I first started teaching in September 2022. I’d always thought it might be something I’d enj0y, even from as early as high school. However, my perceptions of why I might enjoy it have changed over the years, and indeed, since I started doing it.
As a somewhat bullied, tormented teenager, the idea of being in (what I perceived as) a position of power was appealing. The knower of facts. The person who gets to issue the commands. Being a teacher is a softer way of doing this than some other careers that provide opportunities to showcase power and/or knowledge. However, I also knew (ever since I was a child), that I cannot abide spending time around children — so primary teaching was out. Due to aforementioned high school torment, the thought of having to attempt to control teenage students also filled me with stress, so that was out too, which only really left higher education — simultaneously the most appealing, and the most professionally daunting.
I graduated in 2010 with a 2:2 graphic design degree, which (as far as I was concerned at the time) ruled out any possibility of either a masters or a HE teaching career. I figured I was destined for a career of mediocrity, and somehow, leaning into the knowledge that I would probably never be ‘great’, freed me up a lot. I studied at the university of Brighton, where a lot of my cohort went straight into very prestigious careers at places like Pentagram, or high profile in-house positions like the V&A, or Moo, or Facebook. I was jealous at the time, but retrospectively I can see that the pressure would have crushed me. Mediocrity gave me a safe space to expand and experiment, and explore, and sometimes fail, but then pick myself up and try again.
I stumbled into an in-house position with a group of international colleges, and I stayed there for 10 years! I loved the work, and I loved what we did as a company, which was education. Our education primarily focussed on international students aged 14 – 25ish learning English. But we also offered A-levels and GCSEs at our colleges (with tailored support for international students), and this was where, through designing educational resources (alongside the more mercenary promotional campaigns for the colleges), I continued to foster a wider love for education as a concept. I came to understand teaching less as a position of power or dominance (though perhaps still a certain smugness of knowing things others don’t), but of genuinely enhancing our students lives.
When I would visit our colleges, I saw happy, smart, savvy kids from all over the world getting to know each other through their shared learning of the English language, and that is SO MUCH FUN. And it was us (well, the teachers, whom I occasionally facilitated with nicely designed resources) who were making that happen! That’s a good time.
After a few years working there, I expanded my practice to freelance work, and again, was lucky to fall into working with an educational consultancy who help big brands, charities and other organisations translate their messages into useful educational resources for teachers across primary and secondary age groups. This further expanded my understanding of what works and what doesn’t when it comes to design for education — so predominantly slides, worksheets, workbooks and so on. As I was doing this work I liked to imagine the teachers using my designs in sessions — how would they work? Would the kids love them?! Would the kids think they were some corny dumb shit like me and my friends would have done when we were in high school!? If the latter, what can I do to make this cooler, more convincing?
Fast forward a few more years, a bunch more clients along similar lines, and then the pandemic hits. I was furloughed and ultimately made redundant from the group of colleges I worked at, and for a solid 9 – 12 months, most freelance work dried up. Luckily I had some money in savings, so the greatest risk during this period was my own sanity.
Having previously dismissed the idea of doing a Masters as being beyond my abilities, I reconsidered. A few inspiring friends who all worked at LCC at the time convinced me, directly or indirectly, that I could manage it. And actually, after 10+ years in industry, lots of time for reflection, and greater growth as a person to understand my passions, I DID manage it, and graduated from MA Graphic Media Design at LCC in 2021 with a nearly-distinction 🙂 (merit)
As many other Associate Lecturers at LCC will be familiar with, completing a Masters, if you continue to be motivated, can be a promising path to the beginnings of a career in actual teaching, and so it was for me.
I was enormously lucky to be paired with Sîan Cook, an incredibly experienced lecturer whose values and ideas aligned perfectly with my own. We delivered a unit to second year BA Graphic Media Design students on activism within design (another area of practice that had grown for me over the previous decade), and I never looked back.
That said, I continue to be slightly shocked that they just let you teach without a qualification, though obviously there is a lot of oversight and support, so the model does work. I was still keen to feel a bit less like I was just winging it, and so looked into pursuing the PGCert as soon as I possibly could.
Since applying for a place on the course, I have switched to teaching on the BA UX Design Course, which has been another big and exciting learning curve for me, and due to the course being in something of a period of flux staffing wise, I have been offered a lot of opportunities to take on responsibilities and grow. I can’t wait to use the PG Cert as an opportunity to do this in a more informed way.
And my motivation now? My understanding of why I do, in fact, love teaching? Yes, there is a certain satisfaction in having knowledge and imparting it. Yes, it is fun to plan a lesson, tell everyone what to do, and have it go well. And yes, absolutely there is a great joy in seeing students lives get richer for — not just the experience of learning — but also the experience of just being in a higher education environment with their peers. But the greatest joy of all is the joy of knowing what you love (design!) and getting to share that with other people. There’s this super cool thing, and I get to tell you about it! And if I do it well, you will love it as much, or more than, I do! AND, you might go on to accomplish more with these skills and ideas than I ever could have done. It’s sowing seeds for a better future, of which I firmly believe design is a vital part.
Now I am just excited to learn to do it ‘right’…