New directions in career studies: English and ... - University of Reading

New directions in career studies: English and Media degrees Ideas for modules that explore career, identity and subject

Centre for Career Management Skills

New Directions in Career Studies: English and Media Degrees

1 McCash, P (2008), Career Studies Handbook, Higher Education Academy, York 2 Horn, J. (2009) Values at work, Manchester: Higher Education Careers Service Unit 3 Stanbury, D. (2010) ‘The kindness of strangers: how careers educators and the wider academic community can help each other’, Vol 52, Issue No 2, 2010 Edition, Journal of Education and Training pp 100-116

These four articles illustrate ways of embedding career studies in the subject curriculum. The career studies approach advocates treating the concept of ‘career’ as the object of academic enquiry (McCash, 20081). These articles were submitted to the Centre for Career Management Skills (CCMS) in response to a competitive funding call in July 2010. Each piece encapsulates briefly but beautifully a unique vision of a module that provides ‘a non-directive space where students can reflect upon the intersection of personal identity and discipline identity in a manner that is academically rigorous and personally meaningful.’ These visions implicitly illustrate their creators’ imprint and bear witness to the way that the work of careers educators is suffused with each person’s individual outlook (Horn, 20092). In accordance with the terms of the funding call, entries were limited to no more than 600 words. Rather than expand these entries, they have been reproduced here (alphabetically); preserving both the intensity and focus of the writers’ original version. The winning proposal which was awarded to Dr. Will May from Southampton University will be fully developed into a module specification and disseminated in Spring 2011. The panel felt, however, that each of these four runners-up also deserved to be known more widely. Indeed, we are sure that they will be inspirational to HE staff interested in enabling students to explore the interface of personal, academic and professional identity, employability and personal development planning. Individually, each of these entries is important for making visible a distinctive image of career studies. Collectively they testify to an emergent engagement by academics in finding new and creative ways of rooting career learning in the understanding and concepts of the subject (Stanbury, 20103). ‘Un-built designs’ have been influential in the history of Architecture. CCMS is firmly convinced of their value as a means of envisioning new possibilities for career learning as well. For this reason we are delighted to make available New Directions in Career Studies: English and Media Degrees.

Dave Stanbury CCMS Director July, 2010.

2


Researching the media and cultural industries Dr Daniel Ashton and Dr Mimi Thebo Bath Spa University We propose a 40 credit, 28 week, Level 5 module, acceptable for undergraduate students on the BA Cultural Studies, Media Studies, Publishing, Creative Writing and Creative Media Practice. The module would encourage students to reflect on issues of media work, identity, and industries, and is rooted in subject-specific debates from the fields of Media and Cultural Studies, Media Production and Publishing. The module is supported by Careers, the Artswork Broadcast and Publishing Labs (up to date hardware and software capable of producing professional-level media artifacts; films, websites, publications) and the Open Access Media Facility as well as visiting guest lecturers. Students from different subjects work in teams to produce artifacts which are the result of areas of documented enquiry. They are able to identify their own subject knowledge and skills base and appreciate the knowledge and skills of others. Tutors will provide ‘intellectual interventions’ into student journals; typed slips of quotations which encourage the students to interrogate their thinking around the enquiry topics.

Proposal Amateur and Professionalism Students examine existing and emerging conventions and practices through which different forms of media work come to be understood as ‘professional’. They explore forms of amateur media production and user-generated content and ask how these engage with ‘professional’ media production. Assessment: The Definition of Professionalism (20%; Students identify several contemporary pieces of user generated content and examine contents and context, in a filmed discussion, podcast, magazine issue or other media artifact. Enquiry is documented in an annotated journal). Becoming and Non-Becoming Contacts Daniel Ashton [email protected] Mimi Thebo [email protected]

Students are encouraged to consider how they give meaning to their activities and make sense of these in terms of ‘becoming’ a media and cultural worker. As well as examining being a ‘cultural worker in-themaking’, they will explore the potential ‘non-becomings’. This is an opportunity to assess a range of opportunities and options, consider expectations and aspirations, and extend beyond limited or narrowly focused perspectives (for example, as ‘making it as director’).

