy with the intoxicating aroma of warm butterscotch and chocolate 10. Spring Lane staircase, 2006

There are other people too, dressed in It’s warm in here and already there are blue, red and white uniforms, moving seven or eight students beginning the with purpose and intent preparation of vegetables 11. Spring Lane, 2008 12. Spring Lane, 2006

Programme 5

RADIO CHOICE

Higher Education Goes Public: The Case of Citygate College

Radio VTT 9.30pm – 9.50pm

Tonight Clare Gayle talks to four staff from Citygate College who teach on a Culinary Arts Management degree programme. This is a course for anyone wanting to enter the hospitality industry as a chef manager. It is a relatively new course certainly not available at the time when the likes of Jamie Oliver, Gordon Ramsey and Nigel Slater were attending their respective further education colleges. We hear about how foundation degrees fit within higher education and how they have become a vehicle for realising the government’s aspirations in relation to widening participation in higher education. Also we get to find out the views of members of staff who teach on this course about how they manage teaching and learning when students enter higher education with a range of different qualifications from NVQ’s to ‘A’ levels. Once more Clare is joined by Val Thompson from The University of Sheffield who talks about the influence of celebrity chefs on students’ career choice.

Clare: Welcome everybody to this second programme in the series focussing on Citygate College as part of our season Higher Education Goes Public. Tonight I am joined by staff from the School of Hospitality, Food and Retail Management at Citygate College, three of whom were themselves students at Citygate in the past. Welcome Peter, Carol, Mary and Michael and hello again to Val from The University of Sheffield. In tonight’s programme we find out about what I think, Peter, you refer to as the CAM course..

Peter: ..that’s right..

Clare: …which stands I believe for Culinary Arts Management and this is I’ve been told a pretty new degree programme which is taught at both Foundation and Bachelor level is that correct?

Peter: ..that’s right..

Clare: ..I think that there will be many listeners like myself who have no idea what this course, at degree level, could be about and maybe have some idea that it’s to do with cooking….I wonder if I can stay with you Peter, to explain how this course started and what it involves.

Peter: The idea of a management culinary education is really, really quite new…. up until very recent years, culinary education was always professional cookery and very craft orientated. I think even hospitality education itself is still relatively new….

Clare: So what does the course entail?

Peter: Well, it’s the integration of management studies into the practical side of the business. It’s really to try and give the students an idea of how to operate the business as well as producing the products. It’s not as commonly perceived a further cookery course, it is from day one very much a management course and the practices of management are integrated into the practical areas.

Clare: So it’s very much a course which is tailored to the needs of industry then?

Peter: That’s right, we’ve got a responsibility to try and produce students who are going, more than likely at the beginning of their career, to go into the industry and use their hands to earn their living for the first few years but with the potential and hopefully the management background and business acumen to be able to develop into management careers in the industry fairly rapidly.

Clare: So what’s the view of industry to this qualification? I’ll bring the others in here too…

Peter: There is that perception by industry of “BA in Cookery - what’s that for? Why do you need that?” and it still exists….. and its going to be a long time before it’s understood.

Clare: So if say someone leaves Citygate with an NVQ3 or a foundation degree, or with a full degree, what’s the difference in terms of their future employment opportunities? Do you want to come in here Carol?

Carol: Well in catering it can depend really. Because if you leave with an NVQ3 and you’re a good... you want to work in a kitchen and you’ve got good practical skills you can progress well. Somebody who is leaving with a Foundation degree, they will more than likely go in... well because they’ve done the year’s placement you see that helps them out if they’ve done a good year’s placement. If they go in as.... an NVQ student is going to go in at a commis level..

Clare: ..which is?

Carol: ..which is a low level, yeah? An FdA student might go in at commis level but will rise quicker but may go in as a chef de partie level which is like a section head sort of level. A student who leaves with a degree is likely to go in at chef de partie but not necessarily, it depends where they’re going. They could start as a commis as well but the likelihood is that they will progress...that is what we say to them is that “you will progress quicker through the.... because you not only have an understanding of the practical but you have an understanding of the business side as well so that you can progress better.”

Michael: I personally would say that the best anybody can do as a chef is to try to get a degree, whatever you do you need a really good qualification. Because if you want to be just a chef fine, but if you want to move on into management, if you want to be an executive, head chef or you want to teach you need a degree.

Clare: Can I go back just a bit there; someone mentioned a year’s placement. Does this course involve the students going into industry then?…Mary?

Mary: When they’ve successfully completed year one then they go out on year two for a 48 week industrial placement, it’s a major selling point of the course……they’re not just sent on placement, it’s a negotiated thing. It’s where the student wants to go, what sort of areas the student wants to go into - if it’s in a kitchen, restaurant or a combination - and if they want to be in this country in a hotel or in a restaurant or in a conference centre, where in the country or outside the country they want to be located..

Clare: ..and then they come back after a year?

Carol: Yes but what often happens is that you’ll lose a few at the end of the first year and then you’ll lose a few on placement…..then you will always get students who go out on placement who are tempted by a full-time job or realise “this is all that I want to be doing, I don’t want to be studying, I just want to work as a chef”.

Clare: So the placement is a really good way for them to see if they have made the right choice about the course they want to do and the job that they want to go into at the end of it?

Carol: ..that’s right..

Clare: ..and I believe that your numbers have been growing…what do you think has influenced this growth and interest in the course?

Carol: I think it’s the celebrity chef, whether rightly or wrongly, has had quite a lot of influence on it.. 91

Peter: ..it could come down to this celebrity chef status on television and the perception of the public there. It certainly… we don’t have any problems in encouraging or attracting numbers of students, our intake has increased…..

Clare: Val, can I bring you in here. I know that you have been talking to students on the first year of the course, what have they said about why they have chosen to do it?

Val: Well, I’ve only spoken to ten out of a group of over sixty, so you need to bear that in mind..

Clare: ..OK..

Val: ..so at the beginning of the course, most students that I spoke to said that they wanted to own their own restaurants..

Clare: ..a bit like all those people on TV programmes like ‘The Restaurant’ and ‘Masterchef’?

Val: Yes, I suppose so…anyway, they saw this course as a good way to get both cooking experience but also management experience. Many of them have had long standing part-time jobs in the industry and are passionate about food and want to carry this over into higher education. Clearly they are very aware of the whole celebrity chef culture aspect through advertising, TV and books. In fact one student admitted to being addicted to the TV food channels and she saw her future as having a chain of restaurants. All but two had particular chefs, famous chefs, or celebrity chefs which they identified with either positively or negatively.

Michael: Some students see like this glamorous, easy money thing, but then we always tell them quite straight forward “it is not glamorous, it is about hard work but once you’ve got a passion for food and you’ve got like all the skills then you can work your way up quite quick and you can travel the world”. It’s a very, very good career but you have to work hard and maybe for the first 10 to 20 years the money’s not very good….but the students do realise that quite quick after the placement it is not glamorised.

Peter: Anyone who comes into this business because they think its glamorous is grossly wrong. But I admire Jamie Oliver, I mean I went to the Good Food Show a few years ago and professionally people think, often, Jamie Oliver..waste of time.. but the guy has got so much going for him. In the Good Food Show I just noticed there was an enormous stand selling all sorts of merchandise, material with Jamie Oliver’s name on it, books and uniforms and hats and aprons, and people were lapping it up..

Clare: ..right..

Peter: ..good for the guy, good for him you know, best of luck. And in his way he’s done an awful lot of good. I think the status of the chef in this country has been enhanced enormously by the exposure in the last 20 years or whatever it is. Previously it was looked upon as a very servile sort of job and it had a pretty low status.

Val: And there are other bonuses. I can clearly remember one of the students saying that he was reading Gordon Ramsay’s autobiography 92

and that it was the first book he’d read in two years, he called it an absolutely fantastic book.

Clare: I’ll just draw our listeners attention at this point to our website….you can read more about the possible influence of celebrity role models on students’ choice of career, training and education at our usual web address, www.vttradio9/education/highereducation . Moving on now, I want to back track a bit here, because right at the beginning of our conversation, I mentioned that the CAM course was taught at Foundation level and Bachelor level and it might be useful to just clarify what Foundation degrees are all about. Val, can I ask you…..

Val: Well briefly, the government introduced the pilot foundation degrees in 2001 and now there are thousands of different programmes from Action Photography to Visual Merchandising with the highest number being in Education…..Now there are 72,000 students studying Foundation degrees. Don’t forget that these are vocational degrees which are meant to combine study in the workplace with study at college or university.….their success really rests on having exceptionally good working relationships between employers, colleges and universities…anyone interested can get more information from various web sites which again are on the programme website….

Clare: And Michael, Peter, Carol, Mary, you all teach on both these levels?

Michael: ..mm..

Mary: I teach BA and FdA students

Peter: ..yeah..

Carol: ..yeah, yeah..

Clare: ..and for quite a bit of the practical and theory of this course you teach the two levels together I believe. How do you find this?

Peter: It’s very difficult. I mean the ones that have lesser academic qualifications struggle. But you’ve got this dual intake of totally different abilities.

Val: In the student group I spoke to, this is very marked. There were students who had maybe 2 or 3 grade ‘E’ GCSEs and then NVQ level 3, and others who had 3 and 4 high grade ‘A’ levels.

Peter: Practically it’s not that bad because you can help to develop students’ practical abilities so they are capable when they go out into the placement year of surviving well, but academically the ones for written work and assignments and that do struggle.

Carol: The big step is from NVQ to HE. I think because they’ve not had to do any written work sort of as such in their NVQ other than filling in their folder, that to keep their concentration is difficult. And I mean I teach them in theory for an hour, and to keep their concentration is hard, and to get them to know what to do in a lecture is hard...note- taking...that’s why we have the academic bridging programme.

Clare: And this is the short course that you put on before the start of the degree to introduce academic skills?

Mary: Some of them do find it very hard and you get an idea. If they struggle on the academic bridging then we talk to them before they enrol on the course fully and say now “do you really think this is for you”. If they say that they really want to have a go on the course and they’re willing to really work very hard then we link them up with study support and get them assessed in case they’ve got dyslexia or anything of that nature.

Val: Because they’ve done their vocational course for two, three years and then suddenly to..

Mary: ..yes, well they’ve been cooking every day. They don’t want to be sitting in a lecture theatre with the other people and take notes and sit and listen, they just want to do. But predominantly in the hospitality industry people do want to do, that’s the nature of the beast really. In fact if you get somebody applying for the Culinary Arts course that is highly academic you do wonder if they’ll manage because especially when they go out on placement of course they’re treated just like a member of the kitchen brigade and you have to be tough. And if they’ve been cosseted in the academic world of writing assignments and looking things up in books and things, they don’t get on very well in a kitchen with somebody shouting at them and it’s hot and steamy and they’ve got to get something done for a customer by this particular time, and they can’t have several goes at it and they can’t take their time at it, they’ve got to do it under pressure.

Clare: So it can work the other way for the ones coming from the more academic route….how do you find this Michael as you teach only practical classes I believe?

Michael: I think the practical session is…… like for the BA students generally speaking they’ve got less practical skills and we just have to adapt, maybe like demonstrate more, things like that, step by step. And the NVQs are like the craft students, ex-craft students, they’re a bit more practically advanced but then they probably need a bit more help on work schedules and things like that, the planning.

Clare: It seems very complex…...

Mary: I sometimes think, particularly because of the numbers we get on the course now, because we get BA students that for instance can, to simplify things, can write but can’t cook and the other half of the course that can cook but can’t write, I sometimes think that it would be better if the whole of the first semester - rather than do these bridging programmes - do the whole of the first semester of the course for the degree students doing an NVQ 1 or 2 properly rather than cram together like this, which gives them a bit more time for development and confidence. And to get the NVQ students to do a more academic first semester would actually result in a better overall result in the end.

Clare: So you think this would improve on the bridging course idea?

Mary: It’s crammed, it’s so crammed together. But the danger there is you see that the NVQ students would find that far too boring because 94

they want to cook, their therapy is cooking, cooking keeps them on the course, cooking and the prospect of placement keeps them on the course otherwise a large number of them would go away. But the university you see, the university do not acknowledge that practical cookery is educational and so if we put any more on the course they wouldn’t validate it. They won’t accept it. We get the impression that they would rather not have any practical on the course at all...or maybe a little bit of product development which…

Val: ..which raises a whole raft of issues about what counts as education, learning, knowledge, skill..

Clare: ..which we haven’t got time to discuss here unfortunately. Just before we conclude tonight’s programme I wonder if any of you have maybe one or two words to say about working at a dual sector institution as this was the focus of our programme last week.

Mary: In terms of the structure, now FE and HE are totally separate..

Clare: ..totally separate?

Mary: ..it does cause one or two logistical issues because that means that the practical areas that are predominantly used by FE students, where the HE students have a practical requirement on the course, it does cause some timetabling clashes and staff issues occasionally.

Michael: I think what I find with NVQ students it helps..

Clare: ..you mean it helps to be dual sector?

Michael: ..yes…it helps because they normally know the establishment, they know our college, they have stayed two years and they know the lecturers, they know where to go for study support and things like that. They’re used to the system, they know what to expect.

Mary: And we can go into the NVQ classes, speak to the lecturer chefs because we know them….

Val: So although there might be administrative difficulties, because you work in the same building as the FE staff and students, it’s very handy to have everything so close and you have informal networks?

Clare: I’m afraid I’ll have to interrupt here because we really have to conclude what has been a fascinating conversation about the CAM course and I want to thank Peter, Mary, Carol and Michael for joining us tonight and thanks as well to Val from the University of Sheffield. I want to remind listeners that you can find more information and debate about some of the things we have been discussing tonight including foundation degrees, and the possible influences of celebrity chefs on our website which to remind you again is www.vttradio9/education/highereducation . Next time it’s the turn of a group of students on the CAM course to come and talk about their experiences of higher education at Citygate College, so please do join us at the same time, goodnight.

95 www.vttradio9/education/highereducation vttradi 9 Higher eeducationducation goes public ––– The case of Citygate College PROGRAMME 4 PROGRAMME 5 PROGRAMME 6 PROGRAMME 10

96 vttradi 9 Higher eeducationducation goes public –––the–the case of Citygate College PROGRAMME 5 Extract 3 from Research Extract 4 from Research Extract 5 from Research Report Report Report

97 vttradi 9 Higher eeducationducation goes public –––the–the case of Citygate College PROGRAMME 5 Extract 3 from Research Report

The Culinary Arts Management Course The facilities for teaching culinary arts and food related programmes are spread throughout the building. The basement houses a warren of changing facilities and lockers where students can put on their uniforms and store their ‘kit’. There are similar areas located about the building on several floors. The ground floor has a retail outlet which sells a myriad of food products such as soups, croissant, and bread, as well as meat and fish dishes which are produced by students during practical sessions. There are also three dedicated restaurants which provide both FE and HE students in-house work experience. Two are on the ground floor and one is on the eighth floor, and each has its own supporting catering kitchen. The second floor houses a number of other production kitchens some of which have small lecture style facilities attached which can be used for demonstrations to both students and the public. There is also a large lecture theatre on this floor. The chef- lecturers who predominately teach on the FE programmes have a staff-room here, and the many technicians also have their base on this floor:

The culinary section technicians have a large office/work room which is at the heart of the practical activities. From here lockers and keys are issued, uniforms are distributed, ingredients ordered and about everything else which needs to be done related to food and college- wide hospitality. The room is full of specialist paraphernalia; literally hundreds of locker keys all kept organised in a key cupboard, microwave, sink, lots of different uniforms in different colours, styles and sizes, crockery, cutlery, books, paper, files, folders. It’s a hub of activity and this is the summer, the ‘quiet’ time when very few students are in the college. There are different foods everywhere. A chef is trying out new menus for the coming term for one of the restaurants, so informal tasting goes on here in the technicians’ room. Jean, one of the technicians, says she has gained two and a half stone in weight since coming to work here, and that’s despite the size of the building and the endless stairs. 11

In addition to these technicians there is a large team of support staff for these courses which include cleaners and domestic personnel who support the chef- lecturers in each of the practical session, the extent of these resources making this course the most costly 12 to run of any in the college. The four core members of staff who manage and co-ordinate the Culinary Arts Management degree programme have their staff room on the ninth floor.

11 From fieldnotes 8.8.2006. 12 Interview conversation with CAM First Year Manager, Mary (30.8.06). 98

Bridging Programmes The School of Hospitality, Food and Retail at Citygate College offers two bridging programmes to prospective CAM students which are run prior to the start of the degree programme proper. The following short narrative describes some of the activities of the first day of the Practical Bridging Course: It’s the 7 th of August 8.45am and I have been invited to meet students who have been accepted on the Culinary Arts Management BA programme on the first day of their Practical Bridging course. Unlike thousands of other students across the country waiting to go to university, for whom this period of time is usually a break from study, this group of thirty eight men and women are spending five weeks, Monday to Friday, 9.00am to 4.00pm, developing, honing and shaping their practical culinary skills to NVQ1 standard. Along the way they are also hoping to gain a Basic Food Hygiene Certificate and a Health and Safety qualification. Some of the students are already seated in the small second floor lecture theatre which is to be one of the theory bases for the group over the coming weeks. The room gradually fills with eager faces and, through chatting to some of them, my interpretation of the atmosphere in the room is that it is one of excitement and anticipation tinged with apprehension. The first part of the day is dedicated to the many administrative tasks which need to be completed related to enrolment, accommodation and the issuing of uniforms, and I join in with these procedures, helping the staff as much as I can. This process involves visiting various parts of the college and several students find this physically demanding as they walk up and down many flights of stairs. It’s a good way however, to learn about the college building, when it’s quiet and very few other students are around. The second part of the morning is spent with the chef who organises the practical sessions. He talks about the expectation that the students will ‘conduct themselves in a professional manner’ and that the purpose of the course is to ‘bring you up to speed.’ Much is made of the students’ responsibility to care for their uniform and that it ‘ will be clean every day’. 13

Within this five week period the students progress from making cream of leek and potato soup garnished with parsley and croutons in session one, to preparing fresh fruit cocktails followed by fresh cannelloni stuffed with fresh spinach, mushrooms and shallots in week five 14 . As well as providing these formal experiences, the Bridging Course also appears to act as an introduction to the college, its geography, systems, staff and fellow students, with friendship groups being forged during this time. Additionally it gives those students who are taking up residential places at Canal Side, the college’s student village, a chance to orient themselves both there and within the wider city. The second bridging course is called the Academic Bridging Programme and the purpose of this week long course is to provide an opportunity for those students who have been away from academic study for some time to update their skills. The sessions include work on research skills, note taking, time management,

13 From Fieldnotes 7.8.2006. 14 Student Practical Bridging Course Handbook 2006. 99 referencing, writing reports and preparing and giving presentations. Again, the following narrative describes some of the activities of the first day: It’s 9.10am on the 11 th of September and students are gathering in a large room on the seventh floor awaiting the start of the week long Academic Bridging programme. The programme is offered primarily to those students who are transferring from vocational courses to the FdA, but there are also a small number of students who have come from different routes, and have chosen to attend this week because they feel the need for some refresher experience of ‘academic’ activity. These students will later be studying on the BA programme. As the room fills up the noise level rises. This is because a significant number of the group already know each other, as they were students here last year, and they are catching up on the news of their former classmates not seen over the long summer break. After an introduction by the first year manager Mary (who introduces herself by her first name) in which there is talk of libraries, assignments, presentations, referencing, and plagiarism (‘cheating’), the students are asked to complete a writing task which is planned to take thirty minutes. They are given a choice of topics to write about related to their experience of work, study or their reasons for wanting to do the course. They keep well focussed; they seem to take the task very seriously and there is a minimum of chat amongst the group despite the fact that some complete the task in less than ten minutes. The purpose of the task is to use the results as a means to partner students for the rest of the week to reflect a balance of abilities. There is a very wide range of difference in the outcomes of the task with two students noting on their work that they are dyslexic as they were encouraged to do. Some of the work in which the writers appear to have had most difficulty does not come from these two students. We are joined by Michael, another member of staff and he is introduced to the group as ‘chef’. 15

As with the Practical Bridging Programme, this course also appears to have informal outcomes, with students who are unfamiliar with the college building and services having the opportunity to move around it and locate important venues. It also introduces the students to their peers, and to many of the staff who will be teaching on the programme proper.

The Course The Culinary Arts Management degree programme at Citygate has had a phased introduction over the last four years. This has enabled students who had previously been taught on the HND Culinary Arts programme to progress to the final year of the degree, while at the same time the first year was introduced. In practice this meant that by 2006, only two cohorts had completed the full four years as CAM degree students. The development of a Foundation Degree is also relatively recent, with the first group enrolled on the course in 2004. The programme itself, as part of education within the broader area of hospitality, is also new, and in the view of one of the lecturers, Peter, it will take time to be understood both within the college and more importantly perhaps by employers.

15 From Fieldnotes 11.9.2006. 100

Both the BA and FdA students are taught together for much of the time-table during the two semester college educational year. Separation into HE level groups mainly occurs in theory sessions at seminar level. Here it is planned that differentiated teaching and learning activities will lead into different levels of assessment. The timetable for the course is divided into practical and theoretical components with the practical aspects being taught once at the beginning of the week and once at the end. One of these practical sessions is based in the college’s restaurants and restaurant kitchens. Here the students are taught in what is described as a realistic working environment (RWE) with the outcome being to recreate as an authentic as possible restaurant experience for the public or college guests. For the students, the purpose of this session is also to enable a wide range of practical and management tasks and skills to be enacted, practised, developed, and assessed in as close an approximation of an industry setting as possible. This is a long practical session, timetabled from 3.00 pm to 9.00pm but the actual finish time is dependent on how quickly clearing the kitchen and restaurant is done, once customers have departed. If students leave the college later than 10.00pm the college provides the students with transport home wherever that may be. For students living in Canal Side this will be a ten minute trip, for those living with parents, or in their own homes, this may take up to two hours. The second practical session is taught in the college’s training kitchens and these sessions are concerned with skill and product development, with the food produced mainly being sold through the college shop. The theoretical aspects of the course are sandwiched between these practical sessions and are taught in the middle part of the week. These sessions, as well as being concerned with particular management modules and theory related to the practical sessions, also include tutorials and industrial placement planning. Overall in semester 1, students have timetabled classes for 23 hours a week with individual tutorials and industrial placement meetings adding to this total. The following excerpt is a description of the CAM BA programme taken from the college website 16 : This innovative Higher Education programme gives students the opportunity to develop the knowledge and skills necessary for managing a complex catering or hospitality enterprise while also providing opportunities to develop their own culinary skills. The programme adopts a multi-disciplinary approach to study, which encompasses both practical and theoretical studies. The development of culinary skills is combined with an understanding of food, beverage and hospitality management issues and business and management studies. The programme has been designed to enable students to enter employment with the potential of making an immediate contribution to the effectiveness of the enterprise. Students may undertake a range of additional technical qualifications during their course of studies.

16 College web-site accessed 7 th December 2007. 101

Both the FdA and BA programmes include an industrial placement year on completion of the first year of the college based programme. Citygate has an Industrial Placement Centre which is a cross-college service organising placements for those programmes of study which require them, and places about 2000 students each year. The purpose of the Industrial Placement year for FdA CAM students is described on the college website as follows:

All students will have the opportunity to undertake a 48 week paid placement at the end of Year 1. The College’s Industrial Placement Centre will assist students in finding placements that reflect their level of experience and skills. The placement unit organises over 400 placements annually in a wide range of operations in the United Kingdom, United States of America, Canada, Europe and Ireland. Placements are designed to further enhance students' understanding of the practical application of theory. Students on placement complete a planned development project and study activity, in addition to the duties set out by the placement provider. 17

For some CAM staff and students, the industrial placement fulfils two less overt additional purposes. Firstly it acts as an attractive and somewhat glamorous marketing tool for the programme, and Alice 18 , a student setting out on the CAM BA programme talks enthusiastically about the year placement:

Oooh I can’t wait..I really want to go to Ireland ..cos.. I don’t really know why I’ve never been and they’ve got a really good reputation for Food and and Hospitality and that’s the only reason..I don’t know where in Ireland yet I haven’t really looked into it but that’s what I’d like to do go to Southern Ireland..for a year..be lovely.

These expectations are also reinforced through the student profiles on the college website which describe experiences and benefits which go far beyond the ostensible underpinning of areas of study taught within the college environment. These include extensive travel abroad, networking with existing friends, and making new friends from other parts of the world. There is also the opportunity to take up bursaries with guaranteed employment on completion of the course. More importantly the placement year acts as a filtering mechanism through which students pass and subsequently make decisions related to either continuing their studies, changing programme, or taking up employment opportunities which often become available during the placement year.

17 College web-site accessed 7.12.07. 18 Alice, interview conversation 1 (25.9.06). 102

Lecturer and year manager, Carol 19 , describes this process as follows :

….we had people on the programme who really hadn’t thought through or weren’t aware of what the programme involved and wanted a more general hospitality programme and so they went on to Hospitality Business or something like that, so we didn’t necessarily lose them as such...

Coming to the end of his first year as a student on the BA course, Gerrard 20 has a similar perspective of the function of the placement year:

I think..I think this year will determine whether people want to do the course..and whether they even want to be a chef.

Staff The CAM programme has a large teaching team, seventeen in total in semester two of the first year of the course. This team is made up of staff who teach specialist subjects such as Food Hygiene, and IT, staff who are responsible for teaching the service and production features of the practical elements of the course, as well as those involved with teaching the theory components of the programme. The majority of these lecturers have had experience of teaching on both FE as well as HE level programmes and five continue to do so. The core coordinating team of four, Carol, Mary, Michael, and Peter teach almost exclusively at HE level with only Mary still having a small element of FE teaching.

19 Carol, interview conversation (14.11.06). 20 Gerrard, interview conversation 3 (2.5.07). 103 vttradi 9 Higher eeducationducation goes public –––the–the case of Citygate College PROGRAMME 4 Extract 4 from Research Report

An express tour of Foundation Degrees: background, student experience, and research

Background In announcing the introduction of Foundation Degrees in a speech at Maritime Greenwich University, David Blunkett (2000) articulated a view that the qualification would provide: ‘….a robust, high-standard ladder of progression in work-based learning. Full-time study will suit some young people, whilst others will want to take the degrees part-time, staying in employment. In this way, Foundation Degrees will provide an accessible and flexible building block for lifelong learning and future career success, drawing together further and higher education and the world of work (Para. 36).

In these few sentences he encapsulated the main drivers which Wilson, Blewitt and Moody (2005) identify as having led to the development of the foundation degree: the need to develop progression routes for vocational qualifications; the provision of modes of flexible delivery which enable participants to stay in employment; an underpinning of lifelong learning objectives with an implicit contribution to widening participation in higher education; and the need to increase levels of skills in certain technical and professional areas of employment. Foundation degrees were the first major higher education qualifications to be introduced since the 1970’s and significantly were the first short cycle qualifications to be given the title ‘degree’. Parry (2006) describes the function of foundation degrees as a means both to meet the 50% target of 18 to 30 year olds in higher education by the year 2010, as well as a way to build a demand for a different type of higher education, one in which the gap between the needs of employers, skills deficits, and continued education both in FE and HE is bridged. From 4,320 students enrolled on the pilot programmes in England in 2001 - 2002, this number has risen to 72,000 on over 2,500 different programmes in 2007 -2008 (Foundation Degree Forward, 2007). However, a report by HEFCE (2007) points out that if only foundation degrees are to be used as the means through which the 50% target is to be reached, numbers would have to rise dramatically to over 300,000. The report also notes that in terms of widening participation in higher education, where information is available, foundation degree entrants include relatively high proportions of students from socio-economic backgrounds where participation is low. A report by Foundation Direct at the 104

University of Portsmouth (2007) lists a number of key findings related to a range of issues around the student experience of foundation degrees, including the student population. In their survey they found that more female than male students study for foundation degrees, with more students studying full-time than part-time. They also found that there is a widening gap between the numbers of Foundation Degrees being taught by further and higher educational institutions, with more FE colleges becoming involved. It should be noted however, that the authors of this report acknowledge difficulties with the response rates to the electronic survey which was undertaken, but in relation to the student population, there is consistency with the HEFCE (2007) report referred to earlier.

Student Experience It has been noted that there has been limited research into the student experience of foundation degree study (Tierney and Slack, 2005, Gorard et al , 2006, Greenback, 2007) or in Foundation degrees more generally (Beaney, 2006a). In addressing this gap, Tierney and Slack (2005) carried out semi-structured telephone interviews with 7 part-time students who were part way through a Foundation Degree in Early Years Care and Education or Teaching Assistants at an FE College. Their findings suggest that this group of students experience financial as well as practical difficulties connected to home and family demands. This is in addition to educational difficulties in relation to writing assignments and the support that is available from tutors. However, these participants highlighted the wider benefits of the course such as increased self-confidence. Researching in a university setting, the work of Greenback (2007) looks at a different aspect of the experience of Foundation Degree students by focussing on the student experience of moving from Foundation degree to bachelor level study. The students in this study had completed the Foundation degree at further education colleges, and had moved from higher education in FE to higher education at a university. Through questionnaires, focus group discussions and participant-observations, Greenback found that this point of transfer created high levels of stress for the Foundation students. This was mostly associated with the different approaches adopted in teaching and learning in further and higher education, with the university taking a more academic approach, and emphasising independent learning with less support than had been experienced by students in FE. A report produced by The Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (QAA, 2005), provides an overview of the reviews of 68 foundation degree programmes undertaken in 2004/5. Whilst not focussing directly on student experience, the report notes the need for some courses to prepare students for progression to honours level and comments that assessment and feedback to students are areas which would benefit from further development. Subsumed into a summary report of 105 reviews undertaken largely by the programme providers themselves, the detailed experiences of Foundation degree students is difficult to discern. These three studies highlight different points of student experience of Foundation degrees which are worthy of further research and include at entry, on programme, and on transfer to higher levels. What will also be of interest, is more longitudinal research concerned with the completion of the Foundation degree in relation to employment opportunities, and the levels of employment which are attained by Foundation degree students on graduation.

Research commissioned by Foundation Degree Forward Foundation Degree Forward (fDf) was established in 2003 and is funded by HEFCE. Its remit is to support the development and validation of foundation degrees, and more recently its work has become more focussed on employer engagement (fDf, 2008). It has commissioned a number of pieces of research including work by the Learning and Skills Network (LSN) (2008) which focuses particularly on the impact of foundation degrees on students and the workplace. This is a different perspective to the two pieces of research referred to earlier which looked at student experience of study within an educational environment (Tierney and Slack, 2005, Greenback, 2007). In the LSN report, the students’ experience of higher education is given some attention via a statistical analysis of response to questionnaire statements. Counter-balancing this quantitative methodology, Hampton and Blytham (2006) take a more qualitative approach in exploring retention and achievement on Foundation degrees which includes aspects of action research. Interestingly their view of non-traditional higher education students is that they are: ‘….the further education ‘traditional’ student’ (p.75). In this research the students ‘own words’ (p.80) are privileged, and the researchers provide numerous extracts from semi-structured interviews undertaken with 15 full-time students on Interior Design, Travel and Tourism, and Visual Display courses taught within a university setting. This work again concludes that more research needs to be conducted about how Foundation degree students experience higher education. In order to gauge the level of research within this field, Foundation Degree Forward commissioned a review of the breadth of literature about Foundation degrees (Burns, 2008). The review identified 240 pieces of literature in a range of publications; however, the number of articles published in academic journals was far outweighed by those published in Foundation Degree Forward’s own in-house journal, ‘Forward’. From this review it would appear that interest in researching Foundation degrees is still limited, which from Beaney’s (2006b) perspective is due to: ‘….. a range of factors from intellectual snobbery and resistance to the “new vocationalism”, on the one hand, to the limited investment by research and funding 106 organisations in what have hitherto been marginalised spheres of learning, on the other’ (p.6). This short tour has provided some background to the development of Foundation degrees, and drawn attention to the dearth of research in this field. How students interpret their experience of moving from further to higher education both to Foundation and Bachelor degree level in dual sector institutions is the focus of the FurtherHigher project as well as an aspect of this study. The outcomes of both will hopefully add to the depth of research which can be categorised as concerned with Foundation degrees.

107 vttradi 9 Higher eeducationducation goes public –––the–the case of Citygate College PROGRAMME 4 Extract 5 from Research Report

Celebrity Chefs, Career Journeys, and Imagined Futures

The course is popular…now how you account for the popularity….I mean it could come down to this celebrity chef status on television……..

Peter, CAM Tutor Participant 21

I think it started when I was little……Yan….. that was the chef’s name. Yeah the programme on TV called Yan Can Cook……I watched it every week….

Skittles, BA CAM Student Participant 22

Jamie Oliver is a favourite……he’s got loads of restaurants, that’s what I want, all those chains of restaurants.

James, FdA CAM Student Participant 23

Wall of Fame As I walk along a corridor on the second floor of Citygate College, I see that on the walls on both sides are framed photographs of chefs in uniform. Many of these names and faces are unfamiliar to me, Andrew Bourne, Mark Gregory, Claire Clarke. Others I do know, they are names which I connect to the world of food, Albert Roux, Angela Hartnett, John Retallick. A smaller number of names and faces are those who have attained a different status; their fame extends far beyond those skills and enterprises for which they are primarily known. These are the celebrity chefs whose every move is tracked and traced in the press and on TV. I know they are married, have children; I have seen where they live; I have read their autobiographies and been tempted by the wares which are endorsed by their names and sold in bookshops, department stores and supermarkets. Their familiar faces look out from newspapers, magazines and the television: Gordon Ramsay, Ainsley Harriot, Antony Worrall Thompson, Raymond Blanc. Suddenly, spilling out from one of the kitchen class-rooms, a group of student chefs appears dressed in their uniforms which mirror the attire worn by the chefs whose pictures adorn the corridor walls. I wonder if any of these students’ faces will join this ‘wall of fame’. 24

21 Interview conversation (29.9.06). 22 Interview conversation 2 (6.12.06). 23 Interview conversation 2 (14.11.06). 24 From fieldnotes (11.6.07). 108

The possibility of celebrity role models influencing young people in their vocational choice-making and their imagined future, became of interest to me when talking to the Culinary Arts Management (CAM) staff and students at Citygate College who are part of this study. The CAM FdA and BA programme combines business and management studies with practical culinary skills. In these practical sessions the students engage in a range of settings both ‘front of house’ as well as in the numerous industrial standard kitchen ‘class-rooms’. Here they prepare and cook food for customers in the College’s restaurants and shop. In these production settings, the students wear a chef’s uniform; a uniform which has become the highly recognisable trade-mark of the ubiquitous celebrity chef. Before looking in detail at the conversations which I had with student participants, I first consider the term celebrity , and the way in which chefs and cooking have become increasingly of interest within popular culture. John Storey (2001) explores definitions of the term popular culture and notes that: ‘….any definition of popular culture will bring into play a complex combination of the different meanings of the term ‘culture’ with the different meanings of the term ‘popular’’ ( p. 6). Here I use Storey’s initial definition: ‘….popular culture is simply culture which is widely favoured or well liked by many people’ (p.6). I am aware that in choosing this definition that the quantitative basis through which it is defined masks the complexity of the term. However, I consider that the simplicity of this definition is suitable for this present discussion. Later I examine examples from related research which look at factors which influence and shape the career decision-making, aspirations, and future expectations of young people including one example drawn from within the hospitality education sector. Lastly I move on to the detail of my interview conversations with students and staff of Citygate’s CAM course.

Celebrity, fame and renown In the description of the rows of photographs on the second floor corridor walls of Citygate College in the short narrative provided earlier, I use two terms which need some clarification: fame and celebrity . Both David Marshall (1997) and Chris Rojek (2001) choose to begin their particular treatise by looking at the etymological origins of the word celebrity in teasing out a definition. Beginning with the word’s Latin roots, Marshall (1997) looks at celebrem which he notes has associations not only with fame but also with being ‘thronged’ (p. 6). He also looks at celere, ‘swift’, which he interprets as indicating: ‘….the fleeting nature of celebrity status’ (p. 6). He concludes that the term celebrity acts as a metaphor for value in modern society but: ‘More specifically, it describes a type of value that can be articulated through an individual and celebrated publicly as important and significant’ (p. 7). Rojek (2001) looks at the French word célèbre which means ‘well known in public’ (p.9) 109 and defines celebrity as: ‘……the attribution of glamorous or notorious status to an individual within the public sphere’ (p.10). He also introduces the term renown seeing it as distinct from celebrity. This is because, in my interpretation of his view, individuals of renown stand out in particular, localised social networks by virtue of their distinctive characteristics, talents or skills. Renown is also a term considered by Steven Connor (2005) in his presentation focussing on the negative emotions and actions engendered by celebrity. He asserts that renown, as well as fame, is a category of position which is achieved in some way. He sees celebrity differently, it being bound up with celebration. Who celebrates the celebrity leads Connor to consider the power which celebrities have over the public; this is power which comes not only from the qualities and privileged position which the celebrity enjoys, but also: ‘……the power that comes from the solicitation of our admiration of these qualities, the call they make to us to assent to their celebrity’ (p.6). Power is an important feature of celebrity also explored by Marshall (1997), referred to earlier, who in his discussion draws together the phenomenon of celebrity with politics and power, leading him to maintain that: ‘….celebrities are attempts to contain the mass’ (p. 243, italics in original). Within the context of this discussion, my interpretation of his complex argument is that the celebrity chef serves as a suitable role model within society. Suitable because it promotes the notion that it is the responsibility of the individual to work hard to progress within society, rather than question the inherent inequities within it. Returning now to the photographs of the chefs at Citygate, my short review of the terms renown , fame , and celebrity provides a way of considering the images of these chefs more clearly. I am aware now that there are chefs of renown here; chefs who are known for their art, skill, and craft by a particular group of people who are closely connected to the world of hospitality, chefs, and chef training. There are also famous chefs who can be recognised by a broader public and who are known for their particular contributions to the world of the culinary arts. In the gallery there are also celebrity chefs, whose recognition by a much wider circle is extended through the various additional enterprises with which they are involved. This recognition is fuelled by the complex relationship which each has with the public, most usually through the conduit of the media. These terms and categories can and have been applied of course to other groups, for example actors, artists, sportspeople, writers, even politicians, but how did the British chef enter this list?

The rise of the celebrity chef According to Nicola Humble (2005), the most famous British cook book is Beeton’s Book of Household Management . Published in 1861, it sold over 60,000 copies in its first year, nearly two million by 1868, and went on to have countless 110 reprints and later editions 25 . Worthy of the book sales 26 of many of today’s celebrity chefs, the book itself is perhaps more famous than its author, although recently there has been interest in Isabella Beeton’s wider life in a TV documentary drama, ‘The Secret Life of Mrs Beeton’ 27 . (It is interesting to surmise whether Isabella Beeton’s ‘life’ would have been a secret if she had lived in today’s world of the celebrity chef.) Humble ( ibid ) uses cookery books as a way of tracing the evolution of British culinary endeavour, and highlights television’s recent dominance of the cookery book market. She writes: ‘Food writers who make it on TV are guaranteed sales and status of an utterly different order from their book-bound contemporaries. In the 1980’s food was packaged as entertainment’ (p.240). From this time, Humble notes the drive by TV executives to seek out talent for this extremely lucrative food entertainment market. She sees the emergence of the celebrity chef coming out of more recent highly sophisticated cookery programmes in which: ‘…..the real product is not the food but the presenter. What we see increasingly with successful television cooks is an awareness of themselves as commodities……’ (p.241). This notion of the chef as product aptly fits the profile of the celebrity chef described by Michael Ruhlman (2006) in his book about American chefs in the age of celebrity, and which I quote here at length: The chef today is running a company, now composed of many separate businesses. The chef isn’t in the kitchen, he’s in the office. He wears a business jacket, not a chef’s coat. He puts on a chef’s coat for photo shoots and gives interviews to the press that he hopes will be good for his business…………The chef licences his name to manufacturers, and he visits the factory in France or California to observe the quality of the product and meet the company’s directors. He puts on a hard hat to view the new restaurant under construction. Flying home he reviews the proofs of the manuscript for the next book, which has been created by another faction of his team (p.336).

In this work, Ruhlman reports a conversation which he had with food writer and sociologist Krishnendu Ray 28 who puts forward a fascinating view of what he considers to be one of the reasons for the explosive emergence of chefs as celebrities within popular culture. Ray postulates that as more and more people rely on ready prepared foods, fast food outlets, and restaurant eating in place of

25 It is also now possible to read the book online. Available from: http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/10136 (Accessed 20 th February 2008).

26 Guardian Newspaper 25.10.08 Weekly book chart Hardback Non-fiction –No 1 Jamie’s Ministry of Food (45,319), No 9 Nigella Christmas (12,391) Data supplied by Nielsen BookScan.

27 The Secret Life of Mrs Beeton BBC4, broadcast 2006. Information available from: http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour/cinema/features/mrs-beeton.shtml (Accessed 22 nd Febraury 2008).

28 Krishnendu Ray is assistant professor, Nutrition and Food Studies at NYU School of Culture, Education and Human Develpoment. Biographical information available from: http://steinhart.nyu.edu/profiles/faculty/krishnendu_ray (Accessed 23 rd February 2008). 111 cooking for themselves, the act of cooking takes on a vastly elevated status. In his words cooking: “……like craft, it’s riding up the escalator of status. Precisely because we can’t do these things. We don’t even know how to begin to do these things. And so cooking begins to turn magical. And then for magic to happen you need magicians to claim that it is magic, which is what chefs are doing now” (quoted in Ruhlman, 2006, p.104).

