Elisenda’s blog

Welcome to my blog – a space where I share insights, reflections, and discoveries from my PgCert journey, blending innovation, teaching, and the dynamic world of fashion education!

  • ARP: Presentation

    This blog post includes my presentation slides. Thank you!

  • ARP 5: Reflection

    When I first began this project, I thought I was researching discomfort. What I’ve come to realise is that I was actually researching silence, the kind that sits quietly in classrooms, between glances, beneath feedback, or inside someone’s decision not to speak. Silence doesn’t always mean exclusion, but it often points to something unacknowledged. And…

  • ARP 4: Analysis and Conclusions

    In my earlier posts, I framed this project as a response to a quiet but persistent tension: creative education often celebrates radical self-expression, yet that same freedom can produce discomfort, disconnection, and unspoken questions about boundaries and belonging. I also described why I chose a small exploratory design (focus group plus two asynchronous follow-up interviews),…

  • ARP 3: Research Design and Data Collection

    By the time I reached the data collection phase of the research, I had already gathered a great deal of insight from my literature review and critical reflections, but I knew that what I was looking for couldn’t be found in texts alone. I wanted to surface unspoken discomforts, unheard perspectives, and lived tensions around…

  • ARP 2: Context and Rational

    This research emerged from a moment that might have seemed minor at the time but stayed with me. After a seminar, a student quietly shared that she had felt uncomfortable engaging in the discussion due to how another peer was dressed. Her concern wasn’t rooted in moral judgement or conservatism; it was about emotional safety,…

  • ARP 1: Research Question

    My name is Elisenda, and I’m an AL at UAL, working across CSM with the MA Innovation Management and at LCF in the BA Fashion Buying & Merchandising, the MA Fashion Design Management, and the MBA Fashion Business, where I contribute to the Innovation and Fashion Business Futures unit. My background spans fashion styling, entrepreneurship,…

  • Reflective Report: Positionality Mapping

    Introduction This reflective post documents the process of designing an inclusive learning intervention as part of my PgCert journey. Titled Positionality Mapping, the intervention stems from my desire to foster more equitable and critically reflexive collaboration in group work. Positioned within the MA Innovation Management course at UAL, where students work in diverse, interdisciplinary teams,…

  • INTERVENTION Embracing Difference: Positionality Mapping as a Tool for Inclusive Learning

    In response to the need for more inclusive and critically reflexive group collaboration, I propose introducing a structured Positionality Mapping activity at the start of group projects within the MA Innovation Management course. This intervention encourages students to reflect on and share aspects of their personal, cultural, and professional identities that may shape how they…

  • Race, Power and the Illusion of Inclusion: A Critical Reading of Diversity Discourse in HE

    As the final post in this three-part reflection, I turn to race — perhaps the most visible and yet persistently misunderstood axis of structural inequality within higher education. Rather than approach this through anecdote, I focus here on a critical engagement with the literature and media provided, to question the institutional narratives around diversity, equity,…

  • Faith and Fashion: Aesthetic Freedom or Quiet Exclusion?

    If intersectionality teaches us anything, it is that lived experience is always shaped by multiple, overlapping identities. Faith, like disability, is not a standalone category; it intersects with race, gender, class, and culture, influencing how individuals navigate institutions and how those institutions respond in turn (Crenshaw, 1989). Engaging with this week’s resources, I appreciated the…

  • Disability, Language, and the Invisible Architecture of Participation

    Last term, I had a Chinese student in my postgraduate class who consistently produced brilliant individual work — sharp insights, strong research frameworks, thoughtful responses to feedback. And yet, during group activities, she struggled to be heard. She relied on a real-time translator app to convert English conversation into Chinese via her phone, and would…

  • A Journey Through the First PgCert Unit

    This first unit of the PgCert has been a fascinating and thought-provoking journey, allowing me to step back and critically engage with my teaching practice in ways I had not previously considered. The process of reading, learning, and engaging in deeper discussions about learning and teaching has made me far more conscious of the theoretical…

  • CASE STUDY 3: Implementing a Structured Mid-Unit Checkpoint for Equitable Learning

    This case study explores the implementation of a mid-unit checkpoint in Unit 3: Situating Innovation within the MA Innovation Management course at CSM. It examines how structured feedback supports student progress and equitable participation in assessing and giving feedback for learning. Additionally, it aligns with the A3 (assess and give feedback for learning), A5 (enhance…

  • REFLECTIONS ON BEING OBSERVED BY A PGCERT TUTOR: Innovation, Engagement, and Future-Proofing Pitches

    This post reflects on a seminar in which I was observed by a PgCert tutor, focusing on engaging students in collaborative innovation and critical thinking while facilitating rapid idea development and pitching. See the observation notes in this link. Delivering a seminar for the MBA from LCF around Innovation and Fashion Business Futures was an…

  • REFLECTIONS ON OBSERVING A PEER: Review of a Briefing Deck

    This post is based on an observation of a session deck rather than a face-to-face session. As such, the level of detail and insight into actual delivery, student engagement, and facilitation techniques is not present. Additionally, as I am not familiar with the broader context of this course, my ability to fully grasp the depth…

  • CASE STUDY 2: Navigating Cultural and Educational Diversity in Collaborative Learning

    This case study addresses the importance of adapting teaching strategies to accommodate students’ diverse academic experiences, ensuring an equitable learning environment. It aligns with the Professional Standards Framework, specifically addressing A2: teaching and supporting learning through appropriate approaches and environments and V1: respecting individual learners and diverse groups of learners, while also incorporating elements of…