3


Assessment: The Presentation Pack (30%; Students will produce CVs, showreels, and showcases of work for comment from each other, careers, industry professionals and tutors in an interactive workshop. These comments will provide formative assessment, and students may revisit and revise their artifacts for subsequent summative assessment. Enquiry is documented in an annotated journal). Creative Biographies The Open University’s ‘Creative Biographies’ event in April 2009 posed instructive questions around the use of the concept for exploring the experiences of cultural workers and how these biographies are inflected by inequalities relating to class, gender, race, age and disability. Students would be introduced to questions from the conference which would be followed by sessions with guest lecturers speaking and discussing (in a panel containing students) their own lives and work in the media and cultural industries. Discussions and lectures would be filmed by student teams, who are also asked to source and share other ‘Creative Biographies’ from magazine articles, blogs, director’s commentaries, etc, for class discussion. Assessment: The Case Study (30%; In teams, students produce a case study of a local Creative Media Practitioner who will be one of the guest lecturers.

4

They will ‘host’ and ‘co-present with’ the guest lecturer and produce a film of the lecture/discussion, with contextualizing material – as voice commentary, accompanying programme notes, website with embedded film, or other media artifact. Enquiry is documented in an annotated journal.) Passions and Precarity A commonly circulated idea in relation to creative and cultural work is the passionate investments that individuals make in their work. Exploring these different forms of investment and attachment, this module block will encourage a critical exploration of issues of pay, working conditions, and ‘precariousness’. The work environment will be evaluated not just as ‘a place to learn’, but as a future work context to be appraised. The ‘Creative Biographies’ lecture/discussion films and sourced materials will be reviewed and reassessed by students in this different context. Assessment: The Reflective Blog Entry (20%; Students will be asked to write a reflective blog entry on the pros and cons of entering a specific role in the media or cultural industries. Enquiry is documented in an annotated journal.)

© Bath Spa University


Careers and Literature Dr John Morton University of Greenwich This thirty-credit, level 6, year-long undergraduate module will critique the idea of the career as represented in works of literature (including fiction, film and television), as well as incorporating aspects of career planning for students. The aim is to develop students’ abilities to, in the words of Young et al, ‘describe career processes more fully’ and consider the representation of careers in differing works of art. It is tailored to post-92 Universities.

Proposal The module has been envisaged as taking up thirty credits for two reasons. The first is that many universities specify that all modules be thirty credits, ensuring the potential adaptability of this module; the second is based on research undertaken with undergraduates studying Humanities subjects, where a majority said that they would be unlikely to take a thirty credit module purely on career–related activities and personal development (as is often offered on degrees such as Law), but that they would be interested in a module that provided some content of this type. The module is partly based on a collaborative project on careers in Humanities undertaken as part of the PGCertHE in 2010 at the University of Greenwich. The module will be taught via lectures, seminars, and tutorials. Lectures will oscillate between discussions of particular careerrelated texts, and more directed career-related content; it is envisaged that the lecturers who are teaching the texts will also be present at, and indeed may even contribute to, the career-directed aspects of the module which would be conducted, in part, by the career centre. Where possible, presentations concerning particular careers will be paired with texts analysing these careers; thus a lecture on

George Gissing’s New Grub Street will follow a presentation on writing as a career. Texts will be chosen based on their applicability to the career interests of Humanities students, as well as their engagement with the ‘career’ as a theme. Other indicative texts and lecture topics are listed below this proposal. Seminars will discuss the lecture topic, as well as providing space for short student presentations on career-related issues. The tutorial aspect will replace seminars near assessment deadlines. Assessment will take several forms. The students will be required to keep a blog, to be updated weekly, of their career activities, where they will also include reflections on module texts and lectures. Students will be asked to write a tailored CV and covering letter. This will not be assessed, however they will also write a commentary on the drafting process and issues arising, most notably an analysis, research-based, on why employers might want particular things – this will be assessed. Students will also be required to write a long piece, but the criteria for this will be left open; it could be an analytical essay considering one or more of the texts considered, but it could also (with prior lecturer approval) be a piece of creative fiction or non-fiction on the topic of career.