Applying this notion of magic to the British world of food and chefs, there certainly appears to be an ever growing circle of magicians whose celebrity spells are being woven in a vast array of interconnected contexts from television to the internet, from advertising to book publishing, from multi-media software to newspapers and magazines.

Tracing the magic through television I have a vivid childhood memory of a grainy television picture and sitting with my parents at my uncle’s house watching a programme. On a stand in front of the television is a square magnifying glass which helps to enhance the size of the screen. In this monochrome gloom, a woman and man are talking in very strange accents about food. They are husband and wife; they are Fanny and Johnnie Cradock. I remember my mother sitting with one of my older sister’s unfilled school exercise books writing down notes as she watched. These exercise books became her personal cook-books as she added recipes carefully cut from magazines and food packaging. They survived to her death, taking pride of place on kitchen shelves alongside the published cookery books which she could only afford to buy later in life. This collection included ‘The Happy Home - A Universal Guide to Household Management’ 29 . This tome is in the genre of Isabella Beeton’s book complete with chapters entitled ‘Easier Housework’, ‘Home Laundry Work’, ‘The Home Nurse’ and of course ‘Cooking Craft’ and ‘A Good Housekeeping Recipe File’. Like the Beeton book just less than a hundred years earlier, it is addressed to women, and Phyllis Garbutt in its Foreword declares: ‘Home-making can be the happiest and most deeply satisfying job in the world for the woman who approaches it in the right spirit.’

One of the first television cooks, Fanny Cradock had an early show involving cooking complex and elaborate meals with her husband Johnnie, in front of a theatre audience. It was aptly entitled ‘Kitchen Magic’. Fantastically popular at the time, the show momentarily dispelled some of the austerity of the post war years when memories of food rationing were still very much present in people’s minds. It also revealed to a wider audience some of the secrets of middle-class dining and entertaining. The Cradocks’ careers spanned the next twenty years with the focus very much on Fanny as a cook within a domestic setting. A catalogue of their books and booklets very much bears this out with titles such as ‘Home Cooking’, ‘Eight Special Menus for the Busy Cook-Hostess’ and ‘Giving a Dinner Party’. This type of

29 The Happy Home ( No date, circa 1950’s) London: The Waverley Book Co Ltd. 112 cookery programme has been succeeded by those of Delia Smith 30 and Nigella Lawson 31 both of whom have had television cookery programmes ostensibly located in domestic kitchens. Like Fanny Cradock, who sometimes chose to wear full evening dress complete with jewels and mink stole (Humble, 2005), both these presenters appear wearing ‘everyday’ dress rather than a chef uniform. This differentiation in dress highlights the contentiously blurred divide between cook and chef. It also draws attention to the emergence of the chef from the heat and glare of the industry kitchen, into the spotlight of the television studio replete in full chef attire. In this spotlight the chef becomes magician, substituting the conjuror’s shiny black evening wear complete with top-hat, for the pristine white of the chef’s uniform crowned with crisp toque. Here the spell that has been cast, with the aid of a coven of acolytes, has transformed the image of the professional chef working long, unsociable hours in a physically demanding environment, to that of television show presenter, entrepreneur, autobiographer, and highly paid celebrity. The BBC television show Masterchef which has been produced in a number of different formats from the original in the early 1990’s to the most recent in 2008, introduces the word chef into the title rather than the word cook which has been used in a number of other programmes related to meal production 32 . This is a different sub-genre of the television cookery programme, one in which the occupation of chef has been elevated to one which is to be aspired. More about preparing food within limited time scales and to restaurant rather than domestic standards, the programme’s contestants seek to change career direction from such diverse areas as graphic design, writing, and trend analysis 33 . This series has spawned a number of other programmes in which the commercial kitchen, rather than the domestic kitchen, is the focus of attention. These programmes include Channel 4’s 2002 Jamie’s Kitchen, and Ramsey’s Kitchen Nightmares in 2004. In discussing this latter programme, Raymond Boyle (2008) describes Gordon Ramsay as: ‘….an award-winning chef who has used the celebrity-driven media to forge his own brand identity’ (p.420). Most recently in 2008, the French chef Raymond Blanc has hosted another series of television programmes on BBC 2, The Restaurant 34 , which traces the journeys of nine couples who ‘dream of owning and running a restaurant’ 35 . The joint winners’ prize is a restaurant financially backed and supported by Raymond Blanc. Merging features of other TV programme genres in which tasks are set for contestants through which they are eliminated from the

30 BBC 1 Delia’s How to Cook. 31 Channel 4 Nigella Bites. 32 For example: Ready Steady Cook, BBC 2, Express Cooking, BBC 2. 33 See information about previous winners of the title available from: http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/tv_and_radio/masterchef/masterchefalumni_index.shtml . (Accessed 2nd March 2008). 34 Programme information available from: http://www.bbc.co.uk/restaurant/ . (Accessed 2nd March 2008). 35 Voice-over dialogue recorded from Programme 1 of the 2008 series. 113 programme, The Restaurant also takes a cursory look at facets of restaurant business management. Contestants meet with Raymond Blanc in the opulence of his hotel Le Manoir aux Quat’saisons which combines a Michelin star restaurant and cookery school. This is a fairy tale manor house fit for a master magician.

The power of spells According to Marshall (1997), television is a medium through which individuals have been afforded celebrity status and it promotes this in a particular way. His view is that: ‘……the television celebrity is configured around conceptions of familiarity’ (p.119) which is evidenced by the direct mode of address which is possible through this medium. This is further exploited because most often, televisions are located within the home. An example of this approach is the 1998 BBC television series hosted by Delia Smith How to Cook . Here she appears to me to be addressing the viewer directly; a kindly but firm distant relative teaching an errant youngster how to successfully boil an egg. The power of her appeal has caused the sale of certain food items and kitchen utensils to soar (Smith, 2008) and resulted in her name, Delia, being added to the Collins English dictionary (Ezard, 2001). How television, as part of a wider media, influences the construction of imagined futures amongst young people is explored by Norbert Wildermuth and Anne Line Dalsgaard (2006). Despite this being research set in a different context to that of this present study, I consider their work to be of relevance here. Located in Brazil, the researchers talked to young people about their imagined futures and put forward the view that access to media images: ‘...makes the creation of new identities and the dreaming of aspirations possible for ordinary people’ (p.14). They conclude that the consumption of mass media is hugely influential in the development of imagined future and other lives. Again, differently positioned but connected here, the work of Sharon Boden (2006) explores the extent to which popular culture acts as a key reference point and influence in the lives of children. Part of a wider ESRC funded project 36 , Boden looks in particular at children and fashion. She examines the ways in which children are exposed to the imagery of celebrities and how this leads to imitation and idealization. In what she describes as a ‘media-saturated’ (p.297) society, Boden concludes that the manipulation of children’s imaginations ensures huge markets for global consumer capitalism. In what follows I examine the possible influence of media promoted celebrity chefs on the choice of vocational degree and imagined future of first year FdA and

36 New Consumers? Children, Fashion and Consumption. Available at: http://www.consume.bbk.ac.uk/research/pole.html . (Accessed 4 th January 2009).

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BA students on the CAM course. But before doing so, I begin by reviewing a small number of studies which have examined career decision making, and imagined futures in a variety of diverse ways.

Researching imagined futures and career decision making There is an extensive body of research, undertaken both nationally and internationally from a variety of different perspectives, positions and purposes, which is concerned with a wide variety of factors related to young people’s educational and vocational choice-making, and imagined future (for example see: Holland, 1985, Krau, 1997, Ball, Maguire and Macrae, 2000, Schmitt-Rodermund and Vondracek, 2002, Schoon and Parsons, 2002). I have chosen to focus on four different studies which I believe provide examples of this variety, and which serve to link career choice and imagined future. They also act as a backcloth in front of which the potential influence of celebrity role models within this present study may be placed. The first example is the work of Phil Hodkinson and Andrew Sparkes (1997) in which they coin the term ‘careership’ to describe their model of career decision- making developed through an analysis of interviews with young people. This work is set within the context of the Youth Credits initiative. They put forward the view that little attention is paid either in policy or research discourse to the ways in which the ‘customers’ (p.29) of education and training make their career decisions. Critical of ideas which simplify career choice as part of a series of predictable, incremental steps towards some ultimate goal, Hodkinson and Sparkes put forward a more complex picture. One element of this picture is that individuals experience various ‘turning points’ during career decision making (p.39). These turning points are set between periods of routine; periods which they argue, are highly significant phases influential to choices made in times of change. Hodkinson and Sparkes stress that each of these interwoven elements are placed: ‘…within a macro context which has social, political, economic, cultural, geographical and historical dimensions’ (p.41). The next example is the study by Stephen Ball, Sheila Macrae and Meg Maguire (1999) in which a group of young people were ‘tracked’ (p.210) across three years from school to post -16 education, training and work. The researchers examine the ways in which these young people make career ‘choices’ (p.201) and in one element of their exploration, they put forward a typology of ‘imagined futures’ which I look at in detail here. The authors identify three groups whose imagined futures can be described as either: ‘…clear, relatively stable and relatively possible’ (p.210), or: ‘…vague, relatively unstable and beset with uncertainties’ (p.210). The third group has no imagined future which acts as a focus for decision making. Within the first group, Ball et al identify two sub-groups: those for whom education is a key component of a journey which leads from school to university and then to a 115 career, the other in which vocational ideas and experiences through part-time work are already very much part of the young person’s life. In creating this typology however, the authors acknowledge that they: ‘...skate over the surface of the complex and detailed personal stories that the students tell’ (p.210). The research reported by Rachel Thomson and Janet Holland (2002) is the next example, and these authors use three case studies as part of their discussion. This work is concerned with the exploration of imagined futures, but specifically in relation to gendered transitions into adulthood. The young people who participated were invited to predict their situation at two future points in time. Focussing on particular areas for discussion (home/housing, education, work, relationships, travel, and values), Thomas and Holland point out the need for caution related to conclusions which might be drawn from cross sample analysis. This is because, they argue, that in carrying out such an analysis, the detail and nuance of individual response is lost. Thus for some individuals the imagined future they predict may be part of a plan which is likely to be realised, whereas for others, the imagined future is an unattainable fantasy. Putting these concerns aside, in relation to employment, they found that social class is a key factor in determining level of aspiration, with higher numbers of both young men and young women from middle-class groups predicting to be in a ‘good’ (p.341) job by the time they were aged 35, than those from working-class groups. The final example is somewhat different to the previous three in that here the setting for the research is within university hospitality education. The work of Barry O’Mahony, Alan McWilliams and Paul Whitelaw (2001) sets out to look at factors which determine university and vocational choice amongst Australian hospitality degree students. Using focus groups to devise a questionnaire, they sought the views of first year students on a catering and hotel management bachelor degree programme. The outcome of the questionnaire revealed some surprising results. The majority of those questioned had decided to attend the university, which was the focus of the study, before choosing a course in hospitality studies. Only ten percent had made the decision to pursue a career in the hospitality industry before they had chosen a specific course of study. Also, despite being a feature of focus group discussions, the role of what they refer to as ‘influencers’ (p.95) such as teachers, career advisors, and parents on choice making were not rated as important in making decisions. What was seen to be of importance to choice of vocational programme were the positive perceptions which the participants had of the hospitality industry. These perceptions were the result of personal observation, personal experience through part-time work, media reports on growth in the industry, and discussions with people who themselves worked in the hospitality industry. The study also revealed other important features in choice of university related to a number of wider factors including: the industrial placement year on 116 offer, reputation of the staff, and the fact that the course was well regarded both nationally and internationally. In describing and summarising aspects of these four pieces of work, I have illustrated some of the complexity of the factors which these researchers consider to have an impact on young people’s choice-making concerning their careers, their aspirations, and how they imagine their future. These factors include social class and previous experience of vocational areas accessed through part-time employment. In addition, these factors are also set within a macro context which has a number of different elements including an historical dimension. In what follows I look in detail at another element which may add to this complexity and which sits within an historical contextual dimension, this is the impact of celebrity role models for both career choice making as well as imagined future.

Celebrity, Glamour, and Chefs at Citygate College Staff The observation from Citygate College tutor Peter included at the start of this discussion, was part of a broader conversation which I had with him and other core CAM staff. It proved to be the catalyst which drew me to explore the possible influence of celebrity chefs on student vocational choice-making. I begin with the views of these staff, all of whom have worked in the hospitality industry before entering the teaching profession, and then look in detail at the students’ perspectives. The CAM course is a new programme both at foundation and honours degree level, but over the number of years that it has been offered as one of many vocational courses within the School of Hospitality, Food and Retail Management at Citygate College, student numbers have been increasing. In our conversation, Peter 37 suggests that this popularity may be a result of the way in which the occupation of chef has changed and is now perceived, and how this perception has been influenced by a raft of TV programmes about food and cooking, and the rise of the celebrity chef:

...I mean careers teachers and that at schools were very guilty of saying “if you can’t do anything else go into the hospitality business or go into catering” so it had a pretty low status and I think in that way it has helped a lot to elevate that status….. but I think it’s now sometimes perceived as something that perhaps… it’s just gone a bit too far…..

37 Peter, interview conversation 29.9.06. 117

He is concerned that the glamorous image of the industry that TV programmes seem to portray is erroneous:

…..anybody who comes into the

hotel business because they think it’s glamorous is grossly wrong…..

However, he does cautiously acknowledge that these images can promote greater student ambition :

Maybe it’s given them…. aspirations to achieve, you know,

fantastic… you know, rather than just going and being a cook for a living then you can see that “I can really make something of this” but it’s going to be the minority that get to that sort of…. these guys are good but a lot of it is… the right place at the right time and the right personality and the right drive and not many people are going to get that opportunity …. good luck to them… they make a lot of money out of it….

Carol, another tutor I talked to, also suggests that celebrity chefs have had a significant influence on the popularity of the course, while Michael, the most recent tutor to join the staff team from the further education section of the college, sees this influence more prevalent with the younger students:

When they first come to the college when they’re 16/17…. they’ve got all their dreams about becoming maybe like a television chef…..

However, in our interview conversation 38 , he maintains that by the time these students have spent two years on a Food Preparation and Cookery NVQ course, and then transferred to the CAM degree, their understanding of the industry is more realistic:

….the students do realise that quite quick after the placement…. it is not glamorous….it is hard work but also it’s very rewarding if they work hard. …I have to say the CAM students normally they’re quite realistic…they know the industry quite well.

The ‘hard work’ which Michael refers to is described in detail by John Pratten (2003) in his exploration of the difficulties of retaining chefs in the workplace. Here he identifies a number of ‘problems’ (p.239) experienced by staff who work in kitchens. Firstly he identifies the strict discipline of the kitchen as a factor; an off-

38 Michael, interview conversations 17/24.10.06. 118 shoot of which Wendi Bloisi and Helge Hoel (2007) have examined as abusive work practices and bullying. Secondly he draws attention to the conditions of work which he describes in a somewhat understated fashion as being ‘cramped’ and ‘with little or no access to fresh air’ (p.239). Thirdly he draws attention to sexism, and here Pratten ( ibid ) comments on the low numbers of female senior chefs in Michelin starred restaurants. Next he adds anti-social hours and poor pay, and in conclusion cites stress as a feature of the conditions of employees who get promoted. This is a very different workplace to the positive perceptions of the industry described by the participants in O’Mahony et al ’s study referred to previously. To consider whether Michael’s observation presented earlier is correct, that the degree students, certainly those who have made the transition from a two year culinary based NVQ into HE, are aware of the reality and rigours of a career as a chef or chef manager as described above, I now turn to the student participant interview conversations. Students The group of students who are the focus of this study have already made decisions about their career intentions by choosing one of a range of vocationally focussed degrees offered by Citygate College. The ten students can be split for ease of presentation here, into two sub-groups, those enrolled on the BA and those enrolled on the FdA of the CAM programme. Diagrams 8 and 9 that follow, show basic educational and employment details about the participants in each of these two groups. Each student participant took part in three interview conversations; one before the start of their degree programme proper whilst on a bridging course, the next approximately 16 weeks later part way through the first semester, and the last approximately 22 weeks after that, close to the end of the first year. These three meetings provided the opportunity to record any changes which may have occurred in relation to their future aspirations over the course of their first year in higher education. It was also during the second interview conversation that I talked to each one about where their interest in food and cookery had originated, and also if they considered any individual chef influential to this interest. Before looking in detail at these aspects of the student interview conversations, it is useful to spend a little time considering the information that the two diagrams which follow provide. The first point of note which becomes apparent is that the journeys of a number of the student participants’ towards the vocational degree programme of their choice, is a zigzag one involving several ‘periods of routine’ and ‘turning points’ (Hodkinson and Sparkes, 1997). Paul, Pariese, Lizzie and Alice have all had periods of full-time employment in the catering industry, some very short and some extended, before

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Diagram 8. BA CAM student VOCATIONALLY VOCATIONALLY VOCATIONALLY 1ST UNRELATED GENERATION participant educational and KEY: RELATED RELATED EMPLOYMENT employment journeys into higher EMPLOYMENT EMPLOYMENT IN HE education

EMPLOYER TRAINING PART TIME EMPLOYMENT FE FE PART ASSESSMENT IN THE TIME NVQ 3, WORK - WORKPLACE NCFES, BASED NVQ 2 FOOD PART TIME LEARNING HYGIENE PART TIM E EMPLOYMENT EMPLOYMENT SCHOOL 6TH FORM LIZZIE AS MATHS Age 20 A LEVEL SCHOOL BIOLOGY, ACADEMIC White British FULL TIME FULL TIME FULL TIME CHEMISTRY, BRIDGING HE Living in GCSE EMPLOYMENT EMPLOYMENT EMPLOYMENT DESIGN PROGRAMME Hall TECHNOLOGY, GENERAL STUDIES

PART TIME EMPLOYMENT PART TIME VACATION TIME EMPLOYMENT

GERRARD SCHOOL GCSE Age 18 FE PRACTICAL 7 Cs White British COLLEGE BRIDGING HE 1 D Living in BTEC PROGRAMME 1 E Hall

PART TIME EMPLOYMENT PART TIME EMPLOYMENT PART TIME VACATION TIME EMPLOYMENT

A LEVEL COLLEGE GEOFF A LEVEL Age 18 SCHOOL BIOLOGY PRACTICAL White British HE GCSE CHEMISTRY BRIDGING Living in PHYSICS PROGRAMME Hall A/S MATHS BUSINESS STUDIES

PART TIME EMPLOYMENT

SKITTLES SIXTH FORM Age 18 COLLEGE PRACTICAL Black or SCHOOL BlackBritish A LEVEL BRIDGING HE GCSE Caribbean BIOLOGY PROGRAMME Living in PSYCHOLOGY Hall ENGLISH

PART TIME EMPLOYMENT PART TIME EMPLOYMENT PART TIME EMPLOYMENT

ALICE PART TIME Age 20 A LEVELS HE EMPLOYMENT SCHOOL FULL TIME White British IN SCHOOL FdSc PRACTICAL GCSE EMPLOYMENT 6TH FORM CHEMISTRY BRIDGING HE Living in PART TIME UNFINISHED PROGRAMME Hall EMPLOYMENT

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VOCATIONALLY VOCATIONALLY 1ST Diagram 9. FdA CAM student KEY: RELATED RELATED GENERATION participant educational and EMPLOYMENT EMPLOYMENT IN HE employment journeys into higher education PART TIME PART TIME EMPLOYMENT EMPLOYMENT

PARIESE Age 22 SCHOOL FE GCSE FE Black/ Black COLLEGE ACADEMIC 2 Bs COLLEGE FULL TIME Briti sh PART TIME BRIDGING HE Caribbean 5 Cs BTEC EMPLOYMENT NVQ PROGRAMME Living 1 D NATIONAL independently

PART TIME EMPLOYMENT PART TIME PART TIME EMPLOYMENT EMPLOYMENT

SCHOOL JAMES 6TH FORM Age 19 SCHOOL A/S LEVEL FE ACADEMIC White British COLLEGE BRIDGING HE Living at GCSE ART BUSINESS NVQs 1,2,3 PROGRAMME home STUDIES

PART TIME EMPLOYMENT

MATT SCHOOL Age 18 GCSE FE ACADEMIC White British 1 C COLLEGE BRIDGING HE Living at Ds NVQ 1,2,3 PROGRAMME home Es

PART TIME EMPLOYMENT

SCHOOL PAUL GCSE FE Age 18 ACADEMIC 6 Bs FULL TIME COLLEGE White Bri tish BRIDGING HE 3 Cs EMPLOYMENT Living at NVQ 1,2,3 PROGRAMME 2 Ds home 1E

PART TIME EMPLOYMENT

GORDON Age 19 SCHOOL FE FE White British GCSE COLLEGE COLLEGE ACADEMIC Living at 3 E's NVQ LEVEL NVQ BRIDGING HE home 1, 2 LEVEL 3 PROGRAMME

121 choosing to undertake the CAM course. Pariese and Alice have also had periods of time dipping into and out of education, and training alongside employment. Lizzie is an example of someone who has gone down the work-based learning route, acquiring an extensive number of vocational qualifications while working full-time. Another point of note is that although only four student participants, Gordon, Geoff, Lizzie and Alice, undertook part-time work within the hospitality industry during their final school GCSE year, soon after this point in time all but one, Skittles, worked part-time. This employment being alongside study in FE, school sixth form or sixth-form college. By the end of their first year in higher education, the entire student participant group have some sort of part-time employment, with only two moving outside the hospitality industry into retail based employment. It would seem that for all but Skittles, the student participants have had experience within the catering industry which has given them the opportunity to make informed choices about the career journey they wish to follow via the vocational degree which they have selected. For some, this experience has provided opportunities to engage with those whom O’Mahony et al refer to as ‘influencers’, with Alice, Lizzie and Paul, all referring to staff in their workplaces who gave them information related to education and training opportunities. Although the earlier two diagrams reveal certain points of interest, they also conceal. This concealment is not intentional but, as Thomson and Holland (2002) referred to earlier point out, such summary information does not allow the detail and nuance which underpins these facts to be illustrated. For example, Geoff’s pathway is more complex than the ‘royal route’ into higher education which this appears to be in Diagram 1. This route, described by David Watson (2006), is one in which typically the traveller attains good GCSE grades, completes at least 2 ‘A’ levels, and moves to a university usually away from home. This could be a portrait of Geoff; however in the story of his journey to the CAM course, family tensions and disturbance caused by his decision at the very last moment to change career choice from veterinary practice to culinary arts management can be detected. We talk about this in more detail during our second meeting39 , with Geoff wryly commenting about this change at the end of this exchange: Val Geoff

What about people at home, your family, in terms of what They don’t know all that you’re doing, what’s their views much about what goes on at about how things are going? university really… but my mum… I think she was just wanting me to get a degree to be honest… my dad was more….

39 Geoff, interview conversation 2 (28.11.06). 122

Val Geoff

….is this your dad that’s got the farm is it? ..yeah, my dad was more “do what makes you happy” because he’s always gone out and worked…. my mum has always been for education really so….

What about your mum and dad My dad’s farmed…. well my did they do any higher dad’s done all sorts, he’s been educ ation? a fireman and farmed the majority of his life so he’s always been out working… I think that’s why veterinary probably wasn’t the right choice for me… this is kind of a combination that keeps both of them happy but it’s still

something I wanted to do…it works… it’s what I wanted to do I wasn’t being forced into it or anything…..because my mum was devastated when I told her I was going to be a It’s a bit different isn’t it? chef at first from veterinary.

It is slightly different…. yeah

This late change in career choice is also a feature of Lizzie’s story which puts into a very different perspective her apparently smooth move from ‘A’ levels to employment and work based training. Despite having a place at university to study Medicinal and Pharmaceutical Science, and having gone as far as setting up a student loan, she determinedly chose instead to follow a different ambition. This decision was partly shaped by her part-time employment experience, and her desire to leave home, and resulted in her taking up employment in a hotel restaurant kitchen. What follows is an extract from the record of our first interview conversation 40 in which she dryly tells me about the impact of her decision on her parents:

My parents weren’t exactly over the moon when I told them that I wasn’t going to study Medicinal and Pharmaceutical Science I was going to be a chef and move out and live in shared accommodation where I had to share a room with a girl who didn’t speak English….. needless to say they weren’t very happy and they found that a bit confusing……they weren’t very happy about it but they did say to me “it is my life, it is my decision”.

40 Lizzie, interview conversation 1 (14.9.06). 123

Both Lizzie and Geoff describe the tensions created between themselves and their parents by their apparently sudden changed decisions. This tension is likely to aggravate the stress identified by Ball et al (1999) in families who see: ‘…….GCSE’s, A-levels and university as absolutely crucial building blocks for a worthwhile career’ (p. 220). A second example in which the diagrams over-simplify the detail of student participants’ pathways and experiences is that of Pariese. Here, like all the other student participants in some form, Pariese is shown working part-time while studying. However, unlike the other participants, Pariese at the time of her involvement in this study, was living independently from her family and in fact had three different jobs which she describes in our first interview conversation 41 :

I work at a nursing home on the weekends….Saturday and Sunday 8 til 3 as a chef….but I’m on my own there…it’s very hard work I’ve got to also wash the dishes after….but the pay is really good £7 an hour….so I’ve been there a year and three months.. so I’ve got that….and then

I’ve recently started working in Café Uno.. Italian restaurant as a chef ….started three months ago now….the pay’s £5.50 there but I work there in the week Tuesday Wednesday Thursday six till close….. and I do cake decorating in my spare time…..

After nearly a year maintaining these jobs the stress begins to show as we talk in our last meeting 42 : Val Pariese

Are you still working on Saturday Sunday? Yeah I really hate it…. really hate it….

…I was going to say because when we talked before I think you were really getting close to saying that you wouldn’t do it anymore because you had that

whole responsibility. So why are you still

doing it?

To pay the bills….. that’s the only reason I’m there…. that’s the only reason.

41 Pariese, interview conversation 1 (14.9.06). 42 Pariese, interview conversation 3 (23.4.07). 124

Val Pariese

Are you still doing the same times? Because I think...what were you doing, Well as soon as I finish work I about 8 til 3, yeah…so where do you get home on the weekend get time to do all your assignment and I try and do my work

work and your study then? then, but I’ve got to do my

dinner, clean up and then I’m so tired and I go to bed. And then the week starts again…because there’s

no....like today, I need to do

my assignment, there’s no

time I can do it today, I was thinking of not coming to college tomorrow to do it and

then I’ve got Wednesday off.

It’s hard trying to do all this assignment work and working and……

….everyone in my class I just envy them, I think “you are so lucky” and my friend’s like “oh I’m so stressed, I don’t know when to do my work” and she doesn’t do anything….. I wished I could be in her place.

Like many of the mature students described in Marion Bowl’s (2003) study of non- traditional entrants to higher education, Pariese experiences both financial poverty and time poverty. She is pushed into part-time work out of economic necessity rather than as an aid to her study at Foundation Degree level. This is despite the fact that the link between employment and education is supposed to be a fundamental aspect of this qualification. These examples highlight some of the disadvantages of using summary diagrams; however, these summaries do provide a speedy reference to a large number of basic details about the ten student participants. They were constructed from information discussed in the first interview conversation, and checked for accuracy by each student with me as part of the second meeting. In these meetings I presented the student participants with just their own journey diagram, and all were enthusiastic about ensuring the accuracy of the detail. The diagrams also allow the journeys of different student participants to be viewed together, so that differences and similarities can be readily identified. In the following discussion I use three different approaches to highlighting the specific aspects of the interview conversations which are of interest here. The first approach utilises a diagram which allows all but one student participants’ comments regarding who they consider to be influential chefs to be placed together. In talking 125 to each participant I did not refer explicitly to celebrity chefs and this omission gave each one the opportunity to consider perhaps chefs with whom they have worked, as well as chefs of renown or fame. Paul, whose comments are omitted from these diagrams, is the subject of the approach which follows. In this second approach, I take a narrative form to the re-presentation of one student participant’s career choice-making, chef influences, and imagined future, and construct what I have chosen to call a career journey monologue 43 . Glennis Byron (2003) describes the dramatic monologue as a form which is accessible, has immediacy by placing the reader in the middle of a situation, uses colloquial language, and often demands and implicates in its construction, an ‘auditor’ (p.20) who is silent. In classifying this form of re-presentation as a monologue I am endeavouring to make accessible to the reader/listener something of the immediacy of the research interview conversation and also place them in the position of the silent auditor. I have chosen this means of re-presentation to highlight, and here I paraphrase Susan Chase (p. 667, 2005) in describing the work of Marjorie Shostak (1989), both the uniqueness of one monologue with its similarity to other monologues told by other student participants. It is a form which also retains complexity and detail, acknowledged as missing from the work of Ball et al (1999) referred to earlier. The third approach again utilises diagrams as a way of viewing each remaining student participants’ comments related to their imagined futures. This shows how they develop and change over the three interview conversations undertaken during the first year of their experience of higher education and the CAM course. In using these forms of re-presentation, I am aware that I have obscured the co-constructed nature of the narratives generated by these interview conversations; the way in which they are woven through the shuttle of spoken words which goes back and forth between listener and speaker, researcher and participant, researcher and narrator. However, I have chosen these forms as a way of bringing together a considerable amount of detail from over thirty interview conversations. They allow the interrelationship between the imagined future, and the influence of celebrity role models on the career choice of these ten student participants to be drawn together. I begin with the two diagrams which track the influences of particular chefs.

43 Monologue can be accessed on Audio CD 126

Diagram 10. Val: Which chef do you think has influenced you most?

JAMES: Jamie Oliver is a favourite I think he is aimed at younger people with his food and he got me interested in cooking… Yeah he’s still someone I look up to… because I do like his way of cooking and he’s different to everybody else and he’s got loads of restaurant, that’s what I want, all those chains of restaurants. He’s just more enthusiastic and more....I won’t say passionate because they’re all passionate but like he shows it, it’s more in the way he like jumps around doing his cooking and he’s smiling and he’s laughing and he’s joking and he’s just more....boiled, he’s weird….. just really good fun to watch. His food’s quite young, for like a younger audience. Like some people their food’s very fine dine and it’s more like for a restaurant, his is more like aimed at teenagers and stuff that you can make in your house...

ALICE: I am not really SKITTLES: I think it into celebrity chefs… started when I was like some people on little……Yan… that was the course like… really the chef’s name. like Gordon Ramsay.. a Yeah the programme demi-god…the only on TV called Yan Can person really is Hugh Cook…so he was the Fearnley- Whittingstall Hugh Fearnley- first chef. I like his whole… Whittingstall I lived in Granada at outlook… doing the time so it was an growing your own…and American broadcast. things like that…’cause I watched it every that’s what I used to… week (laughing) like when I lived with Martin Yan Yeah..I am a geek my boyfriend we grew (laughing) I watch the all our own vegetables cooking channel. and had a pig and UK food…there is a lot some chickens and of them on there…that things…..Like ‘The are particularly good Good Life (laughing) For placement I’m Jamie Oliver I’m working in Gordon So we did all that…like Ramsay’s restaurant, he definitely in aspects Claridges like… what I have done My dad was ecstatic…. myself was because of he told everyone “oh him…he is quite my daughter works for practical the way he Gordon Ramsay”. goes about his cookery books as well…he goes hedge - rowing and PARIESE: No actually, mushrooming and no .. not a particular things like that…. chef….probably the catering shows I do but Gordon Ramsay no…….

GERRARD: The first… programme that I ever watched was… the Naked Chef and like I think I’ve watched everyone of them but I really like him… but also Gordon Ramsay…I mean in college I had a spell in a restaurant and that restaurant is now on his ‘Nightmares’ next week…….where I used to work…so it was a good idea I didn’t stay there (laughing) it looks funny.

Jamie Oliver mainly…it was like I was sat in my aunty’s and she was watching it and she said here watch this…cause she was another sort of influence on cooking…because I always used to cook for her and for me nan and I was watching… really got into it

I’ve got three or four of his books and I’m going to get his new one… it’s about Fifteen isn’t it. Yeah, Gordon Ramsay’s autobiography’s out as well I’ve read a bit of it meself and he said something like the reason that he worked and where he is is that he worked that much as to get out of the house

Um…I think…Ramsay looks a lot more fierce to the point where Jamie Oliver’s more…I dunno…subtle…

127

Diagram 11. Val: Which chef do you think has influenced you most?

MATT: Gordon Ramsay…that’s about the only one really. He just… all about the cooking really…. I mean….you see Anthony Worrall Thompson…and everything and they’re all advertising cat food and that….why are they doing that…just for the money isn’t it really…whereas Gordon Ramsay it’s just all about the cooking. He doesn’t do all the stupid advertising. And Jamie Oliver does for Sainsbury’s and God knows what. I’ve seen it… I think it’s in the paper or magazine…it’s stupid. Like Ainsley Harriott does a Fairy Liquid advert all the time…it’s… stupid .

Heston Blumenthal

Ainsley Harriot Anthony Worrall Thompson Gordon Ramsay LIZZIE: My old head chef…he was probably out of all the chefs who I have worked with I probably got on with him the best ‘cause he used to teach me a lot he used to know a lot…he used to work in you know Claridges in Gordon Ramsay’s restaurant and he used to work… he did a fair bit or work before he came to the hotel…he was a really good friend as well…but he was an amazing chef…so fast everything he did was….. spot on and I want to aspire to be a lot like him. Celebrity chef - wise the obvious Gordon Ramsay…absolutely brilliant… and Heston Blumenthal as well…there’s three Michelin star restaurants in the country Gordon owns one… Heston owns one of them… the other one’s owned by…. I don’t know the name of the other one…it’s called something like the Waterside…but err…Heston is amazing, absolutely amazing, everything he does to do with cooking he treats as a science. Amazing…if you ever get the chance to watch a programme… I think it is so interesting…just the way he goes about everything… If I could do my work placement anywhere I would do it there but they have only one placement

GEOFF: I’d say the main one for me after just GORDON: Jamie Oliver cause he is exactly the reading his autobiography especially is Gordon same as me [dyslexic]…and Gordon Ramsay. Ramsay really… It’s……. that I look up to him…… because I just like It’s a fantastic book… absolutely fantastic …I don’t him talking to everyone else and I notice every like usually read…it’s the first book I’ve read in two …cause he’s got various kitchens what he goes years…it didn’t take me long to get through it. around every week and…… I watch that and….. I pick out every fault in the kitchen I’ve moved onto Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall now… his work is very good as well ‘cause it And…..I just like how he goes about it….changing…. incorporates the farming side for me so its everyone’s attitude about food very….you know…my dad’s thinking along the same lines as that at… some point… when I am a I know he swears at lot but I know why he swears a bit more qualified…it’s something he’d quite like lot because he wants it right first time me to do. If no-one swore in a kitchen it would be like … its My old head chef was brilliant he’d done the human to swear…. London scene…all the fancy dishes…by the time I’d got to the bridging course there was not a lot new because of this chef to be honest..

Home, workplace, and chefs: influences on career choice-making and imagined futures Examining how and when these student participants’ identify the development of their interest in food and cooking alongside their comments about chefs who they consider to have been influential, as well as their reflections on an imagined future, 128 reveals a complex interrelationship woven between each thread. In what follows I explore this interrelationship and the way in which it appears to have influenced these student participants’ career choice-making. I begin with home, workplace and chef influences, making reference to Diagrams 10 and 11 provided earlier. James, Matt, Skittles and Gerrard all talk about having an interest in cooking from quite a young age, with cooking at home with and for family members being integral to their lives. Paul, whose detailed career journey monologue I provided earlier, talks of ‘always’ having a clear career idea, pinpointing the catalyst to this interest being his early secondary school curriculum. Skittles and Gerrard however, refer to regularly watching TV programmes presented by celebrity chefs when they were young. Both clearly continue with this interest with Skittles admitting that she obsessively watches the UK Food TV channel, and Gerrard recently diversifying into books ostensibly written by celebrity chefs such as Jamie Oliver. James also pinpoints Jamie Oliver as sparking his interest in cooking, and although at first somewhat dismissive of celebrity chefs, Alice admits that Hugh Fearnley- Whittingstall has been a huge influence on both her life style and career choice. Both Lizzie and Geoff referred to earlier, seem to have been influenced most in their career choice-making by the extensive part-time work in restaurants which each undertook alongside GCSE study. They too mention celebrity chefs as people influential to their interests, with Lizzie watching TV programmes and Geoff rediscovering the pleasure of reading through books such as celebrity chef autobiographies. Both also refer to the future in discussing these chefs, with Lizzie aspiring to get a work placement with Heston Blumenthal, and Geoff talking about the possibility of emulating Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall by setting up a restaurant with his farmer father once he is qualified. Gordon’s comments reveal his perceived connection with Jamie Oliver through the fact that Oliver has openly discussed the way in which dyslexia has affected his life (Hatterstone, 2005). Gordon’s own struggle in secondary education, ‘diagnosed’ 44 as being a dyslexic pupil, has placed him in a position in which the success of this chef provides an aspirational, even inspirational focus. Gordon Ramsay is also the exception in Matt’s criticism of many celebrity chefs in which he sees their involvement in advertising a range of diverse products as demeaning and avaricious. This blinkered view of Gordon Ramsay’s prolific advertising career is surprising given the vehemence with which he criticises many others. He is however, the only student participant to be critical of celebrity chefs, although Pariese did not identify any chef, celebrity or otherwise, as being influential to her career choice. It would be easy to speculate that Pariese, with her extensive part- time work schedule, has had little time to watch TV or read books and magazines in

44 Gordon interview conversation 23.11.06. 129 which celebrity chefs are featured. However, there is nothing in her conversations with me which would indicate that this is the case.

Returning to Paul’s monologue, again as exemplar of many of the student participants’ own stories, he describes his part-time job. Here he is comfortable in using the language of the workplace in describing the work patterns which he is used to, the ‘split’ and ‘straight’ shifts which are a feature of work in the hospitality and catering industry. It is also here that he identifies the sous chef who influenced on his career choice, making him, it would seem, more determined to carry this ambition through by the attempts he has made to persuade Paul to choose a different career. Lizzie and Geoff also refer to colleagues where they have worked being influential on their career journeys, but even here Geoff alludes to the glamour of London-based working, and Lizzie links her former head chef to the celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay’s restaurant at Claridges. This is the same restaurant in fact of which Skittles and her father are so proud that she has got her year’s industrial placement. In all but two of the student participants responses related to chef influences, the chefs which they identify can be categorised as those who have attained celebrity status rather than being those who could be described as famous or of renown. These chefs’ spells have been woven through the TV programmes which the student participants refer to as well as the peripheral advertising and merchandising with which many of them are associated. They are also powerful spells, and Alice points out that Gordon Ramsay has, in some students’ eyes, transcended even celebrity status, being perceived as a ‘demi-god’ 45 . This is an interesting image and one which has been recently utilised in photographs and text (Cadwalladr, 2006) in an article about the chef Giorgio Locatelli. It is also an image reinforced by the language of both James and Gordon who use the words ‘…look up to…’ in describing their interest in, and admiration for the chefs Jamie Oliver and Gordon Ramsay. James and Gordon metaphorically place these chef figures on pedestals, high above the level of ‘the mass’ discussed by Marshall (1997) referred to earlier. Marshall argues that the concept of celebrity is: ‘….very much linked to the development of mass democracies and concerted efforts to contain the power of the mass in those democracies’ (p.241). From this perspective, celebrities provide suitable role-models who help to contain and suppress questions related to the inequities of society. As I argued earlier, celebrity chefs are suitable role-models, and within this study, they can be identified as a powerful influence on individual career choice-making and imagined futures. These futures being ones which could be interpreted as emulating certain celebrity chefs’ own career journeys (for example: Ramsay, 2006) with a desire to own a restaurant featured in most

45 Alice, interview conversation 2 (22.11.06). 130 student participants’ future plans. These aspirations appear to be built on a supposition that success can be achieved through the individual’s hard work. In looking in detail at the student participants’ discussion of their imagined futures, I refer to Diagrams 12 and 13 that follow, in which I have included relevant extracts from the three student participant interview conversations. Within these initial imagined futures certain features identified by Ball et al (1999) can be detected, with a group of student participants having relatively ‘clear’, ‘stable’ and ‘possible’( p.210) imagined futures and another group whose imagined futures are ‘vague’ ‘relatively unstable’ and ‘beset with uncertainties’ (p.210). For example Geoff talks about owning his own restaurant in partnership with his farmer father whilst Pariese veers from sous chef, to pastry chef, to owning her own cake shop, and finally to simply having a ‘good job.’ There are also student participants who fit the third category identified by Ball et al (ibid ) and these are the individuals who prefer to ‘wait and see’ (p.212). In this group both Lizzie and Matt appear constrained by concerns about the course they have chosen with both mentioning deferring making plans for the future until they have assessed their capability for the level of study required. In these imagined futures there are also resonances of the work of Thomson and Holland (2002). For example Geoff’s plan is the type they identify which has the possibility of being realised, whereas Gordon’s ambition to open a restaurant in Australia as soon as he has finished his foundation degree appears more likely to be the unattainable ‘fantasy’ (p.340) to which they refer. Examining the student participants’ imagined futures at three different points over the course of their first year at college, does however reveal a more complex picture in which there is continuity for some but for others there are modifications or change. For example, Alice and Gerrard maintain an ambition to own a restaurant across all three conversations, with Alice providing in each meeting the same detail in describing a desire to own a pub restaurant in the country. For Lizzie, her indecision and vagueness is also maintained over the three conversations. Along with wanting to keep her options open, in each conversation she makes reference to the possibility of becoming an environmental health officer, a job which after the demands of her chef post, she sees as having more sociable hours. She finally adds the possibility of further study as well as travel via work on cruise ships to the mix. Change can be seen by the end of the year in both Geoff’s and Gordon’s discussion of their imagined futures, with both being influenced by their experience of the CAM course. For Gordon his concerns are related to his ability to complete the programme, and therefore taking a job if offered by his placement provider would seem to be a reasonable option. Geoff is more concerned that the extra year to complete the BA programme will not benefit him as much as a year’s experience in the workplace. This requirement by the industry for 131 experience is also the key factor which modifies the imagined futures of a number of the student participants.

