Triggered values

A small thought note.  I saw the the following Tweets and many other similar ones by the same individual author, and it provoked some deep reflection on the honesty of what life and work means to me.  Whilst limiting government and policy talk.

"I watched a video where Elon mention a quote by Marcus Licinius Crassus. That a man could only consider himself truly rich when his annual income could raise and maintain a Roman legion. A legion is between 4000-5000 soldiers." 25 August 2023

"...Usually, it is the people who understand that money is a proxy for value that are the most trustworthy. The more money you make the more value you have generated for society." 27 August 2023

"The goal is to retire. Retirement is getting to a level of wealth where you can choose what to do with your day without time or financial restrictions. Retirement, or the wealth needed for it, is based on what you want to do with your day. Do you even know?" 28 August 2023 

So many questions to raise, and I get the motivation and productivity principles.  Firstly, usually such statements come from a rich person where wealth is of upmost importance on their agenda and status.  Many present their financial status and what monetary value they bring and spend before any other attribute.  When to me it is the quality of the person that comes first.  I wonder how these types of people react when someone attempts to succeed them through their own 'advice'?  It breeds unnecessary competition and rivalry.

Emotional and relational value doesn't leave societal impact?  People with spiritual passion shouldn't be seen as none impactful.  Spiritual healing and life coaching for example.  Seems pretty incredulous to me.

Or have I got all this wrong in my head?  To me these statements are down right dangerous, and again, come from the already rich, allegedly powerful and probably privileged backgrounds.  I guess it depends on where you work and what position you hold, or where you want to work and the position you want to hold, that gets people the wealth they are looking for.  It's easy to spout out motivation and productivity principles from people already at the 'top', when in fact they may not have adhered to their own advice but been served it on a plate, or been far too easy to influence others.  Anyway, all of this encourages more greed and capitalism in people, which will ultimately lead to more characters like the rich and corrupted.  Whilst empathy for the planet and personal wellbeing is being depleted.  We should educate people to be rich in life experience, wholeness/happiness and leaving a positive imprint, not just to be rich and superior to others through fakeness and consumerism.  I also believe that being abundant in money doesn't bring you happiness, but the meaningful things you spend it on or choose not to spend it on, and whom with.  As often celebrities say it is very lonely at the top - not a good sell to me.  To me, obtaining richness in life can be achieved by deeply making connects with others and the natural world, travelling and seeing other cultures and lifestyles, and immersing yourself in them.  A benefit when I see such things it makes me react like this, grounding and confirming my values and principles - so that's my positive spin on this reaction.  I'm not in favour of money chasing and doing the whole rat race thing, but we all subscribe to it somewhat.  Especially when you feel you know what you might be 'worth' according to organisation's pay scales.  However, it is important to have regular and adequate income given today's ever increasing cost of living, which is mostly due to greedy people and businesses.  For me, I am interested in and committed to personal and professional growth, and being successful in making a positive and impactful difference in the work I do.  And if that results in a bit of incremental progression, I think that's healthy, as it's natural to me not forced.  We all need to enjoy life as it goes, it should not be about take and greed.  But yes this is how our country works and pretty much the whole world.  All bout financial gain and status.  You could spend most of your life chasing a job that you may not get, then die the next day.  It could be quite the waste to discount other aspects of your life in favour of only chasing money.  But I get that rapid personal/business succession may lead to rapid innovations.  Though surely everyone racing and fighting each other for the above, will push quality of business/service, economy and healthcare further down?

I do feel this anxiety that you have to keep doing work and earning and spreading yourself thin, just in case of job security, government changes, pensions etc.  Yes some of it is natural career ambitions but I feel deep down it is due to the capitalistic impressions from the government and media spinning that all these negative societal changes must require such things from me.  I feel much of professional life comes down to how people influence and shape 'the conversation and data' they want it to be; lack of actual truth.  And how convincing and persuasive language is relied heavily too much on without evidence and true facts.  Resisting capitalistic tendencies is very challenging indeed, perhaps the radical rest movement is the way?  I like the outlook that it's not about what and how much you have got and how you look at it.