5


Contacts Lead Dr John Morton, University of Greenwich [email protected] Team Dr Harry Derbyshire, University of Greenwich Dr Carolyn Brown, University of Greenwich

Suggested texts (indicative not exhaustive) George Gissing, New Grub Street (1891) – writing as a profession Murial Spark, The Girls of Slender Means (1963) – starting out with ‘slender means’ Douglas Coupland, Generation X (1991) – worries about the future Evelyn Waugh, Scoop (1938) – journalism Arthur Miller, Death of a Salesman (1949) – sales and expectations Joshua Ferris, Then We Came to the End (2007) – advertising and working in a recession David Simon (writer), The Wire (HBO TV series, 2002-2008). The first two seasons will be suggested viewing, but the first episodes of seasons one, two and four will be prescribed – police work and career obsession Graham Greene, The Heart of the Matter (1948) – civil service / intelligence Charles Dickens, Great Expectations (1861) – law © University of Greenwich

6


‘Motivation and Me’ Dr Bella Adams and Dr Joanna Price English Department, Liverpool John Moores University In the Career Studies module we propose here, ‘career’ is understood in its broader sense as ‘a person’s course through life’, including their working life (Goffman, qtd, McCash, p40). The module offers students in English and American Studies an approach to employability that is meaningful to their home subject and aims to be transformative. In English, we need to think creatively about employability in response to the diversity of our students’ career experiences and aims by offering ‘relevant’ and ‘authentic’ work-related learning. With this in mind, we are proposing a module that combines intellectual content with career skills in an academically rigorous way. The module embraces the following: • home subject understanding – American self-improvement literature in its cultural and historical contexts • transdisciplinary content – Culture Studies, Literature, Film, History, Psychology and Social Sciences • self-theories and beliefs, including theories of learning – self-reflection exercises on identity, learning styles, motivation, life and work choices • Integration of theory with practice – identifying and applying selfimprovement strategies and techniques in, for example, role play or a reflective journal.

Context This intermediate (or second year) module, ‘Motivation and Me’, would be offered to students in English Studies that includes American prose and film. It could be offered as an option or a core module to small or large groups of students. It would be delivered through workshops and lectures and assessed by an academic essay. The assessment would also involve a presentation element, such as a role-play of a job interview situation (integrating theory with practice), or responses to open (and often overwhelming) questions such as ‘Tell me about yourself’ or ‘What qualities could you bring to the job?’

Contacts Dr Bella Adams [email protected] Dr Joanna Price [email protected]

7


Proposal The proposed module would enable students to analyse and critique American self-improvement and motivational texts, and to recognise how they shape British career discourse. Students would also learn how to make appropriate use of this discourse. Texts would include examples of autobiography, memoir, fiction, non-fiction, television, film, and theory. For instance, extracts from Benjamin Franklin’s autobiography, alongside motivational literature and ‘pop’ personality-type tests would offer a stimulating way into the subject of the American self-improvement genre (and sub-genres, including parodies and alternative discourses). Possible texts include: in prose, Carnegie, How to Win Friends and Influence People, Percy, Lost in the Cosmos: The Last Self-Help Book and Gladwell, Outliers; in television The Apprentice; and in comedy, George Carlin’s Complaints and Grievances. A presentation by a motivational speaker could also feature on the module. This genre is a multibillion-dollar industry, and students would reflect on its success in relation to ‘The American Dream’ and other ideologies and theories, for example, individualism, popular culture, psychoanalysis, Marxism and transnationalism. In addition to analyzing the industry, genre and specific texts, students would be expected to apply some of the self-improvement techniques and strategies featured in these texts to their own thoughts and behaviours. In this way, students would learn to identify what motivates them, and how they can use this motivation in shaping their life-course, both in and beyond academic life. This reflexive strand of the module would build on the work of Mantz Yorke and Peter Knight, with its reference to the motivational writings of American social psychologists such as Carol S. Dweck. ‘Motivation and Me’ aims to give students study skills in their home subject, but, more than this, it is a module designed to develop self-reflection and self-promotion skills that are vital for students’ courses through life. © Liverpool John Moores University

8


E4E: Employability for English Dr Anna Hunter and Dr Helen Day University of Central Lancashire Since 2006 the University of Central Lancashire has embedded employability and career studies into the English Language curriculum through a bespoke programme of learning known as ELSIE: English Language Skills Initiative for Employability. Central to the ELSIE project is the notion of using degree programme learning and skills as a framework for exploring career development; this proposal details plans to develop a companion module for implementation within the English Literature programme, which has hereto struggled to find a place for employability within the curriculum.