Diagram 12.

BA CAM Imagined Futures

2ND M EETING 3RD M EETING 16 WEEKS 22 WEEKS KEY: 1ST M EETING AFTER MEETIN G AFTER MEETIN G 1 2

I haven't decided what I want to do I'm keeping my It's a bit far away for as a long term career and there options open, see LIZZIE me to be sure. I would are all those options like doing a how I go through Age 20 the course. consider Masters or doing something in environmental health Environmental Health. I want to do Becoming an Living in because it's nice some travelling so after the course Hall environmental health officer is an hours and interesting I want to get on the cruise ships its work. a very good way to earn money option. fast

I'd like to open To have my own I still want to open GERRARD my own place, that's the my own restaurant. Age 18 whole drive for being business I'd probably end up eventually, not here. I'm obviously starting as being in Living in too big but good going to have to work another company Hall quality food in the industry for and work my way up quite a few years

I want to own my own I plan to do my third year...I'm little restaurant really, not sure whether the last year GEOFF like probably most Age 18 will be as much benefit as answers you've had . going out and working. My dad owns a farm Living in I plan to travel for 5 or 6 years. Hall and he's looking to I fancy having a seafood place open a restaurant when eventually I qualify

Hopefully I'll get a part I think after placement time job and then if I work some of my opinions and SKITTLES for maybe 2 or 3 years, Age 18 aspirations will change.I'll hopefully as a Head Chef have Gordon Ramsays on hopefully I'll have my own Living in my CV so with that and a restaurant by the time I'm Hall degree I think I can apply about 25...and from there anywhere...and later to start a chain have my own place

...work for 5 or 6 ALICE years, and then I'd really like to own my own pub, I still want the Age 20 open my own like a country club restaurant, but same, a restaurant..probably do 5 or 6 place in the Living in like a pub years and work my way up to country Hall restaurant in the owning somewhere country 132

Diagram 13.

FdA CAM Imagined Future

2ND M EETING 3RD M EETING KEY: 1ST MEETING 16 W EEKS 22 W EEKS AFTER MEETIN G AFTER MEETIN G 1 2

...my aim is to be a I've been looking at future jobs that sous chef...sorry I love pastry and that's I want to do and it says you need PARIESE pastry chef...I'd like to what I want to do I experience....experience in Age 22 have my own cake want to be a pastry Michelin star hotels....So it's like Living shop..I don't think I chef. I think head I've got this course but then you independently could fit that in could pastry chef...yeah...and still need experience.....so I think I? I want to have a have my own shop when I've finished this course I'm good job at the end just starting at the bottom anyway

I wouldn't mind teaching but I'd prefer Like everyone else I I want my own my own place...I'd love a little place want my own little business, but I also down by the coast....hopefully want to teach as well JAMES place but I just want to working your way up until you can but this is the wrong Age 19 work up to be head manage a place... I'd like to have like course...I just like the Living at chef or manager and 15/20 years working first before I idea of teaching....like home then years down the even try. I just want to work...so I just line a little place at the college...but then want to get through these three years later on in life..have a somewhere as fast as I can and get out and start business working

I don't think that you can really I haven't really looked I want to own my own that far....just going to restaurant one day in see what you're going to do in see...see about the the future. I wouldn't go for a MATT the future and I've got to work we do on this managers job..no..you can't go Age 18 know the business side course....decide from straight from here and go and Living at of it really. I'd like to get there...decide what I run a restaurant..you need home a bit more want to do and experience...so I'd like my own experience...and go wherever I go its round the world a bit restaurant.. but you won't be experience of that doing that for a good 15 years

My future idea is to If they offer me a job on placement I'll stay there. GORDON emigrate to Australia Because I'm looking at the third Age 19 and set up a restaurant year and thinking will I be able Living at there. Hopefully yes to do the work? home straight from university, just find a building or I'm umming and arring I'm not something that's for sale intending coming back at this present moment

133

Matt, James and Paul, all of whom would like to own a restaurant, recognise the need for experience, and that this is an ambition which is far in the future, some 10, 15 or even 20 years away. The research undertaken by Pariese into employment options has also led her to modifications of her ideas about future possibilities. Again the need for experience in the industry adapts her ambition from being a head pastry chef to ‘starting at the bottom’. Although many of the student participants have an ambition to run their own restaurants, much like the participants in the TV programme The Restaurant referred to earlier, James and Skittles are the only two who talk about extending this to a chain of restaurants. James however, only mentions this ambition when discussing the influence of chef Jamie Oliver, and does not revisit this again when talking about his imagined future. A year into the course and Skittles too is more circumspect, acknowledging that her placement year at Gordon Ramsay’s restaurant could well change her aspirations. However, she does maintain her ambition to own a restaurant at some later time, identifying a degree and placement experience supporting applications to employment as a first step.

Returning to Michael This review has shown that many of the student participants in this study are very much aware of celebrity chefs, and for some, this awareness has been influential to their career choice and their initial discussion of an imagined future. These student participants are young people historically placed in a time in which the powerful spell of celebrity is ceaselessly cast. This is a time in which Robin Alexander (2008), in presenting emerging findings of the Primary Review, notes that: ‘….the media and advertising daily ram celebrity down children’s throats’ (p.5). It is also a time in which celebrity has been identified as fuelling students’ ambitions in other vocational degree subjects (Shepherd, 2009b). However, other influences and ‘influencers’ are also at play. These ‘influencers’, using the term of Mahony et al (2001), are many and varied. They are the workplace colleagues with whom the relationships formed support a positive view of the industry. They are the friends, colleagues, and family who provide the ‘grapevine knowledge’ (Ball and Vincent, 1998 p.393) concerning the colleges and courses which are best placed to further a career within the hospitality industry. They are the industrial placement providers who present images of the industry in which the sun always shines, everybody smiles, and a career in the hospitality industry leads to a fast car and a big house 46 . They are the staff of Citygate, like those of other further and higher education institutions, charged with enacting government policy to widen

46 From fieldnotes made during Student Induction (25.9.2006). 134 participation in higher education, and who promote higher education to FE students ostensibly as a means to further career opportunities. Earlier in this discussion, I presented tutor Michael’s view that by the time former FE students started the CAM course, any ideas that they might have had about the glamorous nature of the job would have disappeared, and that ambitions to become celebrity chefs were dreams imagined by younger, further education NVQ students. It would seem that by the end of the first year on the CAM course the ten student participants in this study, both those who have come via the NVQ route, and those who have come through an ‘A’ level or BTEC qualification route, have even further diminished the power of the seductive spells woven by celebrity chefs. This is firstly apparent in their changed or modified imagined plans for the future which include further study, career change or travel. Secondly it becomes clear in their perception of the many years required in the hospitality industry in which they will have to ascend a career ladder, beginning not as sorcerer’s apprentices, but as foot soldiers in a kitchen brigade.

135 Programme 6

RADIO CHOICE

Higher Education Goes Public: The Case of Citygate College

Radio VTT 9.30pm – 9.50pm Tonight’s programme features Citygate College, and Clare Gayle talks to four students who are studying there for a Culinary Arts Management degree. We get a chance to hear reflections from these students on their reasons for choosing the course, their experience of higher education and what it’s like to study in a dual sector institution. We also get to find out what the students have to say about their ideas for the future and how finance plays a part in this. The students on tonight’s programme are studying at both foundation and bachelor degree level but are taught in mixed groups for a large part of their week. This programme adds the students’ perspective to the debate raised by last week’s programme in which staff talked about the challenges of teaching students who enter higher education with different types of qualification. Clare is joined once more by Val Thompson from The University of Sheffield who brings the perspectives of other students who were also part of a research project at Citygate College.

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Clare: Good evening everybody to this the third programme in our series focussing on Citygate College as part of our season Higher Education Goes Public. This is a season of programmes looking at the many different types of higher education institutions which are evolving in response to the government’s aim to get 50 percent of young adults into higher education by 2010. Over the last two weeks we have focussed on the way in which Citygate College, a dual sector and vocationally specialist higher education institution has evolved. We’ve also heard the views of particular staff who teach and organise a Culinary Arts Management degree programme about what they think are factors for the growing popularity of the course, and the challenges they face in teaching students who enter higher education with very different qualifications. Tonight I am joined by four young people who are students at Citygate and who are in their first year of study for a degree in Culinary Arts Management. The aim of tonight’s programme is to listen to their perspectives of their experiences. Last week I found out that this is known as the CAM course so I think we’ll stick to that abbreviation again tonight. Welcome then to Lizzie, Skittles, James and Matt and also welcome to Val from The University of Sheffield. I’m going to start by asking you students what made you choose this course and this college. Who wants to start? Matt, you’re on the Foundation Degree, is that right?

Matt: Yes, that’s right….

Clare: ….so what things made you make your choice?

Matt: I just always liked cooking since I was small…. I always liked it and knew that’s what I wanted to do….. when I was ready to leave school I first had a look at another college and then I had a look at Citygate and it’s just completely different, it’s just a lot friendlier, it’s just sort of more homely sort of thing and it seems a lot better than any other college….they say it’s the best one in the country…. when I did the NVQ 1 I knew I was going to do the NVQ 3 and then I knew I was going to come and do the CAM…..

Clare: OK, thanks Matt….. What about you James, you’re on the Foundation Degree too….

James: I went to an open day and looked around and it looked good, all the kitchens and everything looked… there’s no other college like it…….I got interested in food from when I was young and my mum was cooking in the kitchen, I used to sit with her and help make cakes and stuff like that.

Clare: Thanks James….and you Lizzie and Skittles, you are both on the Bachelor Degree course is that right?

Skittles: That’s right..

Lizzie: ..yes…..I’ve been at Citygate for a year part-time and then for about six months the year before. I did my NVQ level 2 as work-based learning so the college came out and assessed me at work.

Clare: That sounds interesting, can you tell our listeners a bit more about that?

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Lizzie: Well I started work in a hotel kitchen as a trainee and I learned a lot….and I said to my employer “I want to do an NVQ”. So like knowing that Citygate is the best food college in the area I made contact …. they came out and had a meeting with me……and they explained that it would be an assessment once every two weeks for four hours at a time. I’ve now got NVQ Level 3, Intermediate Food Hygiene, Intermediate Health and Safety, a Certificate in Patisserie and Confectionary and in January I did an International Cuisine course.

Clare: That sounds impressive. And where did your interest in food and catering come from Lizzie?

Lizzie: I got my first job in a kitchen when I was 15 and that was just doing basic things like cold starters …..when I was working there I decided that I wanted to be a chef.

Clare: OK…that leaves Skittles, what about you?

Skittles: I always wanted to be a chef so I looked through UCAS and to tell you the truth I didn’t want to leave home so I only put the college down as a last option really.

Clare: For any listeners who may be unsure, UCAS is the organisation responsible for managing applications to higher education….and so Skittles, do many universities do this degree then?

Skittles: Not many, I think Citygate was the only good choice.

Lizzie: There are a few others that do it but it’s not the exact same course…it’s not an easy course to find.

Clare: Can I bring you in now Val, because I know that you have spoken to other students on the CAM course. What seems to be their reasons for choosing the course and why Citygate college?

Val: Well as I mentioned last week, I have only spoken to ten students out of a total of sixty six, five on the Foundation Degree and five on the Bachelor programme including Skittles, Lizzie, James and Matt here tonight. Quite a number of the ones I spoke to talk about Citygate being very well known for its food related courses and hearing about it from friends, part-time work colleagues and FE college staff. Choosing this subject seems for many to come like Lizzie mentioned here, from working in the industry while at school or college. And also we talked last week about celebrity chefs and how their popularity and exposure on TV, in magazines and newspapers makes the industry seem quite glamorous.

Clare: Yes and I don’t want to take up too much time with that this week because we have more about that for any listeners who want to follow this up on our website at www.vttradio9/education/highereducation . Can I ask you four students about studying at a dual sector institution? James, you’ve been at Citygate for two years..

Val: ..can I interrupt here Clare…I’m not sure that students would necessarily know what you mean by this term. It seems to be a term used more by researchers and policy makers. But some of the students I talked to mentioned how Citygate is different from what 138

they expected a university to be like because they had friends who were at other universities and they swapped information. For instance, one talked about it not seeming like being at university because at Citygate they check up a lot on absences and what goes on in the residential halls.

Skittles: Yeah, it’s not like normal uni where you can miss a day if you want to and because we are based in a college as well, there’s younger people…I’m sure I’ve seen people walking around that look about twelve years old so I don’t see that as a normal uni.

Clare: OK, so going back to James, you moved from further education to higher education at Citygate, how does that feel?

James: It doesn’t feel any different when you are walking around the college and that….it just…it feels the same……. it’s just the lessons that are different.

Clare: Perhaps that’s a good point to maybe start talking about how you are all finding studying. James and Matt, you both did NVQ’s at Citygate last year. How are you finding things now on a degree course?

Matt: It’s a bit difficult but it’s just getting used to it. It’s getting used to doing all the projects, making sure you do them on time.

Clare: So James, is it different to how things were taught on the NVQ?

James: It’s taught different. Well at the start of the lesson, they give you lots of papers out, which is a bit confusing because the first week you just had a massive folder full of papers and…. but last year they went through it all and helped you. This year it felt like they just gave you the papers and you had to figure it out really. I was…. in the first week I was quite confused with the amount of stuff that was given to us..

Clare: ..OK..

James: ..and we had the same lecturer for two different lessons and I didn’t realise until about the second week that it was two different lessons….I thought it was the same one because it was just that much stuff thrown at you and they just went straight into it and started like lecturing at the front, and you had to write down notes and you didn’t have chance to manage yourself….

Clare: So how are things now?

James: I’ve got used to it now, yes you get used to it over time.

Val: I think many of the students, not just the ones who did NVQs found writing essays and reports quite difficult to begin with. One student I spoke to who had done ‘A’ levels and then had some time out before starting here said that they’d found it difficult, forgotten their essay writing skills.

Lizzie: Yeah I actually chose to do the academic bridging because… because I’ve had two years since I finished my A levels and I wanted to get back into it because I hadn’t wrote anything, any reports, essays, I hadn’t done anything for two years so I thought it would be beneficial. 139

Clare: Am I right Val that the academic bridging course Lizzie has just mentioned was referred to last week?

Val: Yes it was. This is the additional week of study that CAM students can opt for before they start their degree. It’s an introduction to how theory aspects of the course need to be presented….its a refresher if you like on essay writing, note-taking, referencing, things like that. There’s been quite a lot of research done on how different students cope with what is sometimes called ‘academic literacies’…

Clare: …and I believe that there is something about learning and teaching in your report on our web-site……OK, lets move on to something a bit different which I’m sure will be of interest to young people thinking about going to university…I believe that some of you live in the college’s halls of residence and some of you live at home with parents. How are you all finding this?

Skittles: I live in halls but I go home every week-end.

Clare: Every week-end?

Skittles: Every week-end, yeah. I just go on Thursday when we finish…I’ve got the best of both worlds so I like it.

Clare: So do you think it helps being in halls?

Skittles: Yeah definitely. Because you’ve always got someone to proof-read your work and say “oh you’ve done this wrong” and because they’re on the same course they’re asking the same thing, they have a better understanding of it.

Clare: What about you Lizzie? I think you are in halls too?

Lizzie: Yeah, it’s probably some of the nicest accommodation I’ve stayed in. I think I’ve moved houses 7 or 8 times in the last two years….. and I wanted that experience, I wanted to be living with lots of other people my age and going out to town and all that sort of thing. Like the actual complex, the accommodation, is fantastic….

Val: Lizzie’s right, the accommodation is good and many of the students mentioned this; it’s also only a ten minute walk from the college….

Matt: Well I think I do as much travelling as I do college work. I do three hours there and back, it’s an hour and a half each way. On Friday I have to get up at 5.30.

James: Sometimes I’m travelling longer than the hours last at college. Probably a definite low is the travelling because it takes it out of you. I know you’re only sitting there reading for three hours like there and back but it still makes the day a lot longer. And the groups I’m in with now they all live in hall so if we want a meeting I’ve got to come all the way here and they can just slide out of bed and just walk down the road.

Clare: So I can see that this would make working in groups more difficult. Val, you’ve written something about group work….

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Val: Yes, the students talked a lot about working in groups….it seems to be a feature of higher education teaching that students seem to either love or loathe.

Clare: Let’s ask the students we have here tonight then, what do you all think about working in groups?

Lizzie: Well personally I prefer working individually because I like to do things my way and I know what’s done…..

Matt: I think it’s easier, because you haven’t got all the workload on you. It’s spread between a group which I find a bit easier.

James: Sometimes it’s alright because more heads are better than one like but I’ve found that with people that have not put in as much effort and they’re still getting the same grade that we are, so it’s like we’re carrying them and it’s not really fair. So it can be positives but I think I prefer single work.

Clare: Well I can see that just from this short exchange there are conflicting views about this form of learning..

Val: ..the idea is Clare that in employment people usually work in groups one way or another and this is seen as a skill which higher education needs to develop in preparing graduates for the workplace ….one of the students, not here tonight, was angry that he had been moved from working with a strong partner to working with a weaker partner. He could see that he might need to do this in industry, train staff, but while he was at college he felt he should be having an opportunity to get good grades…so group work does raise lots of issues…..

Clare: Right, let’s just back-track a bit to living at home and living in hall….I guess that it’s quite expensive to live in hall?

Val: One of the other students told me that its £80 a week so I think that this would seem a reasonable or expensive cost depending on personal circumstances. I don’t think that perhaps its appropriate to ask the students here tonight about their particular circumstances but I can tell you that many students who I talked to were very aware of the likely debt associated with higher education and every single one talked about the part-time jobs which they have alongside their studies….finance is especially important for students who are living independently. The other thing which I found interesting was how unsure some students seemed to be about what funding they had, was it a loan, a grant, or a bursary and did they have to repay it or not.

Clare: So do all of you students work part-time?

Skittles: Yes every week-end..

Lizzie: ..just in the last semester….I’ve got a 4 hour contract so I do four hours on a Sunday and then I pick up additional shifts when they get offered. Usually I work two or three shifts a week each of 4 hours, or sometimes I might do a longer shift..

James: .. I’m only doing the weekends..

Matt: .. I work basically on weekends and might do one day in the 141

week…yeah ‘cos it’s…you need money, like you can’t not work just because you’re at college so…. it’s a lot of hours but you’ve got to do them haven’t you?

Clare: Well it seems that from what Val’s said that everybody does. I am aware that we are getting near to the end of the programme and I want to just spend a bit of time talking about the future, what you four students see yourselves doing when you leave higher education. There are increasing numbers of vocational degrees now, especially foundation degrees which we found out more about last week. Do all of you students see that having a degree will be helpful to your job prospects in the future?

Matt: I want to own my own restaurant one day… in the future.. and I’ve got to know the business side of it really…you know…NVQ3 it’s all about the kitchen…. and you don’t learn… a lot like you do on this one…there’s a lot more…you know… different skills and things….you obviously learn the business side…the profit the loss and everything so you know a lot more… which is a big help….so I’d like to own my own restaurant and I know a lot of others do eventually but you won’t be doing that for a good 15 years…you need the experience in the industry before you start owning your own place.

Clare: So you see the degree as helpful but more important is the experience in industry? Does anyone else agree with Matt?

James: Well if I had this qualification I’d still need experience so… but if I got a job then I’d probably move up straight away if they saw that I had potential but at first off you’d have to start as commis and then show them your potential…so….

Clare: And a commis is the lowest level in the kitchen hierarchy, is that right?

Val: That’s right

Clare: So you’re saying that in the industry at the moment there’s no level that you can go in as a graduate, it’s about starting out at the bottom but hopefully working your way up more quickly because you have a degree?

Val: You might remember that Carol, a tutor on the CAM course said the same… it’s experience that’s needed by the industry and some bachelor degree students might well go in as a commis but move up quickly. It means starting on a very low salary though. One student I talked to had quite a lot to say about his experience compared to his friends who had left after NVQ’s and who would all have three years more experience in industry than him if he continues with the degree. It was making him feel unsure about continuing. More extreme was one student who was thinking about moving from the bachelor degree to the foundation degree so that he would get into the industry a year earlier.

Clare: So this seems to be an issue… that employers in this industry seem to value experience more highly than higher education qualifications. Let’s go back to you Skittles, what do you want to do after you finish?

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Skittles: Well my views have changed since I’ve been here… I think a degree will be better along with a year experience from the placement…later I’d like my own place.

Clare: Lizzie, what about you?

Lizzie: I haven’t decided what I want to do as a long term career and there are all of those options like doing a Masters or doing something in Environmental Health or doing something to do with Nutrition, but before I do that I’d like to go on cruise ships because I was going to do that before I decided to do the degree. I want to do some travelling and save up some money, because cruise ships are a very good way to earn money quite fast. Yeah it’s well paid and you don’t pay tax on your earnings and you don’t have to pay for your accommodation or your food because that’s all provided.

Clare: That’s very different, keeping your options open and doing some travelling. What about the other students Val?

Val: Well because I met with students three times over the first year it was interesting to see how some had ideas that stuck with them and others made changes to their plans. Quite a large number wanted to own their own restaurants and as you mentioned there is more about this on the programme website.

Clare: Yes and I can perhaps remind listeners here that they can find more about lots of aspects of the discussions which we have been having as part of this series at www.vttradio9/education/highereducation . I’d like to thank my four guests tonight, Lizzie, Matt, James and Skittles for sharing their experiences of being students in their first year in higher education. Also thanks to Val Thompson who will be returning later in the season to give us an update on Citygate College. Join us next week when we’ll be talking about student finance. Until then, goodnight.

143 www.vttradio9/education/highereducation vttradi 9 Higher eeducationducation goes public ––– The case of Citygate College PROGRAMME 4 PROGRAMME 5 PROGRAMME 6 PROGRAMME 10

144 vttradi 9 Higher eeducationducation goes public –––the–the case of Citygate College PROGRAMME 6 Extract 6 from Teaching and Learning Photo collages Research Report Group Work Script

145 vttradi 9 Higher education goes public –––the–the case of CityCitygategate College PROGRAMME 6 Extract 6 from Research Report

Timetable Talk: Monday

Val Geoff , BA CAM student talking about his Semester 1 Monday timetabled activities

Could you talk me through what your week looks like, or draw up… I mean I’ll draw it up if you just talk me through

how your week goes… talk me Monday 12 o’clock is through it…. when we’re in…

….ok, you don’t start till …yeah, and then at 12 we’ve 12…. got…...... I really should know this but I can’t….

….w as this yesterday? Laughter …yeah, my mind’s blank…..

…mind you, mine’s like that… …we have a lecture,

Business Operations lecture until 1 o’clock….

…and that’s a lecture?

…no… it’s actually 2 hours….

12 till 2…. …then we have 2 til 3 lunch and then we do in the restaurant service……. it alternates….you do service out front of house, pastry skills or just the actual cooking in the restaurant as well….

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During the many interview conversations with the CAM student participants as part of this study, a substantial amount of time in the second and final meeting, was dedicated to talking with them about how they spent their time at study (both independent and tutor directed), in part-time employment, and at leisure. Talking about their college, tutor-directed timetable revealed that it has certain fixed elements which do not change across the two-semester first year, and various changing or flexible elements which are organised around institutional, departmental, and individual needs. In certain of the fixed elements the FdA and BA students are taught together in both theoretically and practically based sessions in which outcomes and assessment methods are common. In other fixed elements the FdA and BA students are split into discrete groups and outcomes and assessment methods are differentiated. The changing elements consist of such things as industrial placement sessions in which students are supported in making plans for the second year of their course which takes place out in industry, and individual tutorials in which assignment work, general progress, and personal issues can be discussed with a tutor. It should also be noted that the decision to have the BA and FdA students taught together for a number of sessions is an institutional one, based on the premise that in the first year, the level of study for both groups is the same. This is despite the fact that the FdA students primarily come from a National Vocational Qualification (NVQ) background, and the BA students either have Advanced level (‘A’ level) or Business and Technical Education Council (BTEC) qualifications. Discussing the college, tutor-directed timetable with the CAM student participants also frequently initiated conversation about their experiences of learning, teaching, and assessment.

An explosion

The intense interest in teaching, learning, and assessment in higher education is described by Clifton Conrad, Jason Johnson and Divya Gupta (2007) as producing an ‘explosion’ (p. 153) of literature. This metaphor, employed by researchers in the United States, is also appropriate in describing the vast amount of literature concerned with the same topics published in the United Kingdom. A survey of learning, teaching, and assessment publications catalogued in the Higher Education Empirical Research Database (HEER) 47 which I carried out, reveals evidence of this explosion, and the review of research related to widening participation in higher education by Stephen Gorard, Emma Smith, Helen May, Liz Thomas, Nick Adnett and Kim Slack (2006) reveals a similarly extensive literature. Within Gorard et al’s

47 HEER database available at: http://heerd.open.ac.uk/ (Accessed 2 nd February 2009). 259 references under the theme teaching, learning and assessment on date of access.

147 review of research, the section on ‘Learning and teaching in higher education’ (pages 56-73) summarises and provides an over-view of eighty-five items of literature drawn from a wider database of 1200 research reports (Gorard and Smith, 2005). The researchers present this particular aspect of the review through four organising categories: the learner in higher education, teaching in higher education, curriculum design and development, and assessment and feedback. My own search 48 has revealed a mass of diverse literature which I have attempted to categorise both by topic or theme but also through the research methods and approaches utilised. What follows is a brief overview. From the perspective of topics, like Gorard et al, I have found that there is a divide in the literature between explorations of learning , (for example Drew, 2001, O’Connor, 2003 and Haggis, 2004,) and those which explore teaching (for example Nicoll and Harrison, 2003, Carnell, 2007). Within these two categories, researchers have looked at teaching from a tutor perspective (for example: Hartley, Mayes, Newstead, Norton and Richardson, 2005, Green, 2006), as well as from a student perspective (for example: Forrester-Jones, 2003, Richardson, 2005). In relation to learning, Lin Norton, Tessa Owens and Louise Clarke (2004) explore students’ understandings of themselves as learners, whilst the work of Elias Avramidis and David Skidmore (2003) is focussed on the learning support available to all students in one university. I have also categorized a body of work concerned with a variety of learning models. For example the work of Suzanne Lea, David Stephenson and Juliette Troy (2003) looks at student-centred learning, Liam Kane (2004) focuses on active learning, and problem-based learning is explored by Maggi Savin-Baden and Claire Howell (2007). Evaluation of the benefits of learning styles and learning approaches is also evident in the literature (Haggis, 2003, Cuthbert, 2005, Hall and Moseley, 2005, Marshall and Case, 2005). From a more pragmatic perspective, there is work concerned with particular teaching techniques and activities including lectures (Huxam, 2005, Mann and Robinson, 2009), as well as a huge category of literature concerned with group work (for example: Livingstone and Lynch, 2000, Rossin and Hyland, 2003, Sharp, 2006). Added to this already complex picture is literature which constructs and focuses on particular groups, for instance younger students (Haggis and Pouget, 2002), non-traditional students (Bamber and Tett, 2000) disabled students (Fuller, Healey, Bradley and Hall, 2004, Konur, 2006), and students with dyslexia (Mortimore and Crozier, 2006). I have found the literature concerned with discussion related to different conceptions and theories of learning to be of particular interest. Keith Trigwell and

48 I have used the HEER database, and carried out a manual search of key journals identified in the Gorard et al review section on Learning and Teaching, extending this review to 2007. 148

Paul Ashwin (2006) for example, explore a situated conception of learning which they define as: ‘….one that is evoked and adopted by students in response to their perceptions of their learning tasks in a particular context’ (p.243). The authors put forward the view that in any learning context, the learner is aware of aspects of a host of prior experiences, the situation serving to evoke these prior experiences either to the background or foreground of awareness. Whilst conducting this search, I have also taken note of the various approaches and methods adopted by the researchers and research teams in exploring their particular areas of interest. Surveys and questionnaires appear to be extensively used (for example: Sander, Stevenson, King and Coates, 2000, Avramidis and Skidmore, 2004, Richardson, 2005, Smailes and Gannon-Leary, 2007), with other methods featuring to a lesser extent. For example, Peter Sutherland (2003) uses individual interviews to explore the study methods of nurse students, and Sue Drew (2001) utilises small group discussion to investigate student perceptions of what helps them learn. In Matthew O’Connor’s (2003) examination of what he refers to as ‘conditions’ (p. 53) of learning, a combination of staff interviews, student questionnaires, and student interviews is used. Less common is work which highlights a narrative approach either in relation to the way, for instance, that interviews are planned and conducted, or how interview material is analysed. However the work of Eileen Carnell (2007) utilises teachers’ narratives in examining conceptions of effective teaching, and Dilly Fung (2006) uses a narrative approach to interviews as a means for drawing out themes related to student experience and learning. Of particular interest to me, is research from Australia conducted by Sarah Stein, Geoff Isaacs and Trish Andrews (2004) which explores what the authors refer to as ‘authentic learning experiences’ (page 241). Their work makes use of student and teacher interviews, written material, and interestingly, classroom observations. They describe the purpose of the field notes made of classroom interactions during observation, to: ‘….verify and challenge data drawn from interview material’ (p.250). Disappointingly, there is little description of the way in which these observations were carried out, and no mention is made of the difficulties of this approach. This brief overview of research concerned with teaching and learning highlights two key points. The first is the difficulty which such a burgeoning literature places on higher education lecturers, concerned with classroom practice, who wish to keep abreast of current debate. The second is the diversity of approaches utilised in this research. In what follows, I look in more detail at the use of observation in the study of teaching and learning, beginning with a short overview of the challenges inherent in this approach, and then presenting the story of my observations.

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From theory…… Using the observation of tutor-directed sessions to illuminate discussion of teaching and learning in higher education brings particular challenges. This kind of observation is not of the type used for purposes of ‘quality control’ demanded by audit 49 in which lessons are observed against specific criteria, are graded, and matched to teaching and learning policy. This type of observation is embedded in ethnographic practices, in which the observer, according to Jerry Wellington (2000): ‘…. enters the social world of persons and groups being studied in an attempt to understand their shared meanings and taken-for-granted assumptions’ (p.45). Wellington goes on to describe a continuum of observational positions in which at one extremity the observer is a complete participant within the situation being observed, while at the other they act as a complete observer. Colin Robson (2002) introduces the term ‘ unobtrusive observation’ (p. 310, italics in original) to describe an observational approach which is informal, non-participatory, and unstructured. His view is that this is a suitable strategy when the researcher wishes: ‘….to seek out what is going on in a situation’ (p.311), especially during the exploratory stages of a study. However, he does draw attention to a number of difficulties in taking this approach. Firstly is the way in which the presence of the observer can affect the situation under observation. Secondly is the issue of time available for observation; if this is limited, what is observed is also limited and may or may not represent established patterns and practices. Lastly is how fieldnotes are recorded, and the gap in time between when the observation takes place and when the narrative is written. In the following account I first provide the background to my use of observation as a way of exploring learning and teaching situations on the CAM course. I then move on to a narrative which I have created from fieldnotes made whilst engaged in unobtrusive observation . I have used this approach as a means to seek out what is going on in the tutor-directed learning and teaching situations which the CAM student participants describe and reflect on during our interview conversations. I am aware that at times during these observations, I am a less unobtrusive observer than at others, and that I shift to and fro along the observational continuum described by Wellington (2000). I am also mindful of the words of Catherine Riessman (1993), who draws attention to potential influences at each level of representation in the research process. Thus in this work I am aware that in recording my experience of the activities I observed, I make choices, both conscious and unconscious, about what I notice from the totality of the sessions; I

49 See Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (QAA) Protocol for direct observation of teaching available from: http://www.qaa.ac.uk/reviews/academicReview/handbook2000/acrevhbook_part4.asp#69 (Accessed 24 th January 2009).

150 choose particular words to describe my experiences while writing my field notes; and in creating the version presented here, I am undoubtedly influenced by the potential readership of the work. Wellington (2000) writes of ethnography being ‘an attempt’ (p.45, italics added) at understanding the groups and worlds that we study. What follows is a text which attempts to describe part of the world of the CAM students and staff as a means to gain further understanding of their experience of learning and teaching in higher education. In Riessman’s (1993) words however, I recognise that this is achieved: ‘….partially, selectively, and imperfectly’ (p.15).

……to practice.

Listening to the student participants describe their experiences of ‘doing’ the CAM time-table, with its group work, lectures, seminars, presentations, tutorials, theory, practical, and abbreviations and acronyms for classes such as Business Ops, Food and Bev, PBS, and MAP, motivated me to seek agreement to my observation of the tutor-directed sessions which were the basis of this college-based week. Having already had the opportunity to observe and participate in the bridging courses and degree programme induction, my aim here was to try to gain a different perspective of the timetable from those created and discussed by the student participants during interview conversations. I wanted to gain a more direct impression of what participating in the CAM course was like, first and foremost for students, but also for the teaching staff. More specifically, I wanted to see if the division between the FdA and BA students which staff and student participants had talked about, was evident in the different teaching and learning environments and encounters I would observe. This divide is illustrated by the following comments made during interview conversations:

Mary , CAM first-year manager The FdA students are the ones that can cook but can’t write and the BA students are the ones who can write but can’t cook.

It depends which environment you’re in. If you’re i n the Paul , FdA student kitchen the FdA will be the one that can cook. If y ou’re in participant the classroom the BA’s the one that can do the theory and the FdAs are the ones that are sat there thinking “You what? What was that?” The FdAs are the ones who probably have shorter attention spans because they don’t want to be sat in a classroom they want to be in

the kitchen cooking..that’s what they are the chefs whereas the BAs kind of like soak up all the knowledge in their life.. “That was a really fascinating lesson”..the FdAs are going “Get me some coffee”.

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Skittles , BA student participant

You can tell the difference ’cause FdAs never went to college…they did their NVQs….they’re still… they’re always the noisy ones whereas BAs are more calm in class and then….’cause we’re used to the kind of format of teacher pupil pen and paper we…we seem more comfortable with

it…that’s what we’re used to so when we’re in a lecture or in a seminar we’re more focused…..whereas FdA’s because they’re not used to that since high school….for them I think it’s a bit more different, they have to

get used to it and they’re not quite used to it yet……..

I discussed my proposed observation with Mary the CAM first year manager, and she offered to approach the relevant members of staff. I provided her with an e-mail to distribute which explained the purpose of my observations, and which gave staff the option to decline the request. It also included an invitation to be involved in a follow-up staff group discussion, and the opportunity to read any material I would subsequently write, pertinent to their individual teaching sessions. I was surprised when no members of staff withheld permission, as having been a teacher myself for many years I am aware of the additional pressures and altered group dynamics which having an ‘outsider’ in a teaching and learning environment can sometimes create. I articulated this surprise with Mary, whose opinion was that this positive response was likely to be because the tutors at the college have frequent visitors and internal observers in their classes, and they have become accustomed to such visits. And so it was that I spent a week observing college-based sessions following the timetable of one of the FdA students. My rationale for this choice was that I would repeat this activity in semester 2, then observe a BA student’s timetable. What follows is my particular narrative description of one Monday in January at the end of Semester 1. The students have now been on their degree course in higher education for eleven weeks. Threaded throughout the narrative are also extracts from the transcribed dialogue of interview conversations in which student participants recall, describe, and reflect on their experiences of ‘other’ Mondays.

I am worried about being late. Although the session doesn’t begin until 12.00 midday , I have to leave home at 10.00am as travelling the 17 miles from my home to the college by public transport requires this early start time. As I sit on the train, I think about those student participants who have told me that they live even further away. It is no doubt tiring and possibly stressful using buses and trains to travel to college each day with no control over late arrivals and cancellations. It’s a very different experience to those students living in hall a ten minute walk away. 152

Matt , FdA student

I think I do as much travelling as I do college work.

We all live in Halls (laughter) so we just come together like… even at dinner time we all come together with our work, or before dinner, just discuss it, we all know what we have to do…..

Skittles , BA student I march quickly in the icy chill from the station to Citygate, and at about a quarter to twelve I join a knot of students hunched in coats waiting in the narrow corridor outside a lecture theatre on the eighth floor. It is the first session after the Christmas holiday. The mixed group of BA and FdA students grows larger and noisier; potentially a group of sixty-six students, all of the first year CAM students. Everyone is meeting and greeting friends and catching up with what they have been doing over the break from college. From listening to the conversations going on around me, it seems that many of the students have been working, and working a substantial number of ‘shifts’; these shifts being an inevitable aspect of working in the hospitality industry. One member of the group, who is an FdA participant in the study, sees me and says hello. He tells me that he worked in a hospital kitchen on Christmas Day from 6.00am to 4.00pm, and despite the fact that he earned triple time, he is unsure that it was worth the enormous effort. With no apparent signal, there is a sudden rush to enter the room, a medium-sized lecture theatre which has eight rows of twelve seats with stepped gangways on either side. Place seems to be important, and the place seems to be at the back of the room with these seats filling rapidly. Some students make the choice to sit at the front. I choose an end seat about a third of the way up the rows nearest to the door, and notice that one of the FdA student study participants is sitting on the front row with his lap-top open and the screen glowing brightly. Like most of the students sitting close by, I take out a pen and paper, and get myself ready to take notes. Gerrard , BA student I think some classes sometimes are really big, sixty of us so….. but it’s obviously something that’s always done and I’ll have to get used to it. 153

The tutor begins to talk and a disembodied voice from the assembled students shouts: ‘QUIET!’ The tutor also asks for quiet, telling everyone that some students have mentioned to him that they are distracted by the talking that goes on during the session.

There’s a lot of people that don’t really sit and listen and it gets quite disruptive in the lectures.

Geoff , BA student He asks if everyone has had a good Christmas and a voice from the back calls out: ‘No! Too much work!’ It’s unclear to me if this is a reference to too much part-time employment or too much college work. This is a two hour session and at 12.10 a student speedily enters the room and slips into a seat near the front where there is space.

There’s a ten minute rule and they James , FdA student say no excuses…..if you’re late ten minutes after you are supposed to be there you are not allowed in so you just have to wait outside the room until the lesson’s finished……

The session gets underway with the students being provided with a handout which has space for making notes, produced it would appear, using the computer programme PowerPoint. Geoff , BA student

Usually it’s a handout that you fill in….like there’s gaps and stuff to write things down, it’s very straightforward to be honest, took a lot of notes at [A Level] college so….

The handout seems to act as a signal for the class to settle down to focus on the presentation. There is a constant stream of questions from the tutor with members of the group shouting answers back: ‘Who is the governor of the Bank of England?’ ‘Gordon Brown’. After fifteen minutes two more students make a noisy entrance apologising loudly for their lateness. They take their seats in spaces at the 154 back reserved by other students, who give them copies of the hand-outs. There seems to be a distinction between those groups sitting near to the front and those sitting nearer the back. It’s difficult to distinguish which students are on the BA course and which are on the FdA; those students that I do recognise are certainly physically divided by qualification, choosing to sit with others who are at the same level, with the FdA students predominantly in seats nearer the back. I am aware of a low hum of conversation coming from behind me and my seat at the end of a row allows me to glance back to see small groups of students in conversation. The students close to the front seem well focussed which they manage to maintain over a fairly extended period of time. Others appear to find it very difficult to sustain attention with some students chatting quite noisily after twenty five minutes. There are peaks and troughs in this noise; it rises and falls, with the tutor waiting for the level to diminish so that he is able to be heard without raising his voice. There are some students who return answers to questions posed with fluency and apparent interest. Pariese , FdA student

Yeah its [the lecture] with the BA group as well, it’s like they’re understanding and the FdAs are finding it a bit more difficult I think, from what I’ve heard and whenever he asks a question it’s more I think the BAs understand more…… I’ve heard them say ‘we’ve done this before, we’ve done this before’, things like that….I feel like a dope…. (laughing) but…. I once went to a workshop for it as well and I understood it a bit better but….

Glancing around the room I notice that some students are eating and drinking; not small snacks but filled bread rolls with juice drinks to wash them down. I find this very surprising, but remember that the session spans what is traditionally regarded as lunch-time. One of the FdA student participants is sitting on the front row in the centre. I see that he has what I interpret and describe as a quizzical expression on his face, and it is possible, because of its continuity, that he is sub-vocalising answers to the questions posed by the tutor. He certainly doesn’t offer any answers aloud but seems intent on keeping a voracious number of notes copied from what the tutor writes on the white-board. James , FdA student

…it’s a different kind of information they are getting across…..because before, we never had somebody just stand at the front and talk through it…..they’d like ask you like ….verbally … there’d be questions and…….but now………….you just write down what they’re doing...

