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, I often witness the tensions that can arise from unspoken assumptions around identity, communication, and authority.
Coming from a multicultural and multilingual background, and working across both academia and industry, I am particularly sensitive to how power operates through language, visibility, and assumed norms. I want to challenge the idea of the “neutral” student or collaborator by making space for students to reflect on and articulate how their lived experiences shape their ways of working. This commitment aligns with my broader values of intersectional social justice (Crenshaw, 1991), and with UAL’s strategic objectives to foster inclusive and participatory education.
My intervention proposes a structured, two-part activity: first, students will create private positionality maps to reflect on aspects such as cultural background, communication style, access needs, and personal values. Second, they will be invited — but not required — to share selected elements with their peers as part of forming group agreements. I see this as a foundation-setting process that supports mutual understanding, rather than a box-ticking inclusion exercise.
This report reflects on the theoretical rationale, ethical considerations, and personal motivations behind the design. It also outlines my intended implementation, anticipated challenges, and next steps for trialling the intervention in the upcoming academic year.
Context
The intervention is designed for postgraduate students on the MA Innovation Management course, but can be applied to any other course that works with group briefs. In the MAIM course in particular, we bring together students from design, business, social science, and technology backgrounds, many of whom are international, multilingual, and navigating cultural adaptation. Group work is central to our pedagogical approach, and while students are encouraged to collaborate and bring in diverse perspectives, I’ve observed that the processes of forming groups and developing shared values are often left unstructured.
Students frequently encounter friction due to differences in working styles, language fluency, confidence in speaking, and expectations around leadership and collaboration. These frictions are not necessarily problematic in themselves — in fact, they can be productive. But without tools to navigate them, they risk reinforcing inequities and marginalising those who don’t conform to dominant norms.
The idea for Positionality Mapping emerged from my desire to support students in recognising and valuing these differences from the outset, and to move beyond performative inclusion. It was also influenced by conversations with colleagues during Workshop 2, where we discussed how to create conditions for meaningful peer learning across difference. Feedback from peers highlighted the need for a preparatory stage that allows students to reflect individually before co-creating group norms or group chartres — something that would avoid putting undue pressure on students to disclose sensitive information prematurely.
The activity is intended to be implemented within the first week of group project work. Students would complete a guided reflective template (inspired by, but expanding on, a traditional SWOT analysis), and staff would model the practice by sharing their own maps in a limited, voluntary way. This context-specific approach feels aligned with UAL’s inclusive education framework and speaks directly to the access, success, and progression dimensions of the Access and Participation Plan (UAL, 2025).
Inclusive Learning: Rationale and Theoretical Grounding
My intervention is grounded in inclusive pedagogy that foregrounds lived experience as a site of knowledge (Haraway, 1988; Cuevas, 2020), and is informed by theories of intersectionality (Crenshaw, 1991), anti-racist education (Kishimoto, 2018), and critical reflection (Brookfield, 2017). These frameworks collectively challenge dominant models of teaching and learning by making space for marginalised voices and perspectives.
Positionality Mapping supports the idea that knowledge is always situated — shaped by who we are, where we come from, and how we engage with the world. It also speaks to Freire’s (1996) notion of dialogic education, in which learning emerges through reflection and exchange, rather than passive reception.
Importantly, this intervention also considers the emotional and ethical dimensions of learning. Inspired by Boler’s (1999) concept of the pedagogy of discomfort, I believe that creating inclusive spaces doesn’t mean avoiding difficulty — rather, it involves building structures that can hold complexity in compassionate and intentional ways.
From a policy standpoint, the intervention responds to the UK Equality Act 2010, particularly the duty placed on educators to promote equality and foster good relations across differences. By prompting reflection on individual and collective experiences of power, marginalisation, and belonging, Positionality Mapping becomes a micro-level response to a macro-level structural duty.
Reflection on Development
The intervention began as a simple idea: a visual map of identity and learning preferences. But through feedback and reflective dialogue with peers and tutors, it evolved into a two-stage process that distinguishes between private and public reflection, and introduces a crucial “pause” — a space between personal awareness and group disclosure.
This distinction was a direct result of a tutorial with one of the PgCert tutors, which raised ethical concerns about privacy, vulnerability, and unintended disclosure. The feedback helped me see that even well-intentioned inclusion practices can replicate harm if they are not scaffolded carefully. For example, students from certain faith backgrounds or with invisible disabilities may feel pressure to share beyond their comfort level if we do not provide clear boundaries and alternatives.
