This blog has kindly been provided by
Louise O’Boyle SFHEA
Associate Dean (Academic Quality & Student Experience)
Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences
Expert Trustee: The Council for Higher Education in Art and Design (CHEAD)
Associate Editor: Arts and Humanities in Higher Education SAGE Journal
Chair: Group for Learning in Art & Design in Higher Education
On Friday 8th September, GLAD held its first in-person event since 2019 entitled GATHERING OURSELVES hosted by Central Saint Martins, UAL. This symposium aimed to facilitate collective sector-specific reflections, showcase and exchange case studies of pedagogic developments and collaboratively plot directions forward to steer GLAD’s future work. Indeed, given the turbulence within the sector in the past few years, it felt that a time and place to gather thoughts and share experiences was long overdue.
Over 110 colleagues from across the sector gathered for the one-day event. There were no keynote speakers, rather four concurrent strands running with thirty-six presentations in total. What a day! The strength and breath of innovations and approaches detailed across the presentations was impressive. A common thread throughout was the determination of colleagues to better the student experience.
In this gathering we were all there to listen, engage, discuss, question, share and learn. It was strangely reassuring that so many common themes and concerns were emerging – students’ self-efficacy, wellbeing, building graduate qualities on skills to survive in the present to name a few. To hear and discuss with those colleagues their experiences and approaches taken to address those concerns and themes was supportive and supporting.
I have never been at a gathering where following each and every presentation there were so many questions asked and open, safe discussions involving the whole room took place. At the plenary this was highlighted and discussed. Calls for ‘more like this’ events were made, and GLAD aims to do just that.
As we move through an ever-changing sector, in which it feels like we are challenged anew every academic year, the strength of a sharing collegiate collective has power and dare I say influence.
NOTE: A special edition of the Journal for Innovative Practice in Higher Education will be published in Autumn 2024 featuring papers from this event.
Link for highlighted words GLAD – https://www.gladhe.com
GATHERING OURSELVES – https://www.gladhe.com/home/symposium2023
Image credit Detail of visual minutes by @juliamirandart https://www.instagram.com/juliamirandart/