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USE OF COLLAGE-MAPPING TO SHOWCASE CREATIVE ENERGY OF TEACHERS

 

Camels: Shows contrast of hard and soft, with buildings in the background. Students want to be individuals but within a framework.

 

Raffia: To gently draw students together as equals

Snowdrops: In connection with beauty, creativity, pause for thought (In SCEPTrE)

 

Sailing boats: Students being blown by the wind and also forming into teams.

 

Island: Looking at the bigger picture

 

Jewels: Like students. They shine in the light when you let them lead.

 

Hands with scissors: Cutting (out), endings, leaving and letting go, creating ‘heart space’ and spaces for learning. For this individual, it was important that her own learning was included as teachers have to learn too.

 

Strip of people: Represents development through life and life changes. Each stage has something to offer. A repeated theme of the complexity of what it means to be a human being.

Grapes: A metaphor for significant learning experiences. Broad repertoire.

Colours of backing card represent myself as a teacher and they are perfect colours.

Passion(left hand border/corner. Being passionate.

‘A flash of inspiration’ I tell students don’t wait for the inspiration but it’s great if it happens.

Red feather: Just represents fun and playfulness

Strawberries: Indulgences, enjoying life. Also spring and summer.

Symbol of a tree: orderly.

Statue: A philosopher? The idea of scholarship

More set out, not like the thunderstorm.

A structure made of wooden matches: We need structure as teachers. Creativity needs to be combined with structure. The idea of building knowledge etc

A corridor: Opening doors

Hot air balloon: Leaving the ground. ‘Lifting off’ through having creative ideas.

 

Sparkles: Represent a divine spark of inspiration

 

Controlled building

Actual building: Means constructing something, a building in progress

The teacher is like a gardener. On the edge

Chaos, emergence, complexity

Embryology, deep mysteries

Creativity and theory

Ecological, spiritual

String: The straight part represents the past.

Black paper: I feel I’ve been hidden

Swimmer: Powerful for me. I feel I’m coming up; emerging for air.

Raffia: Where I am now. I have a need to be creative. Am having ‘breathing space’

Time: Is not the future but history. Long-term natural growth.

Wobbly string: Is the journey. You can’t see where the path ends up.

‘Think bigger’: Is to give myself permission to move on.

The ‘flash of inspiration’; Is something that happens. It comes out of being in a zone and being in the right place for long-term growth, not just survival.

‘Breathing space’ came up serendipitously. It’s about connections, for example, with the earth. It’s about being natural.

Reflections on the process of using collage

It’s liberating! Using collage is simple and immediately achievable. Enjoyed being instinctive in the choice of images. I started with very negative images. It then became a ‘mind map’. You can use mind mapping to make sense. There’s a lot there my limited imagination wouldn’t find but the images triggered it (A lecturer, School of Arts and Human Sciences).

Therapeutic. Straightforward.  I’m more grounded than I thought I was. [The collage-mapping] process has helped me clarify why I’m still here and how I can make a difference. I found it very interesting to do (A nurse lecturer).

Enjoyable. Therapeutic. I can see how I’d apply it. Using collage in this way invites you to map more than one journey. Mine shows two journeys. I used 2 cards [for the collage background] with contrasting colours. There was a spontaneity today that was useful (A researcher).

Was interested. I picked things less personal and more focused on the work. Focused on communication, which gives me a lot of angst with new students coming in (A nurse teacher from the independent sector).

Really enjoyed it. Was fun. Quite moving and surprising. Very successful for me ( A SCEPTrE member).

Really enjoyed it. A way of me checking in with myself. Interesting why we did not choose images eg icebergs ( A researcher)

Can lead to a deeper level. Can make explicit. Connections not in immediate consciousness ( A facilitator)

I’ll remember this as it’s such a unique experience. As nurses, we’re not encouraged to be creative. I’ll remember how this made me feel (A health care mentor).

Collage is a process that triggers cutting through the overlays. Getting people to express themselves in a more genuine way. Not being bound in by what’s expected. It takes you out of your comfort zone to find a visual image ( A SPLASH representative).

There is a huge variety of pictures that speak to you and find you. Concern for ‘safety’ as students may give too much away to each other. A compromise may be for students to use an image and make a tee shirt for a friend. Sharing of one image to begin with. Found the collage making process calming and absorbing (A language teacher)

It gave me permission to think about ‘alternatives’ (A PCT manager)

The collage could be displayed as a ‘treasure map’ (A SCEPTrE member)

Examples of suggested applications following collage mapping activity

Healthcare Mentor (s):    To use to guide conversations with personal tutor

A way to explore emotions with student nurses on placements

Use of images on an education board on the wards for induction of students.

Arts, eg dance:    Aims to use collage mapping  with 2nd year students to draw out their creativity

Also Arts and Policy module-could use collage as central to the debate at the end of the module

Collage mapping would assist reflection for practitioners

Research:    Use of collage/images to help make sense of the research process. Could also use the technique to build a research diary or journal, using images. Will also use this technique sometimes, in place of Powerpoint, for teaching

Nursing education:

    To encourage student nurses to explore their spirituality and subsequently improve relationships with patients

A ‘journal’ collated through collage. This would be very useful for pre-registration nursing students to aid reflection on practice.