One key challenge was balancing the depth of reflection I hoped to encourage with the emotional labour it might require. I also questioned whether students would see the value of the task, or whether they might perceive it as abstract or overly “personal.” To address this, I plan to frame the exercise explicitly within the context of group effectiveness — helping students see how positionality influences collaboration, decision-making, and creative dynamics.
An additional complexity is managing the diversity within the room — not just in terms of culture or language, but also power, confidence, and educational background. In highly mixed cohorts, there is a risk that students with more familiarity with reflective practice might dominate the process. Mitigating this requires a carefully facilitated structure and multiple modes of engagement (e.g. visual, verbal, anonymous input).
Action: Implementation Plan
In the upcoming academic year, I intend to pilot the Positionality Mapping intervention during one of the units from the Autumn Term, depending on what feels most appropriate for the rhythm of the academic calendar. The intervention will begin with an individual task and move through a carefully scaffolded process to group interaction.
First, I will provide students with a guided worksheet including prompt questions on cultural background, learning needs, working preferences, values, and any access requirements they may wish to reflect on. Filling in this template will be a personal, private task. The aim is to support students in becoming more conscious of how their positionality might shape their engagement in group work.
Students will then be asked to review their completed template and consider what, if anything, they are ready to share. They will be explicitly told they are under no obligation to disclose anything — the emphasis will be on mindful, intentional sharing. They are encouraged to reflect on what feels useful or meaningful to communicate with their group, and why. It is expected that each student might choose to share different aspects, and that not everyone will contribute the same type of information.
Once students are ready, structured time will be set aside for groups to have a facilitated sharing session. This will be handled with care, using clear ground rules, and with tutor support as needed.
This staged, ethical implementation acknowledges the emotional and interpersonal dynamics at play and builds in time for feedback and adjustment. I plan to document insights throughout and share them with the programme team as part of a wider conversation around inclusive group work design.
Evaluation and Limitations
Although I have not yet implemented the intervention, several potential limitations are already apparent. First, there is the question of emotional safety: even with a clear structure, students may feel uncertain about what is “safe” to share. Offering a two-part structure (private and optional public sharing) aims to address this, but it may not fully resolve the issue for all students.
Second, the intervention may require more time than typically allotted in early project sessions. Negotiating time within a busy curriculum is always a challenge, and I will need to collaborate with colleagues to embed this meaningfully rather than as an add-on.
Third, measuring the impact of the intervention will require both qualitative and informal approaches. I plan to use anonymous feedback tools such as Padlet to gather student reflections and adapt accordingly.
Finally, I am aware that my own biases — particularly around valuing reflection and verbalisation — might shape how I facilitate this. Being mindful of that, and remaining open to feedback, will be key to ensuring the process remains inclusive for all.
Conclusion
Designing the Positionality Mapping intervention has been a generative process of reflection, theory-building, and dialogue. It has helped me clarify my own commitments to inclusive learning, and foregrounded the ethical responsibility we hold as educators to design with — not just for — our students.
The process has also reinforced that inclusion is not a fixed outcome, but a continual practice of listening, adjusting, and co-creating. I don’t expect this intervention to be a perfect solution, but I hope it opens up space for more intentional conversations about who we are when we come together to learn, and what we each need to thrive.
Ultimately, Positionality Mapping is not just about understanding identity — it is about making space for the diverse conditions under which learning happens, and recognising that justice in education begins with how we treat each other in the room.
References
Boler, M. (1999) Feeling Power: Emotions and Education. New York: Routledge.
Brookfield, S.D. (2017) Becoming a Critically Reflective Teacher. 2nd edn. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Crenshaw, K. (1991) ‘Mapping the margins: Intersectionality, identity politics, and violence against women of color’, Stanford Law Review.
Cuevas, A.K. (2020) ‘Positionality as Knowledge: From Pedagogy to Praxis’, PS: Political Science & Politics.
Freire, P. (1996) Pedagogy of the Oppressed. London: Penguin Books.
Kishimoto, K. (2018) ‘Anti-racist pedagogy: from faculty’s self-reflection to organizing within and beyond the classroom’, Race Ethnicity and Education, 21(4), pp. 540–554.
UAL (2025) ‘Access and Participation Plan’. Available at: https://www.arts.ac.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0030/458346/University-of-the-Arts-London-Access-and-Participation-Plan-2025-26-to-2028-29-PDF-1297KB.pdf