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After forty minutes the tutor changes activity now using a video accessed from the Bank of England web-site. Unable to shake off my former role as an FE teacher and classroom observer, I consider this to be a useful strategy, which adds variety of approach to the session, and provides a way to settle the students again. The video appears to appeal to most of the group. This is signalled by a diminished noise from the talking and fidgeting. The video has music, a split screen, and the dominant characters are young people. However some of the students still continue to talk intermittently to their neighbours in front, alongside and behind them. The tutor moves to the rear of the room, a strategy which enables him to monitor the groups at the back of the lecture theatre, the place from which most noise emanates. The central character in the video is setting up a small business selling fresh fruit juice. This seems to appeal to the students, possibly because it is food related. It appears to capture everyone’s attention and for the first time, after fifty minutes, the room is silent and seems to be focussed. Again I find that I am unable to completely subsume my teaching background as no agenda has been set for the students before viewing the film. Is the task of the students to simply just watch the video? Or will they be questioned about its content? Should they take notes? Will they be expected to discuss any specific issues covered? These questions remain unanswered and immediately the film is finished the noise level in the room rises dramatically, and the talking does not completely disappear. At one point there is a very low sound of singing, as well as the constant tapping sound created by a pen on a bench top. The tutor repeats the original purpose of the session, that there is a lot to be covered in this particular lecture; two weeks worth of information has to be concentrated into this one session. I can only guess that it is because this is the last session in the semester. Rather than having a break at this point, the tutor offers to finish the session a little earlier which is greeted with a murmur of approval. Suddenly a student leaves the room, disturbing the other students on the row who take a long time to settle back down. At intervals the tutor requests that the students write down some notes which he dictates. This seems to focus their attention; they appear to be listening now and individuals ask for some of the vocabulary to be repeated. However, all through this presentation the tutor request quiet: ‘Shhhhhhhh. Shhhhhhhh.’ The sound is like an automatic door, regularly opening and closing, opening and closing, triggered by the noise of conversation from different student 156 groups. His requests are reinforced by a voice from the student body, loudly, harshly, and with a sense of frustration: ‘Shudup! Shudup!’

In that lesson especially everyone just talks and you’re sitting there and you’re like “oh God just shut up” everything will get done so much faster if people were just quiet.

Alice , BA student After an hour and fifteen minutes, and fifteen minutes after the end of the video clip, the noise level again rises dramatically, but like the other peaks and troughs, falls to a dull constant hum of conversation. Some small smatterings of which filter to where I am sitting: ‘Prostitute!’ And someone starts to sing. ‘Have I lost you?’ the tutor asks. The noise intensifies and the hum of small conversations rises as each competes with the other. It’s now 1 hour 20 minutes into the session and the restless, fidgeting body language of many students appears to signal that they have indeed been lost.

Because like normally if we had a 2 Matt, FdA student hour lesson, we’d get a break in between on NVQs, but now we don’t. It’s basically like a straight 2 hour lesson and it can be a bit boring.

There are no responses to questions from the tutor and no questions generated by the students. There is a very loud shriek of laughter from one particular group of female students and others turn back to look on with apparent surprise. Pariese , FdA student

The atmosphere, there are people talking and then....well I don’t talk but like my friend she talks all the time and then she talks to me and then it looks like....I think the other group think, all of us together, we’re a noisy…. but… I don’t talk it’s just that she starts talking to me and sometimes when I do lose my concentration I do answer her back I just can’t help that.

Other students also appear to be ‘switched off’ by now but manage this less obviously and less noisily, heads bent down, turning pages in books and note-pads. The tutor stops talking and manages to achieve silence using this strategy; the group is pulled back to at least partial attention. 157

Another student leaves the room accompanied by much laughter from certain sections of the group. This is an extravagant, dramatic exit made with fast, leaping strides across the front of the lecture theatre: ‘It’s Baywatch,’ someone shouts from the back of the room. Her return is less flamboyant with most students not even registering her return. Now at one hour thirty minutes there is a free-for-all of conversations, and it is difficult at points to hear some of what the tutor is saying from my seat a third of the way from the front. James , FdA student

You have the first hour and a half then you start to……….. lose concentration, you try your best not to….

At one hour forty minutes from the start of the session the tutor tells the students to look up notes on the college intranet and to read them independently. A module evaluation sheet is issued and a small cheer rises from the group. When the sheet is completed, small groups of students make their way out of the room; they now have just over an hour before the next session in which to have lunch and get changed ready for the afternoon’s practical class.

Lizzie , BA You come out of those lectures and Student you just think “what have I just learned?”

I wait until the room is nearly empty and make my way to the front to speak to the tutor. I have so many questions but I am aware that he may have another class to go to. I want to know what I have observed; was this a ‘typical’ session, whatever that may be? Or did this session reflect the fact that this was the first after a break from classes, and the groups and individuals had lots to say to each other? The tutor stops to talk to me for a few minutes. He feels that what I had observed is ‘typical’ of these sessions, and comments on the wide diversity of experience of the group members and the difficulties of learning in this type of session. He tells me: ‘Some students can barely read and write and others are really bright…..two hours is a long time to keep concentration’. Together we gather up the remaining handouts and leave the room agreeing to talk again when there is more time. So many thoughts and questions are tumbling through my mind. If widening participation strategies encourage a diversity of students into higher education, does higher education have an obligation to utilise and explore different approaches and understandings of teaching and learning? Or should students ‘have to get used to it’? Can dual sector institutions 158 occupy a unique position in which innovative and imaginative approaches to teaching and learning criss-cross and merge the practices of FE and HE? Or are their creative wings too tightly secured to sector rule and regulation? How much is finance a factor in decisions made about the organisation of teaching and learning? Are organisational challenges being met before the challenge of student diversity of learning and teaching experience? I recall being told that the FdA and BA students are taught together for a number of sessions because the level of study for both qualifications is the same in this first undergraduate year. What this fails to take into account however, are the very different learning experiences which each of the students bring at entry to this course. I make my way to the student café to snatch some lunch before changing into my uniform in readiness for the afternoon session.

At 2.45pm many of the students are already waiting in one of the college restaurants for the afternoon practical session to begin. This afternoon session lasts until close of service which could be any time up until 10.30pm depending on the menu and the number of customers. Everyone is wearing some kind of uniform, chef’s whites for those working in the kitchen this week, and lab-coats for the students working ‘front of house’. This includes me; I wear a white trilby hat to keep my hair tucked away and a white lab-coat which has the word ‘Visitor’ embroidered in large blue letters below the left lapel. Unlike in the morning session, I am now a very obtrusive observer, the trilby hat, pen and note-book highlighting my presence and position. Some students are still talking about their Christmas break, where they have worked, what they have done. I also hear discussion of the upcoming mid-semester break; is this three weeks ‘off’ or is it three weeks of ‘reading’? The group is now slightly smaller than the morning session as some students are working in another area of the college as part of the rota of activities around which this practical session is organised. This afternoon there seems to be a greater intermingling of students who I recognise to be on the FdA and BA programmes. At 3.00pm sharp, one of the five tutors responsible for this session takes a register. The replies are clipped and polite: ‘Yes’. ‘Yes, chef’. While the tutor/chef talks, no one else does. The room is totally silent except for the sound of her voice. Customer numbers are low for this 159 evening’s service which is often the case just after Christmas the students are told, and this will affect the way they will be divided into groups. Lizzie , BA student

We work on a rotation so there’s six groups. We work in four week blocks so each group will do the same thing for four weeks. And then there’s six groups and there’s six areas and the six areas are Food Service 1 and 2 which is basically just waiting on tables, and then we’ve got Food Production 1 and 2 which is the cooking for the restaurants, so we’ve got the pastry kitchen which does all the desserts for both restaurants, and then there’s pastry skills and that’s a class that’s not to do with the restaurant….

I decide that I will spend time with each of these groups during the afternoon and evening, and this will hopefully give me an opportunity to observe all of this practical session apart from the pastry skills class being held elsewhere. I am also keen to ensure that I do not obstruct staff and students when preparation and production gets more advanced close to restaurant opening time. I begin in the pastry section. It’s 3.20pm and already the kitchen is a hive of activity. It has taken very little time for the students to busy themselves with the practical work they need to undertake. To me the atmosphere appears calm and there is an unusual ‘quiet’. This is a ‘quiet’ imposed by the continuous loud throb from the motors of the industrial size larder fridges; this throb mutes the clatter and clang of implements being used and moved, and the verbal exchanges made between students and the tutor/chef. Activities are differentiated, with each student having tasks to perform which contribute to the production of items for the dessert menu. These are invitingly described as: fresh fruit tartlets with kiwi sorbet, chocolate and cherry amoretti tartlets with vanilla bean ice cream, dark chocolate mousse with dried fruit compote, cold lemon soufflé, mango delice, fresh raspberries with passion fruit ice cream, tropical fruit salad with lemon grass syrup and profiteroles with hot chocolate sauce. The students refer to recipes, these are either their own sets which they have in small booklets or singly printed copies, laminated to survive the inevitable splashes and splatter of meal production. The chef/tutor leaves the room and there is no apparent change in student activity, all continue, appearing focussed and busy. This is despite the fact that tonight there are only twenty ‘covers’ and a student tells me: ‘This will be an easy day.’ 160

This comment is likely to be correct, as these numbers mean that for each customer tonight, there will be at least two students working to prepare and cook their meal. She goes on to explain that the dessert menu is Geoff , BA student

….it’s slightly unrealistic because there’s lots of people and for what we are doing in the kitchen on a pastry basis would probably take three trained chefs….it gives you time management as I say but it doesn’t give you any sense of the business changed every week so that there is plenty of variety. There is also scope for choice depending on individual student skills and experience as some desserts are more complex than others, for example mille-feux and fruit salad. The kitchen is brightly lit with this light reflected by the stainless steel cupboards, fridges, sinks, shiny utensils and equipment. The predominant decoration is monotone; the grey, white, and silver enlivened by flashes of colour from the bright citrus fruits which will form part of the fruit salad, the deep blue of the gas flames on the hobs, and the rich terracotta colour of the floor tiles. After 40 minutes the air is suffused with the tangy aroma of lemons and the sweet smell of pastry cream, a rich concoction akin to confectioner’s custard. The tutor/chef has unobtrusively returned and is now working alongside the students. The only difference between the appearance of the chef/tutor and the students is in the height of the hat each wears. The tutor/chef’s hat is a paper version of the traditional toque; the students wear flat, neatly fitting cap-shaped headwear. The tutor/chef circles the students from time to time to check on progress, sometimes they come to her with questions. She shows a student how to peel a pineapple, another how to integrate chocolate into egg whites, and helps to find ingredients and utensils. At one point everyone is stopped to show them how to recognise when a sponge mixture is adequately beaten. The mixture under scrutiny is too yellow and there is still grainy sugar in evidence which means that more mixing is required. This is a complex but choreographed dance of teaching and learning with students and tutor/chef partners in the production. The pace is brisk, and after an hour of working, the temperature has risen, becoming quite hot. Students are constantly on the move, washing up utensils and equipment as they work. At regular intervals, staff in deep blue uniforms appear and unobtrusively clear away rubbish. 161

As I move into the adjacent kitchens, the heat intensifies and the smells and noises change. Bubbling oil and butter sizzle and spit in pans on the hobs, and the pungent smell of onions, garlic, herbs, and wine intermingles and strengthens in intensity. Two chef/tutors are supervising the work of the two groups responsible for the first and main courses on the menu; there’s four first and four main courses to prepare tonight despite the fact that there are only 20 customers. Alice , BA student

It is totally different doing practicals here, even like on a Monday night when you’re in a realistic working environment, it’s totally different to being at work. ….like at work you could be doing six or seven different things at once, you know, like once something’s cooking you’ll be doing something else rather than standing around, you’ll be getting something prepped up if you like.

These two tutor/chefs wear uniforms which exactly mirror those of the students, including, this time, their hats. Like the tutor/chef in the pastry section, they move about the students commenting on technique, encouraging students to: ‘Taste. Taste.’ By 4.35pm the pace of work is quickening, with students keen to have all their tasks completed so that they can have a short break at 6.00pm before service starts 45 minutes later. ‘It’s a time pressure, I love it!’ one of the chef/tutors exclaims, ‘Hells Kitchen.’ He laughs. ‘No, not like that, we don’t swear. It’s calm and quiet, we don’t need to swear.’ And he’s right. There is tension and excitement but this is not expressed by loud noise or shouting, there is just urgency felt in the air like electricity before a storm. At just after 5 o’ clock I move to the ‘front-of-house’ which includes the two restaurants and the bar area which serves them both. My planning has been poor as there are no students to be seen as it appears that their tasks have been completed. A tutor tells me that they have gone for a break, and to change into their cloakroom attendant, waiter, bar staff, and restaurant manager uniforms. The bar has been set up, and the restaurant tables have been carefully laid; glasses shine, cutlery neatly arranged. A white linen napkin stands proudly in the centre of each place setting. I spend a brief moment talking to this tutor who is wearing a formal suit of the type worn by reception staff in hotels. She tells me that she teaches on both FE and HE courses and that she enjoys having the opportunity to work with students who have: ‘Moved up to HE’. 162

Her explanation of this comment suggests that this ‘up’ is both a reference to the fact that, except for the practical sessions, HE students like those on the CAM course are physically located and taught on higher floors in this eleven floor building than FE students. But also that in her view, HE teaching is perceived as having a higher status. This unexpected remark serves to remind me that despite the surroundings, I am in a teaching and learning environment in a dual sector educational institution. After a much needed break, I return to the bar area at 6.30pm and find the students now changed into white shirts and black trousers which are the waiters uniform, with the head waiter’s rank signified by the addition of a waistcoat. There is an air of expectation, and customers are assembling in the reception area. I return to the kitchen, and as the orders come in, the heat rises, sizzling sounds increase in level, and for the first time a chef/tutor’s voice is loud as he calls out orders from his position at ‘the pass’. This is a long stainless steel counter-top across which meals are passed from the chefs to the waiting-staff. There are varying levels of activity in evidence as some students are busy producing their starters and main courses while others have little to do. All depends on what the customers order. Lizzie , BA student

….I have really enjoyed service because it’s more…..there’s more to do because in comparison with Pastry where you spend all day making a dessert and then you’ve got to wait until 9 o’ clock or something like that before the checks start coming on.

Moving back into the relative calm of the pastry section, which will not become busy until later in the evening, I have the opportunity to talk to two students. They are using pistachio nuts to edge individual lemon soufflés and it appears easy for them to talk while carrying out this activity. Both students are on the FdA programme and one is a student participant in the study. Last year each of them successfully gained the NVQ Level 3 Advanced Food Preparation and Cooking award at the college. They tell me of their disappointment that they feel they have not been challenged by the practical work on the degree programme so far. Their comments about how the practical sessions could be organised shows that they are well aware of the wide range of practical ability and experience amongst the students, both within and between the FdA and BA group. Division on this basis, they

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Matt , FdA student

I’ve always thought that like splitting that and keeping the FdA’s as separate but they want to mix it so that you can sort of learn them in a way so they can benefit from you because you’re more experienced…. maintain, would not solve the difficulty. They talk about the possibility of dividing groups by skill but as both say that they have been deliberately partnered to work with less experienced and less skilled peers, this would not seem to be an option. ‘We are paying for this’, one comments, emphasising his frustration that he feels he has acquired no additional practical skills during this first semester in higher education. Paul , FdA student

The practical work - I’m actually disappointed to be honest.. because as far as practical work goes there’s obviously....they’ve got to set it at a standard where the BAs and the FdAs can do it….as I’ve mentioned the BAs come from A levels so they haven’t got very much skill in the kitchen, so the food that we’re doing at the moment is pretty much NVQ3 stuff which we did last year…so you’ve got all the FdAs which are moaning because we did it last year so why are we doing it this year again, I’m not improving my skills at all

because I’ve done it all. ….the FDAs I think, every single one, me and all my mates have literally been saying “well we’re not practising our skills, we’ve paid £3,000 to essentially do an NVQ3 with more theory” the theory’s been useful but the practicals have just been pretty much the same

and it’s because the BAs aren’t at the same standard as the FdAs. practical wise. These comments generate further questions to add to those already raised by my day’s experiences. How might skills, knowledge, and experience gained in further education be acknowledged, developed, and integrated into higher education teaching and learning? Could dual sector institutions be uniquely positioned to resolve issues related to prior learning experience? How does positioning students as consumers of higher education affect curriculum organisation and planning? What part does wearing a uniform play in influencing student behaviour? Is the chef uniform the embodiment of a long established professional kitchen hierarchy and culture which has expectations related to conduct and behaviour? How might this have an impact on teaching and learning both in FE and HE? Does the apparent binary divide between FdA and BA students described by both staff and students need exposing as one which is much more complex? How important would this be to the organisation and practices of teaching and learning within this programme of study? 164

At 8.00pm I have to leave to catch my train, my mind fizzing with these questions and thoughts. I am aware that the students who arrived at the same time as me some eight hours earlier, are still working/being taught /learning and, in some cases, teaching their peers, and may not arrive in hall of residence until much later, or home much later still.

Reflection through communities of practice Andrew Cox’s (2005) comparative review of seminal work concerned with the concept of communities of practice , draws attention to the way in which it is used so diversely in what he calls a: ‘burgeoning literature’ (p.528). In reviewing the work of Jean Lave and Etienne Wenger (1991), John Seely Brown and Paul Duguid (1991), Etienne Wenger (1998) and Etienne Wenger, Richard McDermott and William Snyder (2002), he draws attention to the ambiguity of the concept across these texts. He puts forward the view that in using the term, it is essential to: ‘….position any usage of the concept clearly in relation to one of these versions’ (p.536). This view is also expressed by Mary Lea (2005), who encourages researchers to take a fresh approach to utilising the concept of communities of practice to examine teaching and learning in higher education. She argues that this concept, along with the twin concept of legitimate peripheral participation proposed by Lave and Wenger (1991), are most useful when used heuristically. That is, as a way of exploring and: ‘….understanding the different interpretations of a learning situation’ (p.188). Along with Lea’s ( ibid ) discussion, the most influential factor which drew me to utilise these concepts, developed within the theory of learning put forward by Lave and Wenger (1991), was the vocational orientation of the studies presented in this original work. This being the apprenticeship of midwives, tailors, quartermasters and butchers (the study of nondrinking alcoholics being the exception). For me, these descriptions of disparate work-based settings for learning, generated resonances in a study set within a vocational degree programme, one in which work-based practices are strongly promoted in a variety of ways. Before moving on to employ these concepts in the exploration of the complexity of the learning contexts described in the preceding narrative, I consider it helpful here to return to the original work of Lave and Wenger (1991). This is in order to clarify and present my understandings of these terms, and the concepts which they represent, within what is a highly complex theory of learning. This theory, Lave and Wenger ( ibid ) argue, is one in which learning is perceived to be: …not merely situated in practice – as if it were some independently reifiable process that just happens to be located somewhere; learning is an integral part of generative social practice in the lived-in-world (p. 35). 165

My interpretation of this perspective is that learning is seen not as an isolated activity distinct from the many other activities in which people engage, but is part of wider social engagement. It is also a perspective from which learning is seen to take place anywhere. Most importantly, Lave and Wenger ( ibid ) emphasise that this theory moves: ‘....the analytic focus from the individual as learner to learning as participation in the social world, and from the concept of cognitive process to the more-encompassing view of social practice (p.43).

To explain and facilitate understanding, Lave and Wenger ( ibid ) introduce and explore the concepts underpinning this theory through two key terms: legitimate peripheral participation and communities of practice . In this 1991 text, the term communities of practice is very loosely defined, being described as: ….a set of relations among persons, activity, and world, over time and in relation to other tangential and overlapping communities of practice’ (p.98). Membership of such communities, they maintain, do not imply homogeneity of interest, contributions, or viewpoints but entail: ‘….participation in an activity system about which participants share understandings concerning what they are doing and what that means in their lives and for their communities’ (p.98). Thus communities of practice act as systems within which learning can take place. In later work, Wenger (1998) describes communities of practice as being defined by three particular characteristics: mutual engagement , joint enterprise and a shared repertoire . In utilising these terms later in this discussion, as well as that of reification, I am aware that I have strayed from Lave and Wenger’s earlier less defined notions. However, I feel that these terms enhance the way in which adopting this approach can be conceived and articulated. Lave and Wenger (1991) discuss legitimate peripheral participation in a variety of ways. For example as: ‘ ….a descriptor of engagement in social practice that entails learning as an integral constituent’ (p.35); as : ‘....a way to speak about the relations between newcomers and old-timers, and about activities, identities, artefacts, and communities of knowledge and practice (p.29); and as: ‘....a process’ (p. 29) which learners may move through towards full participation in a community of practice . I interpret this last definition to mean that individual members of communities of practice can be both newcomers and old-timers who contribute to the maintenance and development of the community, and who shift and move position within it as part of the process of achieving full participation . Lave and Wenger ( ibid ) describe full participation as that to which peripheral participation leads, emphasising that this is a dynamic and diverse position by virtue of the fact that communities of practice themselves are unique and in a constant state of refinement. 166

The observational narrative provided earlier presents a complex picture of learning in higher education on the CAM course at Citygate College. This complexity is in part due to the two diverse learning environments observed and described, but also to the unusual mix of both FdA and BA students within these environments. Such a mix inevitably increases the diversity of prior educational and workplace experiences which individuals in these two groups bring to higher education. How these experiences are acknowledged and drawn upon, or not, in these higher education environments, adds to the complexity. Both of these factors however, add intriguing dimensions to the learning situations, and the way in which an application of a communities of practice perspective to reflect on, and attempt to make sense of learning in higher education might be possible. In what follows I consider each of these two contexts in turn, developing an interpretive approach to the concept of communities of practice . I then focus on key points of interest, and conclude with reflection on the use of this approach.

Students learning about learning on the CAM course In what I refer to as ‘the theory session’ to describe the first tutor-directed teaching and learning session which I observed, it is possible to construct a number of related but different communities of practice as a means through which to explore and reflect on learning on the CAM course. The first which I construct is the institutional academic community of old-timers and newcomers. This community is characterised by mutual engagement shared by members, in the many activities to which these groups are dedicated in the joint enterprise, not of learning to become Culinary Arts Managers, but of learning to be higher education students at Citygate College. This community utilises a shared repertoire and it is this shared repertoire that is of interest to me here. Wenger (1998) lists a host of practices which can make up the repertoire of a community including: ‘….routines, words, tools, ways of doing things, stories, gestures…. (p.83). In the theory session described earlier, I interpret the lecture theatre environment to be a reification (Wenger, ibid ) of much of this community’s shared repertoire. Put another way, the physical environment which is the lecture theatre, gives form to many of the practices of learning expected in higher education. These practices include the assumed behaviours which such a space engenders, and implicit in these behaviours, the notion of a transmission model of learning (Lea, 2005). For the student in this environment, these assumed behaviours include: arriving within a prescribed time-frame, being part of a very large group of students, sitting still for extended periods, being attentive to the tutor who is usually positioned at the front, and carrying out routines such as note-taking, utilising hand-outs, and responding to questions asked by the tutor. It is through practising and engaging with these behaviours that learning is assumed to take place. Within the theory session observed, these 167 established ‘ways of doing things’ are acknowledged by individual students in different ways, and this positions them differently in relation to the community of practice. Some students act as relative old-timers in this community, engaged by the format of the lecture, readily taking notes, and answering questions; others appear to be newcomers, wavering in their levels of concentration, wanting to answer questions but not quite confident enough to do so; while a number of others appear to be seeking entry by recognising a need to ‘get used to’ this type of session. For some students however, their position appears to be one of unrelatedness (Lave and Wenger, 1991, p. 37). This term, which Lave and Wenger put forward as a conceptual antonym for peripherality within a community of practice , seems to me to be highly appropriate to describe those students who struggle to engage with the session. However it is possible to construct these students less as passively ‘unrelated’ to the institutional community but more as active members of other communities of practice which act in competition with the dominant institutional academic one. In these competing communities some of the shared repertoires appear to be the antithesis of those within the institutional community, for example: lateness, chatter, action, movement, noise, and unresponsiveness to tutor direction and questioning. However it should also be remembered that within these communities too, there are both old-timers and newcomers. These different communities and the different positions of the students within each one, pose huge challenges for the tutor. Using a communities of practice perspective, the tutor in this theory session could be placed as a master within the institutional academic community as he ostensibly knows what it means to learn in higher education. It is through his practices that the community is reproduced and maintained. However in the situation I observed, the tutor appears at times to be attempting to modify the ‘ways of doing things’ which are part of the community’s shared repertoire. He does this for instance, by accommodating latecomers and students who move in and out of the space, by providing a range of formats to the presentation of material which provide scope for different actions, and by concluding the session early in recognition of the fact that many of the students have lost focus. This seems to be in an attempt to minimise the potential for conflict between the different communities, but also an attempt to align them. In doing so, he appears to be taking account of the different prior educational experiences of the students, and how this contributes to their different levels of participation.

Students on the CAM course learning about working in the hospitality industry The ‘practical session’ I observed took place in what is termed a realistic working environment (RWE). This environment simulates as closely as possible industry kitchens, bars and restaurants. At Citygate, the RWE is enhanced by the high level 168 of realism of the physical surroundings, and the depth of industrial experience amongst the tutors involved. Within this environment, it is again possible to construct a community of practice , this community being dedicated to the joint enterprise of providing a restaurant experience for customers. Through this joint enterprise learning about working in the hospitality industry is assumed to take place. In this community, membership includes tutors acting as old-timer head chefs and service managers, and students acting as newcomer chefs, waiting, and bar staff. What is interesting to me about this environment is the level of realism with which these roles are enacted through the shared repertoire of the community, a community modelled on one which might be found in large commercial restaurant. Thus the routines, words, and ways of doing things, reflect a strongly disciplined, hierarchical approach to the joint enterprise of the community. For example the tutors in this session are referred to by both students and other tutors almost reverentially as ‘chef’, and when the register is called, deference to the head chef is shown by the silence of the large group. This discipline however, acts to suppress the way in which newcomers might contribute to the community or challenge existing ‘ways of doing things’ to which I refer later. Perhaps the most striking aspect of this community is the various uniforms which are worn by all members. Again, using Wenger’s (1998) thesis, it is possible to construct these uniforms as reifications of this community’s shared repertoire. Thus when these uniforms are worn, ways of doing things are accepted, understood, and practiced. How eggs are beaten into cake mixture, fruit is chopped, onions are sweated, meals cross the pass, cutlery is arranged, and napkins are placed, are done in certain ways using established practices. These practices are overseen by old-timers acting alongside newcomers. Within this community, these newcomers can be positioned at different points in the process of legitimate peripheral participation by virtue of their different prior educational and workplace experiences. Thus CAM students who have been NVQ students at Citygate on food preparation and cookery courses, and who have part-time jobs in the hospitality industry, are relative old-timers compared to those newcomers direct from ‘A’ levels, or those without any hospitality industry workplace experience. Again, for the chef/tutors within this practical session these differences pose challenges which are articulated by students during the observation, and reinforced by student participants in interview conversations. Here there is a sense of frustration generated, caused by what these students perceive to be the elementary level of the tasks in which they are engaged, and a lack of challenge in these tasks which they see as inhibiting learning. Using a communities of practice perspective, it could be argued that learning about working in the hospitality industry involves: learning how to accommodate workers who have different levels of skills and 169 experience, learning how to deal with periods of low activity when staffing is high and customer numbers are low, and learning to accept that at times activities will be mundane and unchallenging. The test for the tutor/chefs is how to present, manage, and practice these aspects of learning in ways which are appropriate and relevant to both newcomer and relative old-timer students.

Reflections Using the concept communities of practice as a means through which to explore learning and teaching on the CAM course has revealed a number of points of interest for me. Firstly is the unexpected similarity in the two contexts in the way in which the relationship between relative old-timer and newcomer students is expressed. In both contexts this relationship is one of tension, more overtly conveyed in the theory session, but still in evidence in the practical one. In both contexts, the relative old-timer students express, in different ways, frustration about the way in which they perceive newcomer students hindering their own participation and progress. In both contexts, this tension is addressed by the tutors; in the theory session through the way in which the tutor attempts to modify practices, and in the practical session through the use of differentiated activities. However, I find it difficult to assess whether these actions are powerful enough to dispel this tension, or whether there is a need for a more fundamental change to the way in which these sessions are organised. Next, the approach has drawn attention to learning which takes place outside of timetabled sessions, what Lave and Wenger (1991) refer to as: ‘…. learning as participation in the social world’ (p.43). Here there are other communities to negotiate, for example: the workplace communities of which many students are members, and the different communities encountered by those students who live at home with parents, live independently, or live in halls of residence. What the approach has also done I believe, is to reveal that the divide between FdA and BA students, described by year manager Mary, and insightfully by students Paul and Skittles presented earlier, is too simple a perspective. A communities of practice approach reveals learning on the CAM course to be better understood by defining students not by their present qualification level but through their ability to negotiate, manage, and sustain participation in an intricate web of different communities.

Communities of practice: a bricoleur’s perspective Mary Lea (2005) draws attention to certain limitations of Lave and Wenger’s (1991) work, especially in relation to issues around the edge of a community of practice, or the way in which the practices of newcomers contribute to it. Further limitations are also identified by Alison Fuller, Heather Hodkinson, Phil Hodkinson 170 and Lorna Unwin (2005) in their work which seeks to understand workplace learning. Here they identify a lack of exploration of the significance of conflict and unequal power relations. For me, one fundamental limitation is the distinction which is made by Lave and Wenger (1991) between formal and informal learning, with their focus being informal learning. However, by taking a bricoleur’s perspective (Denzin and Lincoln, 2005) to the concept of communities of practice , limitations give way to possibilities; these possibilities emerging from the way in which different interpretations can be adapted to aid clarification of diverse complex situations. For Denzin and Lincoln ( ibid ) the researcher as bricoleur is someone who will: ‘….invent, or piece together, new tools or techniques’ (p.4). In an attempt to understand the learning situations which I observed, I am aware that I have pieced together and adapted facets of Lave and Wenger’s (1991) concept of communities of practice. In doing so, however, I believe that important aspects of what it means for some students to learn in higher education have been illuminated, and many of the questions which were raised during the observation have also been addressed. Using a bricoleur’s approach to explore the complexity of the two very different learning contexts previously described, has thrown into relief the different practices which students in higher education have to negotiate. ‘Getting used to’ these practices is something which some students find extremely difficult, and whether they are able, or even wish to ‘get used to’ these practices, will perhaps be a factor in determining their continued participation in higher education. This must be of concern to teaching staff and institutional managers, and particularly those in a dual sector college like Citygate, where students with diverse educational and workplace backgrounds are actively encouraged as part of initiatives to widen participation.

171 vttradi 9 Education goes public –––the–the case of Citygate College PROGRAMME 6 A Performance Script

Perspectives on group/team work as a teaching and learning strategy in higher education: a found performance piece

Between a rock and a hard place

Performance Parts:

Chorus A: Johnson and Johnson 50 Chorus B: students Chorus C: mixed student / researcher voices Coordinator 1 Coordinator 2 Research Fieldworker Narrator – role to identify each performer in subsequent dialogue Student 1 Student 2 Student 3 Student 4 Student 5 Student 6 Student 7 The Student Friendly Guide (The SFG): a text for undergraduates working on group projects The Voice of Research (The V of R): an individual who represents the various researchers whose work has been drawn on Tutor 1 Tutor 2

NOTE: the following direction notes are only applicable to directed performances. The script can be presented purely as a reading.

Direction note: The performance space is bare except for 15 (13*) chairs which are randomly spread about. All of the chairs are facing the front of the space. The performers enter the performance space singly from different directions. They silently merge and mingle before taking a chair and forming into two groups. The performers taking the parts of students sit together as one group; all other performers sit together as the second group. The narrator sits with the second group but at the end nearest the first group.

Dialogue read by each performer is addressed directly as if to one particular person in the audience. No dialogue is addressed to any other character in the performance space except where indicated in the script.

(*Where space / props/ technical facilities will allow, the two performers reading The Voice of Research and The Student Friendly Guide will EITHER – stand on either side of each group at a lectern OR will be represented symbolically on a screen behind the performance space thus their voices will be disembodied.)

50 Chorus A: Johnson, D and Johnson, F. (2000) p. 7, 19, 20, 539. 172

(Introduction spoken by 3 members from each group)

Chorus A 1: Membership in groups is inevitable and ubiquitous.

Chorus A 2: All day long we interact first in one group

Chorus A 3: then in another.

Chorus A 4: Our life is filled with groups

Chorus A 5: from the moment of our birth

Chorus A 6: to the moment of our death.

(Slight pause )

Chorus A 1: A small group may be defined as two or more people who

Chorus A 2: pursue common goals

Chorus A 3: are interdependent

Chorus A 4: interact with each other

Chorus A 5: share norms concerning matters of common interest

Chorus A 6: participate in a system of interlocking roles

Chorus A 1: influence each other

Chorus A 2: find the group rewarding

Chorus A 3: define themselves and are defined by others as

Chorus A ALL : belonging to the group.

(Pause) Narrator: College coordinator 1

Coordinator 1 51 : I want to call group work team work now because you know we work in teams in industry and ‘groups’ sounds a bit……..yes it sounds ‘schooly’. We were talking at the beginning of the week about whether to re-brand it because working in teams is an essential skill.

Chorus A ALL : To be a team, you first have to be a group.

(Chorus: sharp and snappy ) Chorus B 1: Group work

Chorus B 2: Seminar group

Chorus B 3: The BA group

Chorus B 4: Presentation group

Chorus B 5: Smaller groups

51 Coordinator 1: Vivienne Interview Conversation (24.5.07). 173

Chorus B 6: Group assignment

(Slight Pause)

Narrator: The Voice of Research and College Coordinator 2.

The V of R 52 : Group work has long been accepted as an effective learning strategy because it provides opportunities for students to negotiate meaning and manipulate ideas with others and reflect upon their learning.

Furthermore, universities are responding to the need to prepare graduates for 21 st century workplaces where team work skills are valued.

Coordinator 2 53 : There’s a whole range of different sort of issues that have perhaps sort of raised concerns maybe amongst students about issues associated with group work. But on the other side of things we’ve got employers saying:

(To be read/interjected by member of Group 1 immediately following dialogue above)

Interjection 1 ‘we need people with team working skills, group working skills because they are quite essential to their employability, we expect them to work as a member of a team’

Coordinator 2: so you’re caught between a rock and a hard place in some ways.

(Chorus: sharp and snappy ) Chorus B 6: There’s three groups

Chorus B 3: There’s six groups

Chorus B 5: There’s six groups of eleven

Chorus B 2: We’re in groups of four or five

Chorus B 4: The whole group’s split into three different groups

Chorus B 1: We’re divided into seminar groups so the whole group is divided into four groups

The V of R 54 : ….team based learning can be a method of increasing complexity in the learning experience, which thus strengthens students’ preparedness for the complex environments into which they move after completing their degrees.

Given the demand among employers for graduates who can operate successfully in teams, it is important to engender a positive response for students for team working.

(Slight pause )

52 The Voice of Research: Burdett (2003) p.177. 53 Coordinator 2 :Graham, Interview Conversation (8.1.08). 54 The Voice of Research: Livingstone and Lynch (2000) p. 326, 340. 174

Narrator: Two college tutors. Tutor 1 55 : What do we think about group work?

Tutor 2 56 : The students hate it…they don’t like it at all…….but

Tutor 1: … it’s a necessary evil…but having said that I am constantly saying to students that ‘you’re never working on you own in this industry anyway’ so if your trying to put a positive slant on it, ‘whatever problems you find working in teams can only be beneficial for your future because you will face problems of working in teams…’

Tutor 2: You’re always going to work with people you don’t like…… Tutor 1: You’ll still have the same objectives to achieve and you’ll probably have different problems to face but you can guarantee there will be problems so…. maybe some good learning comes out of what’s maybe perceived as a bad experience. (Slight pause )

Narrator: Students.

Student 1 57 How do I find group work? Sometimes it’s alright because more heads are better than one like but I’ve found that with people that have not put in as much effort and they’re still getting the same grade that we are, so it’s like we’re carrying them and it’s not really fair. So it can be positives but I think I prefer single work.

Student 2 58 : I think that’s been easier, because you haven’t got all the workload on you. It’s spread between a group which I find a bit easier.

Student 3 59 : Well personally I prefer working individually because I like to do things my way and I know what’s done and…. you’ve got more control over it if you’ve got… well if you’re just doing it by yourself obviously, or even working with just one other person.

(Slight pause )

Narrator: The Voice of Research and a college tutor.

The V of R 60 : …….there is no reason to assume that students will possess the skills necessary to function effectively as a group, or that such skills will develop merely as a result of being placed in a group learning environment.

Tutor 2: Now the first piece of group work it’s my module and I do a session on group work with them and how…. about choosing the people you work with and it’s a real eye opener and I have to do a piece of evaluative work at the end of that assignment and its often the case that they say:

55 Tutor 1: Peter (Discussion meeting June 11 th 2007). 56 Tutor 2: Carol (Discussion meeting June 11 th 2007). 57 Student 1: James Interview Conversation 3 (4.5.07). 58 Student 2: Matt Interview Conversation 2 (16.11.06). 59 Student 3: Lizzie Interview Conversation 2 (30.11.06). 60 The Voice of Research: Pritchard, Bizo, and Stratford (2006) p. 120. 175

(To be read/interjected by member of Group 2 immediately following dialogue above)

Interjection 2: oh I won’t work with that person again

Tutor 2: and when you speak to the final year students, even the final students this year.. and they spoke to the third years just before they broke up they said:

(To be read/interjected by member of Group 2 immediately following dialogue above)

Interjection 2: be careful who you work with

Tutor 2: and especially when it gets near the end and people are chasing their final classification and the way somebody else works they see that determines their classification, that’s not the case but that’s how they see it and they say:

(To be read/interjected by member of Group 2 immediately following dialogue above)

Interjection 2: be careful who you choose to work with choose people who you know how they work

Tutor 2: by the fourth year they should know are they reliable and all of that sort of stuff… In the first year they don’t know that, they don’t know that it’s a learning curve…they don’t know about group work.

(Chorus: sharp and snappy ) Chorus B 1: We get split into groups

Chorus B 2: They sort of split the group into two lots

Chorus B 3: They break us up into smaller groups

Chorus B 4: They just tell you what groups you are in

Chorus B 5: We chose our group

Chorus B 6: You picked who you wanted to work with.

(Slight pause )

Narrator: The Student Friendly Guide, students, and The Voice of Research.

The SFG 61 : Ideally the selection of groups should be made by academics rather than the students themselves. Alternatively, they could employ a random selection, like drawing lots.

Student 4 62 : ....as soon as she said:

61 The SFG: The Student Friendly Guide, Levin, P. (2005) p. 23, 24. 62 Student 4: Gerrard Interview Conversation 3 (2.5.07). 176

(To be read/interjected by member of Group 1 immediately following dialogue above)

Interjection 3: you’ve got a group assignment

Student 4: I think everyone had already in their heads formed the group of who you were going to be with... and then like she said:

(To be read/interjected by member of Group 2 immediately following dialogue above)

Interjection 3: oh we’re going to pick out of the hat

Student 4: Because she said there’s three ways you can do it, there’s picking out of a hat, choosing yourself, and like the tutors put people together so we’re balanced.

How does it feel having your groups picked out of a hat? It’s horrible. It’s the worst thing ever. Because it’s like you could get a really good group or you could get a really bad group if you know what I mean. Because like now you know which people will do work and which people won’t do work.

Student 5 63 : Well like for instance on the Thursday afternoons you work with a partner and I’d got a really good partner, we were getting some of the top grades in the class together, and then they do split you up and put you with a weaker person….now I mean in industry you are obviously going to have to train people at some time but I’m supposed to be learning right now and to get put back with a weaker partner....

Student 1 64 : I’m not blaming the person I’m working with, but I find it difficult with the person I’m working with because the tutor said get into pairs and this was a couple of days before and because we didn’t know anybody, I just got left with him, but he hasn’t done any food cooking before and so its been left for me to show him and I’m not blaming him but its kind of held me back a little bit……

The V of R 65 : Results of this study supports the need for teacher intervention to make sure that the group selection process is not left to chance and that the average abilities of the groups are high enough to learn from their peers.

Student 1 66 : ……..I was put with somebody who’d never done anything, he’d just come straight from A levels and he never had the best attitude to be honest he was more about eating the food than….he’d just be sitting there and eating everything….

The V of R 67 : ………. group performance and satisfaction will be enhanced when randomly combining pairs of friends rather than randomly assigning all students to the group.

63 Student 5: Geoff Interview Conversation 3 (24.4.07). 64 Student 1: James Interview Conversation 2 (14.11.06). 65 The Voice of Research: Mahenthiran and Rouse (2000) p. 261. 66 Student 1: James Interview Conversation 3 (4.5.07). 67 The Voice of Research: Mahenthiran and Rouse (2000) p. 261. 177

Student 6 68 : I enjoy group work but we’ve had some… ‘problems’ with our group. You know they say “never work with your friends”? It can be quite difficult because if you’re friends with somebody you sort of…….you don’t really want to turn round and say ‘oh I’m not working with you because….you’re lazy’…..

Student 7 69 : But my friend, she….it was like a kind of....to tell her what to do was... like with the other girl I found it easier because I didn’t know her, but her it was kind of difficult……….

The V of R 70 : There is substantial evidence to propose the adoption of a course policy stating that students should be allowed to choose with whom they will work for group assignments, with the possible exception of the initial assignment in semester one.

Student 3 71 : ……well I wasn’t there in the seminar where they chose the groups. They chose their own groups but because I wasn’t there I didn’t get a say in what group I went into. And I’d already previously arranged to go into a group with two other people but on the day they arranged to go into a group with somebody else which left me stuck with these three people who were.... who obviously aren’t too fussed about what grades they get as long as they like pass the subject which..... It wasn’t good………. it was just doomed from the start really. (Slight pause )

Narrator: The Voice of Research, The Student Friendly Guide, a Fieldworker, and student.

The V of R 72 : …….this research has highlighted student concerns with aspects of formal group work processes and outcomes. The majority of these concerns relate to student frustration associated with perceived unfair assessment practices and the difficulties related to coordinating meeting times with group members.

