Future plans here

Agenda

1. Chair’s report

2. Treasurer’s report, including change of auditor

3. CPD and local groups

4. BFI Future Plans

5. AOB

in association with

THE MEDIA, COMMUNICATION AND CULTURAL STUDIES ASSOCIATION AND THE MEDIA EDUCATION ASSOCIATION

presents

A HIGHER EDUCATION ACADEMY DISCIPLINE WORKSHOP

TEACHING MEDIA STUDIES:

TRANSITIONS FROM A-LEVEL TO UNDERGRADUATE COURSES

28^TH JUNE 11.30 – 5.30

LOUGHBOROUGH UNIVERSITY

Media Studies is expanding both in higher education and in schools. The number of universities offering Media Studies and related courses tripled between 1996 and 2009, while student numbers at A-level grew four-fold. This presents new opportunities and challenges for those who are teaching the subject. Until recently, universities could safely assume that only a minority of students would have studied the subject previously. This is no longer the case: recent HEA research suggested that almost 50% of students on Media Studies courses had taken the subject at A-level. Particularly in the first year of an undergraduate course, some students will be encountering material with which they are already very familiar, while others will be engaging with it for the first time. Lecturers may be unfamiliar with the requirements of A-level, while A-level teachers may know little about the nature of university courses.

This event aims to generate a dialogue between those teaching Media Studies and related subjects at A-level and at undergraduate level. It will focus on continuities, overlaps and differences between these two areas, in terms of both curriculum and teaching/learning styles, and their implications for the student experience.

Speakers will include:

Pete Fraser – A-level chief examiner

Sarah Barrow – Lincoln University

Jenny Grahame – English and Media Centre

Keith Perera – Advanced Skills Teacher and PGCE tutor, Sussex

Freddie Attenborough and Liz Stokoe – Loughborough University

Kate O’Riordan – Sussex University

Courtesy of the Higher Education Academy, attendance, lunch and refreshments are free. Places are limited, and will be reserved on a first come, first served basis. To book, please e-mail Anne-Marie Joyce: A.Joyce@lboro.ac.uk.

The MEA is a member of the council, along with 30 other subject associations. I attended the AGM today in London, which included presentations on the government’s plans for the curriculum and qualifications in England from Sue Hackman and Jacquie Spatcher from the DfE. In the afternoon, Professor Margaret Noble from the Teaching and Learning academy talked about the potential for accredited CPD in partnerships with subject associations. The CSFA has also been approached by the Schools Network, formerly SSAT, about collaborations in the future.

The messages from the DfE were not unexpected. The government was described as deregulatory and permissive, with a hands-off approach. Hmmmm.

The knowledge-based curriculum was suggested to be of interest to subject associations, but it was noted that the eBacc seems to have already had an impact upon take up of subjects at KS4. The new national curriculum should be in schools by September 2013 for first delivery Sept 2014. Meanwhile new A levels will be expected to be in place in September 2014. As one delegate pointed out, with so many schools becoming academies, it is not clear how much point there will be to the national curriculum by that stage. Gove is apparently quite happy for GCSE results to go down after the changes at KS4; GCSEs will be much harder.

Media education got one brief mention, but only to emphasise that the government  sees no value in it.

The possibility for CPD collaboration and accreditation was of interest to us and Kate Domaille will be following this up.

• Is there a coherent understanding of what film education is supposed to achieve?
• Does Film Education address specific knowledge and understanding or is it exclusively about creativity? Or a combination of these? If so, how can an integrated film education be achieved?
• Are the aims of film education the same for children (and people) of all ages, in all settings, or should it be inflected by different contexts?
• How can we get closer to agreeing on what is actually meant by film education?

The seminar commenced with a series of ‘thought pieces’ that demonstrated the breadth and range of film education in all its contexts. Terry Bolas[2] kick-started the conference with the view from history, concluding that progress had been made and yet reminding us that some of the debates we are still engaged in as teachers are ongoing, such as convincing policy makers of the worth and value of film education and working from a systematic strategy for learning with and through film education.

Tom Barrance, Media Education Wales, Dan Simmons, Creative Skillset, Leigh Thomas, First Light, Mark Higham, Film Club, Michelle Cannon, BFI and Patrick Phillips, Chief Examiner Film Studies WJEC all offered up perspectives on film education which ranged from training and development, through to debates about universal access to film education, or project-based learning, through to the role of the industry and the increasing power and authority of government to shift the agenda in film education learning.  Patrick Phillips’ closed this section with a powerful warning that as practitioners we are being increasingly hindered by government in being allowed to develop a film education that we might want.