Yes I wanted to make something of myself and have a good salary, as I mentioned in my blog post 'What working class means to me'.  I am guided by the principle that as long as you can do what you like to do in life, it doesn't matter how much you get.  Complemented by other sayings that, 'it doesn't matter how much you earn, but how much you spend' and 'we all come to this earth plane with nothing, and we leave with nothing, and then at some point we must learn the act of letting go'.  But I know my spiritual boundaries and know being consumed by richness is something I am not and will not be driven by.  And because of my working class back ground I have a strong instinct to provide security and financial stability.  Both when I was single and living alone to being married.  Which links to my personal saying by not living beyond my means.  It's ok to change your lifestyle after getting a promotion, but it worked excellently for me (so far) by not jumping on that bandwagon; no upsizing to downsize later etc.  And enjoy work progression in mean time.  That's what my aim is and was, natural progression with no desire to get straight to the pseudo pinnacle.  Like Gary said, I can be successful and still be working class.  In personal life I haven't changed the way I live.  I'm still the original Barnsley me at the core.  However, it does feel like the world is driven by the man to get you to spend all the time (always offers (when they might not be), a marketing narrative of why I supposedly need something or to panic purchase), even if the products are good and enrich your life as well as the wider economy.  Again I am glad that I know when my needs are met and when I need to get things, rather than keep playing to businesses needs.

Forever to me means me, my husband, my cats, my home, comfort, health, and my family and friends.  Whilst I understand some are solo in life, that should be some sort of vision or hope.  We need more love and feel-good vibes in the world.  Though nowadays, I think you have to make that an inner and close circle thing.

I've had to put on hold some other personal pursuits as I am still establishing and shaping my full-time role and team.  And this deserves a fair bit of my time as I have longed for this role and invested in my professional development for it.  Once I have got it all to a settled state then I can relax those efforts to concentrate back on some personal endeavours.

I know I still need to set some boundaries and learn to say no to things, in the effort to avoid burnout - as its my dream job.  I will naturally work hard in my full-time work as I am passionate about what I do and personal and professional development.  But there's my own personal wellbeing, husband, cats, family and friends to balance too.  And I still want to develop my abilities to be some sort of spiritual enquirer, and look at integrating Movement Medicine into my lifestyle.  But allocate space and time to the other aspect of me; "...healing and developing and utilising my abilities in vulnerability, empathy and intuition..."  It will come when I am ready to quieten/narrow down and when I let my full-time job just be - but I want to enjoy that too.  Maybe the world will benefit more from my healing side...  We need more healers in the world, not leaders - there's too many of them and a lot potentially false.  To help minimise burnout, I have finally took the decision to step down from some volunteering opportunities such as the Early-career learning technologists group and the PebblePad learning technologists check-in group - that I was caretaking.  Including ending my formal external work in Further Education, through my final NCFE contracted pieces of work in March and May 2024.  And delivering a masterclass for Level 5 Digital Learning Designer apprentices in January 2024, along with reviewing Ann Gravells and Gavin Lumsden's technology chapter in their forthcoming book due Summer 2024, to support the new Diploma in Teaching (FE and Skills) qualification.  I've finally let go of doing those additional side things.  I am specialising in healthcare Higher Education after all and want to narrow down and share all of that widely.  I am in the role I have longed to be in, I can fully get my head down in it and in the context of healthcare HE.

I feel I am at a place of just enjoying being comfortable with everything around me, and being positively quiet.  A good place to be, but not be too complacent as change is always afoot.

Solo to team

I commenced my Digital Curriculum Manager role on 6 March 2023, then in late Spring I became a two-person team.  Enabling me to progress with my wider strategic work in our healthcare higher education digital curriculum.

Me - "Our Digital Curriculum Team is growing and I am looking to appoint a proactive and seasoned #learningtechnologist. It is an exciting time to join us, and you will have the opportunity to shape our approach to digital #healthcare #HigherEd. https://vacancies.ntu.ac.uk/Job/JobDetail?JobId=12316. Closes 8th May."

When I shared the vacancy for the first and second recruitment rounds.  It was really warming to receive such comments from the education community.