Chorus B 1: I think they assess everything individually anyway.

Chorus B 2: I don’t know how she’s going to mark us on that.

(Chorus 3, 4, 5 no pauses between lines)

Chorus B 3: people that have not put in as much effort

Chorus B 4: they’re still getting the same grade that we are

Chorus B 5: so it’s like we’re carrying them

Chorus B 6: and it’s not really fair.

68 Student 6: Alice Interview Conversation 2 (29.11.06). 69 Student 7: Pariese Interview Conversation 3 (23.4.07). 70 The Voice of Research: Houldsworth and Mathews (2000) p. 52. 71 Student 3: Lizzie Interview Cooversation 3 (16.4.07). 72 The Voice of Research: Burdett (2003) p.190. 178

The SFG 73 : Coming to meetings is not only a matter of dealing with business and making sure that everyone participates in discussion and decision making: it signifies the continuing commitment of individuals to the project and their acceptance of obligations to one another.

If someone doesn’t show up to meetings and ‘goes quiet’, both the non-delivery of results and the uncertainty as to what’s going on can be very hard on the other members.

Field Worker: I was waiting with students in a corridor outside classrooms, waiting for the rooms to be free to enter when I observed the following scene. A tirade was raging. One of the students was arguing with another student about meeting up to practice a group assessed piece of work. She was furious that one of her group was not planning to stay for the group meeting planned for much later in the day. She had cancelled a personal appointment and was not at all happy that he was not going to stay. The air was fizzing with expletives and other students were physically distancing themselves from the argument. The angry student was clear that they all had a responsibility to stay and contribute to the work and assessment but her methods of persuasion were based on threat and physical presence. Under such strong pressure the student capitulated and agreed to stay. I wonder if he did?

Student 1 74 : Does living at home quite a way from university make things more complicated? It does because the groups I’m in with now they all live in hall, so if we want a meeting I’ve got to come all the way here and they can just slide out of bed and just walk down the road. So it’s a bit more difficult for getting here but...it’s alright because we’ve got e-mails so we can send each other the main stuff.

(Slight pause )

Narrator: The Voice of Research, Fieldworker, and student.

The V of R 75 : A common view is that group assignments are emotionally and socially demanding with unclear benefits for student learning.

Student 7 76 : This happened today with our assignment, we’ve handed it in… because the notice is half two.. we handed it in about 26 minutes past two, but as we handed it in one of the other girls said it was handed in wrong… there’s like our references was still in the printer. It was like… OK I know we left it all until the last minute I’ve been busy but I did my bit, the other girl did her bit, the other two did theirs but like…

Fieldworker 77 : Pariese is always quietly spoken until today

73 The SFG: The Student Friendly Guide, Levin, P. (2005) p. 38, 52. 74 Student 1: James Interview Conversation 3 (4.5.07). 75 The Voice of Research: Volet, S. and Mansfield, C. (2006) p. 342. 76 Student 7: Pariese Interview Conversation 2 (28.11.06). 77 Fieldnotes (28.11.06). 179

Student 7: I did extra stuff like the Conclusion, Recommendations, the Title Page and all that and the other girl did a lot as well and it’s just frustrating because I’ve wasted… I’ve missed lectures for this… to do the assignment to put it all together because I thought that they’ll think “oh we haven’t got a Conclusion let me do it” you know and then it wasn’t done, so I ended up doing that and then now I feel like I’ve wasted my time because it’s just… went in all muddled up, wrong and everything, page numbers all over the place. So it’s like we’re all trying, it’s like too many leaders like trying to take over, and I’m like “can I do it” and she’s doing it and it was just a mess - I’m a bit annoyed about that because it’s…. the other girl was crying.

Fieldworker: Her speech becomes loud and animated.

Student 7: I don’t know, it was with…. I don’t know, I don’t like group work anyway it’s just… I prefer to just go home and do my work and I know I’ve done it. Because I don’t know how she’s going to mark us on that now, piece it all together or…. in fact I’ve done a lot on there… I don’t know.

Fieldworker: She has very strong feelings about this way of working, she is angry and upset.

Student 7: Because obviously I felt sorry for the other girl that had one bit, I put her name on stuff she didn’t do, I put it under what I did, and then now it’s not worth it. I mean we had it… I had it done… oh I can’t believe it… the last minute….. (Slight pause )

Narrator: The Voice of Research, a student, and The Student Friendly Guide.

The V of R 78 : There are indications of the growing resentment in the ranks of the first-language students to their second language counterparts.

Student 4 79 : Well there’s a few groups that are like Chinese people who can’t really present because they can’t speak English that well so them groups would struggle more than a group that’s got like five English people in. My mate’s in a group with one and he really struggles to speak English properly. Yeah, it must be really hard when English isn’t your first language.

The SFG 80 : While cultural traits and differences account for many misunderstandings within teams, as you know perfectly well even within a single culture many different types of behaviour can be encountered.

(Slight pause )

78 The Voice of Research: Strauss, P. and U. A. (2007) p. 150. 79 Student 4: Gerrard Interview Conversation 3 (2.5.07). 80 The SFG: The Student Friendly Guide, Levin, P. (2005) p. 93. 180

Narrator: The Voice of Research, and two college tutors.

The V of R 81 : ……many faculties and schools have adopted the maxim ‘group is good’ and are virtually insisting that group assessments form an important part of evaluation processes. The positive approach that faculties appear to have adopted to group assessments might also make it difficult for lecturers to challenge the validity of the process

Tutor1 82 : I think that it’s….. imposed, its out of our control its not ideal but there’s nothing that we can do about it…

Tutor 2 83 : yes…yes..

Tutor 1: ….resources do not allow for a lot of individual work…although if it was all individual it would be wrong as well..

Tutor 2: ….yes…

Tutor1 : ..yes I think that there are times when perhaps there should be more individual work but…

Tutor 2: …it’s the way it is…..

(Chorus: sharp and snappy ) Chorus B 1: Group work

Chorus B 2: Seminar group

Chorus B 3: The BA group

Chorus B 4: Presentation group

Chorus B 5: Smaller groups

Chorus B 6: Group assignment

(Here performers direct dialogue to performers in their own and the other group. Sharp and snappy)

Chorus A 1: Are four minds better than one? 84

Chorus A 2: further research is needed 85

Chorus A 3: the views and insights of the major stakeholders, the students, needs to be canvassed 86

Chorus A 4: I don’t like group work

Chorus A 2: additional research is needed 87

Chorus A 5: I enjoy group work

81 The Voice of Research: Strauss, P. and U. A. (2007) p. 157. 82 Tutor 1: Peter (Discussion meeting June 11 th 2007). 83 Tutor 2: Carol (Discussion meeting June 11 th 2007). 84 Chorus A: James, D. (2005) p. 47. 85 Chorus A: McCorkle, D. (1999) p.116. 86 Chorus A: Strauss, P. and U. A. (2007) p. 158. 87 Chorus A: McCorkle, D. (1999) p.116. 181

Chorus A 2: there is a need for research to be conducted over several years 88

Chorus A 4: I don’t like group work

Chorus A 5: I enjoy group work

(Performers speak this ‘repeat’ dialogue by beginning two words before end of prior speaker –it becomes more muddled and clamorous)

Chorus A 1: Are four minds better than one?

Chorus A 2: further research is needed

Chorus A 3: the views and insights of the major stakeholders, the students, needs to be canvassed

Chorus A 4: I don’t like group work

Chorus A 2: additional research is needed

Chorus A 5: I enjoy group work

Chorus A 2: there is a need for research to be conducted over several years

Chorus A 4: I don’t like group work

Chorus A 5: I enjoy group work.

(Pause for silence)

Chorus A 6: Yeah, I can see why they do group work. I think that you learn a lot about other people and yourself in a way…………..

END

88 Chorus A: Houldsworth and Mathews (2000) p. 52. 182 vttradi 9 Education ggoesoes public –––the–the case of Citygate College PROGRAMME 6 Photo-Collages: Selection from a collection

Plate 11. Timetable Talk: Tuesday (21cm x 29cm)

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Plate 12. Power and Restraint (21cm x 29cm)

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Plate 13. Sixty-six (29cm x 21cm)

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Programme 10

RADIO CHOICE

Higher Education Goes Public: Citygate Revisited

Radio VTT 9.30pm – 9.50pm

Listeners may remember, that as part of a season of programmes which looked at the way in which government strategies to widen participation in higher education were being played out in various institutions, Clare Gayle met with staff and students from Citygate College. Citygate College has a strong vocational focus, and students who took part in the series were in their first year of study on a Culinary Arts Management degree programme. Tonight Clare is joined by researcher Val Thompson from the University of Sheffield, to get an update on what has been happening at Citygate since the last programme. Clare also finds out more about Val’s research interests and the various ways she is presenting her work.

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Clare: Good evening everyone and welcome to the final programme in our season Higher Education Goes Public. Over many weeks now we have been looking at different facets of the way in which higher education has developed in this country in response to what is now referred to as ‘mass’ higher education. This term is used since more people are being encouraged to study in higher education with numbers increasing over several years. Despite this there are still certain groups who are under-represented and these groups have been the target of government strategies to widen participation, strategies which have recently come under intense scrutiny. Listeners may remember that Citygate College has been the focus of several programmes in the season and we were delighted to have a number of students and staff from the college involved in a series of ‘conversation’ about their experiences and aspirations. In all three programmes we were joined by Val Thompson, a researcher from The University of Sheffield, and tonight she is with us once more to talk about her work and hopefully to give us an update on what has been happening at Citygate since our last programme. Welcome Val.

Val: Good evening.

Clare: I wonder Val if we could perhaps start with the college and what’s been happening there since we last met.

Val: Well there’s been quite a lot going on as you would expect…but perhaps the most significant event for the institution is that it has been given taught degree awarding powers.

Clare: Right, that sounds grand, what does it mean?

Val: It means that the institution can now award degrees in its own right. Although it has been designated a higher education institution since 2002, all degrees were actually awarded through another university. Now students will get their degrees directly from Citygate. This is an important step, but perhaps more significantly, it means that Citygate can now add the word ‘university’ to its title.

Clare: So does this mean that it’s no longer called Citygate College?

Val: That’s right, it’s now called Citygate University. This is important for many reasons…. for marketing purposes the title ‘university’ creates greater kudos and it does make things clearer for students too, they are at university now, whereas in the past Citygate was always referred to ambiguously as college, which was confusing.

Clare: I should think it was confusing for parents too..

Val: ..that’s right. It also gives more ownership to staff who may be developing new courses, in terms for example of the way that assessments are carried out, or how the curriculum is balanced. You may remember Mary from an earlier programme, she is the first year manager of the Culinary Arts Management course...she mentioned difficulties with validating the course in terms of the balance between practical and theory elements of the programme.

Clare: OK. So how does this change, this taught degree awarding powers happen?

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Val: Well, it’s quite a lengthy, complex and I should say expensive process. The power to award degrees is regulated by law and the QAA –the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education – is the conduit between institutions and the Privy Council. Each application has to meet stringent criteria and a whole raft of evidence gathering goes on before the QAA makes its recommendations.

Clare: You mentioned expensive?

Val: Well the last time I looked at the QAA website, the fee for taught degree awarding powers was £35,000 but I imagine that for many institutions, this outlay is well worth making as certainly in the international market, the title ‘university’ is very important, especially if the institution is in close proximity to other ‘universities’.

Clare: So what you are saying is that there is competition between universities as we have heard from other guests in previous programmes.

Val: There certainly is in relation to attracting international students. Ron, in the first of the Citygate programmes, mentioned the money that the halls of residence generate and the way in which this money is ploughed back. Higher Education is very much about business these days.

Clare: Ron, I remember talked about looking for more properties..

Val: ..yes, and this has gone ahead…Citygate has got more sites. As Ron said, there was no way that Summer Row, the HE building, could expand any further.

Clare: Right. So shall we move on to talk about the students who came on the programme, and the others who have been part of your study. For any listeners who may have missed some of these programmes, there is information on our usual web site at www.vttradio9/education/highereducation . Just to recap, students who were on the CAM Degree Programme at Citygate came to talk about their experiences of their first year at university. I know that they were due to go out on a year’s industrial placement….staff said this was a huge selling point for the course…..

Val: …..yes that’s right…it gives students the opportunity to work abroad and many were looking forward to this. Others were less sure about leaving part-time employment which they already had and which paid more generously than they would expect on placement.

Clare: OK so what can you tell us about the students….

Val: Well it’s very interesting because you may remember that there were sixty-six students in the group, some BA and some FdA. Now there are forty-five students, the BA group has lost nine and the FdA group has lost twelve. This change has taken place between the end of the first year and the beginning of the third year, after the forty-eight week placement. Some students failed to do the placement year and some students didn’t return after placement to the course for the third year, which for the FdA students would be their final year.

Clare: Are these numbers a surprise?

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Val: Well yes and no really because even though staff had said that the placement year usually acts as a filter…this is when students get to know if working in the hospitality industry is really for them. I also think that the year at work makes students think hard about whether they want to continue studying as well.

Clare: And what about the students who came to talk on the programme, and the others who have been part of your study?

Val: There’s been some change here….of the four who came on the programme, only one is still on the course, Skittles. Lizzie has moved to a BA Tourism course at Citygate and Matt and James have left higher education and now work in the hospitality industry. I think both of them were concerned that they needed experience to progress. Of the other six who were involved with my study, again this is interesting. Only one of the FdA students is still on the course, Paul….Gordon has left higher education, and Pariese has moved to a Food and Consumer Management programme, again at Citygate. Of the BA students, Amy is still there but Gerrard has moved to an Events Management course. Perhaps most interestingly Geoff has moved from the BA to the FdA. This will mean that he has only one more year before he gets his foundation degree. Geoff had talked to me about maybe doing this because he felt that he needed to be in the industry prioritizing the experience for progressing his career. His choice highlights what one of the staff Peter mentioned about the course not quite being understood by the industry yet. So….. of the ten CAM students in my study, only three have stayed on their original programme, which was a surprise to me.

Clare: And from what you have said, they have all made very different decisions about what to do.

Val: Yes but my main concern is that of the FdA students three of the five have dropped out of higher education altogether, whereas at least the BA students have chosen to stay even if its in another subject area.

Claire: And do you know why they have dropped out?

Val: Unfortunately I don’t. But there have been a number of studies around what is known as ‘attrition’…student drop-out. But there are difficulties with this type of study…..where it’s carried out and how the information is collected.

Clare: Can you give us any examples?

Val: Ummm…one example which comes to mind is by researchers at Huddersfield, and West of England University published in 2007. They reviewed a number of studies concerned with student drop-out which showed how complex this question is with combinations of factors playing their part in why students drop-out. Their own study involved interviewing eight students who had been identified as what they referred to as ‘at risk’ of drop-out. With the permission of these students, they also interviewed personal tutors.

Clare: And what conclusions did they arrive at?

Val: Well, as they point out, it’s difficult to make generalizations from such a small number of participants but certain aspects of their 189

conclusions have resonances for my own work. Firstly this is in relation to those students who come from families where there is an expectation that they will go to university. This expectation might mean that a number of students who go to university might be better suited to doing something else which matches their own aspirations rather than those of their parents. This seemed to be apparent in the stories of some of the students in my own study. But also of interest to me was that the researchers identified the need for counselling for students who lacked self-confidence …..some students believing that their achievement is poor when in fact it is as good as many others on the course. Again, this lack of self-confidence was prominent in the story of one particular participant in my own study.

Clare: I should think this work is of huge importance to any parents who are listening who have children who are thinking about going to university. Perhaps we can move on from here as I know that student drop-out has not been the main focus of your own research..

Val: ..no, that’s true.

Clare: I wonder if you would tell our listeners something about the way you have approached your work, which I think I am right includes using poetry and photographs….

Val: ..yes I have used poetry and photographs but perhaps I should start with my interest in the work of Christopher Booker, who wrote the book The Seven Basic Plots. What Booker has done is to put forward a theory that all stories can be categorised through one or more of seven universal plots, these being Overcoming the Monster, Rags to Riches, The Quest, Voyage and Return, Comedy, Tragedy, and Rebirth.

Clare: Right….so how does this fit in with research at Citygate?

Val: Well, when I was listening to the student participants talking…. don’t forget in three separate interviews…..talking about their experiences of school, choosing to go to university, work and study, it seemed to me that it might be possible to identify a plot, or a number of plots which linked many of these things together..

Clare: ..one of the seven basic plots..

Val: ..but looking at the seven basic plots wasn’t anything to do with proving or disproving Booker’s theory… it was about using it as a tool to highlight and organise certain aspects of the students’ stories. So through reading and re-reading the transcripts of the students’ interviews, and listening and re-listening to the audio-recordings of the interviews, while having features of the basic plots to hand, was a way of making sense of some of the many things which the students said.

Clare: OK…but what was it that drew you to look at Booker’s work?

Val: Well a number of reasons really……I’ve been aware that other writers have also explored the possibility of the universality of certain elements of stories. In the 1920’s the Russian scholar Propp looked in detail at a hundred fairy tales and compared them by looking at their component parts…… and in the 1990’s Joseph Campbell explored what he argued was the archetypal hero in mythology. What 190

I find fascinating in Booker’s work is the vast range of material which he explores spanning classical literature to contemporary cinema screen plays… so for instance through a specific type of comedy he links work like Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream with the film Four Weddings and a Funeral..

Clare: ..right..

Val: ..and these contemporary examples make using this work for me seem appropriate in the context of Citygate and the student participants……and although Booker’s argument is complex and draws on a vast range of examples, it’s possible to summarise the stages of what he argues are the basic plots…

Clare: …and I believe that there are some examples of how you have used this on the website which listeners can access in the usual way at www.vttradio9/education/highereducation . I am concerned that we are running short of time and so I want to ask about the way you’ve used poetry in your research….I can’t imagine it’s used very often.

Val: You’d actually be surprised Clare that poetry’s been used by a good number of researchers, especially in North America and Canada.

Clare: So how is it used and why?

Val: They are two very big questions. I use poetry where I think it strengthens and emphasises what I’m saying in my work…..but also where what I am writing about leads to poetry. I don’t believe that poetry can be forced into writing, it somehow creeps in of its own accord….which sounds strange but that’s how it is for me.

Clare: Can you give us any examples?

Val: Well one really clear example is when I was looking at some notes which I’d written while I was observing the CAM practical bridging course. I’d been with the students when they’d been allocated their new chefs uniforms and then got changed into them for the first time. I was so struck by what seemed to be their transformation that I went on to write quite a long poem which started with the notes but also included some interview extracts and some additional research about uniforms.

Clare: And this is on the website too?

Val: Yes, along with some other examples of what I call poetic re- presentation…this is where I’ve used words from interview conversation transcripts and re-presented them in a poetic arrangement…they could be called ‘found’ poems.

Clare: And found poetry is I believe a form which has been used by a good few published poets..

Val: ..that’s right. I should also say that I think poetry is a way to crystallize ideas…. and although many may see poetry as appealing to an elite audience, my experience has shown me that there is a wide diversity of material which makes poetry accessible to many different audiences, audiences who may not access academic 191

texts….very much as this series has been doing….and I think that’s important when people have given their valuable time to be involved.

Clare: Well on that note we need to finish this discussion but listeners can find out more from material which is on the website and also add their own perspectives through the usual e-mail address. I want to thank my guest Val Thompson for being with us again tonight…. and giving us an update on things at Citygate... University and what has happened to the students who were on the CAM course there. I would also like to congratulate Citygate University on their new status. This is the last programme in our season Higher Education Goes Public - a big thank-you to everyone who has taken part. Thanks also to the many listeners who I know have followed the series…..until the next time, good-evening.

192 www.vttradio9/education/highereducation vttradi 9 Higher education goes public ––– Citygate Revisited PROGRAMME 4 PROGRAMME 5 PROGRAMME 6 PROGRAMME 10

193 vttradi 9 Higher education goes public –––Citygate–Citygate Revisited PROGRAMME 1O Extract 8 from Research Report Research Poems / Poetic Re- presentation: Selection from a Collection

194 vttradi 9 Higher education goes public –––Citygate–Citygate Revisited PROGRAMME 10 Extract 8 from Research Report

Charting plots and unmasking themes

Stories The narratives of the world are numberless....narrative is present in every age, in every place, in every society; it begins with the very history of mankind and there nowhere is nor has been a people without narrative....: it is simply there like life itself (Barthes, 1966, pp.251 and 252).

We are surrounded by stories 89 : from the everyday oral tales of the TV weather forecaster who tells of the next day’s pattern of rain and wind, to the extraordinary story of Darwin and his theory of evolution told in text by John van Wyhe (2008). People tell stories, and in the telling of these stories bring meaning to their lives, and through stories, make sense of the complexity of the world in which they live (Atkinson, 2002, McAdams, 1993). This ability of stories to provide coherence and structure to otherwise fragmented, and confusing events, offers potential to the use of plots to organise complex and diverse material generated by student participants’ interview conversations. The discussion which follows traces my use of what Christopher Booker (2004) argues are universal plots, as a tool through which to both manage this material, and as a means to uncover hidden themes.

Plots In discussing a narrative approach to research, Donald Polkinghorne (1995) clearly differentiates between two types of narrative enquiry. The first is what he refers to as the ‘paradigmatic’ (p.12) type in which storied accounts are collected as data. The second, the ‘narrative type’ (p. 15), is one in which descriptions of events, happenings and actions are collected. In this type, he argues, one function of narrative analysis is to organise these events and actions into their contributory positions in the development of a plot. For Polkinghorne ( ibid ) the plot in narrative is crucial, and he asserts that: ‘The plot provides the systematic unity to a story; it is the glue that connects the parts together’ (p.18). However, discerning plots through which to bind together the mass of events, happenings, and actions, remembered and described by the student participants in this study during our interview conversations, is a complex task. This is further complicated by the fact that each participant was met with on three occasions. These three interview conversations, in which first year FdA and BA Culinary Arts Management students participated, were arranged to coincide with certain points during their experience of higher education. The first was immediately before the start of their chosen

89 Like Riessman (2008, p. 7) I here use narrative and story interchangeably throughout this discussion. 195 course of study, the second was part way through the first semester, and the third just before the end of the first year. The focus of each interview was therefore temporally located. The first emphasised reflection on experiences in time past, as well as providing opportunities to discuss anticipated or imagined future both short and long term. The second emphasised ‘real’ time; this ‘real’ time being the experience of the immediate present. The focus of the third meeting merged the immediacy of the present with reflection on the past year, as well as discussion of short and longer term future plans and expectations. Thus the interview conversations aimed to provide participants with opportunities for reflection on educational experiences and events from the past as well as those which were more immediate, and also to provide opportunities to look forward. In practice, the interview conversations eddied, dipped, and swirled about the past, the present, and the future, and so the stories and their organising plots were highly fragmented. They were not stories, as Jaber Gubrium and James Holstein (2009) point out, waiting to: ‘….simply emerge from within, as if they were stored there for the telling’ (p.30). As a way of facilitating the identification and exploration of plots through which to highlight themes within the interview conversations, the ‘what’ to which Catherine Riessman (2008) refers in her discussion of thematic analysis in narrative methods, I have drawn on the work of Christopher Booker (2004), The Seven Basic Plots. I have used elements of this work as a means to organise and develop plot-lines from fragments of interview conversation with student participants.

The Seven Basic Plots The general shape

The Seven Basic Plots is a vast, wide ranging study which encompasses not only Booker’s theory in relation to the universality of certain plots within stories, but also his theories concerned with the fundamental question of why stories are told. I am focussing here on the first of Booker’s interests, basic plots, as a means through which to piece together, and attempt to bring meaning to the events, actions, and activities reflected on, and described by, the student participants in this study. Using Booker’s notion of the universality of certain plots has provided a way to link the fragments of these stories together, and in so doing, has highlighted what to me are significant themes threaded throughout the interview conversations, and which are important to this study as a whole. I begin with Chart 1 by applying what Booker describes as ‘the general shapes’ (p.19) to which all stories fit, to my interpretation of the general story of the student participants within this study. Then I look at examples of the basic plots in relation to the whole group of student participants, and go on to examine in detail two examples of how certain student participants’ interview conversations can be 196 configured within the stages of two particular plots. Lastly I discuss the relationship between these basic plots and my interview material. I have used charts as a way of presenting the detail from Booker’s work throughout this discussion, because I consider that charts emphasise the staged or progressive way in which Booker conceptualises both the overall shape of a story, and the basic plots. These charts also allow the summaries of both my own and Booker’s work to be considered together.

Chart 1. Stories: general shape BOOKER (pages 17-19) STUDY Central figure/s FdA and BA student participant/s

Scene Widening participation in higher education, Dual Sector Institutions, Citygate College, CAM HE course, First year study

Event which precipitates action Educational and career choice-making for post-16 stage

This event provides the ‘Call’ which leads Move into Higher Education central character/s into a series of HE procedures and practices experiences which to a greater or lesser Leaving home/not leaving home extent will transform their life/lives Move/or not into next phase of life: adulthood, ‘independence’

Action which involves conflict and HE teaching, learning, and assessment uncertainty practices Progress and progression Challenge of practical and theory curriculum and timetable Challenge of living at home/hall, travel, part-time work, finance, and funding Balance and position of learning in HE with wider life

Additional characters who support or FE and HE staff, family, friends, peers, work oppose central figure/s colleagues

Climax: conflict and uncertainty at their Work towards completion of first year in most extreme higher education

Experience of work placement choosing and selection process

Resolution which leads the central Successful/unsuccessful first year character/s mildly or emphatically into one of two pathways: Fulfilled/unfulfilled ambitions related to work placement a happy resolution with some sense of liberation, fulfilment, completion Achieving/not achieving aspirations and goals set by self or others an unhappy resolution with some sense of discomfiture, frustration, disaster Continued study in HE/Drop out

In the pale orange 90 column in Chart 1. I have summarised the elements which Booker identifies as constituting the general shape of a story. The light grey column

90 This colour coding is used throughout this discussion to differentiate my work from that of Booker. 197 shows how it is possible to configure the general shape of the story of the student participants in this study within these elements. Where this form of paralleling becomes constructive, is through more detailed study of certain elements. For example, in the final stage of resolution , Booker identifies two pathways, one leading to a happy outcome and one leading to an unhappy one. This structure prompts alternative ways of conceiving some form of resolution while considering the student participants’ plots. This is opposed, of course, to possible outcomes and plots for other interested parties such as the government, the college, or parents. For instance it would be easy to conceptualise those student participants who drop out of HE as those for whom there is an unhappy outcome. It could be however, that for some students, leaving HE provides a form of liberation through which they can follow their career aspirations in the workplace more actively. Similarly, those students who successfully complete their first year in higher education may have only some reserved satisfaction in the outcome, this being because of the possibility that the aspiration to study at university has been influenced by parental expectation or peer pressure. Details like this are explored next through a number of the basic plots, first using a broad perspective, and then through focussing on the plots of two student participants in detail.

Basic plots and the study Shown in Chart 2 is the way in which I have considered the following plots, Overcoming the Monster, Rags to Riches, Rebirth, and The Quest in relation to the student participant interview conversations. This iterative process has involved

Chart 2. Plot identification process LISTENING/READING ACTION Listening and Reading 1 Field notes written after interview conversations Setting up notes template 91 for each participant Recording summary notes Identification of topics, points of interest Listening and Reading 2 Close listening for accuracy, omissions and anonymisation Making changes to transcript text Listening and Reading 3 Returning non lexical features to certain parts of the text, noting pauses and silences Listening and Reading 4 Adding notes to template: identification of plots, addition of fieldnotes and quotations which seemed key at the time of reading Listening and Reading 5 Re-formatting transcripts to integrate all three into one text, highlighting key events to support basic plot Listening and Reading 6 Adding notes to template

91 See Prop 5 for exemplar summary notes template. 198 active listening and reading: active listening to the audio recordings of the interview conversations, and active reading of the transcripts of the interview conversations in conjunction with the audio recordings. The completed notes templates for each participant have allowed me to draw together the broad areas discussed into certain of the basic plots which are presented next.

PLOT 1: OVERCOMING THE MONSTER

In this plot the main character/heroine/hero is called to face and overcome a terrible and deadly personification of evil. This figure is seemingly all powerful although the hero usually finds its weak spot/vulnerability and makes a thrilling escape (Booker, pp. 21-29).

I have conceptualised the ‘monster’ in this plot as the challenge which students face on moving from Level 3 to Level 4 to study in higher education. This move is from study which has been dominated by practical teaching, learning, and assessment methods, to study which is much more theory driven, and assessed predominantly through written reports, assignments, and examinations. This is also a move from study which has been moderated and mediated by practices which shape the learner as dependent. In this new realm, however, the student participant /central character must face this ‘monster’ alone. Other students who also have to face this higher education ‘monster’ are those who have returned to education after periods of time in employment. For some student participants, one head of this hydra is academic literacies 92 , and for others the thrilling escape is not achieved. In Chart 3 which follows, I have tracked aspects of student participants’ discussion of actions and events to the stage features which Booker identifies as constituting the plot Overcoming the Monster .

Chart 3. Overcoming the Monster Plot Summary BOOKER STAGES BOOKER STAGE STUDY FEATURES Anticipation and ‘call’ Monster introduced Involvement in activities gradually with subtlety or which promote the course from the start, (in-house FE students). casting a threatening Mention made of theory shadow over a community, elements – this seems individuals. unreal and far-off. Web-site information for external applicants.

Hero experiences a ‘call’ to Decision made to enter confront the monster. higher education, to progress to Level 4.

92 Writing practices in higher education have been the subject of much discussion (for example: Street and Lea, 1998, Ivanic 1998), with Theresa Lillis (2001) arguing that the forms and conventions of writing in academia limit participation in higher education for ‘non-traditional’ student (p.161).

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Dream Time of calm, preparations Academic bridging course are made, travel towards (all students both BA and the monster is undertaken. FdA, internal and All still seems well. external).

Frustration Face to face with monster. HE teaching and learning Hero / heroine seems practices, and assessment small in contrast to the activities which include monster. writing to academic conventions. Fitting study into wider life: employment, finance, travel. Nightmare Final ordeal, climax. Final semester assessment Monster in the ascendancy activities. BUT then the ‘reversal’. The thrilling escape The monster is dealt a Successful completion of fatal blow. first year programme. The hero emerges able to Prize of entry to work enjoy his prize. experience year or year 3 of course.

PLOT 2: RAGS TO RICHES In this plot the central character is someone who seems quite ordinary or unexceptional and who, through some sort of transformation is lifted out of obscurity to become special or extraordinary. Typically this central figure is cast as being in the process of maturing and they are usually surrounded by ‘dark’ figures who may be older adults or peers (Booker, pp. 51-68).

I have identified two main variations of this plot line within the fragmented narratives of certain of the student participants. Firstly, is the more literal conception of rags to riches which is exemplified by the types of aspirations which student participants articulate about their imagined futures. The second version is one in which enrichment comes through the wider life experiences brought by participation in higher education, particularly when living away from home for the first time. I have matched summary features of student participants’ discussion to Booker’s Rags to Riches plot stages next in Chart 4.

Chart 4. Rags to Riches Plot Summary STAGES STAGE FEATURES STUDY PLOT 1 STUDY PLOT 2 Initial Introduction of main Here ‘impoverished’ Impoverished ‘wretchedness’ at character in original is a relative term. experience of school home and the ‘Call’ impoverished state. It is used to education. There are ‘dark’ compare modest Low aspirations. figures that means to the riches overshadow them. of someone who Peer pressure to might own a chain of leave education. restaurants.

An event or ‘Call’ Influential figures Influential sends them into the who promote a individual/s or wider world. particular career events which 200

path which could promote move to FE lead to riches – and then to HE. celebrity chefs, family members.

Out into the world, This phase can be Move into HE. Initial experience of initial success marked by new Success marked by HE. ordeals, but there tutor comments Living are small about proficiency in independently, achievements which the practical setting. ‘getting used to’ give a glimpse of the different modes of eventual success. Coping with living teaching, learning away from home. and assessment.

The central crisis Things go very Missing family and HE teaching and wrong. Doubt friends. learning practices. returns. The initial Need for constant Assessment successes add to the returns home. outcomes. blackness of this phase. Work placement trial.

Independence and Discovery of new Experience of work Living the final ordeal independent placement interview independently, strength. and trial. making new friends. A final test which liberates the central Emerging changed figure and allows vocational ideas. them to move to the final stage.

Final union, Success and a level Acceptance at Successful completion and of maturity reached famous and completion of first fulfilment which ensures the prestigious work year. maintenance of this placement. level of fulfilment. Negotiated move to new course of study.

PLOT 3: THE QUEST Here the central character is compelled or instructed to undertake a long and often hazardous journey in order to secure a treasured or revered prize. Although this journey is centred on a single main character, a feature of this plot is the importance of the companions who accompany them (Booker, pp. 69-86).

The revered prize for a number of the student participants is a degree which for them, and perhaps more importantly for their parents who are often the ones who initiate or influence the ‘Call’, symbolises success. Success for student participants involved in this quest seems to be less about achieving a qualification which has value within a specific employment market, but has more to do with success in meeting parental aspirations, achieving sibling parity, and demonstrating a norm now expected amongst their peers. Although it is not possible to trace students achieving the ‘final prize’, it is possible to track (Chart 5.) their successful completion of the first year in higher education.

201

Chart 5. The Quest Plot Summary STAGES STAGE FEATURES STUDY The Call Life has become A young person’s oppressive and the transition to next phase of hero/heroine recognises life. Achieving that to put things right, independence, adulthood. they must undertake a long and difficult journey in order to reach a specific goal or attain a prize.

The ‘Call’ comes through Parents, significant visionary or supernatural individuals – teachers, directions. tutors, friends, family members. The Journey The main character and Difficult and different companions set out to terrain of HE and course. cross hostile terrain and Living independently/at face a number of ordeals. home and travel. Assessment, both practical Each ordeal is concluded and theory. with a ‘thrilling escape’ and is balanced by periods Support of peers and of calm. friends. Arrival and Frustration The goal is in sight but Final assessments at end new and terrible obstacles of first year of study. appear before progression of the main character and his/her goal. The Final Ordeals More ordeals must be Year in industry faced and these culminate in one last great battle. The Goal After a ‘thrilling’ escape Continuation in higher the prize is finally won. education. Getting closer to graduation and the prize of a degree.

Paul and Alice

In the following two examples, I use the structure and stages which Booker identifies as features of each plot, and apply selected plots to two students’ interview conversation discussion. The purpose here being to test the relevance of these plots, and evaluate their appropriateness as a means of analysis. To illustrate these stages and plots, I draw on a number of extracts from interview conversations which I had with Paul and Alice.

Paul:Rebirth Paul’s discussion of his experience of school and subsequent experience of education after moving into further and higher education, is one in which the plot of ‘rebirth’ or transformation can be identified (Chart 6.). In Booker’s outline of this plot, the main character gradually falls under the shadow of a dark power and becomes frozen or locked in a state of suspension. This stage is marked by the length of time the central character is trapped in this state. The ‘rebirth’ can come 202 about through the intervention of an outside force or through the awakening of some form of inner insight or self understanding.

Chart 6. Matching the stages of the Rebirth plot to Paul’s interview conversations STAGES STAGE FEATURES PAUL Appearance of the dark power The young heroine/ hero Experience of secondary falls under the spell of a education. dark power. Short period of stability For a time things seem to Discovering a subject he go reasonably well. loves: Design and Technology - Food. Triumph of the dark power The dark power Frustration with eventually approaches curriculum and school with full force and the ‘ethos’. main character is imprisoned Passage of time Time passes and the dark Time waiting to become a power seems to have chef. triumphed. Loss of engagement with school and reluctance to attend.

‘Rebirth’, re-awakening The miraculous FE course represents an redemption / opportunity for a ‘new’ transformation. start in a vocational area in which he is totally absorbed. This leads to a developed interest and confidence, and of a re- awakening of an interest in education leading to engagement with HE.

The plot of ‘rebirth’ can be discerned in Paul’s reflection on his school career and later experience of education at Citygate College as a student in both further and higher education. In our interview conversations Paul describes his secondary education as a time when he was not entirely happy at school, where he was struggling with written work, and truanting. He had felt teacher pressure, and reflecting back, Paul describes an experience which acted almost as an epiphany, where his future aspirations became clear, and how for the rest of his school career he clung to this ambition 93 :

I came out [of the lesson]… and all we made was a fruit salad…a simple fruit salad…and I came out and I said “that’s it I’m a chef… I’m going to be a chef”.

And just for the rest of like my school life….five years…chefing was all I went on about…….

93 Paul, interview conversation 1 (14.9.06). 203

Paul tells that although his final GCSE grades were better than his mock results had predicted, and despite teachers and his parents encouraging him to stay in the school sixth form, he stuck to this ambition, got a job in catering and shortly afterwards enrolled at Citygate College on an NVQ Food Preparation and Cooking course. This proved to be the action which triggered his ‘rebirth’ or, using his own description, ‘transformation’ 94 :

I went from hating school to six weeks later just loving education…it’s just like… my mum and dad couldn’t believe the transformation…. I suppose it’s a little weird how if you’re forced to do the work you don’t want to do it and then as soon as it’s your choice you’re like “got to do it, got to do it” sort of thing…it’s quite….. eye-opening and that’s probably made me…. a lot more mature… being able to know that it’s my choice.

This transformation has also led to Paul to making the move from further to higher education. He describes this decision surprising his parents 95 :

They were thrilled….because all the time they were thinking….right he’s not going to do a degree after seeing what I was like at school and then

when I came home and said I was going to do a degree they were like…. they didn’t know where it had come from because they’d heard me speaking “I’m not going to do it” and all that and then all of a sudden I’m going to do it… I think my dad almost had a heart attack (laughter).

The change from disenchanted school pupil to eager HE student is something which Paul repeatedly refers to when talking to me just before the start of the course about his expectations of the foundation degree and his experience of the bridging programme to his course: 96

I….err… have a feeling I may well enjoy it because like going back to my school days where I didn’t want to work it was on topics I didn’t like… English and all of that whereas here at least everything will be on the topic of Food or food related…so… at least I’ll enjoy it because it’s about a topic that I want to do.

Although the catalyst for Paul’s transformation can be seen as his move into further education, there are a number of different facets to this move which seem to have coalesced and enabled this ‘rebirth’ to have come about. These are linked to his choice of chef as a career, one which he aspired to from early in his secondary school education, as well as his apparent greater self awareness in

94 Paul, interview conversation 1 (14.9.06). 95 Paul, interview conversation 2 (20.11.06). 96 Paul, interview conversation 1 (14.9.06). 204 relation to learning. Training to be a chef through the NVQ route is undertaken almost exclusively through watching demonstrations and through carrying out practical activities, and for Paul this approach meant that he could leave behind the difficulties which he faced at school with what he described as ‘written work’. Further Education also provided a setting in which statutory compulsory attendance was no longer an issue and where he describes being expected to take responsibility for his own achievement 97 :

….. it was my choice to be here. That’s probably one of the main reasons I wanted to go to college instead of sixth form, because at sixth form you still get treated as a school kid whereas doing the

NVQs they treated you as grown ups and chefs and it was....well “you’re doing the work, you’ve got to do the practical work but if you don’t turn up to college then it’s your qualification not ours”.

Of additional importance to the crystallization of Paul’s transformation, and in some ways a supplementary ‘rebirth’, are the changes which he identifies in himself when he wears his chefs uniform 98 :

……. when I am in my normal clothes, I am very much a joker….err… whether I am drunk or sober…I’m not very often drunk just for the record….basically if someone turns round and says Paul do this I say ok… I’ve jumped through bushes…..pretty much like…jumped off of things and twisted my ankle and stuff just for a laugh… I am pretty much the joker of the group and… you say something and I will do it

err…. but when I put my uniform on its kind of like…a much more maturer… get down to business… do work… play after….. Take pride in the uniform as well…this is what you are…you are a chef…you take pride in your chef’s uniform….. ’cause just wearing clothes like this doesn’t make you look any different…as soon as you put the uniform on its kind of like this is what I am… take pride…

For Paul this supplementary ‘rebirth’ is not just a change in outward appearance which distinguishes him from ‘the crowd’ but my interpretation is that it also seems to provide an opportunity for him to demonstrate different behaviours, ones which for him appear to be appropriate to his practical learning environment, the restaurant kitchen. Wearing a uniform, which is the same as that worn by his tutors, work colleagues and the ubiquitous ‘celebrity’ chef, appears to give him status; he will be known in the kitchen environment as ‘chef’ and here he ‘becomes’ chef. Paul’s sense of pride when wearing his uniform echoes that of chef Joe George 99 (2008), who provides a short history of the uniform, tracing it back over

97 Paul interview conversation 2 (20.11.06). 98 Paul, interview conversation 2.2 (20.11.06). 99 Information about the history of chefs uniforms available at: http://chef2chef.net/news/foodservice/Editorial- Chefs_Corner/The_History_and_Evolution_of_the_Way_We_Dress.htm (Accessed 20 th February 2008). 205 four hundred years. What is of key importance here though, is the inherent sense of pride through which George writes; this is the pride which Paul too describes feeling.

Alice: The Quest

During the three interview conversations which I had with Alice, she talked extensively about what she referred to as the ‘convoluted’ 100 way she had gone about finding a course which she enjoyed and found satisfying. This way, or journey, is one aspect of the plot The Quest, and this is the plot that I have identified (Chart 7.) in Alice’s discussion of her experience of education and employment after she left school on completing ‘A’ levels, and finally on the CAM course.

Booker describes The Quest as a plot in which the main character is pulled towards a distant but all-important goal. Key features of this plot are firstly that a journey, either literal or metaphorical, is undertaken by the main character, and secondly that she/he is joined on this journey by companions who perform important feats.