These thought pieces prompted discussions in the break-out workshops where delegates were asked to debate what a meaningful definition of film education would be; how and in what ways it included all people from primary school children to youth groups and university students; and how the case for film education could be communicated to where the money and power lies.

Fed back messages:

-                Language of film is fundamental to education

-                Film study should be contextualised

-                Film education should be progressive and developmental

-                Film education should empower young people and give a voice – production is vital

-                Film education provides a pleasurable learning experience and learning as pleasure is under-advocated!

-                Pleasure in learning isn’t a replacement for challenge/rigour, the pleasure can be in the challenge/rigour of film education.

-                Film is a vital communicative tool, and worthy of study

-                Film education is theorised pedagogically by its troubled history and an army of enthusiasts

-                Film education is in the aesthetic domain – a key aspect of any good Arts education programme

-                Film education combines study of Film as Text; cinema as experience and cinema-going as a cultural event;

-                Film education should be curatorial helping young people to develop skill, navigate the vast amount of material and develop contextual understanding

-                Film education needs to be positioned within a political agenda about learning

-                Film education is about participation and empowerment

-                If film education is important, it teaches skills of understanding/new knowledge and gives voice, it should therefore be universal

The afternoon workshop focused on developing the case for film education to policymakers and critics, detailing its value and worth and inviting a new dialogue. Groups selected different audiences to focus on: One group wrote asking why the new Education Director of the BFI was not on the Senior Leadership Team as this would cut out any invitation to discuss film education at the top table of the DFE and DCMS. Other groups wrote to Heads in schools and Creative England asking them to engage with what film education is and does. Another group argued to build partnerships and alliances, and change the debate to Moving Image Education (MIE) rather than film education, as somehow the debate had traditionally got bogged down in film education being little more than watching films. Suggested partnerships were with Secondary Heads Association, the Teaching Agency, Teach First, Teaching Schools and Academy Consortia, and with Industry bodies such as YouTube, Google and Phone companies all who could put pressure for educational change, as was recently evidenced by the Next Generation report, calling for a stronger link between ICT education and growth in the creative industries.[3]

This exercise drew out the need for more advocacy work through a central body and this could be a role for MEA in 2012-13. We intend to follow up on some ideas and develop some partnerships for improving the voice of media education in wider contexts.  What do you think?

You could try the seminar questions in your regional groups?

These include:

Intention for a joint seminar with BFI/21^st Century Literacy/Film Education in the summer to explore the debate between Higher Education viewpoints of media and film education and qualifications and degree level study; and

An application to convene a symposium on this with MERJ at MECCSA?

Minutes of Executive Meeting 9/3/2012

1. Apologies for absence

Sue Ellis, Victoria Eames, Jon Wardle, Tim Brook and Sarah Mumford all sent apologies.

Present: Pete Fraser, Jenny Grahame, Ian Wall, John Potter, Julian McDougall, Andy Wallis

2. Minutes of last meeting

Minutes were agreed. All matters arising are dealt with in the items below

3. extending the contract for Kate Domaille

It was proposed that we extend her time working for the MEA, to organize a further conference and to set up and administer further regional groups (target of ten). Agreed.

4. current state of funds

PF reported the current state of funds in the absence of Jon Wardle

MEA account summary, as at 24th Feb :

We have £30,899.40 in our account. We don’t have any outstanding receipts but we do have £1323 outstanding payments waiting to go out, including conference expenses, BFI share of profits and four local groups’ cheques.

So at that point our balance will be  £29676.40 less expenses for the exec meeting.

IW asked when the next audit is due. PF will check on dates and ensure the books are passed on to Merchants.

5. Simplifying the website

PF reported that there had been some inexplicable recent problems, possibly due to the complex add-ons on the site. Since the original vision for the site, with lots of member contributions, had not materialsed, we discussed scaling down its complexity, by stripping out the forums and the ‘social media’ element. This could then leave the site more as an information portal for national and regional events plus anything resource wise that people were prepared to add. The mini newsletter is now frequent to drive traffic to the site. We agreed to explore the possibility of replacing the ‘social’ element with links to facebook and to enhance the twitter feed. The ability to still sign up for the site is crucial to build membership.

IW suggested we use the TES and TeachIt forums to drive traffic to the site by flagging up available resources. PF will discuss with Matt and Kate.

6. RE: New Voices and future events

Time was allocated to discussion of the New Voices event. It was agreed that the event had been a great success in terms of numbers, profit and content. PF reported that our income from ticket sales was £2160, our expenses were £546, which includes all the speakers’ travel claimed, badges, catering and wine reception. BFI were happy with £500 for their cut, so profit for MEA was over £1000. No costing of Kate’s time was taken into account, however. We sold 72 tickets and had a further 26 non-paying attendees.