Could be used as an extension of a ‘story board’ for student nurses to learn a skill. Good to encourage creativity in student work and capture the student’s journey.

Educating nurses in the community (independent sector)

    To improve communication (both within teams and with elderly residents/clients).

Collage mapping has particular potential to be used in work with service users with dementia.

Images to aid clinical education centred on end of life care for students and nursing staff. Pictures to trigger what they see as end of life care. It’s a cultural thing. Images would help ask the questions even to patients eg where do you want to die?

Primary Care Trust    Potential to use in the community, to enhance creative thinking and writing.

Midwifery education:    Will use with third year students just before they qualify. What is being a midwife about to you?

SPLASH:    Student competitions. Personal development work with students and staff

Management:   

‘Collage offers students different ways of accessing the bigger picture’.  Will therefore offer optional collage workshops for management students.  Possibility of action learning sets to create personal development journey. Barrier is numbers of students involved.

Could use to complement mood boards for personal development.

Language/linguistics:    Would definitely use for teaching language. Often already use a picture for an ‘impulse’.  Collage encourages multiple versus single questions.

Also to stimulate ‘assumption reversal’ through language.

Would use collage to encourage students to speak in another language as you forget you’re speaking another language. Images encourage connection with emotions and can spark off discussion and creative writing. Interested in why a picture speaks to the students.

Sceptre    Collage mapping as a form of concept mapping to help sustain direction

One member’s actual collage could be used to explain SCEPTrE and share the philosophy and purpose as a centre of excellence.

E-learning and professional development    Could be used to plan a project or aid ‘mapping out’ a student’s career pathway.

It is akin to digital story telling. To help people say what’s important to them. A picture ‘kicks you off’.

A way of re-visiting an experience and stimulating someone’s imagination.

 

 

 

The value of a specialist independent consultant

The use of Emma Coats as a facilitator of the collage workshops will be invaluable. Her use of techniques to work with the narrative running between images used for the collages consistently provides rich data and material. Emma has significant experience in this field and will enable metaphors from the respondents to be extracted and sensitively handled.

Conclusions and final thoughts

In conclusion, the introduction of collage-mapping promoted a greater emotional depth and far more diversity of applications by teachers and healthcare mentors than predicted. The thorough preparation and lengthy discussions for planning each workshop certainly benefited the quality of the ‘courageous conversations’ that emerged.

Creating a safe space at the outset was key to accessing teacher/practitioner insights. The image round (or listening circle) proved successful as a lead-in to triggering powerful linguistic expressions that reflected each participants’ authenticity. All participants suggested they had selected images that ‘spoke’ to them. Metaphors that subsequently arose through texturing and mapping of the images during collage work were consistently rich and exciting.

It was a privilege to have had the opportunity to perform this experiment and to be present at each vibrant collage gallery.  The intrinsic commitment and passion of teachers shone through, despite political organisational upheaval and change at the University.

Each collage was obviously highly contextualised and a report cannot convey the dynamic electricity of the narratives running between selected images. Emma and I put it down to brilliant facilitation! However, ultimately, the co-creation of the collage gallery was down to the brilliance and uniqueness of the jewels (the teachers) who altruistically give of themselves to enhance the learning experience of students.  

References

Finnerty G and Pope R (2004) Development of a ‘good practice’ tool to support mentors. Published on Higher Education Academy website: www.health.heacdemy.ac.uk/projects/miniprojects/mpfinnerty.pdf

Handy C (1993) Understanding Organizations. Fourth Edition. London: Penguin

NMC (2006) Standards to support learning in practice for mentors, practice teachers and teachers, London.

Pope R, Graham L, Finnerty G and Magnusson C (2003) An investigation of the preparation and assessment of midwifery practice in a range of settings. Project Report. University of Surrey.

Rainbird H, Fuller A and Munro A (2004) Workplace Learning in Context. Routledge: London and New York.

Robinson K, Smith P and Taket A (2002) Our Healthier Nation: Improving the Competence of the Workforce. Practice Placements as Learning Environments. Report: South Bank University, London.

Spouse J (2001) An impossible dream? Images of nursing held by pre-registration students and their effect on sustaining motivation to become nurses. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 32 (3), 730-739.

Spouse J (2003) Professional Learning in Nursing. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing.

UKCC (1999) Fitness for Practice

Williams B (2000) Collage work as a medium for guided reflection in the clinical supervision relationship. Nurse Education Today, 20, 273-278.

Williams B (2002) Using collage art work as a common medium for communication in interprofessional workshops. Journal of Interprofessional Care, 16, No.1, 53-58.

 

APPENDIX 1

The Performative Social Science workshop at Bournemouth University (November 2007) provided salutary insights into being a participant and the vulnerability evoked by ‘performing’ in a group. I found it particularly stressful being filmed and felt a bit like a research rat as it wasn’t clear where the ‘data’ were being sent or who the final audience would be. 

An away day for the Centre for Research in Nursing and Midwifery Education (January 2008) was facilitated by Beverley Hunt and was extremely productive.  She has been liaising with the Creative Leadership Centre in the US and used an excellent exercise involving photo images which were discussed in depth in pairs. The aim was to examine similarities of language etc within the pairs, which took the pressure off ind