Chart 7. Matching the stages of The Quest plot to Alice’s interview conversations

STAGES STAGE FEATURES ALICE The Call Life has become Experience of a degree course oppressive. to which she is not committed.

The hero/heroine Need to leave Chemistry degree recognises that to put course to reach goal which is a things right, they must course in which she is undertake a long and thoroughly interested. difficult journey in order to reach a specific goal or attain a prize.

The ‘Call’ comes Information about the CAM through visionary or course comes from a work supernatural directions. colleague. The Journey The main character and Leaving HE to go back into companions set out to employment. cross hostile terrain and face a number of ordeals.

Each ordeal is concluded Challenging her parents’ with a ‘thrilling escape’ expectations about pathway and is balanced by into higher education. periods of calm. Undertaking different part-time employment.

100 Alice, interview conversation 3 (26.4.06). 206

Facing the bureaucratic and financial barriers involved in moving course and institution. The Journey Significant companion/s. Mum as companion on the A distinctive mark of the journey. Quest is the extent to which, more than in any other story, the hero is not alone in his/her Support of work colleagues and adventures. friends

Arrival and Frustration The goal is in sight. Return to education after a gap But new and terrible in employment. Need to relearn obstacles appear study skills. between the main character and his/her Challenges of HE assessment goal. practices, and teaching and learning approaches.

The Final Ordeals More ordeals must be Teaching and learning in large faced and these and diverse groups. culminate in one last great battle. The Goal After a ‘thrilling’ escape On a course which she feels is the prize is finally won ‘right’ and which matches adapted parental hopes and aspirations.

In our interview conversations, Alice describes her decision to choose a Foundation Degree in Chemistry as coming from a lack of knowledge of possible alternative options. This decision was based purely on the fact that she had gained an ‘A’ level in Chemistry rather than because she had an inherent interest in the subject. She describes feelings on returning to the course after week-ends spent in part-time employment as ‘a chore’ 101 . Much to the disappointment of her parents, she left the course after a term, and worked part-time in a pub restaurant. It was here that she got ‘the call’ to explore the possibility of doing a different course 102 :

I was working in a pub and we had like a girl came in, because they owned 3 or 4 pubs and a girl came in from one of the other pubs and we were just chatting away and she said “oh I went to the college” and I asked her what course she did and asked her how… I found out about it and I thought I’d really enjoy it so that’s why I’m here.

Changing courses and returning to study in higher education after some time in employment, can be conceptualised as the ‘journey’ stage in Alice’s quest. Different events whilst on this journey can also be viewed as ‘ordeals’ on the way. The first of these ordeals which Alice discusses is the bureaucracy surrounding changing courses involving the UCAS system 103 :

I think one of the difficult things was because applying through UCAS wasn’t one of the easiest things to do after you’d like change courses, I didn’t find that the easiest process in the world.

101 Alice, interview conversation 2 (29.11.06). 102 Alice, interview conversation 1 (25.9.06). 103 Alice, interview conversation 3 (26.4.06). 207

Another ordeal to be faced by Alice was challenging her parents’ expectation that, like her siblings, she would move straight from ‘A’ levels to university. This linear educational pathway, Alice notes, being very much fixed by the views of her parents: 104 :

Like my mum and dad are quite… if you haven’t got a degree then you’re not really anything… not “anything” but if you haven’t got a degree… you know a degree can give you so much more opportunities and it really puts you forward and sort of like in our house it’s always been like “do your A levels, get a degree and then do whatever you choose to do”.

Despite their initial concern, it was her parents, particularly her mum, who supported Alice in making the move to the CAM course. In fact, her mum becomes the significant companion to whom Alice frequently refers in our conversations as supporting her in facing some of the ordeals of her journey. Another ordeal being coping with the writing practices demanded by higher education after a significant gap in formal education 105 :

….but you forget, especially if you have a year out or something, you forget all your skills…

However, she is able to turn to her mum for help 106 :

….so it’s been like 3 or 4 years since I did a proper essay. That was a bit daunting in a way even though I did ‘A’ level English and I’m used to writing essays it’s still a bit....getting back into it. Luckily my mum’s an English teacher....

Her mum has also provided more practical support in terms of the finance required for her to live in hall while on this course, as she had found travel each day from home very tiring while on the previous one 107 :

….and this time round she’s paying for my accommodation and my fees and giving me money for food as well, so I’m quite lucky in that respect and I haven’t got a student loan either.

One final ordeal which Alice’s mum is not able to directly support her with, is coping with the large and diverse teaching groups which she encounters throughout

104 Alice, interview conversation 1 (25.9.06). 105 Alice, interview conversation 1 (25.9.06). 106 Alice, interview conversation 3 (26.4.07). 107 Alice, interview conversation 1 (25.9.06). 208 her week at college. She puts forward her perspective of Citygate as a dual sector institution, and the frustration she feels as a BA student when being taught in a mixed group with FdA level students 108 :

But I think maybe with the FdAs because they came here straight from school and it is like college is, it’s like a college as well so it’s like a bit more relaxed rather than like a proper red brick university, maybe that’s got something to do with it, and because they’ve never....I don’t know, it’s just the same as like coming straight from school so they’re still like children really I think……really annoying

Despite these ordeals however, Alice finally wins the prize which she has sought through her quest or convoluted’ journey 109 :

I think it’s nice that you know when you’re definitely on the right course, I think that’s got something to do with it more than anything. And just everything like even the theory work it can be a bit boring after... you know, you enjoy that because it’s got relevance to what we’re actually doing and like what you do at work as well, so it’s got like total relevance to what you’re going to be doing in the future so that’s good…. So my mum and dad are really like supportive and I think they’re just happy that I’ve actually found something that I want to do….

Interestingly Alice, like Paul, is one of only three students who have returned to continue their original choice and level of study on the CAM course at Citygate College after a year out on industrial placement.

Using basic plots to unmask themes

Paul Atkinson (1990) refers to the work of Misia Landau (1984) in his exploration of the literary and rhetorical features of the writing of sociologists, specifically within the ‘genre’ (p.4) of ethnography. He uses her work as an exemplar of the way in which researchers from diverse disciplines have drawn on narrative theory and approaches in their writing. Landau utilises the work of Vladimir Propp (1927/1968), whose structural analysis of Russian fairy-tales identifies common elements and sequencing across over a hundred different tales. She further develops her analysis of texts concerned with human evolution using Propp’s ‘morphology’ as an analytical device (1997). She argues that Propp’s work: ‘….provides a method which allows us to describe individual stories as variations on a basic narrative or deep structure’ (p. 107).

108 Alice, interview conversation 3 (26.4.07). 109 Alice, interview conversation 3 (26.4.07). 209

In using Booker’s notion of basic plots, and the way in which he describes the progression of these plots through various stages, I have, like Landau ( ibid ) found a structured and illuminating method to approach the mass of events, happenings, and actions, remembered, described, and discussed by the student participants in this study. Utilising the stages through which each plot moves, it has been possible for me to thread together fragments of interview conversation, and in doing so, a more holistic view of aspects of each participant’s described experiences comes into view. Although the summary form of the plots charted through their constituent stages strips bare the mass of detail from the interview conversations, this process unmasks certain topics and themes. Through looking, for example, at both the plots which through careful active reading and listening I have matched to the interview conversations of Paul and Alice, the power of vocational aspiration and education to motivate, sustain, and even transform, becomes apparent. The Quest plot applied to Alice’s discussion also draws attention to the way in which parental educational background, and financial position can support changes to career aspirations. Here the Quest plot highlights the themes of advantage and disadvantage, pertinent also to the way in which I have conceived the plot Overcoming the Monster . In this plot different experiences of teaching, learning, and the conventions and practices of writing in higher education, position students inequitably. The themes of continuity and change also emerge from the second example of the Rags to Riches plot. The main character here battles the pull of continuity, to challenge the expected pattern of transfer from FE straight into employment. By taking a momentous decision to choose to study in higher education and to live away from home, the heroine/hero signals highly significant change in educational, and personal ambition.

Throughout his discussion, Booker stresses the fact that several of these basic plots may be identified in some stories, and that indeed some stories begin with an emphasis on one plot and diversify into others. In using the basic plots here, I have maintained a one plot perspective in order to make sense of the interview conversations which I had with student participants. I am aware however, that for some participants, a complex web of plot-lines could be drawn in which aspects of many of the plots are interwoven creating greater cohesion. Such an analysis would do much to enhance what could be seen as a reductionist account of these student participants’ experiences, produced when using a single plot-line. Nonetheless, as a way to draw together the complexity of a mass of interview conversations, and as a means through which to reveal a number of topics and themes, Booker’s notion of basic plots has provided a valuable and intriguing structure which has the potential to be developed and extended.

210 vttradi 9 Higher education goes public –––Citygate–Citygate Revisited PROGRAMME 10 Research Poems and Poetic Re-presentation: Selection from a Collection

Poetry (I hear myself loudest) is the human voice, and are we not of interest to each other?

Elizabeth Alexander (2005).

I have selected the following poems from a number of others which I have written whilst involved in my research based at Citygate College. They illustrate and represent different responses to a wide range of situations, environments, experiences, material, reading, analysis, and theorising. They exemplify what I consider to be important differences between what I refer to as research poems, and poetic re-presentation. The Proselyte , and Timetable Talk: Tuesday, are examples of poetic re-presentation, while Transformation Time, and Pure Turkishdelight are interpretive, impressionistic research poems. The first three poems interpret my response to a variety of issues raised through observations and interview conversations with student participants at Citygate, while the last poem raises wider questions about research methodology and approaches. In poet Ruth Padel’s (2009) most recent collection concerned with the life of her great-great-grandfather, Charles Darwin, she discusses the way in which she has woven quotations through a large number of her poems. Writing about the way in which she has used these quotations she notes: ‘As for the words: I have had to tinker with some of them as they became poems. But I have not changed their sense’ (p.xviii). She also comments on the way in which she has used references at the margins of each one where she feels that this is of use to the reader, and which provide dates, contextual information, and attribution. Marginal notes are also used by the poet Alice Oswald (2002) in her narrative poem, Dart. In the poems which follow, I borrow this device where I consider it appropriate, and also acknowledge some small degree of ‘tinkering’ which is part of the process which has transformed research prose into research poetry, and poetic re-presentation.

Poems: The Proselyte Transformation Time Timetable Talk: Tuesday Pure Turkishdelight.

211

The Proselyte

I didn’t want to come, This poetic re- come to university. presentation is Definitely I didn’t want to come. formed from interview conversations I didn’t want to do with one of the any more studying, student a bit fed up of it, participants. studying. Interview Definitely, I didn’t want to come. conversation 1 10.8.06 Me tutor in college Interview had a few conversations, conversation 2 get the best out of life 29.11.06 praised me, said: you’ll go far Interview conversation 3 told me about the benefits, 2.5.07. persuaded me, twisted my arm do something rather than get in a dead end job but definitely I didn’t want to come.

A bit of persuading made me come get the best out of life quite a lot of persuading made me come do something rather than get in a dead end job

I’ve bettered myself, really, doing the course that I’m doing now

I’m glad I did come.

212

Transformation Time

Long hair, short hair, dreadlocks, straights, The first two stanzas in tumbling, spiking and curling this poem are drawn onto collars and tee-shirted backs. from field Jeans, jeans and more jeans; notes written on jeans with sleeveless, strapless, logo-ed tops. the first day I attended Flip-flops, click-clack heels, tip-tap toes the CAM Practical Doc Martins clogs and clumps. Bridging course Piercings, piercings. 7.8.06.

Tongues, ears and eyebrows skewered One of the first tasks to by gold and silver studs and spears. be undertaken And rings. Rings and more rings. was the Ringed fingers and toes issuing of uniforms. and through the odd nose.

Informal uniforms.

Uniforms of life and leisure.

Androgynous, crisp, white, uniforms. The students Jackets too long or too wide changed trousers sometimes the fit too tight. into these uniforms Bib aprons, straight tops, tabards and waists, ready for their first neckerchief triangles knotted in place. practical class. Flat, black, safety-first footwear, non-slip, tough-toed clogs and clumps. Skull-cap hats, nets, unruly, silken locks trapped inside prisons of hygienic halos. And stitched on every chest a name, curly and blue. Who are you? Occupational uniforms. Uniforms of life at work.

213

Do you feel different, changed in some way, The second two stanzas when wearing a uniform throughout the day? draw on discussion She’s used to the feel, but Lizzie’s not sure, from second pyjama-like, loose, she’s uniforms galore. interview conversations Two sets of whites, a lab coat and waiting set, with each of the student but eventually she decides, participants about how yes, she does feels quite different. they felt when wearing Alice feels more professional, their uniform.

James is more comfortable, and

Gordon feels prepared for work.

Preferring her uniform, The word Pariese is transformed. ‘becoming’ is drawn from She becomes a learner, the work of Colley et al a learner at study and work. (2003).

Uniforms of ‘becoming’ at learning and work.

Do you feel different whilst looking the same? Is your identity changed in some way? For Matt and Geoff there’s no difference and Gerrard just feels the same. ‘Everyone knows we’re in training’ is Skittles’ refrain. But with no hint of hesitation, not stopping for breath, transformation for Paul is from joker to chef. In uniform, he’s down to business and work, no leaping, no jumping through bushes or hedge. A mature person emerges, who wants to take pride, to take pride in his uniform, his status as chef. ‘You stand out from the crowd. You are a chef’. Transforming uniforms. Uniforms of pride and distinction.

214

Robed, wrapped, enveloped and enclosed The last in the garb of your tutors and the gods stanza draws on a number you admire, and aspire to become. of texts and articles: A tangible habitus, cloaked by mystery, Joseph, N. and Nicholas, steeped in history of the sixteenth century. A. (1972) Joseph, N. Providing a disguise, like priests’ vestments, (1986) Fussell, P. habits and tall hats; but white not black. (2002) Craik,Colley J. et al Dispositions and demeanours. (2005).(2003).

Identity, self and individuality hidden It also draws behind the ambiguous mask of appearance. on fieldnotes of comments Conformity. Conformity and conduct. made by a chef/lecturer Conduct befitting on the first day of the Practical a professional chef. Bridging Course related Controlling uniforms. to expectations of conduct in Uniforms of power and restraint. the kitchen.

215

Timetable Talk: Tuesday

While talking timetables, This poem Tuesday raised its makes use of theory weary head: fragments of dialogue from student ‘Tuesday is the longest day’, participants’ he said slowly, with emphasis interview and a smile. conversations concerning their timetable. ‘Tuesday gets on top of you, See Part 5, The it’s stressful, hard work, tough Green Room and too much for detailed references for each ‘voice’. people loose concentration, switch off, get disruptive and noisier

Tuesday is the worst of days, horrible, longwinded and drags on’ they said while talking timetables.

216

Pure Turkishdelight

I am a child in a sweet shop, I wrote this staring around at the wares on view, poem while gazing at the confections displayed, attending the transfixed, enraptured, amazed. 2007 Arts- Based Educational I am a child in a sweet shop, Research staring at the burgeoning shelves, Conference. gazing at the screw topped jars Included were rainbow filled and spangle starred. presentations which utilised drama, dance, I am a child in a sweet shop, poetry, stories awed by the range, the variety, and music. hungering for that initial taste, sharpsherbeted and sugar laced. The images of ‘flight’ and ‘edge’ are I am a child in a sweet shop, inspired by making my selection solemnly, Elliot Eisner’s taking my time to reflect, assess, (1997) tip-toeing to a re-presentational edge. quotation which he attributes to I am a child in a sweetshop, French poet risking a spiralling, slow descent, Apollinaire. dreaming of a light-feathered flight, The word ‘risk’ is used by gloriously dusted, pure turkishdelight. research poet Melissa Cahmann (2003).

217 Part 4 Noises Off

So often, belbelowow the word spoken, is the thing known and uuunspoken.unspoken. Harold Pinter

No textual staging is ever innocent Laurel Richardson 218

Noises Off Opening

AX1001: Gerrard

Gerrard wiry sharp young son brother fresher pleasure to talk to interview digitize download attach to an email transcribe anonymize import into ATLAS ti code explode analyse theorize publish Gerrard dog-eared disappeared.

219

My purpose in writing the poem AX1001:Gerrard is to highlight the way in which it is possible, within the multiple layering of the research process, for the research participants to ‘disappear’ or become ‘othered’ in some way. The poem starkly lists the many stages of the research process, and is I believe, a powerful way of illustrating how an individual might indeed vanish. It is an extremely short piece and begins with personal, individual, and subjective detail. It then moves rapidly onto the seemingly more objective processes, the ones which use ostensibly scientific terms, and which lead to the disappearing. In thirty one words the reader or listener is introduced to the character Gerrard and in thirty one words he vanishes. It’s a speedy process. The form of the poem also echoes and reflects the subject of the piece and I consider that this strengthens its effectiveness and power to communicate the concerns which prompted its creation. The form uses a visual dimension in that it utilises the idea of writing for the eye to reflect the subject matter. It appears almost like a check list of actions to be ticked off and completed which adds to the underlying purpose of the piece. I have paid attention to the overall rhythm of the poem as well as rhyme (end rhyme, half-rhyme, and assonance) in the choices I have made related to the individual words and word order. This is more apparent at the beginning and end of the piece where my selection has not been determined by the immutable terms used for the processes listed in the central section. The title is also used to emphasise, through juxtaposition, the way in which, as a research participant within a large project, Gerrard is identified both by his qualitative, anonymising first name, as well as his quantitative alter ego, AX1001. AX1001: Gerrard introduces what I have chosen to call the Noises Off section of this study. In theatrical terminology, Noises Off refers to the off-stage sounds which are used to augment an on-stage performance; a clap of thunder during an on stage ‘storm’, the crash and clatter of crockery ‘dropped’ by a clumsy off-stage character. Noises Off however, also refers to unintentional sounds from off-stage which can impinge on, and disturb, a performance. These are such things as the bumps and bangs made by unstable scenery rigs, or the accidentally amplified whispers of production crew or off-stage performers. But such occurrences not only interfere with a performance, they also have the power to distort and change a production’s purpose and the way in which it is experienced and interpreted by the audience. Through unplanned Noises Off, tragedy can, in an instant, be transformed into comedy Within the context of this study, I am using the term Noises Off to represent the multi-layered procedures of the research process which have the potential and power to influence or distort the way in which research is conceived, presented, interpreted, and understood. Although the poem AX1001: Gerrard implicates the many processes involved in any research project to exert such power, here I 220 concentrate on two interlinked aspects of my work both within the wider context of the FurtherHigher project and within my PhD study. These are research interviewing and interview transcription. I have chosen to consider these processes in particular for two main reasons. Firstly because interviewing was the primary approach used to gain the perspectives of student participants of their first year experience of higher education. It was also the main means through which the views of others connected in some way, the teaching staff, college managers, former students, and representatives from industry, were sought. Thus the outcomes of these interviews, the audio recordings and interview transcriptions, form a large proportion of the material on which this study, and certain aspects of the FurtherHigher project draws. This makes discussion of this process crucial to the way in which such work is presented, read, interpreted, and understood. The second reason I have chosen to look in detail at the interview process is because ostensibly it appears to be a fairly un-contentious procedure, an every-day occurrence in our interview society (Atkinson and Silverman, 1997), and a means through which we can ‘learn’ about the lives and experiences of others. However, examining this process reveals that research interviews are the ‘complex activities’ to which Elizabeth Hoffman (2007) refers, and unravelling this complexity, contributes to the untidy threads which gather as the messiness of research (Law, 2004). This ‘mess’ is the inevitable off-stage clutter of research which gives rise to unintentional Noises Off; sounds which may be masked 1 in some research reports. In what follows these Noises Off are explored through combining and juxtaposing relevant literature, with a range of material generated as part of the research process in which I have been engaged. My purpose in using this approach is to reflect the unruly, unplanned, surprising, and disorienting nature of these Noises Off, and to illustrate the complexity of the interplay between research in theory, and research in practice. Below is a reader guide to this approach.

Reader Guide to textual approach:

Italicised text indicates my formal voice Text in dark grey box indicates my telling the interview story using relevant voice telling the interview story within literature. this study.

Text using Bradley Hand ITC font Text in dash line bordered text box

style used to indicate Fieldnotes. indicates quotation from relevant literature.

1 Sound masking is the addition of natural or artificial sound into an environment to cover-up unwanted sound by using auditory masking. Sound masking uses soothing or less intrusive sounds to cover distracting ones. Available from: http://wikipedia.org/wiki/Sound_masking (Accessed 14 th March 2009). 221

Noises Off 1 The Interview

The interview has:

‘….become the most common qualitative tool that researchers employ in education (Glesne and Peshkin 1992: Merriam 1998)’ (Tierney and Dilley, 2002 p.454).

The interview is: The interview is:

‘….a research method [which] ‘….a social encounter in which typically involves you, as knowledge is constructed’ researcher, asking questions and, (Holstein and Gubrium,1997 hopefully, receiving answers from p.114). the people you are interviewing’ (Robson, 2002 p.269).

Interviews: ‘….arise out of Research interviews are:

performance events. They ‘….speech events’.

transform information into shared

experience’ Interviewing is:

(Denzin, 2001 p.24). ‘….discourse between speakers’

(Mishler, 1986 p.34,36).

The purpose of a research The research interview is: interview is:

‘….not designed to ‘help’, ‘….to probe a respondent’s views, ‘empower’, or ‘change’ the perspectives or life-history, i.e. informant at all’ the exchange should be far more in one direction than the other. It (Wengraf, 2001 p.4). is rather more than a conversation with a purpose. The research interview’s function is to give a person, or a group of people a Narrative interviews: ‘….require investigators to give up ‘voice’’ (Wellington, 2000 p.72). control, which can generate anxiety’ Riessman, 2008 p.24).

The free-association narrative interview method is: ‘Based on the premiss that the meanings underlying interviewees’ elicited narratives are best accessed via links based on spontaneous associations, rather than whatever consistency can be found in a told narrative. This is a radically different conception of meaning, because free associations follow an emotional rather than a cognitively derived logic’ (Hollway and Jefferson, 2000 p.152).

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Preliminaries

The ‘story’ of the research interview is told in various ways and from the

elevated knolls of different positions and perspectives (Mishler, 1986, Atkinson and Silverman, 1998, Holstein and Gubrium, 1998, Denzin, 2001, Silverman, 2001, Gubrium and Holstein, 2002). For example, Andrea Fontana and James

Frey (2005) tell the story chronologically, noting evidence of interviews in Egyptian times and then moving into the present day with discussion of the impact of technologies such as e-mail and the internet on research interviewing.

This approach echoes previous work by Fontana (2002), in which she traces the influence of postmodernism on research interviewing, observing the unease with

which some researchers perceive the ‘fragmentation’ (p.171) of the research

interview. She discusses the ways in which researchers contest their different positions in relation to research interviews, concluding with the assertion that:

‘Shadowing the differences is the prospect that the interview can no longer be viewed as a discreet event, the straightforward result of asking questions and receiving answers’ (p.172).

My own research interview story focuses on the interview conversations in which I took part with the student participants in this study, and begins well

before I met up with any of them individually. Finding a number of people who

are willing to take part in research is a challenge in itself, but I believe that the circumstances in which this is achieved can have a bearing on both the success

of recruitment, and the later relationship forged and developed between researcher and research participant. To plan a means of making contact with students, I visited Citygate College

and spent some time with the Culinary Arts Management Course year manager, Mary, discussing the best approach to recruit student participants. It was Mary’s suggestion that the most efficient times to meet students were during two key

events, these being the start of both the Practical, and Academic Bridging courses. At these times students would come together to be given course

information, and it would be easy for me to be given a ‘slot’ during each

programme to discuss the project, my own study within it, and hopefully recruit participants. My fieldnotes of these visits record how, on each occasion, I

become a participant observer in these events. I am transformed from an ‘outsider’ researcher into an ‘insider’ lecturer’s assistant. This transformation has the potential to compromise and complicate the way in which my research

intentions, claims of anonymity, and assurances that information would only be shared with the project team, were perceived by student participants. These are complications which are difficult to unravel but surface occasionally and are

highlighted later in this discussion. 223

How researchers make contact with research participants, the ways in which they solicit their involvement with research projects, and the possible implications of the nature, and form of these approaches, is a subject given little attention by writers who tell their interview stories. Research participants seem to spring into existence somewhere between ‘sample’ and ‘interview’ (Jones, 2004, Hoffman, 2007). Carol

Warren (2002) however, as part of her examination of qualitative interviewing, turns her attention to considering the different means used to find participants, citing a number of ‘ingenious’ (p.87) approaches used by researchers, and referring to research undertaken by Laurel Richardson (1985) in which she canvassed anyone with whom she made contact at the time, including salespeople, attendees at conferences, and travel acquaintances.

Fieldnotes 7.8.06 Fieldnotes 11.9.06 Extract 1 Extract 1

After a warm, relaxed and informal welcome After an introduction by the first year and introduction to the day’s programme by manager I am invited to talk to the students about the project and invite the first year manager, I am invited to talk about the project and invite students to them to participate. I give out an participate. The group are quiet and attentive. information sheet about the project and

They listen to my description of the project a questionnaire. and the likely commitment involved and I distribute a short questionnaire which has been constructed by the project team and Extract 2 includes biographical and contact details. As part of the Bridging Week, the students Extract 2 are asked to complete a writing task which is planned to take thirty minutes. The students have to complete a large number I am left for a short while to supervise this of administrative tasks during the morning activity to allow the tutor to deal with an which involves moving between different enrolment query elsewhere . floors of the building. As the tutor is working alone, I help as much as I can with a number of the tasks, even taking responsibility for taking students to certain locations. I feel part of the team. A Copy of the FurtherHigher and my own participant information handouts can be found in: Props 3a/b.

Additionally, when promoting participation in my research and the FurtherHigher project, students were presented with an image of the research having a certain status. The FurtherHigher project was a national study, it involved a number of institutions, and any information which the students were given, including my own, bore the imposing title of the university, some even embellished with the university crest. It was also implicitly validated by their teaching staff and higher education institution setting. Again, these are factors which can both subtly and more directly influence the way in which potential participants perceive the process in which they are being encouraged to take part. 224

Warren (2002) uses examples to draw attention to the more formal terms used for certain forms of participant selection or sampling, discussed more fully by

Goodson and Sikes, (2001) and Robson, (2002). Despite this foray into what she describes as ‘Preliminary Considerations’ (p.85) in the interview process, she makes no direct comment about the conditions in which research participants are contacted, or how this might later have a impact on interviewer and interviewee relationships.

‘Purposive . The research is concerned with specific characteristics, attributes, or experiences and informants are ‘selected’ because they meet the criteria’ (Goodson and Sikes, 2001 p.24, italics in original).

‘Purposive sampling The principle of selection in purposive sampling is the researcher’s judgement as to typicality or interest’ (Robson, 2002 p.265, italics in original).

Fieldnotes 7.8.06 Fieldnotes 11.9.06 Extract 3 Extract 3

Of the fifteen students who agree to be Of the twenty eight students, fourteen involved, four have to be turned down agree to take part and from this group because they are international students, eight are chosen to provide a and from the remaining group of eleven, representative spread across gender, age, six are chosen to provide a representative ethnicity and disability. The six spread across gender, age and ethnicity. remaining students are invited to be Five of the six are making an external reserves in case of drop-out. Of the eight transition into the course. The selected, four are making internal remaining five are invited to be reserves transitions onto the course and four are in case of drop-out. transferring from other FE colleges.

The term ‘purposive sample’ could be applied to the group of student participants who were chosen from those who, having listened to my recruitment presentation, agreed to take part in the study. They were chosen because of their imminent move into higher education, and because they were representative in terms of gender, age, ethnicity and disability, features of interest to the FurtherHigher project. Thus Alice, Andrew, Geoff,

Gerrard, Gordon, Heather, James, Jen, Lizzie, Mara, Matt, Pariese, Paul and

Skittles agreed to take part in three interviews which would be undertaken during the course of their first year at Citygate College, each one having their own motivations and reasons for entering into this agreement.

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During the academic year 2006-2007 I conducted 35 interview conversations with the CAM student participants at various points in time. Mara, Heather and Jen only took part in the first round of interviews. This was because Mara and

Heather subsequently left the college; Mara for reasons related to family responsibilities, and Heather because of ill health. Jen chose not to continue to be involved because of time constraints. Andrew completed two interviews but again, because of personal, health, and time difficulties, did not take part in the third. This left 10 student participants who generously met with me on three occasions over what was a relatively short period of time (August 2006 to April

2007), and it is the interview conversations which I had with these ten, that I chose to draw on in this study. This decision was made because I wanted to maximise the opportunity to meet with participants over an academic year, and in so doing be able to explore any changed circumstances, views, or perceptions of their experiences of higher education which may have occurred during that time. Having an awareness of difficulties with the recruitment of participants in other areas of the FurtherHigher project, I know that I was extremely fortunate that so many students continued to be involved to its conclusion. This could have been due to a number of reasons; serendipity, my determined strategies for contacting participants by text, phone and e-mail, or the strong emphasis which the teaching staff in this particular curriculum area place on the qualities of commitment and professionalism within the student group as a whole. There is, for example, a clear expectation that students will mirror workplace courtesies regarding lateness or absence. My concern was that despite the voluntary nature of their involvement in the research, these expectations might have permeated into the behaviour of the participants’ within the study.

Fieldnotes 4.5.07 Fieldnotes 30.11.06 Extract 1 Extract 1

* was very apologetic about not responding to * looked very drawn. She was wrapped texts but he is in the middle of lots of up in a scarf and woolly hat. I knew assignment work at the moment and he says things have been very ‘hectic’. that she had been unwell from when I had spoken to her on the phone. This

however was a hangover; the result of a

Fieldnotes 2.5.07 good night out the evening before. She Extract 1

had been back to bed after lectures and

* apologised for the fact that his voice was very then returned to college to see me which ‘croaky’ – he felt unwell but had still come to the meeting. I thought was really good of her.

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Examples of text messages received in week beginning 30.4.07

Hi its * sory i havnt Hia val its * im Hi Val its * been in contact its been free from now jst a hectic couple of wondering weeks, Im free on wer we r Friday between half11 meeting. and half 12 if that’s Thanks. possible

Hi val I think we agreed 2 meet 2moro at half 2. I was I hav a meeting woderin whether we with my hospitality cud move it closer 2 group from 12 to 1o’clock. If nt maybe 3:30 is it possible another day cos i 2 still meet up at have 2 gt a group 3:30? (S) assignment dne. Sorry if this causes ne trouble. Thnx

These last two propositions give rise to ethical Extract from ethical approval form submitted to university concerns, the first of which I had anticipated.

In seeking approval for this study, I had identified that the time demands of engaging in A.7 What is the potential for three interviews could prove problematic for physical and/or psychological harm / participants, and this indeed proved to be the distress to participants? case, leading to some participant withdrawal. a. Students The study requires the participants However the way in which contact is to take part in interviews. This maintained with research participants can lead could generate a degree of into a shadowy boarderland between inconvenience for the participants as well as demanding time which doggedness and harassment. I had also not could be used for their own work / life / study. This will be minimised anticipated the way in which the value placed through the negotiation and by course staff on commitment to the course agreement of both time spent in interview and the timetabling of the may have spilled over into commitment to the interview. The participant research study. This possibly placed the information and agreement sheet will also emphasise the voluntary student participants unfairly into a position in nature of participation. which they felt obligated to continue to take part.

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Carol Warren (2002), referred to earlier, does however comment on issues which surround where interviews take place, particularly the need to be attuned to participants’ sensitivities about who might observe them being interviewed. She concludes with the following remarks about research of her own, which acknowledge how the settings in which research interviews take place can have an impact on the whole process:

These ex-patient interviews were replete with discussion and discomfort over the issue of where to meet; in the summer, interviewers sometimes resolved the problem by meeting with respondents in the outdoors, in a garden or on a park bench. Most interviews were eventually completed, but their locations were far from being the result of a well-defined procedure. In retrospect, it is evident that the negotiation of perspectives on this matter filtered many of these preliminary issues, just as seasoned researchers have noted that such negotiations indeed reverberate throughout the interview process itself (p. 90).

Despite my continued assurances to student participants that they should not feel pressure to remain committed to the study, the majority continued to take part, and I continued to make arrangements to meet with them. The locations which were chosen for these meetings were based on pragmatism, as the availability of spaces in which to meet students in what was, and is, a very busy and crowded higher education institution was severely limited. Over the summer period I made my own arrangements, taking advantage of any suitable free spaces because very few people were in the college. Later, I liaised with the college research associate, as finding spaces in which to meet became a significant difficulty. However the locations in which interview conversations take place can also have an impact on the encounter. The locations used in this study have included lecture theatres, classrooms, student services interview rooms, study centres, and also once, a local café. I feel that in some way each of these locations had, in its own way, an impact on the interview and contributed to the shaping of its character and outcomes.

For example my experience has been that the conversational type of interaction which is possible when enjoying a drink in a café with another person, is very different to that possible in a tiny, cramped interview room, even when the sparse furniture has been moved about to minimise barriers both physical and perceived.

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Fieldnotes 23.4.07 Fieldnotes 28.11.06 Extract 1 Extract 1

This little room seems very clinical * had walked up five floors from where he had and soulless - bland colours, very been in class to meet me, to find that we

‘officey’ and formal. needed to go back down to floor four as the No pictures on the walls –just a bare original room had been double booked –not too notice board. pleased. Things got worse - this room was also Despite the fact that I have moved the in use and we had to move again –this time furniture – 2 tables and three chairs – helped by a member of staff who took us back its still feels very ‘stiff’. up to floor seven and a lucky vacant space in I’m not sure that it helps the an interview room. * was very gracious about conversation – this feels very much the disruption and we began the interview late like a formal job interview – one in but a bit fitter. which interviewees may be conscious of saying something which might be perceived as a ‘mistake’.

Fieldnotes 29.11.06 Extract 1

I last met * at a café very close to the college on a steamy summer morning as she was on her way into college. I had bought us both drinks, and despite the microphone sitting on the table in front of us, I think that an observer may have thought we were two friends having a chat.

An additional, factor which I needed to take into account when planning locations for interviews was that, as far as possible, I wanted to avoid sharing the identities of student participants in the study with any of the staff in the institution. My rationale for this decision was that this might have compromised or modified in some way, their relationships with staff, especially those teaching staff with whom they were in contact with each week. My concern was that, at such an important time, the first days, weeks, and year in higher education, these student participants should not, unintentionally, be treated by staff any differently from their peers. This meant that when I was allocated locations for interviews which had glass partitions, or which could be overlooked, I endeavoured to make changes. However, this was not always successful, but the most important factor was that the interview conversations were not undertaken in rooms in close proximity to those used by the programme area under review. This strategy minimised the likelihood of student participants being observed by staff and students associated with their course.

Whether the student participants themselves ever chose to discuss their involvement in the study with staff or peers was never made apparent to me, and only on one occasion did two students come together, good friends, waiting for each other before returning to their studies. 229

In situ

The research interviews: Interviews are not:

‘….that you do or that you study ‘….the mythical neutral tools are not asocial, ahistorical, envisioned by survey research. Interviewers are increasingly seen as events. You do not leave behind active participants in an interaction

your anxieties, your hopes, your with respondents, and interviews are blindspots, your prejudices, your seen as negotiated accomplishments class, race or gender, your of both interviewers and respondents location in global social structure, that are shaped by the contexts and your age and historical positions, situation in which they take place’

your emotions, your past and (Fontana and Frey, 2005, p.716). your sense of possible futures when you set up an interview,

and nor does your interviewee ‘As interviewer, I make no further when he or she agrees to an interjections except for confirming interview and you both come utterances, making eye contact and nervously into the same room’ unconscious body language’ (Wengraf, 2001, p.4). (Jones, 2004, p.43).

Fieldnotes 27.4.07 Extract 1

* was early – he is like a whirlwind –he doesn’t keep still. He moves his cap from back to front and back again throughout the conversation. This may be due to him having given up smoking a few weeks earlier. We chatted about this for a while –he says that he has never had so many

coughs and colds before.

The first interview conversation in which I participated was in August 2006, and it was with a student participant whose anonymised name, subsequently negotiated between us, was Gerrard. He was taking part in a summer bridging programme which was a precursor to his degree programme proper. I had been introduced to the group two days before to recruit project participants, and Gerrard had agreed to be involved. We met on a hot Wednesday afternoon three days into this programme and four days after he had moved from his home city to the unfamiliar surroundings of the college student residential village. This accommodation was in the heart of a city previously unknown to him, and in a part of the country which he had only visited once as part of the application process. We were both nervous, and our conversation was recorded against the incessant noise of a workman’s hammer, a reminder that this was August, and a time when the college undertook many maintenance and building tasks not suitable to be done in regular term time. This example, and the field notes related to the interview with the student participant above, emphasise the ‘before’ and ‘after’ interview concerns which both myself and the student participants brought to the interview situation, concerns which undoubtedly had a bearing on the way in which the interview conversation unfolded. 230

Both come nervously into the same room

A stifling afternoon, A poetic mid August in the city, arrangement of reflective busy day, time to unwind. writing Growing up in the same city (11.9.07) based on field forged a connection between us, notes diffused the hint of tension (10.8.06). felt between us, strangers to each other and to our unfamiliar roles.

The echoes of the last lesson still hanging in the air, we took a place atop a bank of seats; a hint of breeze, some clear natural light, as far as possible away from the noise of builders, hammering relentlessly outside, the sound muffled but audible, a staccato accompaniment to our staccato conversation.

Now, reflecting back, would I have approached things differently, more diffusely, maybe? Opened up thoughts and impressions less directly, allowed talk to evolve from him rather than from me, maybe? But I had initiated this conversation, there was an agenda, a number of ‘facts’ he was required to remember. I did my best with: ‘tell me a bit about…’ ‘perhaps you could describe…’ The words echoed hollowly in the empty space between us.

Now, a year later, I can still hear his quiet voice, fresh, full of excitement, its friendly familiar accent, its hint of apprehension. I can still hear the hammer’s thud, I can still feel the hot afternoon sun.

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A conventional view of the In traditional approaches to the interview conversation is that it: research interview: ‘….is a pipeline for transmitting ‘Subjects are basically conceived as knowledge’ passive vessels of answers for (Holstein and Gubrium, 1997, experiential questions put to p.113 ). respondents by interviewers’ (Holstein and Gubrium, 1997, p.116, italics in original).

Although I was nervous about undertaking this first interview, I had spent a number of years working in the student services department of a large FE college where I regularly met young people in interview situations. However, meeting with Gerrard was a different form of interview, one in which my role and position were less clearly defined. Additionally, I felt some pressure at the prospect that my words were being recorded along with those of Gerrard, making it possible for my research interview skills to be monitored by the more experienced members of the FurtherHigher project team. The impact of these concerns, along with the obvious nervousness of Gerrard, contributed, I believe, to the fact that this first interview was one of the shortest, both in time and number of words spoken, of any in which I was subsequently involved, with few digressions on my part from the interview schedule questions agreed. In retrospect, I felt I had acted as a novice technician, charged with attempting to turn a knowledge transmission pipeline tap on and off. Over time, my confidence increased, resulting in the interviews becoming more conversational; a see-saw discourse between speakers, at times with one speaker in the ascendancy, and at others a balance achieved between the two. An additional factor which enhanced my confidence was that when meeting the student participants on subsequent occasions, we were no longer complete strangers, with my presence in some classes fostering this familiarity. The conversations became less dominated by my words or the interview schedule questions. They were more attuned to stories and topics which the student participants were interested in talking about, often vividly, and rich with detail. These were topics which, in retrospect, naturally were meaningful to the participants, and even, on occasion had strong emotional significance. Crucially, they drew attention to the difference in importance attributed by the researcher and participants to the research agenda.

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Fieldnotes 2.5.07 Fieldnotes 14.9.06 Extract 1 Extract 1

* fitted this meeting in between meeting with other students * told a long story for the preparation of a presentation to be done very soon. about a trip to London *seemed rather preoccupied by this work and rather difficult to done as part of his get engaged in much self reflection. HOWEVER she became NVQ course last year. totally ‘alive’ when she talked about her placement for next year. She has a job at a prestigious restaurant.

Fieldnotes 28.11.06 Extract 2

* is a quietly spoken young woman who needs a lot of encouragement to engage in conversation. There were, however, two points which provoked quite strong and animated responses. Firstly the industrial placement which she feels may disadvantage her financially and the second, group work, which she does not like. She had a lot to say, and more loudly, about this method of working, the difficulty of getting others to contribute, and her own role in the process. She has very strong feelings about this way of working.

Extract from: Experience of Coding Gerrard AX1001 Draft Discussion Paper for FurtherHigher Project (September 2007)

Throughout the course of the project I met Gerrard three times to talk to him about his experiences of transition from a Level 3 (BTEC) course in an FE institution to a BA degree programme in a dual sector college of higher education. These were the planned interviews in which I drew on an interview guide as a basis for conversation. However, I also met and observed Gerrard in and around the institution both in unplanned encounters as well as during planned occasions in which I observed students and staff in a range of teaching and learning situations. Over the course of the nine months in which I visited the college frequently, and especially during the planning of interviews at specific times during the academic year, my relationship with Gerrard developed as it did with all of the other research participants. The relationship developed from one in which he was a research participant, unknown, ‘other’ in some way, to one in which we were more like established acquaintances. By the end of this time we were people who had a short history, we shared interests, we both knew some of the same people within the college, and we were even able to laugh at the same things. This relationship was further developed through the telephone calls, texts messages and e-mails which we exchanged during the process of setting up interview times and locations, and by the chance encounters which we had in which we would informally chat about a range of purely random topics ranging from food to football. All of these factors could be applied to any of the other participants (except perhaps the chat about football!). 233

How relationships with research participants develop over time, and the implications of this in terms of both ethical considerations and the changing nature of the power dynamics within research interviews, has been subject to significant debate (Sparkes, 1994, Thompson, 2004). Elizabeth Hoffman (2007) explores the relationship between power and what she calls emotional labour in the interview situation. She draws attention to the way in which power shifts between the research participant and the researcher, and discusses the potentially numerous roles which interviewers act out in the interview situation and the emotional fatigue which this can create. Hoffman, although acknowledging the ultimate power wielded by the researcher through the act of writing the final research report, maintains that interview participants can also exercise different levels of power within the interview situation. For instance interview participants can be seen to have significant power in that without their participation, the research could not be undertaken. Once participating, refusal to answer certain questions is also a means through which participants can exert control.