First round: 

• Lou Mycroft - "Anyone interested from #OER #FemEdTech circles? Dan is a brilliant person to work with!"
• Kayte Haselgrove - "You would get so much support and such a great experience working with Daniel Scott-Purdy. Check the job out if this is your thing"

Second round:

• Bridget Bircumshaw - "Job opportunity for a #LearningTechnologist based at Clifton Campus, Nottingham Trent University - I lived on Clifton Campus during my PGCE - fond memories. 😊"
• Amy Underwood - "An exciting opportunity to join the growing team at the Institute of Health and Allied professions and support our future NHS"

I successfully recruited to the post, Digital Curriculum Support and Developer, on the second round between July- August 2023.  However in the near future, through continued department and curriculum growth, I'll need to recruit for another full-time person.  Though I will be certainly be making use of our internship scheme again.  

Only recently have I been able to fully get hands on with my newish leadership and management role.  I maintained two jobs; part of my new one and still doing my previous one, until my new colleague was finally in place in October 2023.  Creating a team culture and dynamic, and establishing our team purpose and profile, while induction a new member is challenging to balance.  The recent course leader consultation will help progress things further, once outcomes are analysed and reported by my new colleague.  As there is a few activities linked to that, both in priming our team and future digital developments.  My vision is building up, but it will take time and I need to be patient with that.  As a two-person team, including Godson Uma.  Therefore I have produced the brief document below of our team purpose and responsibilities.  In the effort to help articulate and clarify to colleagues on what we do and who deals with what etc, as well as what we offer as individuals.  Encouraging staff to familiarise themselves with this and use in any staff inductions.

I received the following comments on the document.

• Anne Felton, Head of Department - "Thanks for producing this, I think it’ll be really helpful. It would be great to get it on Sharepoint as part of the induction too."
• Jo Rutt, Principal Lecturer - "Thank you for this - it outlines the roles well".

EDIT:  In November 2024 I produced the short video below 'So, what are the Digital Curriculum Team?', as part of my strategy and the first in a series, to profile the Digital Curriculum Team in all its guises.  Many of our academic staff haven't worked with learning technologists before or know how to work with them.  Despite knowing what we do.  How can they best engage with us as: innovators, mediators, translators, problem solvers, creators, curators and shapers.

As part of the team set up there have been other changes to support our dynamics, which I'll most likely share in future blog posts.  Below is one I produced to outline who attends what meetings, whilst illustrating the presence we have across the department.

I will update on the team development and activities, and reflect on the team development and my leadership and management in a future blog post.  But linking on from the latter, I attended the following on 5 September 2023.

ALT Annual Conference 2023

The first day keynote that I attended in-person, "Things cannot be made simple" delivered by Anne-Marie Scott.  Her emotive story that was underpinned by leadership was highly relevant.  It left me with lots of thoughts and inspiration on how I can develop and shape my leadership as I transition from solo to a small team.  Anne-Marie discusses what she thinks is the core of her leadership practice between 1:00:24-1:05:52.

I resonated and was inspired by a few of the following points:

• Lead by developing others - create conditions so that others can do their best work.
• Pick the priorities that move the needle - if there's limited means and resources where can we move the needle most.
• People will always hold you up for not prioritising the things they need the most.  Accept people will have strong opinions about your choices and decisions. Success it not about pleasing everybody.
• Gather up the work as a team, make lists, and enable teams to contribute to my lists.
• Make explicit links to peoples work to the bigger picture.
• Leave a bit of space for the unexpected.
• It's ok to have the answers, but enabling teams to connect with others internally and externally for them.
• Ensuring there is space to act in the uncertainty.

Lisa J. Scott on Twitter bulleted some key points:

"- thank colleagues
- celebrate wins
- build resilience
- embrace diversity
- teams of teams (matrix working)
- working together
- leadership as practice of care
- no need for heroes
- people are the real infrastructure of our universities"

Continued:

"- accept complexity
- nothing is pre-determined
- space to speak and be heard
- find visions for future
- imagine multiple futures
- reduce fear factor
- pick priorities
- where can we have most impact
- prioritise time to quantify impact
- adjacent possible
- small wins"

I also resonated with fellow ALT community member John Brindle, Learning Design Manager, when introducing myself to him.  He is relatively new to his role.  We both discussed our inclusive approaches in bringing people into our conversations.  Rather than going off and doing something and presenting this to people.  Creating a joined up collaborative approach.

