HEA

Creative Contexts: Work Placement Expectations and Peer Learning through Reflections Films, Higher Education Academy Conference 2012, University of Manchester, 3-4.07.12

GLAD conference

Work Placements in the Creative Industries: Peer Learning and the Reflective Practitioner, GLAD Conference 2012: It started with a KIS!,Kingston University, 25.04.12.

Book Review of Shifting Tides

Ashton, D. (2012) 'Book review of Shifting Tides in Global Education (2011) Witt' in Networks 17

(Not) Belonging in the Creative World: Challenging HE Exclusions

Centre for Educational Research in Equalities, Policy and Pedagogy and the London Paulo Freire Institute:, Roehampton University,'(Not) Belonging in the Creative World: Challenging HE Exclusions', Roehampton University, 17th November 2011

Social Class: Participation and Representation in the Creative Industries

Social Class: Participation and Representation in the Creative Industries at City University, 13th December 2011.

Media Education Summit

With Nic Jeune ‘Reflections on practice: work-based learning, identity and professionalism’, Media Education Summit 2011, Ravensbourne, 6-7.09.11

Keywords
Media practice; professionalism; work-based learning.

Abstract
This presentation explores how undergraduate students reflect on their work-based learning within a university-based media company, and how they make sense of their emerging ‘professional’ identities.

The presentation will draw on three years of findings from interviews and focus groups conducted as part of a longitudinal research study into Artswork Media (Bath Spa University), and accounts and reflections from student alumni in attendance. As a dialogue between the company’s Creative Director, student alumni, and the project researcher, the presentation will engage with a range of perspectives and debates on what, how and why students reflect as part of their work-based media practice education.

The presentation will specifically address: the contexts and practical means by which students come to relate to themselves as media professionals (Ashton, 2010); the significance of immersive work-based learning in contrast to a university/campus-based location; working with external clients and valuing work; and how the company context connects with future industry practices and challenges, such as portfolio working and job security (Hesmondhalgh and Baker, 2010; Ashton, 2011).

References
Ashton, D. (2010) ‘“You just end up feeling more professional”: Media production and industry-ready personhood' in Networks 10, pp.14-19

Ashton, D. (2011) 'Media education and media industries: Identity, anxiety, and aspirations', Media Education Research Journal, 1(2): 85-93.

Hesmondhalgh, D. and Baker, S. (2010) Creative Labour. London: Routledge.

Moral Economies of Creative Labour programme announced

Programme for Moral Economies of Creative Labour announced.

My abstract:

Creative labour and higher education

Noting a range of government policy reports (e.g. Creative Britain, 2009), that identify higher education as a key site in the formation and development of labour for the ‘creative economy’, this paper explores the possibilities of how creative media practice students can relate to themselves as workers in-the-making. Specific analysis addresses how students are able to articulate their passions and career aspirations alongside a recognition and responsiveness to the unethical and amoral aspects of work in the creative and media industries.

Drawing on empirical research with creative media practice students, this paper argues that extending concepts of ‘employability’ and ‘industry learning’ present ways to locate ethical concerns as relevant for students. The aim is not to overlook or dismiss the investments and understandings that students hold, but to utilize the higher education experience to locate these alongside grounded accounts of the challenges of the their future creative work contexts.