Proposal It is a recognised issue within the teaching and learning of English Literature within Higher Education that, whilst graduates of this highly critical and evaluative subject are widely in demand from a range of employers, students themselves struggle to identify and articulate the way in which their degree subject helps to prepare them for their futures beyond the academy. As Day (2010) notes, ‘students [of English] find it hard to transfer skills, especially if taught outside the context of engaging subject-based content’ (3). The roots of this difficulty can be traced back as far as A-Level subject choice, as Richardson (2008) identifies: ‘Students are aware that studying English at A-Level will help them to develop additional key skills, however they are unsure as to how these skills are applicable’ (12). The aim of this module is to make career development learning relevant and tangible to students of English Literature by providing them with a discourse of employability grounded in their own subject knowledge. This 20 credit module takes an interpretive approach to Career Studies, placing an emphasis on the narrative qualities of career development and allowing students to use their skills and expertise in literary analysis as the tools to explore their own perceptions of employability and career development. It follows Horn (2008) in encouraging students to question the cultural value placed on the notions of ‘career’ and ‘work’, using specific examples from the literature curriculum to elaborate on this discussion.

Contacts Dr Anna Hunter [email protected] Dr Helen Day [email protected]

9


Indicative activities include:

References

• Guided fantasy around ideal career path

Day, H. 2010. Work-Related Learning in English Studies: A Good Practice Guide. HEA: The English Subject Centre.

• Analysis of literary texts, representation of ‘work’ in literature • Using concept of ‘chapters’ in autobiography to explore the intersection between ‘work and life’, using narrative analysis to action plan career development • Analysing narrative content of CVs • Examining metaphors in career development (following Gowler and Legge, 1999; Day, 2007a) • Language and Literature Card Sort • Employability: The Game The learning outcomes for this module will reflect both the literary content and the Career Studies components. As McCash (2008) advises, following Kneale (2007): ‘it is important to specify career-relevant knowledge content and understanding within learning outcomes’ (13). The assessments for this module will be graded against the UCLan Employability Framework (Day 2007b), thus ensuring transparency for the students with regard to the development and assessment of their employability skills and awareness. It is anticipated that this module will create the opportunity to open a dialogue between the subject-specific skills and knowledge attached to English Literature and the transdisciplinary qualities of Career Studies. The methodologies of each discipline will be used to deconstruct and re-imagine the other: techniques of literary analysis will be used to enhance awareness and explore Career Studies, whilst the focus on employability tied to the methodologies of English Literature will enable students to develop their meta-awareness of the skills and attributes developed as part of their degree. In order to maintain the spirit of transdisciplinarity inherent to Career Studies, the module outline will be developed as a framework for a model of transdisciplinary learning, with the intent that it will be adaptable for use with other subjects.

10

Day, H. 2007a. ‘Helicopters, jigsaws and plaits: Revealing the hidden language and literature curriculum’. Pedagogy: Critical Approaches to Teaching Literature, Language, Composition and Culture. 7 (3). Day, H. 2007b. The UCLan Employability Framework. Available at www.uclan.ac.uk/employability/resources. Gowler. D. and Legge, K. 1989. Rhetoric in bureaucratic careers: managing the meaning of management success. In M.B. Arthur, D.T. Hall and B.S. Lawrence, Handbook of Career Theory. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 437-453. Horn, J. 2008. Careers Education and Career-informed Degree Programmes in Higher Education. Available at: www.reading.ac.uk/ccms/activities/research/ccmsworkingpapers.asp (accessed 2 July 2010). Kneale, P. 2007. Is it time to embed careers teaching and support in the disciplines? Career Research and Development: the NICEC Journal. 17: 35-38. McCash, P. 2008. Career Studies Handbook: Career Development Learning in Practice. HEA: Learning and Employability Series. Richardson, A. 2008. Links Between Post-16 Subject Choice and Future Career Plans in AS-Level English Students. HEA: The English Subject Centre. Available at: http:// www.english.heacademy.ac.uk/explore/resources/ recruitment/index.php (accessed 2 July 2010). © University of Central Lancashire


11

New directions in career studies: English and Media degrees For more information, please contact: David Stanbury Centre for Career Management Skills Carrington Building University of Reading Whiteknights Reading, RG6 6UA [email protected] Tel (0118) 378 8506 www.reading.ac.uk/ccms