EDIT:  In May 2024, a lecturer responded to an email I sent about developing further Makaton H5P Speak the Word content types.  Following the one I co-created with the lecturer for the International Nurses Day 2024.

Farai Pfende, Senior Lecturer in Learning Disabilities Nursing - "Thank you so much for your encouragement.  It is really lovely to have our own digital support team.  I hope to find time for some really good student stuff."

TILT® Virtual Reality and Immersive Learning practice and scholarship group

As I arrived in the department in August 2021, decisions were already made around the installation of our Virtual Reality (VR) walls.  I have little details to share on the earlier discussions on the new-build requirements.  But the headline reasons of having in-built VR walls were to enable students to access, experience and prepare for a variety of situations and scenarios, in a safe environment before dealing with them in the real-world.  However, I am new in working with such intensive suites.

Integration wasn’t really that impactful, hence why I adopted the kit upon my arrival.  I approach the digital curriculum integration through a scaffolded induction of the kit to enable positive adoption with academics, and student involvement.  Full details in my blog post 'Virtual Reality wall', and additional information about the VR suites in my presentation 'Enabling positive Virtual Reality and immersive learning adoption: a journey of integrating VR walls'.  My newer role is focused on the academic leadership of such technology in the healthcare context, and I will be making headway with immersive pedagogy.  Details of this in my blog post 'Exploring a pedagogical rationale for VR and immersive learning' and 'What is Immersive Learning and VR?'.  We don’t require headsets for such immersive experience, mostly non-interactive VR, but we have plans to purchase some for exploratory VR experiences.  This is centered around a pilot with Oxford Medical Simulations - details in 'Trialling VR scenarios in the curriculum'.

These VR suites are new to me, and many of our academics and technicians who have varying degrees of digital capabilities using learning technologies.  As well as keeping informed and updated on healthcare matters via lecturers, technicians and students that I work with on a daily basis, and the NHS and Higher Education England communications circulated by my Head.  Therefore, I need to develop and update my expertise in VR and immersive learning.  As well as looking to use this group to help scale up our VR and immersive experiences.  Moreover, I am not aware anyone in department has an active interest in such specialism, and the care of it, and I see this firmly sitting within my role to further our approaches.

I established a small informal bi-monthly VR and immersive learning working group in July 2022, replacing and repurposing an existing reoccurring catch up with a learning designer.  Later inviting a couple more learning designers from the central learning design team.  To co-collaborate on developing our understanding and practice in this area and to disseminate our outcomes with the wider university.  On 9th March 2023 I submitted a proposal to scope the possibility of converting this into a NTU Trent Institute for Learning and Teaching (TILT®) practice and scholarship group.  This was approved and I became the chair of it.  Enabling me to spearhead this specialism and utilising this space for members to develop their knowledge and practice.  EDIT:  In September 2024 I recruited a co-chair to collaborate, support and share the responsibility and workload to improve our collective input and outputs.  Utilising my previous co-chair experience of the TILT Flexible and Online Learning Group in 2020.  Another driving force in the creation of this group is that VR and immersive learning technical and scholarly practice is not well-supported at NTU.  By way of building community and support, it aims to;

"Virtual Reality (VR) (including Extended Reality (XR) and Immersive Learning is a growing specialist area across HE.  Therefore, this practice and scholarship special interest group aims to explore the potential, current practices and review related literature to develop expertise and support."  NTU TILT

I guess my 5 year aims of the group are to support this core aim.  We have a lot of technological equipment and facilities, but often with little or no support for end users to develop long-term plans.

Below is a poster I created to promote the group.

As I lead and progress this group, I hope to further refine our scholarship philosophy.