During the numerous occasions on which I have re-listened to the many interview conversations with student participants whilst working on this study, it has been possible to detect the way in which power, in the form of controlling the direction or flow of the conversation, subtly shifts back and forth between the student participants and myself. For example, although none refused outright to answer any questions which I posed, despite my explaining at each meeting that this was their right, limited responses appeared to be an effective means through which unwanted conversation could be avoided. Similarly, ostensibly signalling boredom through extensive yawning proved to be an effective way for one participant in particular to limit discussion about topics which I later found out would be areas of some sensitivity. Perhaps the subtly of these means is less an expression of power, but rather the reverse, a lack of confidence to exert power through direct refusal to engage in the conversation, or even withdraw from the study completely.

Fieldnotes 15.5.07 Extract 1 ‘….people may agree to be * needed quite a considerable amount of encouragement to engage in interviewed, but then resist conversation. The replies were truncated and seemed very non committal – ‘OK’, ‘I enjoyed it’, ‘it’s the same’. He yawned frequently from start to finish. opening up or discussing

certain kinds Extract 2 of topics’

(Adler and After the tape had stopped we had a long conversation about smoking and Adler, 2002, alcohol. We then went on to talk about films, the royal family, the queen, the p. 515). Diana conspiracy, comic books. * seemed very happy to spend time chatting about anything other than his views of his experience on the course.

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Hoffman (ibid) draws attention to the possibility that, within the interview situation, the interviewer will fulfil a number of roles. Within her own work concerned with workplace grievances, she identifies the roles of ‘student’, ‘confidant’, ‘therapist’ ‘expert’ and ‘confessor’ (pages 323-324). However, of ethical importance here is whether these different roles are ascribed to the researcher by the participant, with the researcher acquiescing; or of more concern, assumed by the researcher as a means through which to provoke and maintain discussion of particular topics, or to probe more privately held views or experiences.

While recruiting student participants willing to take part in my study, I had introduced myself as a student too, one involved with research within a large project. However, despite the fact that we were all students embarking on new courses of study, I believe that the age difference between myself and the participants contributed to the different ways in which my role was perceived. This was not a fixed role though, but one which shifted and changed depending on the stage at which the interview conversation took place, and at different stages within each interview conversation. Nor were these roles obviously apparent in all of the interview conversations. However, at various times, I felt that my role as research student was additionally perceived by some participants to be one of parent figure, financial advisor, confidant, and counsellor. Whether these perceived roles developed from discussion of specific topics or whether the topics of conversation developed from the perception of the role, is difficult to tease out, but whichever is the case, such perceptions contributed to the way that the interview conversation evolved. The nature of each role also added a further layer of responsibility to that already implicit in the role of researcher concerned with ethics within the research process.

Fieldnotes 23. 4.07 Did Geoff ’s comment italicised in this fragment of conversation from interview Extract 1 conversation 2 indicate that he had *is very aware of her lack of self confidence allocated to me the role of ‘spy’, feeding and talked about envying someone in her back information to his tutor? group who appears to her to have lots of confidence. She knows that she is getting better marks than him and yet she still ..it’s just multiple feels unable to believe in her abilities. choice questions.. I mean it’s just ….something you can She talked about the cosmetic dentistry cram I think really... I which she has just embarked on which is a shouldn’t be saying any move to increase her self image but which of this but it’s how you she is very self conscious about. She think init.. mentions stress and fatigue.

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Engaging in interview conversation with a fairly large number of participants, and being part of a larger research project in which data would be shared, meant that the use of a digital audio recorder was essential. Most importantly however, the recorder, once set in motion, left me free to be involved in the conversations, both as questioner and initiator of topics for discussion, as well as listener, and co-creator of conversational exchanges. Certainly, as mentioned earlier, to begin with I was very much aware of the recorder, but what of the student participants? The information notes which I had distributed as part of the recruitment process had explained that the interview conversations would be recorded, but it is difficult to anticipate feelings and emotions which might be generated when faced with such a device. In my meetings with student participants, there were no direct observations made about the recorder, but this does not mean that its presence did not have an influence on the participants’ contribution to the conversations, invisibly shaping what was said in unknown ways. In a number of meetings too, conversations resumed once the recorder had been switched off, and on more than one occasion I re-started the device, but always did this with the agreement of the participant. The switching on and off of a recording device within the research interview can act as a tangible demarcation for some participants, between their perception of what they have agreed to and expect the researcher to draw on in research reports, and what is said outside of this agreement. Again, this raises ethical issues about the use of interpretive logs and fieldnotes written as part of the research process after interview conversations are concluded, and how, or even whether they should be included in research reports.

Conversation fragment from Matt Val The thing I wanted to interview conversation 3 –tape off just check out was the and on . details...in fact I could

turn that off.

We were just talking about exams and Matt the fact that Matt doesn’t like exams.

No I don’t like them at all..

Recording the interview conversations which I had with student participants has meant that I have been able to re-listen to them on numerous occasions.

These acts of re-listening are important, as talk, once captured in text, is transformed rather like the entomologists butterfly, the fluttering of speech pinned down in printed words.

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Noises Off 2 Transcription

The ‘heretical thoughts’ (p. 12) of John Nisbett (2006) are concerned with

many aspects of the research interview process, but particularly that of the transcription of the recorded interview as part of this process. The seven

‘heresies’ (p.12) he identifies include his contention that there is no such thing as an accurate transcription. As Nisbett admits, this is not a new concern;

Mishler (1986) for example, notes the difficulties of representing certain features of speech such as pitch, stress, and rate, and the additional complexity brought

to the endeavour if kinesic and paralinguistic features such as gesture and facial expression are to be considered. It is Mishler’s (ibid) view that representations of

interview speech constitute transformations, as speech becomes: ‘….lines of text within the limits of a page’ (p.48).

Researchers however, across a broad continuum, use a range of different approaches to transcription in seeking to achieve what they consider to be more

‘accurate’ transcriptions, or records of interview talk. From one point on this continuum, Anssi Peräkylä (1997), in arguing that conversational analysis

enhances the reliability of research, refers to precise transcription conventions. From a different point, Coralie MCCormack (2004) creates what she calls ‘nested’

(p. 232) narratives of experience, weaving together excerpts of interview conversation with fieldnotes in presenting her records of interview conversation;

a visual form which emphasises her interpretive approach.

‘After completion of the Examples of transcription conventions referred to by interviews, all the tapes were Peräkylä, 1997

transcribed verbatim’ hhh The letter ‘h’ is used to indicate hearable (Rowbotham, 2004, p.229). aspiration, its length roughly proportional to the number of ‘h’’s. If preceded by a dot, the aspiration is an in-breath. Aspiration internal to a word is enclosed in parentheses. Otherwise ‘h’’s may indicate anything from ordinary breathing to sighing to laughing etc. Verbatim adv. & adj. in exactly

the same words; word for word (0.8) Numbers in parentheses indicate periods of (copied it verbatim; a verbatim silence, in tenths of a second – a dot inside

report ). parentheses indicates a pause of less than 0.2 seconds

The Concise Oxford Dictionary. (Silverman, 1997, page 254).

Four types of non-verbal communication

Proxemic communication: the use of interpersonal space to communicate attitudes Chronemic communication: the use of pacing of speech and length of silence in

conversation Kinesic communication: any body movements or postures Paralinguistic communication: all the variations in volume, pitch and quality of voice

(From Gorden, 1980, in Poland, 2002, p. 635).

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Active re-listening to the audio recordings of interview conversations has fulfilled a number of different functions within my study. As all of the audio recordings of interviews undertaken by members of the field-work aspect of the FurtherHigher

Project were transcribed by commissioned transcribers, the audio records of the interview conversations in which I took part were no exception. As a PhD student, I was fortunate to be able to take advantage of this service, but I was also aware that not undertaking my own initial transcriptions meant that one purpose of re-listening was to check for omissions and possible errors, as well as also to anonymise where necessary. This was a task undertaken by all members of the field work team, and given the number of interviews undertaken, a lengthy but necessary process. In undertaking this task I made use of my lap- top computer running alongside a PC. This allowed me to efficiently move between the digital audio recording and the transcripts to correct errors and fill, where possible, any omissions. This activity vividly highlighted how, in the use of standard writing conventions, punctuation and syntax, the interview speech when ‘converted’ to text became inert and somewhat sterile. Within my own study, further re-listening to the audio recordings has led me to make decisions about the means through which I would use this fixed text of talk and re- animate it in some way. This re-animation has taken several different forms within the study (Table 2.), but textually I have made use of different font styles and call-out shaped text boxes. I consider that these call-outs, which look rather like butterfly wings, visually re-enliven the textual form of the transcribed speech, and boldly differentiate the transcription from other surrounding text.

Directions for transcribers for FurtherHigher Project (Information from Project Secretary)

Line space between interviewer/respondent each time Header or footer showing interviewer/interviewee Bold for interviewer Normal type for interviewee No initials at side Put time in at intervals throughout.

TRANSCRIPTION NOTE –made while checking transcription. Very small changes to words during the transcription process can alter meaning.

Example from fieldnotes 8.1.07 Field notes hand written version: ….but they have been used to work with and

supervise less experienced and skilled group members………

Fieldnotes typed version:…..but they have been used to working with supervising less experienced and skilled group members………

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Table 2. TRANSCRIPT TRANSFORMATION: Matt

TRANSCRIPTION 1

Audio sound file 1 Could you tell me how you ended up coming to sent to transcriber. ******, because you’ve been here… is it two years? Transcription1 created. Yeah, two years now. Times New Roman font used by transcribers. 2 Two years, OK, so tell me how you got to be here. Interviewer speech emboldened to I live in ****** but I first had a look at ******College when I indicate was ready to leave school and then I had a look here and it’s differentiation just completely different, it’s just a lot friendlier, it’s just sort of between speakers. more homely sort of thing and it seems a lot better than any other college, they say it’s the best one in the country isn’t it I think.

TRANSCRIPTION 2

Transcript 1 Could you tell me how you sort of ended up coming to anonymised. Citygate, because you’ve been here… is it two years now? Omissions filled and Yeah, two years now. errors corrected 2 Two years, OK, so tell me how you got to be here. where possible on I live in S but I first had a look at S College when I was ready to close and repeated leave school and then I had a look here and it’s just completely listening. Font style different, it’s just a lot friendlier, it just feels more homely sort of and size changed. thing it seems a lot better than any other college, they say it’s the best one in the country isn’t it I think. TRANSCRIPTION 3

Transcript changed after further close Val: Could you tell me how you sort of ended up coming to listening to indicate Citygate, because you’ve been here… is it two years now ? some paralinguistic Matt: Yeah, two years now. features of the conversation. Val: Two years, OK, so tell me how you got to be here. Pauses and emphasis indicated. Matt: I live in S but I first.. I had a look at S College when.. I was Italic for emphasis, ready to leave school.. and then I had a look here.. and it’s just ..dots used to completely different, it’s just a lot friendlier, it just feels more indicate chronemic homely sort of thing it seems a lot better than any other college.. aspects of they say it’s the best one in the country isn’t it.. I think. conversation. Speakers’ names both emboldened to indicate co- construction of the interview conversation and co-construction of the narrative through conversational exchanges.

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TRANSCRIPTION 4

Call-out text-box shape used to Val Matt indicate conversation flow Could you tell me how you sort of ended up back and forth coming to Citygate, between speakers. because you’ve been Yeah, two years now. Speech no longer here… is it two years confined to regular now ? text based conventions of line length and ordering. Names of speakers I live in S but I first.. I had a look at S College when.. I was presented in Two years, OK, so parallel. ready to leave school.. and tell me how you then I had a look here.. and Call-out acts as got to be here. it’s just completely different, visual reminder that it’s just a lot friendlier, it just text enclosed is feels more homely sort of dialogue thing it seems a lot better transformed into than any other college.. they text by the say it’s the best one in the transcription country isn’t it.. I think. process.

In a study exploring the effectiveness of the research interview as a means to gain insight into student learning, David Rowbotham (2004) describes details of

the way in which he undertook the interviews, including his rationale for the choice of venue in which they would take place. He goes on to state that the tapes

of the interviews were transcribed ‘verbatim’ (p.229); the term ‘verbatim’ being presented unproblematically. In contrast, Blake Poland (2002) considers the term

‘verbatim’ to be one which is to be used with circumspection when applied to the transcription of a research interview. He maintains that many aspects of

interpersonal interaction and non-verbal communication are not captured by audio recording, thus making the audiotape record itself: ‘….not strictly a verbatim

record of the interview’ (p.635). Poland however, reinforces the view (Silverman, 2001) that the way in which researchers engage with issues raised by the various

stages of the research interview, including transcription, is inevitably inextricably bound up with the overall purpose of each project, and the underpinning

theoretical, and epistemological perspectives of its practitioners.

Notes made during the writing process In drawing on extracts of student participant conversation, I worry constantly about my choice of interpretive adverbs used to represent distinctive tones of voice: Alice talks enthusiastically …. (Extract 3) Geoff wryly commenting…. (Extract 5) She dryly tells me…. (Extract 5).

Does my choice of words adequately and correctly represent these expressive tones, and do the words effectively communicate these tones to readers? 240

Conversational shadows, communicating experience

‘Apart from any other consideration, we are faced with the immense difficulty, if not impossibility, of verifying the past. I don’t mean merely years ago, but yesterday, this morning. What took place, what was the nature of what took place, what happened? If one can speak of the difficulty of knowing what took place yesterday, one can I think treat the present in the same way. What’s happening now? We won’t know until tomorrow or in sixth months’ time, and we won’t know then, we’ll have forgotten, or our imagination will have attributed quite false characteristics to today. A moment is sucked away and distorted, often even at the time of its birth. We will all interpret a common experience quite differently, though we prefer to subscribe to the view that there’s a shared common ground. I think there’s a shared common ground alright, but that it’s more like quicksand’ (Pinter, 1998, p. 21).

Exploring the perception of experiences of higher education of first year

students on a Culinary Arts Management Course has been one of two main aims of my study. Engaging student participants in three interview

conversations during this first year has been the approach I have used to elicit these perceptions. Articulating perceptions of experience is, however, a

complex, multi-layered undertaking, drawing on prior experience, self- awareness, insight, memory, motivation, interpretation, and access to a stock

of words with which to adequately and meaningfully communicate with listeners . I am reminded of the work of Catherine Riessman (1993) in which

she uses a description of a walk on a beach in India to illustrate the challenge Conversationsand complexity of tellingexperience, about experienceexperience as of part conversations of the research process. She

describes beginning in: ‘a prelinguistic realm of experience’ (p.8), corporeally engaged with the setting, and then moving into a mode of experience in which

she ‘attends’ (p.9) to certain features of the scene, making choices in what she notices. At a later time, she relates the experience of the walk to friends,

selecting certain elements and developing the telling through responding to questions. At this point she observes: ‘In the telling, there is an inevitable gap

between the experiences as I lived it and any communication about it’ (p.10). Importantly, she notes that her choice of which part of the experience to

describe and how this is achieved, is both determined by her audience, and the way in which she wishes to be perceived by this audience.

The student participants in this study faced similar challenges in articulating their experience of higher education; in telling, attempting to navigate a

quicksand terrain. This terrain littered with partially submerged memories and unseen mediators and audiences.

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‘The difficulty with experience, however, is that we can only experience our own life, what is received by our own consciousness. We can never know completely another’s experiences, even though we may have clues and make inferences all the time. Others may be willing to share their experiences, but everyone censors or represses, or may not be fully aware of or able to articulate, certain aspects of what has been experienced’ (Bruner, 1986, p.5).

‘The transcript of a life story ‘When informants are faced with a appears in black and white, question in an interview situation, seemingly frozen in place and the memories often begin to swell available for continuous into consciousness. They have to inspection and analysis. In make a selection because there is everyday life, the ‘same’ account no way they can tell all there is to changes in meaning and its tell with equal and unbiased consequences, depending on emphasis. They have to explain speakers’, and listeners’ purposes their reality in a string of words and the circumstances’ (Gubrium that carry meaning to someone and Holstein, 2009, p.39). else who has not had the same

experience’ (Gudmundsdottir, 1996, p.296).

Notes from Workshop on Narrative Analysis University of East London 29 th -30 th March 2007 Friday afternoon

We are shown a video called ‘Betty Tells Her Story’ produced by Liane Brandon. A woman, Betty, is shown telling a story about buying a dress. She is telling the story to an unseen person, but from the screen is looking directly at us, the viewers. We don’t know under what circumstances the filming is being undertaken or its purpose. We don’t know who Betty is, or where she is sitting telling her tale. I watch, unsure why I am watching the video, but engaged with the telling of the story, it is lively and humorous. The video continues and Betty is shown beginning to tell her story again. This telling is very different, almost shocking, as Betty, again looking directly at us from the screen, becomes visibly upset. The whole dress buying episode is recounted so differently, and watching this transformation has been disquieting.

After the video finishes, we are told by the workshop facilitators that Betty had been asked to participate in the making of a film to be used for assessment purposes. It would showcase the film-maker’s mastery of various technical skills, including how to deal with lighting issues at various times of the day. Betty had been encouraged to tell a story about a familiar episode which she could easily repeat during the day’s filming.

In the process, the fragile nature of recounting experience is exposed, and I am challenged to consider whether it is important that when I listen to my research participants’ stories, I do so as if they are their first ‘fresh’ versions.

(Available from http://www.newday.com/films/Betty_Tells_Her_Story.html Accessed 4 th April 2007.)

242 Norman Denzin (1997) describes truth as being: ‘always personal and subjective’ (p.266) as well as ‘fragile’ (p.268). This image of fragility perfectly encapsulates a perspective of truth which, like a meringue, when trying to cut

to its centre, collapses into a myriad of fragments. Paul Rosenblatt (2002) examines some of these fragments in his discussion of the possible differing

interviewer and interviewee notions of truth, in what he calls:’….interviewing at the boundary between fact and fiction’ (p.893).In using these words, Rosenblatt signals his postmodern perspective of research and the interview process,

positing the view that the term ‘truth’ is one which might be exchanged for more porous terms such as: ‘….suggestions, possibilities, or perspectives’ (p.894). However, he maintains that the participants in research with whom he

has been in contact, have more rigid conceptions of the notion of truth. As such, they have expectations that researchers wish to know the truth, and so endeavour to tell it. These expectations Rosenblatt argues, are fostered by the

interview context and the language used in the interview situation. In practice, Rosenblatt observes, participants sometimes fail to tell the whole truth, and

sometimes provide contradictory truths. Talking with student participants about how they spent their time while

studying during the second and third interview conversation, provided the

opportunity for them to discuss and reflect on events experienced in the immediate past, and present. This was in contrast to their discussion of much

earlier events in their educational careers, ones mediated by time and memory. Talking about the immediate past, particularly time spent in classes and lectures, did however, prove unexpectedly problematic for some

participants but for different reasons. For certain participants, this was an apparent inability, within the interview situation, to recall certain events clearly. This could have been for any number of reasons; as a means to avoid

the discussion for example, or simply because the events held no particular significance. For one participant in particular, I felt that it was their closeness

to the immediate, their study timetable, their lecturers, their peers, which

seemed to influence and inhibit the conversational exchange. This was an inhibition which I interpreted as coming from a concern that any perceived

criticism of their immediate situation was inappropriate from their position as student. There may also, once more, have been a concern over my position, and the confidentiality of the conversation. Would the same fears have been

present if the conversation had been undertaken with friends or family? Within the interview conversations in which I was involved with student participants, only one version of many possible versions of recounted experiences is made known; these versions representing shadowy, partial, and sometimes Noisescontradictory Off truths of experience. 243

Closure In the process of discussing the research interview and the transcription procedure, practices listed in the opening poem AX1001:Gerrard , I have amplified certain aspects of the research process which are sometimes muted. These have included: participant recruitment and selection, interview location, ethical concerns, interview approaches and practices, the use of recording devices, and transcription methods. Anticipating and evaluating the ways in which how these individual processes are undertaken influence either individual research participants, or the outcomes of research, is complex. I consider, however, that cumulatively they can have a significant impact, mediating the way in which research is undertaken, presented, and ultimately understood. Importantly the discussion has also amplified the complexity of articulating experience, highlighting this to be a hugely difficult and multi-layered proposition. The metaphor of quicksand used by Harold Pinter (1998) perfectly captures the potential for struggle which interview participants may encounter, when expected to engage in conversation about their experiences. Throughout Noises Off, I have utilised a sample of quotations from a number of researchers to illustrate a variety of perspectives of the research interview, and how the results of the process are transcribed. Some more than others, have influenced my thinking, the ways in which I have engaged with the research process, and presented, and re-presented its outcomes and the participants within it. I do, for example, perceive myself to be the active participant in the interview described by Andrea Fontana and James Frey (2005), viewing the passivity claims of Kip Jones (2004) as an illusionary possibility, serving only to create a veneer of objectivity to the enterprise. Also of particular significance for me, is the interpretive work of Coralie MCCormack (2002) in which she uses a visual dimension to differentiate text and talk through the use of different font styles, and her use of the juxtaposition of fieldnotes with participant interview extracts. For me, this clear contextualization, and overtly interpretive approach, contributes more to understanding than the use of some transcription conventions which, through their attention to minutiae, create an almost alien language which obscures the participants (Poland, 2002). However, I am mindful that each approach is inevitably and inextricably linked to research purpose. Within this study I have used a number of different approaches and formats: report writing, radio programme scripts, monologues, poetry, visual images, and performance pieces. I have used different font styles and graphical devices. It is my belief that no one form can adequately ‘capture’ or express my experiences or those of others, or convey the complexity of an institution and its practices. Next in Part 5, The Green Room, I discuss a number of these approaches in detail, forging a link between my decisions to use them and the issues raised here in Noises Off. 244 Part 5 The Green Room

The Green RRoomoom is a room in a theatre for the accommodationaccommodation of performers or speakers when not required on the stage. In sososomeso me theatre companies, the term Green RRoomoom also refersrefers to the director’director’ss critique session held after a rehearsal or perforperformamance,ma nce, since it is often held in the Green RoomRoom..

Lichfield Garrick Theatre

245

Green Room Conversations

A duck takes a late-night dip, jagging a shadow on the nasturtium lit water. The others, huddled in themselves in rows, may part the nictitating membrane of a tiny eye for a fleeting second in which to reconsider the shuffle-step-tumble of another passer-by*.

The words float lyrically into the hot auditorium space, and for what seems like an eternity, there is no sound. This is the instant of transition; when the audience members move from their collective experience to individually recognise this as the final silence of the performance. As the stage lights dim to black, there is applause. The gathered group of eighty or so folk, who have travelled with us on our poetic journey, show their appreciation of our work. We assemble in the now brightly illuminated performance space to take a bow, at last able to smile with authenticity. Our lips have been liberated, freed from the unfamiliar shapes into which they have been forced by the anxiety of anticipation, and the roles we have assumed. We file out of the space as the house lights are raised, and gather untidily in chattering groups in the narrow corridor at the back of The Studio Theatre. Here we breathlessly recount the mistakes we have made in our performances, the missed cues, late entrances, and muffled, mumbled words. We also congratulate those whose work has shone, their clarity of diction, and the extraordinary way in which the audience’s responses to their performance became palpable. Our director, David, calls us to order, wanting to have a more structured discussion of our work before we begin again. I follow Simon and Janet down the warren of backstage corridors, unsure of the way to the Green Room.

***Stone City Voices : an Arts Council

England funded two year collaboration between writer David Calcutt and The Lichfield Poets. Performed at The Lichfield Festival in The Garrick

Studio Theatre July 12 th 2008.

246

This short autobiographical narrative, complementing the one to be found at the start of Part 1 of the study, acts as an introduction to the theatrical term Green Room . Within the theatrical community, the Green Room is a place for relaxation but also crucially, a place for discussion, reflection, and evaluation of a performance. I use this notion to introduce debate, reflection, and reconsideration of my aspirations for both the substantive and methodological elements of this study. My interests have been in the exploration of the perceived experience of higher education of first year FdA and BA students in a dual sector institution, and how best to express and evoke this experience through different modes of re- presentation. In what follows I extend discussion first introduced in Part 1 related to alternative approaches to re-presentation and the claims of researchers using such methods. I also consider the effectiveness of these means to depict the contexts of this study, and to re-present the perceived experiences of its participants including my own in the various roles that I have assumed during the research process. The notion also provides a place in which to reflect on questions which have been raised both within the setting of the CAM course at Citygate College, and the broader context of Government policy to widen participation in higher education. Additionally, I use this Green Room space to reconsider my overall thesis/‘performance’ as a means to explore my research interests. Within all aspects of this discussion, the themes continuity and change, adaptation and transformation, and aspiration and outcome, which have emerged during the research process, once more come into focus, sometimes in striking ways, and sometimes more diffusely. The following ‘conversations’ and ‘conversational echoes’ are of varying lengths. Sometimes they introduce new perspectives, and sometimes they provide an opportunity to revisit what has gone before. They are at once connected and un/dis/connected, the tangled reality of research which I noted earlier. In the length of, or order in which each discussion is presented, I attribute no privilege to any conversation, believing that each one provides an important contribution to the whole. These are conversations which appear here as separate and discrete, but they are conversations which overlap, intersect, and ultimately entwine. I begin by considering my overall approach to this study before looking in detail at the different means which I have explored in seeking to provide glimpses, impressions, fragments, and flavours of the world of the CAM course at Citygate College. This is a world seen at one point in time, the perceived experiences of a number of those studying and working within it, presented and re-presented through my mediating gaze, and the interpretive voices of a number of ‘performers’. As reader/listener/viewer, you too contribute to this mediation, adding a further frame to a re-presentational hall which Sigrun Gudmundsdottir (1996) 247 describes as being hung with: ‘faulty mirrors’ (p.304), each one creating a unique but distorted reflection.

Conversation 1 The notion of the researcher as bricoleur , which I introduced in Part 1 and further utilised in Part 3, is one that I consider aptly describes my overall approach to this study. Norman Denzin and Yvonna Lincoln (2005) list several kinds of bricoleur : narrative, theoretical, political, and methodological. They depict the interpretive bricoleur as someone who: ‘...produces a bricolage – that is a pieced-together set of representations that is fitted to a complex situation’ and ‘...that changes and takes new forms as the bricoleur adds different tools, methods, and techniques of representation and interpretation to the puzzle’ (p.4).

Using the techniques of montage and pentimento as metaphors, Denzin and Lincoln (ibid ) describe texts created in this way as being multi-layered, multi-faceted, and poly-vocal. Collage too is an apt form through which to conceive of the research bricolage. Laura Hoptman (2007) describes contemporary collage as an: ‘expression of opinion’ (p.11) created through elements of real life. Drawing on material from the research setting - interview audio recordings, interview transcripts, fieldnotes, observations, photographs, texts - the bricolage too is a form of expression through which the researcher presents an interpretation of this setting. The terms meshing of methods and linking of data applied by Jennifer Mason (2006) in discussing a mixed method approach to research, are also reminiscent of the world of the ‘collageur’, who meshes and links a range of materials into a unified whole. Mason (ibid ) puts forward the view that what she refers to as multi- dimensional research strategies to research, have enormous potential: ‘...for generating new ways of understanding the complexities and contexts of social experience...’ (p. 10). Lacking what I consider to be the spontaneity and reactivity to research challenges inherent in Denzin and Lincoln’s (2005) conception of the bricoleur, Mason (2006) considers that choosing from a range of methods should be a strategic one, linked to the questions which drive the research. Listing a number of sources from which the researcher might draw, including ‘real world’ texts (p. 22), objects, images, video and audio material, photographs, observational records, and interview quotations, she argues that researchers need a methodology and methods which reflect the multi-dimensionality of lived experience. Whilst concurring with this perspective, Bella Dicks, Bambo Sokinka and Amanda Coffey (2006) caution the researcher who employs a range of different media techniques of the need to consider the transformative capability of these different forms. This being both in recording the setting in which they are working as well as means of re-presenting it. Just as the way in which the speech of research participants is 248 transformed through the recording and transcription process, they argue that other means such as image-making, and audio production, similarly transform. More complex still, they pose the question of what meanings are created when different forms are mixed or linked.

Conversational Echo In believing that no single form can adequately express or ‘capture’ my experiences or those of others, nor convey the complexity of an institution and its practices, I have employed a variety of approaches and forms of re-presentation within this study. In the dominant written form (which I also consider to be a visual form), I have applied different genres including academic report writing, script writing, poetry, monologue, and narrative. I have also utilised a number of visual forms, comprising of photography, photo-collage, collage, diagrams, charts, tables, and typo-graphics. Additionally I have explored an aural dimension through the production of audio-recorded material. Taking a range of approaches which are multi-sensory as well as arts-based, acknowledges and reflects the complexity of life lived, and experience shaped by our sensory capacity, and the learning which we accomplish through sight, sound, touch, taste, and smell. What our senses also enable us to connect to, feel, and express, is emotion, imagination, and memory. Taking a multi-sensory approach to explore research questions therefore, exploits ways of understanding and meaning-making which we utilise in everyday life. I have used two devices in this thesis to link or mesh together the different approaches I have taken. The first is the overarching metaphor of the theatre which acts as an organising framework whilst still recognising the disorderliness of the research enterprise. This metaphor is also one which links both my overall conception of the thesis as performance, with the individual performance pieces created in Part 3. The second meshing device is the notion of ‘the play within the play’. I have developed this into a form in which a space is created where the different approaches I have taken to re-presentation are explored using a series of fictional radio programmes complete with an imaginary website in which a range of diverse materials can be ‘found’. This ‘website’ mimics the possibilities which computer accessed hypermedia provides for researchers and the potential of new technology for the dissemination of research to wider and more diverse audiences. This is a complex device which provides flexibility for the reader/listener/viewer to access the thesis in a non-linear fashion. I see this both as a means to provide the reader/listener/viewer with choice and challenge, as well as a way to create manageable units of text, image, and audio production, suitable to be accessed by different audiences with divergent interests. A crucial aspect of this form is that throughout the programmes the temporal dimensions of past, present and future are created. In the present, the reader/listener/viewer is required to suspend 249 disbelief, and envision past and future programmes alluded to by the programme presenter. Drawing attention to the complexity of time in this way, helps to emphasise the temporal location of the overall study, in which images of a remembered past and an imagined future, expressed by myself and the study participants, have been framed by a present which has now become the past. This emphasis is an important aspect of a postmodern perspective in which multiple realities are conceived, and which shift and change through the mediation of time.

Conversation 2 Both Johnny Saldaña (2005) and Brian Roberts (2008) acknowledge the parallel between ethnodrama produced by researchers, and certain genres of drama and documentary drama produced by playwrights and documentarists. Each form seeks to evoke particular worlds or events, express important ideas and themes, and through this evocation challenge and engage audiences. One particular form of theatre which I consider bears a close relationship with ethnodrama, is verbatim theatre, in which drama is crafted and scripted from texts and/or transcribed interview material. Recent examples of this contemporary theatre genre include ‘Taking Care of Baby’ (Kelly, 2007) which tackles the complex case of a mother convicted of the murder of her two children, and ‘Called to Account’ (Norton-Taylor, 2007), an examination of the criminal implications of the British Government's decision to use force against Iraq. More recently, the verbatim play of Philip Ralph (2008) has examined the questions raised by the deaths of soldiers at Deepcut Barracks. This drama, like that of forum theatre described by Denzin (1997), provides opportunities for post-performance discussion. Utilising a different approach, and tackling more commonplace but equally compelling topics and themes, Alecky Blythe (2008) describes a technique of verbatim theatre in which recorded interviews are edited but not transcribed. In this approach actors rehearse and perform the plays wearing earphones through which they hear the edited interview playing. Describing the procedure from interview to the editing process in some detail, and acknowledging the mediation of her editorial position, Blythe claims that through this technique, the immediacy of the relationship she had with interviewees is exactly reproduced for the audience, and this in turn produces compelling drama. These are serious claims, and claims echoed by ethnodramatist Saldaña (2005) who asserts that: ‘Both the researcher and audience gain understanding not possible through conventional qualitative data analysis, writing, and presentation from ethnotheatre’s artistic rigour and representational power’ (p.32). Producing this type of drama does, however, raise important questions and concerns which are shared both by researchers and those engaged with producing documentary drama. From the world of dramatised documentary, the 250 documentarist Leslie Woodhead (1981/2005) reveals these paralleled concerns, which include the mediative nature of the selection processes of the producer, issues of accuracy, ethical challenges, and the questions which arise about truth when fact and fiction are blurred. He also argues that this form of drama engenders particular responsibilities and obligations on those using it, especially in ensuring that audiences are informed of the status of the material presented. This view echoing that of Bryant Keith Alexander (2005) referred to in Part 1. An additional concern highlighted by Dwight Rogers, Paul Frellick and Leslie Babinski (2002) in discussing the development of the script of their play about the experience of new teachers, is the part which aesthetic judgement has to play in the devising of scripts. Describing this aspect of the process as: ‘....difficult to articulate’ (p.66), they detail the usefulness of draft readings to selected audiences in the shaping of their work.

Conversational Echo In Part 3 of this study I have presented a number of performance tran/scripts. First are those which make up the four radio programmes in the fictional series ‘Higher Education Goes Public’, second is the performance piece ‘Between a Rock and a Hard Place’, and last is the Career Journey Monologue. All six pieces draw on material gathered from interview conversations with diverse study participants, and with the exception of the monologue, all include other ‘dialogue’ of different types. In the radio programmes this ‘dialogue’ is that of the fictional character of the programme presenter, as well as my own dialogue acting out my researcher role. In ‘Between a Rock and a Hard Place’, the additional ‘dialogue’ is taken from a variety of texts and fieldnotes, and articulated by the characters The Voice of Research, The Student Friendly Guide, and The Fieldworker. Multiple purposes motivated me to develop the tran/scripts for the four programmes ‘The Case of Citygate College’. Firstly I wanted to place the interview conversation material within the broader, more public context of widening participation in higher education referred to in Part 2. The creation of the series ‘Higher Education Goes Public’ makes this possible. Secondly I wished to retain a feeling for the interview situation in which this material had been collected, and to create a sense of immediacy. This is a context often lost in research reports where participants’ words are presented in an apparent vacuum. The creation of a programme using a discussion format makes it possible to convey a sense of this context, and additionally provides the opportunity to place myself alongside the participants as a person who too can be ‘interviewed’. The role of the presenter is crucial to this purpose, as through her/my questioning and comments, different topics can be introduced and interesting points highlighted. For example, in Programme 5 in which CAM staff are the focus of the programme, the presenter 251 draws attention to comments made by Year Manager Mary about her perception of Citygate as a dual-sector institution, a view different to those of the institutional and research perspectives. The third purpose was to allow the presentation of some extracts of participants’ dialogue in a more direct manner. In choosing these pieces and ordering them, I had already exercised a heavy editorial hand; by presenting the extracts without any interpretive researcher commentary, the reader/listener is given space to form their own interpretations. More pragmatically, the programmes also provided a place in which to mingle the words of interview participants with whom I had had individual interview conversations, thus highlighting areas of similarity and difference in their perceived experience or opinion. Lastly, each programme serves as a lively and informative introduction for the reader/listener to the variety of material which follows. The purposes behind the piece ‘Between a Rock and a Hard Place’ were different. During the interview conversations in which I had taken part with student participants, the intensity and difference of opinion related to the practice of group work in the teaching and learning sessions of their first year timetable became obvious. I followed this up by reviewing some of the extensive literature concerned with this topic, finding it to be a highly contested field. In creating ‘Between a Rock and a Hard Place’ I wanted to highlight this debate, and by juxtaposing it with student participants’ comments and stories about group work, counter-balance the detachment of theory with the emotion of practice. An additional purpose was to introduce the views of as many of the study participants as possible, within the limitations of space defined by the scope of a study such as this. Again, the career journey monologue was constructed for a specific purpose. Mingled within a research report which utilises participant comments and views in a somewhat fragmented way, the monologue again provides a counter-balancing form, in which extended talk can be presented and expressed. This form also capitalises on the way in which the presentation emphasises the role of the ‘silent auditor’. In this piece the participant/performer is talking directly to you the reader/listener in a highly compelling way. In the creation of all six pieces, like Rogers, Frellick and Babinski (ibid) I have found holding draft readings to be essential to their development. This is not just in terms of the overall aesthetic balance and shape of each one, but also because each reading has generated fascinating discussion between those taking part 1. This discussion has been related to features of the scripts such as length, balance between voices, staging ideas, and the positioning of different sections, but importantly has drawn attention to the status of the scripts and tran/scripts. Members of the group who read the tran/script of Programme 5 in which Citygate staff are the focus, discussed the difficulty of reading aloud what is unedited

1 School 6 th form staff and pupils, youth theatre group and leader, members of my poetry group. 252 naturalistic dialogue with all its imperfections. They discussed the need to suppress their inclination to embellish the text or imbue the ‘characters’ with particular characteristics as might be the case with a play script. Of interest to me too, was the way in which each reader used gesture during the audio recording which in some way seemed to support their efforts in constructing a reading in which they had to imagine how the original speaker may have spoken. However, the recording becomes a complex entity in which reality and fiction are merged and the representational mirror becomes further distorted through each ‘performer’s’ interpretation. Additionally, discussion has also highlighted the interest which higher education has for these diverse groups. For example, after the development readings by 6th formers and a member of staff at a local school, it became apparent that these English ‘A’ level pupils never encounter group-work strategies in their current educational programme. Used to working individually, these potential university entrants are likely to find group work to be a challenging feature of university teaching and learning practices. The teacher also described memories which this piece provoked, as she recalled the stress caused by her daughter’s account of her experience of group work at university. Members of the youth theatre group who were involved with the final recording, also talked about their experiences of group work at their different schools, this appearing to be a common feature of the way certain subjects are taught. Their mixed positive and negative experiences intriguingly echoed that of the study student participants. Interestingly the group leader identified a short narrative piece within the script as a stimulus for an improvisation exercise entitled ‘The Last Minute’, further developing the potential of the piece. Again like Rogers et al (ibid), I have also encountered limitations in presenting my research material in the form of performances, mostly because of logistical difficulties. However, as each can be conceived of as a radio piece, recording each one with a reading group of an appropriate aged seems a workable strategy, and one which I have employed for the purposes of this thesis submission. Unfortunately, as observed in Part 1, what this method fails to capitalise on, is the impact which a ‘live’ performance has on audience reaction, both individual and collective, or ways in which, like Forum Theatre, discussion can be part of the programme. However, the creation of audio materials contributes a further dynamic to the research enterprise, with the voices of others both adding further layers of mediation, but also providing vibrant ways through which research can be enhanced and enlivened. One of the purposes of re-presenting my research material in this unorthodox manner has been to broaden its audience. The reaction of those involved with these readings so far has strengthened my conviction that such approaches provide an 253 appeal and immediacy not provided by more conventional report writing, and a format which has great versatility and potential for prompting questions and discussion. It is a form which can inform, challenge and also entertain. However, I am in agreement with Leslie Woodhead referred to earlier, of the importance when presenting such material, of informing audiences of its status and the processes involved in its creation. In Part 1, my discussion of the work of others using performance texts as a means to present their research, revealed that some researchers have a background in the form. Others I discovered handed the whole enterprise to professional directors, producers, and actors. As a researcher with some experience of the form, like Saldaña (2005) I consider that collaboration between researchers and theatre practitioners is an ideal which would do much to enhance an enterprise of this type, especially if the aim is to create work which is: ‘...aesthetically sound, intellectually rich, and emotionally evocative’ (p.220). However, such a collaboration would need to ensure a common ethical perspective in relation to the way that material from research participants’ interview transcripts is used and edited. My own view being that as much of the original text/dialogue should be retained as possible in acknowledgement of the site and situation in which the material has been generated and subsequently ‘found’.