We then discussed a proposal to hold another event in the summer at Bradford Museum, which we have costed and provisionally reserved. It was felt that the number of competing events at that time might impact upon numbers and that we should not rush into another full scale event. It was agreed to give further thought to this and to cancel the provisional reservation.

JM proposed a new model for events, based on the model used by the HEA. This would involve schools/colleges or groups bidding for money to run a local event (maybe £1000+) under a set of conditions, which would include an MEA rep attending. All agreed this sounded a good idea- JM to draw up a detailed proposal of terms and conditions.

7. Local groups: so far set up and £100 granted- Northants, West London, Oxford, Hants; money has also been awarded to AMES for an event- the local groups should all shortly have slots on the MEA site. Several others have made enquiries and been encouraged to bid. AW asked what groups had proposed to do- Kate to circulate the proposals received so far to all exec members.

6. AOB

The next newsletter should go out early next week- PF asked for items to include.

CfSA- PF going to annual conference in April, MIC Euston; the agenda was briefly discussed.

22 March event- PF going as rep to Westminster Forum event on National Curriculum; agenda discussed.

Exec membership: AW first attendee under new open exec policy; others have expressed interest in attending. We discussed whether we should remove some old members from the exec and agreed that in view of lack of response to e-mails from some exec members they will be considered to have resigned.

Book reviews: PF has distributed about 6 books from Auteur for review, which should be on the site mid March.

Film education policy: IW reported on the recent 21^st century Literacy meeting and the BFI funding proposal. The strategy office will be organizing a symposium on the issue to bring together ideas. MEA to publicise via site and newsletter.

Re/Defining  film education

A one day seminar

Friday 13^th April

11.00 – 4.00

(registration from 10.30)

BFI Southbank, London

“Alongside audience development, film education has a vital role to play in ensuring that everyone has the opportunity to engage with film across the UK. By enhancing the stock of knowledge and information about film, in particular among children and young people, film education can assist in growing the audience of today and tomorrow, ensuring that audiences have an improved understanding and appreciation of the value of different kinds of film, whilst stimulating creativity.” From “A Future for British Film”, 2012

With the Film 21^st Century Literacy Strategy coming to an end and its advocacy document [Integrating Film into Education] recently published, now seems an appropriate moment to consider what exactly is meant by “film education”.

• Is there a coherent understanding of what film education is supposed to deliver?
• Is film education about skills, understanding and/or creativity, or should it be a combination of all of these? If so, how should this be achieved?
• What would represent an interesting offer that delivers film education on a national basis?
• How can we get any closer to agreeing on what is actually meant by film education?

We hope that you will be able to join us to discuss these and many more questions on April 13^th in the Blue Room at the BFI Southbank from 11am-4pm – refreshments will be provided.

There is no cost for attending. All you need to do is to bring your ideas and be ready to debate! We hope that teachers, film practitioners and educationalists will be able to attend.

For further information or to book a place at the seminar please contact Lydia Penke at lydia@21stcenturyliteracy.org.uk

Myth Today (and Together) – Pete Bennett and Julian McDougall

Student and Teacher theory-building (‘making mythology’)

Are you interested in participating alongside your students in an interesting project?

Here is what we need you to do.

1. Teachers – introduce your students, in whichever manner you choose, to ‘Mythologies’ by Roland Barthes. They need to understand the approach – ‘theorising’ everyday life and the construction of symbolic meaning beyond the ‘thing itself’ into a language of myth.

2. Students – identify a ‘thing’ / text / event / activity that you think of as carrying  meaning at a ‘mythical’ symbolic level in your life in 2012.

Crucial  = these examples MUST be generated by students on their own.

3. Teachers and students – work together to produce a full essay or set of notes or any other form of presentation (video, audio, website, images, artefacts) to make your mythology.

4. Students  or teachers – email j.mcdougall@wlv.ac.uk and let me (Julian) know that you are ready to share your contribution.

I will then send you an invite to join a wikispace set up for this project and a set of instructions for uploading your work to this wiki.

Crucial – these must be anonymous.

Timescale –

March 2012 – invitations, further discussions.

March 2012 – June 2012 – teachers and students generating Mythologies

By end of June 2012 – wikispace populated by Mythologies

July 2012 – option to edit by adding to other contributions.

July 2012 – Pete and Julian share the outcomes at the Crossroads in Cultural Studies conference, Sorbonne, Paris (these will also be analysed in a journal article).