The group is particularly useful to those that design and/or support immersive learning.  The group contains 34 members, excluding TILT administrators/coordinators and chair.  The group first met on 7th September 2023.  It includes a diverse range of roles and this is proving to be a successful and valuable group.  Frequency and other roles are yet to be determined once group outputs are confirmed at the second meeting on 22nd November 2023.  Regarding active and passive members.  My stance is that some members may want to just be silent engagers e.g. passively keeping up to date with topics - we all do this and it is fine.  Active members should only matter depending on what outputs/projects are agreed, and who does what etc, of which might not be for everyone.

Role, department and school representation, again excluding TILT administrators/coordinators and chair, numbers denote individuals:

I'll update this blog post as the group develops through my leadership.

Meeting agenda and summary:

• Meeting 1 agenda, 7th September 2023
• Welcome and aims of the group
• Member introductions (your role, reasons for joining, VR and immersive learning experience, and/or any requirements/challenges from your department
• Review and discussion of Terms of reference
• Group logistics (format, frequency, contributing, Teams space etc), growing membership
• What would we like the focus of the group to be?  Discuss potential outputs
• Topics for future meetings and/or guest speakers and/or ideas for work for the group 
• Short presentations introducing the current VR and immersive learning landscape across the sector, and what's happening at NTU
• REALM – A VR project for the School of Social Sciences.  Bjorn Le Roux and David Roach, Flexible Learning Team, Nottingham Trent University
• Use of VR walls in the Institute of Health and Allied Professions.  Daniel Scott-Purdy, Institute of Health and Allied Professions, Nottingham Trent University
• Lot's of interest, energy, opportunities and potential group focus ideas and outputs were discussed - to be confirmed in the next meeting on 22nd November
• Katalin Butt-Bethlendy - "Thanks again for setting up the group - it is a such an exciting and promising field!"
• AOB as standard throughout all meetings
• Meeting 2 agenda, 22nd November 2023
• Pre-meeting preparation – review the group’s suggested outputs from meeting 1
• Group welcome
• Discuss and agree the suggested group output; development of a Thrive learning pathway
• Short presentations:
• David Jeckells, Learning & Teaching Technology Manager – widening access to creating H5P virtual tours (15 mins)
• Pamela Henderson, Senior Lecturer – sharing digital escape rooms idea (15 mins)
• Confirmed main output for this academic year to be the development of a Thrive learning pathway, and ways we can begin to flesh this out and divide roles
• Meeting 3 agenda, 25 January 2024
• Confirm the Thrive content pathway outline (circulated ahead of the meeting), and confirm role(s), contribution and required presence at sub-groups
• Meeting 4 agenda, 20 March 2024
• Member update on device management and streamlining some of the headset onboarding allowing single sign-on.
• Reviewed draft Thrive content pathway outline
• TILT VRIL presence at NTU TILT Annual Learning and Teaching Conference
• Member question - a session to focus on practically developing and incorporating VR in the classroom  and assessment activities too
• Meeting 5 agenda, 20 June 2024
• Review Thrive content pathway outline and decide next steps
• Pre-meeting task – review the Thrive learning pathway content
• Identified gaps: Availability of technology, Technical set up requirements and Practical ideas solutions.  Need to decide whether to fill or postpone to a later date.
• Take stock, evaluate and look ahead for next year
• Meeting 6 agenda, 20 November 2024
• TBC

EDIT:

In November 2023:

Me - "Hello Edward, Sharon and Jane, [University Executive Team]

 

I attended your live VC Q&A on 21 November 2023.  Towards the end, you answered an audience question regarding NTU’s unique selling point.  You had a brief discussion about immersive technology at your recent away day; what have NTU got that we could make more of etc, and what we could do as a university in this space to showcase etc.

 

I’d like to take the opportunity to make you aware of the brand-new TILT Virtual Reality and Immersive Learning practice and scholarship group – we first met in September.  I established and chair this group by way of building community to address the lack of support available.  It aims to explore the potential, current practices and review related literature to develop expertise and support.

 

As you continue to explore our immersive technology offer, this group can help you find out what is available and what great work is being done across NTU.  As the chair of the group, I’d be happy to take and coordinate any questions and collect other information as required."