Conversation 3 The claims of researchers using poetry as an approach to and within research, either in the form of interpretive poetry, or poetic transcription or re-presentation, are many and varied. A proponent of using poetic re-presentation of interviews, Laurel Richardson (2002) argues that the standard prose usually adopted by social scientist is simply a convention, a form which she challenges as being the only legitimate way in which knowledge can be expressed. Similarly, Monica Prendergast (2006) maintains that her use of found poetry provides: ‘...an alternative method for understanding’ (p.369) which: ‘...attempts to capture a number of different, and valuable voices and theoretical perspectives through the crystallizing and creative process of found poetry’ (p.372). In writing about the possibility of poetry in educational research, Melissa Cahnmann (2003) puts forward the view that: ‘Using elements of poetry in our data collection, analysis and write-up has the potential to make our thinking clearer, fresher and more accessible and to render the richness and complexity of the observed world’ (p. 37). As a researcher new to the utilisation of poetry in research, Debra Manning (2008) discovers in its use, new ways of thinking and knowing, producing poetic stories which: ‘...exude vitality, each imbued with an essence of the interviewee’ (p.68). Such claims make using poetry an attractive possibility for researchers but one which others (Piirto, 2002, Percer, 2002, Richardson, 2002, Faulkner, 2007) promote with some reserve. This 254 caution is based on a perceived lack of depth of background in the poetic form, its traditions and techniques, by those utilising it as a research approach. In heeding this caution, I have taken Laurel Richardson’s (2002) advice to immerse myself in the form, a place which I have not visited since my early days as an English teacher. This immersion has involved a range of activities including attending workshops and performances, but crucially reading poetry both classic and contemporary, and reading commentaries by poets about poetry (Heaney, 1995, Meredith, 1991, Muldoon, 2006). Through engaging with these activities I have been placed in a position where I agree with those writers who urge prudence in using poetry as an approach to research, and I have developed a stronger depth of circumspection in my thinking about the use of poetry within my own work. I have a concern that in some situations, poetry appears to be being manipulated or controlled in different ways, and as academic and poet Lesley Saunders (2007) describes, is being: ‘…pressed into serving some purpose other than its own passage from silence into language and back into an (altered) silence, to paraphrase Abbs (2006)’ (p. 34). Saunders ( ibid ) makes these observations whilst reflecting on her position as poet-in-residence at a conference. She describes coming to the realization that such a time-pressured role is one of great responsibility, in which the poet acts to ‘bear witness’ (p.35). This is however, a dual responsibility where the pressure to witness can stifle a poem’s natural emergence. In a similar vein, poet Linda Gregg (2007) talks of poetry writing in some circumstances as becoming: ‘…manufacturing instead of giving birth’ (p.1). Agreeing with these views I now only draw on poetry where its coming into being is the necessary mode of response to the particular activity in which I am engaged. The poet Jane Hirshfield (1997) describes a poem’s ‘coming into being’ as a ‘making’. She describes this ‘making’ as: ‘…. neither a wholly conscious activity nor an act of unconscious transcription - it is a way for new thinking and feeling to come into existence, a way in which disparate modes of meaning and being may join’ (p. 16).

For me, this definition draws attention to the differences between re-presentation which utilises poetic transcription, and other more interpretive types of research poetry. These differences, it seems to me, can also be revealed by the diverse terms researchers use to describe the way their work ‘comes into being’; terms such as generate , reform , emerge , fashion , compose , craft , create , which produce almost a continuum of practice between these two forms.

Conversational Echo Within this study I have used my own research poetry somewhat judiciously for two reasons. Firstly because during the research process I created and developed poems as they emerged along the way, rather than setting out with an intention to 255 produce poetry. This led to a more modest body of work being produced than might have been the case if I had taken a different view. Secondly, it is my contention that a large collection of poems within a research report can undermine their impact. This is because the freshness, surprise, and intriguing contrasts which the juxtaposition of poetry with prose creates, is diminished. I have placed the poems which I have included in this thesis in a purposeful way; in Part 1, ‘Turns of the Wheel’ acts autobiographically, another, ‘AX1001:Gerrard’ serves as an introduction to Part 4 where I have provided an analysis of its form, and the last, ‘Magpie’ represents my interpretation of the acquisitive and somewhat sinister character of the researcher and the research process. The others are placed in Part 3 as a small selection from what is presented as the possibility of a larger unseen collection. The purpose for placing these research poems together is two- fold. Firstly they illustrate different aspects of the study; the participants, the settings, and my thinking about methods and methodology. Secondly they provide the reader with the opportunity to get a sense of the difference which I consider there to be between interpretive research poetry which gives unlimited scope to the writer in the use of form, language, and imagery, and ‘found’ research poetry. Found poetry is an established form which has been used by a number of renowned poets, both Ezra Pound (1954/1986) and T.S. Elliot (1940/1999) including extracts from a wide range of texts within certain of their poems. Research poets presenting found poetry also draw on a range of texts. Monica Prendergast (2006) for example sites thirty-one sources in her poems which form part of a literature review, while Alison Pryer (2007) utilises words from an information package given to new mothers. Other researchers (for example: Finley, 2000, Poindexter, 2002, Langer and Furman, 2004, Clarke, Febbraro, Hatzipantelis and Nelson, 2005) draw on participant interview material. Found poetry has been described as: ‘…the literary equivalent of a collage’ 2, and as such fits well within my bricoleur’s research position and use of visual collage elsewhere in this study. Thus using interview material to form the basis of the two poems, ‘Timetable Talk: Tuesday’, and ‘The Proselyte’ seemed a natural proposition. Each was created in different ways and for different purposes. My intention in the former poem was to highlight the emotion expressed while student participants gave their views of one particular aspect of their timetable which, in semester two, included a day of theory with time spent largely in a lecture theatre environment. I had already written an extended piece of prose (Part 3 Extract 6) based on my observation of classes including those taught in lecture theatres, and wanted to produce a concise, more direct form which encapsulated the depth of

2 Poetic Form: Found Poetry Available from: http://www.poets.org/printmedia.php/prmMediaID/5780 Accessed 14th June 2007.

256 feeling which the student participants’ articulated. Chart 8 below illustrates the way in which I have included each participant’s words, including my own as fieldworker and poet. What these versions do not show however, are the many drafts which

Chart 8. Adaptation and Transformation: from interview recordings and transcription records to ‘found’ poem

Timetable Talk: Tuesday Timetable Talk: Tuesday

While talking timetables, While talking time-tables, Tuesday raised its Tuesday raised its theory weary head: theory, weary head,

‘Tuesday is the longest day’, ‘Tuesday is the longest day’, he said slowly, with emphasis he said slowly, with emphasis and a smile. and a smile.

‘Tuesday gets on top of you, ‘Tuesday gets on top of you, it’s stressful, hard work, tough it’s stressful, hard work, tough and too much and too much people loose concentration, people loose concentration, switch off, get disruptive switch off, get disruptive and noisier and noisier

Tuesday is the worst of days, Tuesday is the worst of days, horrible, longwinded horrible, longwinded, and drags on’ and drags on’ they said they said while talking timetables. while talking time-tables.

Field Worker Research Poet

Gerrard James Geoff Lizzie

Gordon Alice Skittles Matt

I made before being satisfied with the way that line breaks, rhyme, and alliteration gave form and balance to the final version, this attention constituting a merging of craft and the creative process. The latter poem ‘The Proselyte’ is a more pure ‘found’ poem in that it draws only on words generated by recorded interview conversations which were later transcribed. Both the written transcription and the original recordings were used in the construction of this piece, as I consider that listening, as well as reading, is crucial and linked to discussion provided earlier in Part 4 concerning the transcription process. The conversations with this student participant took place three times over a nine month period, and on each occasion he talked about the important influence of his FE tutor in the decision-making process which culminated in him choosing to study in HE. I believe that in merging his words from these three separate meetings into this poetic form prompts the reader/listener to question this ‘conversion’, its manner, motive, and significance. The poem is also linked to 257 debate raised in Extract 5 of Part 3 concerning influences on educational and career choices. Important issues concerning authorship and ethics are also raised by the piece, concerns raised by poet in residence David Hart (2006) referred to in Part 1. The poem utilises student participant’s spoken words, but in transcribing this talk into a written text, and then re-arranging the text into a different form, this poem now become mine. For me, using more traditional means commonly utilised in social science writing, in which the words of participants are selected, clipped, cut, rearranged and presented between layers of researcher commentary, similarly places the researcher/writer in the powerful position of ownership. This position is, however, often masked by this more traditional form’s ostensible objectivity. Both of these poems have been performed in public, the first in a poetry performance setting 3, and the second as part of a presentation at a university research seminar 4. In both performances the pieces were read by two or more performers which I consider greatly enhances the power of the poems to communicate with the audience. Reading research poetry aloud to different groups, gauging audience reaction, and engaging in later debate, is the process through which meaning and understanding is shaped in different ways. But audience reaction can be unexpected. In wishing to gain ‘insider’ perspectives of the poem ‘Transformation Time’, I presented it to different staff connected to the CAM course at Citygate College where reactions varied enormously, reflecting, it seemed to me, a spectrum of ontological and epistemological positions. These positions being illustrated by the following comments: ‘It made the hairs stand up on the back of my neck’, ‘You’ve captured what happens during the Bridging Programme perfectly’, and ‘This isn’t research! How can writing a poem be research?’ Poetry certainly provokes reaction, and this is part of its power. Despite my present more cautious perspective, I do feel that there are strong arguments for the inclusion of both poetic transcription as well as interpretive poems where these naturally emerge within the research setting. These include: the power of poetry to provoke emotion and evoke experience; the way in which poetry distils and concentrates many ideas and images into a relatively short reading journey; the flexibility of the form which allows different voices to mingle or to be juxtaposed in thought provoking ways; the mnemonic quality of poetry which supports the recall of detail or wider messages; the way in which the oral and aural traditions of poetry complement features of interview conversations; the freshness which an alternative approach can bring to a familiar topic; the potential of poetry as a performance medium for widening the audience of research. More potently, once these diverse audiences are reached, poems have the potential for effecting

3 City Voices, Wolverhampton, 13.1.09. 4 The University of Leeds, School of Education, Lifelong Learning Institute, 16.4.08. 258 change; they can become what William Meredith (1991) calls dissident poetry, poetry which ‘aspires to be an effective ritual for causing change’ (p.46).

Conversation 4 What constitutes visual material within the context of research is discussed by Caroline Knowles and Paul Sweetman (2004). They note that in many publications concerned with visual methods, photographic and video material is given primacy over other forms. Within their collection however, they include the work of Alan Latham (2004) in which he explores the use of different visual techniques in facing what he describes as the challenge of representing the experiences of individuals within a particular research setting. Latham argues that the strength of using such techniques comes from the way in which: ‘...they offer a range of new narrative resources and possibilities through which social scientists can attempt to think out empirical questions’ (p.129). He discusses his use of a number of different diagrams as examples of visual forms used as a means to aid his project concerned with tracing patterns of sociality. Some of the diagrams are more conventional in their utilization of figures, lines, and minimal text (Diagram 14) while others are

Diagram 14 . Diagram 15 .

Diagrams reproduced from pages 125 and 128, Knowles and Sweetman, (2004)

259 more creative, rather like collages, combining photographs, typed diary extracts from participants, and his hand-written commentary (Diagram 15). My summary interpretation of his argument is that each form has a different purpose, with the diagrammatical possibilities of the collage-like approach having the potential to merge more fixed understandings with detail that expresses variability and movement, and which generates a multiplicity of meanings. Also of interest here is Latham’s (ibid ) choice of different forms of writing, typed and hand-written, and in the typed form, the employment of emboldened text. Used in such a way, the written word too is treated as a visual form.

Conversational Echo Making choices about presentation and re-presentation is a tricky business and perhaps more importantly for a PhD researcher like myself, a risky one. University guidance notes in respect to thesis presentation are written in austere terms; terms which seem immutable, fixed, not open to much flexibility. However, the convention of writing continuous prose across an A4 portrait orientated page, using specific rules related to border width, font size, and line spacing do little to encourage alternative forms which attempt to echo the often polyvocal nature of the area of study, and the complexity of what Sabi Redwood (2008) refers to as: ‘...the wild and entangled profusion of what happens in research encounters’ (p.10, online journal). In attempting to represent this tangle, but in a form which will both engage readers and listeners as well as be comprehensible, I have drawn on the visual in a range of different ways. In producing this thesis I have taken into consideration the various possibilities which software programmes such as Microsoft Word and Publisher provide. Each has an enormous range of visual choices and possibilities for producing text, ranging from font styles and different designs for textual backgrounds, to devices which provide options for text to be oriented on the page in different ways. Introducing the possibility of colour and textured options to both text and page backgrounds adds another complex layer of choice. However, I believe the choices researchers make are crucial to the way in which their work is made both accessible and engaging to different audiences, as well as the way it is perceived and ultimately understood. The two main visual textual devices to which I have given most attention throughout this work are firstly the choice of fonts and their variation in terms of size , italicism, density , and tonal quality , and secondly the use of white space. Choosing the font styles Verdana and Bradley Hand ITC have been purposeful choices, the former expressing what I consider to be a clear, semi-formal style and quality, and the latter a more in-formal, personal style that provides a definite contrast between the two types. Placing these forms onto the page in different 260 ways involves considering the white spaces which are created. For me, these white spaces serve to invite and engage the reader, as well as acting as frames for the text. The use of call - out text boxes to identify participants’ transcribed speech being an example of the use of shape and white space. This is an important aspect of written poetry, with concrete poets exploiting the visual as a form of embodiment of the poem’s subject matter. I have also introduced colour into the white space of the page at a number of different points. Firstly in Part 1 I used post-it-note yellow shapes acting as footnotes in a purely representational way. Here I have used this visual device as a means to integrate rather than separate information and sign-posting comments for readers into the main body of the text. In Part 3 I have used colour to aid the illusion of the fictional radio programmes, both through the ostensible promotional paragraphs which act as introductions to each section, as well as the blue font colour associated with web-site addresses. In these sections too, I have used muted colours for textual backgrounds, the words I have chosen representing key topics in the ensuing extracts which again act as sign-posts for the reader of what is to follow. Like Latham (2004), I have also used a number of diagrams within this study for a range of purposes. Similar in some ways to the poetic tool of compression advocated in Part 1 by Carol Langer and Rich Furman (2004), diagrams can be used in a number of different ways; to condense large amounts of information into a relatively compact graphic, to highlight essential aspects of complex material, to integrate data from a number of different sources, to show relationships between different material, and to provide complementary ways through which to access information. Some of the diagrams I have used in this study are relatively conventional, using columns and rows, perhaps charts being a better descriptor. The diagrams which I have used in Part 3 Extract 5 which show student participant educational and career pathways (see Diagram 16 over page) are different however, and I have used the software programme Inspiration 5 in their construction. Promoted as a visual learning and thinking tool, Inspiration is a software programme which many universities offer to students who have been identified as dyslexic as an effective way to create mind maps. I have worked with students who find it a very useful tool as it is a quick and flexible way to put words onto a page and to show relationships between ideas or facts. Added to this, there are the options of colour, graphics and audio which can be used to enhance the text and which can act as memory triggers. I chose to develop some of the autobiographical information which student participants shared with me in interview conversations into these diagrams because

5 Inspiration Software available from: http://www.inspiration.com/ . Accessed February 19 th 2009. 261

I did not want to ‘contain’ this in a chart or table as is often the case in research reports (for example Pollak, 2005, Powdthavee and Vignoles, 2007). I do however acknowledge that this might be necessary when very large numbers of participants are involved. For me, the diagrams I have used are more organic in shape and they reflect, more accurately than the fixed, bounded boxes of tables or charts, the zigzag journeys which some student participants make on their way to or back into HE. The use of colour also allows relationships between certain areas to be highlighted and additional graphics can be added to illustrate individual or idiosyncratic aspects of these journeys. The diagrams also have the potential to

Diagram 16. Example of Inspiration generated diagram

VOCATIONALLY VOCATIONALLY VOCATIONALLY UNRELATED RELATED RELATED KEY: EMPLOYMENT EMPLOYMENT EMPLOYMENT

EMPLOYER TRAINING PART TIME EMPLOYMENT FE FE PART ASSESSMENT TIME IN THE NVQ 3, WORK - WORKPLACE NCFES, BASED NVQ 2 FOOD PART TIME LEARNING HYGIENE PART TIM E EMPLOYMENT EMPLOYMENT SCHOOL 6TH FORM LIZZIE AS MATHS Age 20 A LEVEL SCHOOL BIOLOGY, ACADEMIC FULL TIME FULL TIME FULL TIME CHEMISTRY, BRIDGING HE Living in GCSE EMPLOYMENT EMPLOYMENT EMPLOYMENT DESIGN PROGRAMME Hall TECHNOLOGY, GENERAL STUDIES

use audio thumbnails which might add impact and interest to presentations. When used to illustrate groups of individuals, I believe that they allow the reader to see differences more effectively than a table, where the boxes drawn are all made from the same dimensions. Within these diagrams, individual details can vary in size. In constructing these diagrams I have been attempting to reconcile my conflicting thoughts about the ways that research participants are presented. On the one hand I acknowledge the need for providing basic information for the reader such as gender or age. On the other hand however, I feel that some devices allow participants to disappear or become ‘othered’ in some way through the paratextual devices chosen. What I have done with these diagrams is to try to find a paratextual form which acts as a complement to other approaches such as biographical narratives or monologues. Other visual means have been utilised in this study, most crucially in Part 2 with collage used as a way of providing a particular impression of its two key contexts. Each is different in outcome, but some of the processes involved in the construction of each one have been the same, and for me, interestingly parallel those of more traditional written forms. This is shown in the following illustrations (13 and 14) 262 which I have composed from photographs taken during the ‘making’ 6 of Set 1. Widening Participation in Higher Education.

Illustration 13. Collage Process 1

Gathering material, review, selection, and subsequent analysis.

Illustration 14. Collage Process 2

Working to an overall plan/outline, development, refining detail.

There are also similarities in the way in which the space created by the form constrains the amount of material which it is possible to include much as a word limit might do in text based work. There are however important differences in working with this form, and particular challenges. I needed to consider orientation, scale, and balance of colour, tone, texture, and space. Including ‘found’ materials also meant that once cut and glued these items could not be edited as is possible in a word processed written form. I was challenged too, by the need to balance visual aspects of the material I had

6 Arthur P. Bochner and Carolyn Ellis (2003) present a view of art being ‘made’ (p.507). 263 chosen to include with the content of the text, and once chosen to consider the impact which viewing/reading on a vertical, rather than the more usual horizontal plane, would have on its power to communicate effectively. For me, perhaps most significant about working in this way has been its corporeal dimension. In the construction of each collage, because of their size, I have not only used my hands and fingers, but also my back, shoulders, arms, and legs to reach, stretch, lean, and bend. These are actions which the pieces also demand of the viewer, compelling them to stand, walk, and move forward and backward in observing the work. They also possess a tactile quality which invites the viewer to touch their surfaces. Such actions involve the viewer directly, implicating them in the creation of pieces which become:‘...not a way of declaring “this is how it is” but a means of inviting others to consider what it (or they) could become...’ (Bochner and Ellis p.507, 2003).

Conversation 5 Combining text and image, or incorporating text within images is something which numerous collage-makers do (Hernandez, 2004-5, Hirschhorn, 2002, Rosler, 2004, Walker, 2005). For prolific proponent of the form Ray Johnson (1927-1995), the interplay between text and image is fundamental to his work, with text and visual images combined in both starkly simple and highly complex ways. Michael Bracewell (2009) comments that much of Johnson’s work describes fragments of narrative, which he conceptualises as: ‘...a modern epistolary novel written in the medium of an illuminated manuscript’ (p.35). Some recent collaborations between poets and artists have also, quite differently, explored the interplay between word, image, and additionally, form (Dennis, 2007, Muldoon and McBeath, 2009, Oswald and Greenman, 2009). Here words and images are not combined to create a unified whole as in the collage examples, but seem to me to be complementary or, in Alice Oswald’s view, an enterprise which ‘connects’ (no page number). Such work both challenges and satisfies the reader/viewer in different ways, with each form jostling for attention and evoking alternative perspectives for meaning-making. The mixing, merging, and interplay between word, image, and form is also explored within different fields of research for a range of different purposes (Szto, Furman and Langer, 2005, Lee, 2008, MacKenzie, 2008, Clarke/Keefe, 2009). The collaborative work of researcher/writer Inkeri Sava and artist Kari Nuutinen (2003), in which each interprets ideas in word or image, provides some interesting observations. Firstly that in their word-picture exchange, text and image function as illustrations of the other, secondly that texts and images form intertextual surfaces, and lastly that:‘... a transformation of word/text into a picture (or vice versa)... ’ (page. 532, italics in original) takes place.

264

Conversational Echo In the photo-collages included in Part 3, I have combined, rather than connected, images with text, exploiting an established form in which there is a creative interplay between text and image. This form, according to Mark Wigan (2008), is one in which text can become image, and various degrees of text amplification are made possible through this transformation. Different levels of combination, complexity, and text amplification can be seen across the three examples presented. In the first, the image of the lecture theatre acts both as a frame for the poem, and as a visual metaphor for what the student participants describe as the theory aspects of their weekly HE timetable. The regimented and repeated images of the chef’s uniform in the second collage provide a visual echo to the text, the final stanza of the poem ‘Transformation Time’. Here the black central images visually intensify the theme of the text. In the third example, I have used the image of the lecture theatre once more, here concretizing the challenges faced by student participants in many aspects of HE teaching and learning practice, and their perceived need to ‘get used to it’. These words are used by a number of student participants when describing this challenge, and the text utilised in this collage is one example of similar comments made during interview conversations. Here however, the text is repeated, disturbed, and disrupted; processes which transform text into image. My purpose in producing these small photo-collages has been to focus the viewer’s attention closely on elements of this study explored differently through extended writing. They complement the section of work entitled ‘Timetable Talk: Monday’ (pages 145-170), acting as a form of visual extension and emphasis, and creating a space in which the amplification of certain of the issues raised is made possible.

Conversation 6 This study is threaded with stories, some are extended and complex, while others are the ‘small stories’ of the type identified by Alexandra Georgakopoulou (2006), fragmented, fleeting, interactional. These are the stories of its research participants, reflecting on their experiences of higher education as students, tutors, managers, and former students. These are also my stories, developed from reflection on my experiences as researcher, performer, and writer. Perhaps more accurately, they are ‘our stories’ 7, constructed within and by the research setting, the broader context of widening participation in higher education, and the contexts in which they are read or heard. However, despite this co-construction, placed by me within this study, each story has a different purpose which has been determined by me as author of this thesis.

7 This notion is borrowed from Caroline Ellis and Leigh Berger (2002). 265

In Part 1 and here in Part 5, I have constructed a number of what could be described as autobiographical stories as well as an autobiographical poem which serve to orient you, the reader/listener, to the way in which I consider that my background and wider interests have contributed to the forging of my research approach and perspective. In Part 3, I have utilised participants’ stories in different ways; as a basis for thematic analysis through the reconstruction of fragmented stories into plot-lines; to illustrate the broader themes that have become apparent in the research setting; and to exemplify the diversity and complexity of the perceived experiences of those involved. Stories provide a sense of coherence to these experiences (McAdams, 1993, Atkinson, 2002), and as ‘tellers of tales’ (McAdams, p. 11) we make connections between our own stories and the stories of others. Additionally, as Susan Chase (2005) points out, these stories also provide connections to the social and historical settings in which they have been shaped. In utilising stories as a re-presentational device, I have tapped into this fundamental feature of narrative, connectivity. The story of the development of Citygate College told through the perspective of Ron the property services manager, Geoff’s story of changing his mind about which subject to study in higher education, and the emotionally charged story of Pariese struggling with group orientated teaching and learning activities; each one is inter-connected and connects. This connection is forged through the experiential resonances which echo through each story, and the basic appeal of their intimacy and immediacy. Stories such as these also provide a means through which to raise questions about the narrow and broader contexts in which, and by which, they have been formed.

Conversational Echoes Former student Barry’s recounted story of his move from school to higher education at Citygate College in the 1960’s, presented in Part 3, is one example of a narrative which I have utilised for a number of purposes. Firstly, the naturalness of its storied form has the potential to engage the reader/listener. The informal language used is highly accessible making it comprehensible to wider audiences. The fine detail which he recalls, and which I have chosen to include, is also what I believe generates the connection between his story, the story of the present-day student participants, and our own reader/writer/listener stories of experience. This is a way in which I believe understanding can be enhanced. Secondly, in terms of its subject, the story illustrates an unexpected continuity in higher education which counter-balances accounts of changes to the way in which HE has developed over the past forty years, most dramatically in the last two decades (Greenback, 2006, Parry, 2006). This is the continuity of a passion to work creatively with food, and a desire to share this passion by working in the catering sector of the hospitality industry. Barry’s story resonates through that of the 266 student participants’ stories nearly fifty years later; his intense interest in food, part-time work in the industry, ways of seeking information related to the ‘best’ place to study, the financial implications to his family, and the influence of friends. This continuity extends to the separation of students into different levels, detail of the type of study time-table which Barry describes, its long hours, practical and theory elements, and term-time employment. It even includes the realisation, shared by student participants, that to gain employment in the industry at management level, he had to first start at a basic level despite the qualifications he had gained. Barry’s story does however differ from that of a number of those of the student participants, in that he did go on to complete his higher education course and enter the hospitality business. Two years into the CAM course and seven of the ten student participants have made significant changes to their educational and career plans, choosing either to leave before completing, or transferring to different programmes of study. Lastly, and most importantly, Barry’s story prompts questions. These are concerned with the qualifications being offered by both HE and FE in this particular vocational area, their alignment to the needs of industry, and the appropriateness of the advice and guidance about career pathways, and employment opportunities given to young people. At a more fundamental level, and more forthrightly put by Garry Hawkes (2005), founder of the organisation Edge 8, the question raised is how appropriate a requirement a degree, foundation or bachelor, might be for individuals who wish to work in the catering sector, and who aspire to ultimately own and run a restaurant. Hawkes (ibid) argues that in the promotion of higher education, an academic snobbery has been created which undermines the status of other types of vocational qualification and practical skill. This is the skill and craftsmanship which Richard Sennett (2008) traces as having had a much elevated position in the past. Certainly in small hospitality firms, Stephanie Jameson and Rick Holden (2000) found that being a higher education graduate makes no difference to employment opportunity or outcome, and that employers in these types of businesses do not actively seek out graduates. Writing at a time in which they describe the labour market as: ‘...less predictable, more rapidly changing and more competitive’ (p. 265), this perspective can only be further exacerbated by the financial climate of 2008/9, Patrick Barkham and Polly Curtis (2009) painting a very bleak picture of employment opportunities for graduates. This picture is anticipated by John Sutherland (2008) who envisages the consequences of over-education being firstly that graduates will be employed in non-graduate jobs, and secondly

8Edge is an organisation which aims to raise the status of practical and vocational learning. Available from: http://www.edge.co.uk/home . Accessed 12th May 2009.

267 that the average rates of return for individuals who have invested in higher education will decline. Barry’s story is one of many included in this study. It exemplifies the varied possibilities of narrative as a form of re-presentation which can challenge the reader/listener and prompt questions. His story illustrates the inter-connectivity which links individual stories not only to the stories of others but also to the contexts in which they are both formed and placed. Finally through the directness of style which can create a sense of intimacy between the teller and the reader/listener, the narrative form provides appeal and accessibility to different audiences.

Conversation 7

Eisner’s (1997) discussion of alternative forms of data representation, in which he mentions narrative, poetry, pictures, diagrams, and performance, concludes with the identification of a number of points related to the positives and challenges of using such means. From the positive perspective, he argues that alternative forms have a particular power to engender empathy and authenticity. They can also provide opportunities for what he calls ‘productive ambiguity’ (p. 8) that is, the possibility for multiple perspectives and complication, and the generation of questions. Additionally in his view they stimulate fresh and new ways of viewing, and provide opportunities for developing the individual abilities of researchers. His fewer notes of caution, however, are somewhat problematic. Revisiting ambiguity and the creation of ambiguity through the use of alternative approaches, he raises the spectres of precision, misinterpretation and an orthodoxy which expects interpretation and contextualization. He also reminds the would-be user that by taking an alternative approach they must be sure that they: ‘…are not substituting novelty and cleverness for substance’ (p.9). Taking a somewhat more acerbic, critical, rather than cautionary perspective to alternative approaches, including narrative, auto-ethnography, and poetry in particular, David Silverman (1997) accuses their proponents of being unfulfilled novelists, navel-gazers, and writers whose poetic constructions of research fill him with ‘despair’ and ‘distaste’ (p.240). His discussion is set within the framework of what he refers to as an ‘aesthetics’ of social science research shaped by a: ‘...tacit sense of the sort of appearance or shape of a worthwhile piece of research’ (p.239). Aesthetics however, is a complex and disputed field in which subjectivity and objectivity as means through which to make judgements, clash (Edgar and Sedgwick, 1999). Nonetheless, an appreciation, understanding, and sense of aesthetics underpin working within the creative arts; thus researchers working with art-based approaches need, if Silverman’s (1997) perspective is accepted, to work 268 hard to engage with, and satisfy a combined aesthetics. This is not easy to achieve according to bricoleur Ainslie Yardley (2008) who argues that alternative approaches to research need to move back and forth between disciplines to open up opportunities for what she calls: ‘transdisciplinary conversations’ (p. 6 online journal). Similarly, Laura Brearley (2008) contends that researchers working with creative approaches should engage with questions raised through the interplay of different research perspectives. This interplay embraces not a dualism, or binary of either/or , but works to demonstrate creativity and rigour, honours content but explores form, and shows understanding of research conventions but challenges assumptions within them. Perhaps crucial to this argument too is research purpose, and returning to Silverman (1997), he does concede that: ‘...no method of social science is intrinsically right or wrong. As all methodology texts properly insist “it all depends on what you are trying to do”’ (p.248).

Conversational Echo What I have been ‘trying to do’ within this thesis has been both substantively and methodologically driven. In using a range of arts-based approaches to re- presentation, I have explored their potential for different purposes. Firstly this has been as a means to express and evoke aspects of the perceived experience of the various research participants connected to the CAM course at Citygate College, including my own experience as researcher; secondly, as a way to disseminate the work to a wider audience. As discussed in Part 4, experience is a tricky concept, and when applied to what happens to students in their first year in higher education, reveals a complex, shifting ground. I am in agreement with Wes Streeting (2009), President of the National Union of Students, who applies a notion of multiple ‘student experiences’ (p.58) which reflects the variety of a rapidly changing higher education. The CAM course, at both Foundation and Bachelor level, has been developed as part of this change. It is one of an extensive number of courses promoted in a diverse range of higher educational contexts and institutions, in response to Government strategies to widen participation in higher education. There has also been an imperative to promote vocational higher education as a means through which to enhance economic growth and competitiveness (Leitch, 2006, DIUS, 2007).These strategies and policies have been explored in this study through the impact they have on people’s lives, and in the exploration of the perceived experiences of staff, students, managers and others connected to the course. Through this exploration, a number of themes have emerged. These themes, apparent at institutional, course, and individual levels, are continuity and change, adaptation and transformation, and aspiration and outcome. They serve as organizing frames for questions raised by this study about the ways in which widening participation 269 strategies are enacted, and the effect this has on student career choice-making, course selection, and ultimately to the way in which teaching and learning environments are organised. They are also appropriate to more specific questions raised about the impact of popular media driven celebrity influences on student imagined futures. The themes are pertinent to the methodological aspect of the study too, particularly those of adaptation and transformation, and aspiration and outcome. I have aspired to use a range of art-based, multi-sensory approaches to re- presentation, the outcomes of which reveal various levels of adaptation, and even transformation. This transformation is evident in the range of different materials in various forms which I have developed. Presenting these materials in a range of venues to diverse audiences has generated interest and debate. Each of these forms has a unique capacity to engage, inform, challenge, and entertain. The form which I consider to be the most adaptable is poetic interpretation and poetic transcription. This is because spoken poetry demands no display space, props, performers, equipment, or extensive time, but simply exerts a power which poet Ruth Padel (2007) eloquently describes: Poems are portable altars. Their journey can take in the world and outer space, and still be bounded in a nutshell. You can carry one in your head or in your pocket and still find new things in it (p.56).

Within this thesis however, no form takes precedence; as in collage, each takes its own place within the bricolage, forming, supporting, and complementing the whole.

270 Part 6 Dark

But stories are there to be told, and each story changes with the telling. Time changes them. Logic changes them. Grammar changes them. History changes them. Each story is shifted sideways by each day that unfunfolds.olds. Nothing ends.

Colum McCann

271 Closure

It’s the Friday before the August Bank Holiday and I am visiting Citygate College to take some more photographs for inclusion in various sections of my thesis. The visit feels strangely familiar, and as I begin to walk about the building I have a growing sense of déjà-vu. I made many similar visits to this one in August 2006, at the beginning of my research. These were visits in which I became familiar with the building, met staff, met students who were attending the Practical Bridging Programme to the CAM degree course, and talked to a number of students who had agreed to be participants in my study and the wider FurtherHigher Project. Now once more the building echoes with the noise of workmen’s hammers, and the hot, dry air is sharp with the smell of new paint. There are very few people about, and as I wander around the maze of production kitchens on the ground floor, the only sound I hear is the distant voice of a workman on his mobile phone, bewailing the fact that he has run out of the adhesive which he has been using to re-tile a floor. I trudge up the stairs to the fourth floor, remembering how the landing areas at each level become a focal point of contact in this tall box of a building. It’s here that people tarry while catching their breath during journeys between floors, and chat with colleagues and friends. I wander down an empty corridor and look through the glass panel of a door into a lecture theatre. It seems empty and I enter. However, now I can see a lone person sitting on the left some eight or ten rows from the front. ‘Sorry’, he says, ‘I’m just finishing this work, is that OK?’ ‘No problem,’ I reply, ‘I’m just taking some photos, but I’ll make sure you’re not in them.’ I look around and take some pictures, careful to keep this young man out of shot. Impulsively, I go up and ask him what he is so busy doing, and he tells me that he is working on a folder for his catering course. And then I remember. It’s August, the CAM Practical Bridging Programme, and I sit and ask him how it’s going. ‘Great, I really love it,’ he replies. I hear the magpie’s beak tap, tap, on the window ledge outside, and catch a glimpse of the flash of her eye. I ask if he’s just finished his ‘A’ levels. His response is no, he’s been doing an Art and Design degree at another university, and has decided to give it up to do Culinary Arts Management. He thinks that job prospects will be better. As I sit there, his voice becomes distant, and I sense the wheel turn, and turn again, and I hear faint voices telling their stories, over and over again.

272

Magpie

Magpie steps forward, steps, and steps again. Then she stands still; a sheen of iridescence bringing lustre to her back.

She turns her head as if listening, turns, and turns again. But she is watchful; a gleam of treasure flashes in the black jewel of her eye.

Her head bobs forward. Her black beak dips, dips, and dips again. Another trophy captured. Pica pica.

Magpie adds to her store, adds, and adds again. Flicking an eyelid in satisfaction, she conceals her thievery. Pica pica.

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298 Props

1. FurtherHigher Project Aims and Objectives 2. FurtherHigher Project Team Members 3. a/b Information for Research Participants 4. Summary Notes Template

299

Prop 1. FurtherHigher Project Aims and Objectives

Aim To examine the impact of the division between further and higher education on strategies to widen participation in undergraduate education

Objectives

1. To determine the nature and significance of this division and its rationale.

• What assumptions underpin this separation, and how is access, participation and progression conceived and promoted in analogous systems?

2. To investigate the impact of this separation on policy formation, organisational development and student participation within and between further and higher education.

• What are the relationships between the main partners in the two-sector system, and what considerations shape their response to widening participation policies?

3. To develop a theoretical model for understanding the structural, organisational, situational and dispositional factors that bear on participation, progression and transfer in a dual-sector system.

• What are the features of an effective cross-sector system of further and higher education?

4. To establish an empirical base for analyzing relationships between the location of higher education and patterns of participation by age, gender, ethnicity, disability and social class in post-secondary education.

• What kinds of students use what types of further education as a basis for enrolment and study in what forms of higher education, and how is this changing?

5. To assess the contribution of further education establishments to the expansion of higher education and the broadening of its student population.

• How significant, different or distinctive is the further education contribution to higher education?

6. To understand the meaning and importance of boundaries, transitions and transfers between further and higher education and between short-cycle and first- degree undergraduate education.

• What is the nature of this boundary and how is it encountered, experienced and described by students and staff who move between these zones?

7. To build policy intelligence, research capacity and practitioner-based research capability in further and higher education.

• In what ways can current policy and practice be improved by reflection on alternative approaches, and where and how is research capacity best developed in the future? 300

Prop 2. FurtherHigher Project Team Members

Name and Responsibility Institution

Professor Gareth Parry - The nature and purpose of dual- University of sector systems. Sheffield, School of Education

Professor Ann-Marie Bathmaker - The experience of University transition and transfer for students and staff at levels 3 to 4 of the West and 5 to 6 of the national qualifications framework. of England, Faculty of Education

Professor Greg Brooks - The profile and pattern of students University moving between institutions and levels of further and of higher education. Sheffield, School of Education

Dr David Smith - The configuration and conduct of further University and higher education in post-secondary institutions, of Leeds, partnerships and networks. School of Education

Dr Diane Burns - Research Associate - responsible for University fieldwork research into institutional transitions. of Sheffield, School of Education

Dr Anne Thompson - Research Associate - responsible for University fieldwork research into institutional transitions. of Sheffield, School of Education

Val Thompson - Research Associate - responsible for University fieldwork research into institutional transitions. of Sheffield, School of Education

Dr Sammy Rashid - Research Associate - responsible for University statistical studies of national datasets on further and higher of education. Sheffield, School of Education

Karen Kitchen - Project Secretary University of Sheffield, School of Education

301

Prop 3a. Information for Research Participants FurtherHigher Project

302

Prop 3b. Information for Research Participants

University of Sheffield School of Education PARTICIPANT INFORMATION SHEET

Research Project Title: (PROVISIONAL) STARTING OUT IN CULINARY ARTS MANAGEMENT EDUCATION AND TRAINING: STUDENT EXPERIENCE, PERCEPTIONS AND IMAGINED FUTURES

I would like to invite you to take part in a research project. Before you decide, it is important that you understand why the research is being done and what it will involve. Please take time to read the following information carefully and talk to others if you wish. Ask me if there is anything that you do not understand or is not clear or if you would like more information. Take time to decide if you wish to take part.

The following question and answer pages will hopefully explain in detail what the project is about. Please do not hesitate to ask if anything is not clear.

You will be given a copy of this information as well as a copy of the consent form.

What is the purpose of the project? The overarching aim is: To investigate the experience of first year vocational FdA and BA students in their transition from secondary and further education into higher education within the framework of strategies to widen participation in undergraduate education. The main objectives are: • To explore students’ experiences of transition into higher education • To examine strategies to facilitate transition both at policy and institutional levels • To consider the impact of demands from industry in skills, training and education within one specific vocational sector • To reflect on changes in education and training within a vocational sector from an historical perspective through the experience of former students.

The study is part of the ESRC funded Furtherhigher Project UNIVERSAL ACCESS AND DUAL REGIMES OF FURTHER AND HIGHER EDUCATION led by Professor Gareth Parry at the University of Sheffield. The study will be placed within the main study at its micro level drawing on fieldwork in one of its partner institutions.

The project will take place over an 18 month period.

Why have I been chosen? You have been chosen to be asked to take part because you fit the person requirements of the study.

Do I have to take part? It is up to you to decide whether or not to take part. If you decide not to take part there will be no penalty or loss of benefits to which you are otherwise entitled.

If you choose to take part you will be given this information sheet to keep and be asked to sign a copy of the consent form.

If you decide to take part you are still free to withdraw at any time and without giving a reason.

What will happen to me if I take part? The research will take place over an eighteen month period. However, you only need to be involved in: 3 INTERVIEWS STUDENT PARTICIPANTS 303 1 INTERVIEW AND 2 OBSERVATIONS STAFF PARTICIPANTS I INTERVIEW FORMER STUDENT PARTICIPANTS 1 INTERVIEW INDUSTRY PARTICIPANTS Each interview will take place at a convenient venue and at a time which you can determine which will cause you as little inconvenience as possible. Each interview will be recorded and transcribed and during each observation the researcher will make fieldnotes. This information will be anonymised and kept in safe storage. You have access to any transcripts of your own contributions. The only other people who will have access to this data are other researchers on the project team and, if required, my supervising tutor.

What do I have to do? Depending on your status be involved as follows: 3 INTERVIEWS STUDENT PARTICIPANTS 1 INTERVIEW AND 2 OBSERVATIONS STAFF PARTICIPANTS 1 INTERVIEW FORMER STUDENT PARTICIPANTS 1 INTERVIEW INDUSTRY PARTICIPANTS

What are the possible disadvantages in taking part? Before deciding to take part you need to be aware that the time taken to be involved in the interviews may affect your own work or study. If at any time you feel that your own work or study is at risk you should have no hesitation in withdrawing.

What are the possible benefits in taking part? As part of the wider study you will be contributing to a major national study which will help to increase understandings of what is involved for students studying in further education and moving into higher education.

What happens when the research stops? When the research study stops the information gathered will be used as part of my work for the qualification of PhD and will also be used in the wider study.

What if something goes wrong? If you have any complaints during your involvement with the study you should discuss these immediately. If you feel that the complaint needs to be dealt with by an outside person you can do this via: Pat Sikes University of Sheffield, School of Education, 388 Glossop Road, Sheffield S10 2JA.

Will my taking part in this project be kept confidential? All information which is collected about you during the course of the research will be kept strictly confidential. Any information about you which is disseminated will have your name and personal details removed so that you cannot be recognised from it.

What will happen to the results of the research project? As stated earlier, the results of the project will be used as part of the requirements of my own qualification. Copies of this work will be stored in the library at the University of Sheffield. The results of the wider project will be disseminated nationally and internationally and updates of this work will be sent to all participants.

Who has reviewed the project? The work has been reviewed by The University of Sheffield Research Ethics Committee / Departmental Ethics Review Procedure as well as my project supervisor.

Contact for further information

Val Thompson Pat Sikes (Supervisor) University Of Sheffield University of Sheffield School of Education School of Education 388 Glossop Rd 388 Glossop Rd Sheffield S10 2JA Sheffield S10 2JA

07780750653 0114 222 8158 [email protected] [email protected] 304

Prop 4. Summary Notes Template