Jane McNeil, Pro Vice-Chancellor - "Thank you for reaching out and for taking the initiative to set up a TILT group.  This is exactly what we hope TILT will achieve - supporting colleagues like you to create opportunities for exploration and innovation.  It’s great news that you are leading this.  I’d be very interested to hear about the work.  Shall we meet up to discuss?"

Me - "Thank you Jane, yes that would be great.  The group is very much in its early development stages having met twice now, but has clear outputs.  Let me know your availability and we can discuss in further detail."

Michael Greenwell, Senior Lecturer – "Thanks Dan, appreciate your time and work."

Shishir Malde, Principal Lecturer - "...I do think what you are leading is immense, and I wish you continued success."

Achieving SFHEA and SCMALT

Me - "Doubly proud of being awarded Advance HE #SFHEA & Association for Learning Technology #SCMALT! I've been well overdue in claiming them. They are awarded when individuals clearly demonstrate a sustained successful record of leading and/or influencing impactful #HigherEd academic practice & #edtech."  And on Twitter.

I've rightly and proudly obtained two hallmark accreditations, and in this blog post I talk a bit about working towards and achieving them.

I have been doing this level of work and behaviours for years now, but to be professionally recognised for my expertise and practice to such high standards is overwhelmingly great!  Upon completing this journey I feel a strong sense of validation and credibility.  I'm also left feeling with a greater appreciation for Higher Education (HE), critical thinking, reflection and professional perspectives.  A deep thank you to those that have supported and contributed to these achievements.  It's clear from both pieces of submission feedback that I undersell the impact I am truly making, and often evidence what I have done rather than the impact on others - though this is very apparent.  Whether that be because I am highly shy and modest, unsure how to articulate it clearly or not fully realise the impact.  This was a great piece of learning during my application.

I believe that if you are doing the work and not in the assumed designated role I.e. in a senior or managerial role, but can provide required and adequate evidence.  Why not make an application?  The accreditations are there to be claimed.  I carried out senior-level work and behaviours for many years before I got my first officially senior-titled role, and I qualified in management and leadership well before this.  More on the origins in my blog post 'Dared to lead'.

EDIT:  Later in September 2023, in my workplace I have already experienced and observed the increased sense of credibility and value these accolades have bestowed me.  Academics have somewhat changed their perspective of me from just being the 'tech support'.  As some are familiar with SFHEA (and maybe SCMALT) and what they entail, which as developed a more respectful view of me and my role.  However, this was another reason for me to achieve this fellowship, to increase trust and credibility with my academic peers, not because there is issues, but not be pigeon-holed as technical support and highlight my pedagogical value.

Kevin Somerton, Senior Lecturer – “Working with Dan in his role, he was introduced as "the IT guy" and I initially used his experience when I started at NTU to sort out small IT issues and help get up to speed.  However I found out that he was more than that when talking about digital technology and pedagogy; he has expertise in how technology is used in developing and promoting learning.”

I made re-submissions for both, and I am not ashamed of them.  It shouldn't be like a driving test where society shames you if you didn't pass first time.  I expected mine to bounce back, especially as I didn't get a critical friend or mentor on them.  I decided to just press on with it, and in my own pragmatic style, and that is authentic to my working class attitude.  Intentionally avoiding overusing academic language as it's easy to fall in the trap of just shaping a conversation how you want with little conviction of the actual 'doing the work'.  I did attend an introductory session and then begun to write around the self-service guidance that was supplied.  But I was looking for assessor feedback to help me dive deeper where needed.  After all, achieving these is a learning process and revisiting pieces of work to critically reflect and analyse upon, not just about the celebration.  I explain below in each accreditation why that was so.  I think most of us know why we are doing our work and impact it is having.  But have to go through such processes and standards to articulate and evidence it in a certain way.  Like many of these things, it's an experience and journey itself reflecting and curating all of what has been achieved, and putting into a particular required format.  I often find it difficulty to articulate myself in pre-defined conditions.  Hence why I use my blog as a reflective and pragmatic space.

The case studies and evidence I selected were not submitted as a greatest hits, but just focused on what evidence I have at this current time.  I actually think this is a good time to obtain these accreditations in my career, as I have a lot of work and experience to support them.  I feel like they are a proper award to truly celebrate my work and career, not just one-off pieces of work or projects.  Despite achieving SCMALT just before SFHEA, I place the Fellowship before the ALT credentials due to SFHEA representing the sector I am employed in, and my position on learning and pedagogy before technology, even though SCMALT is grounded in pedagogy.

Senior Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy (SFHEA) - awarded on 4 September 2023

Senior Fellowship recognises and celebrates individuals who clearly demonstrate a sustained successful record leading and/or influencing academic practice in higher education learning and teaching.

I've not pursued any HEA accreditations before, so this is my first.  An important milestone as I am soon to cross the point of being in HE longer than FE.  I think  had an initial talk with our internal accreditation lead in 2018, but put it on hold.  I started some brief work in Summer 2019, however despite all the enthusiasm I hold, I didn't have the capacity at the time to focus on it.  I was interested but the timing wasn't right.  I picked it up again in Summer 2020 and started to re-form my case study ideas.  But it wasn't till end of 2022 where I got serious in writing it up, and made an official start on it in January 2023 for submission following month.  I used my SCMALT submission as a foundation and improved it.  It bounced back twice with minor amendments, first in February.  I wanted to submit in the two-week re-submission window but I thought it was best to concentrate on quality, so re-submitted for June deadline.  Then I ended up re-submitting again (clarity issues on feedback) for the August deadline.

I selected the positive comments from assessors below by way of appreciating my identified strengths:

"There is extensive and outstanding evidence that the applicant is a leader in adoption of technology for learning, and has wide reaching influence across staff in the institution.  Their impact is likely huge..."

"Evidence of CPD is exemplary, with the applicant providing sustained evidence of putting themselves out there.  They really do the work and get their hands dirty in working to improve adoption of digital technologies."

"...it is evident from the submission and advocate statements that the applicant has led on certain aspects of learning and teaching across NTU."

"Clearly active in writing about education, and a wealth of subject and pedagogic research and scholarship..."

"Outstanding example of active participation in CPD and scholarship."

"... I feel you are initiating lots of very good practice..."

"You clearly know your subject material and your K4 is very strong."

"This is a really interesting case study that demonstrates your enthusiasm for supporting teaching and learning."

Below are the case studies I write about, hyperlinking to blog posts that detail the work I refer to:

• Case Study 1:  Influencing the university-wide implementation of H5P
• Case Study 2:  Leading and supporting the deployment of the VR immersive walls 
• Case Study 3:  Influencing curriculum redesign and change of pedagogic approach through online asynchronous learning design (incl. recruitment, line management and mentoring of university interns)
• Case Study 4:  Leading the continuous improvement and quality of our digital curriculum (incl. Learning technology manager - a celebration)

I worked and evidence to the following, though up to date standards can be found here.

• Areas of activity
• A1 Design and plan learning activities and/or programmes of study
• A2 Teach and/or support learning
• A3 Assess and give feedback to learners
• A4 Develop effective learning environments and approaches to student support and guidance 
• A5 Engage in continuing professional development in subject/disciplines and their pedagogy, incorporating research, scholarship and the evaluation of professional practices
• Core knowledge
• K1 The subject material 
• K2 Appropriate methods for teaching, learning and assessing in the subject area in the subject area and at the level of the academic programme 
• K3 How students learn, both generally and within their subject/disciplinary area(s) 
• K4 The use and value of appropriate learning techniques  
• K5 Methods for evaluating the effectiveness of teaching  
• K6 The implications of quality assurance and quality enhancement for academic and professional practice with a particular focus on teaching
• Professional Values
• V1 Respect individual learners and diverse learning communities
• V2 Promote participation in higher education and equality of opportunity for learners
• V3 Use evidence-informed approaches and the outcomes from research, scholarship and continuing professional development
• V4 Acknowledge the wider context in which higher education operates, recognising the implications for professional practice
• Descriptor 3
• D3.1 Successful engagement across all five Areas of Activity (A1-A5)
• D3.2 Appropriate knowledge and understanding across all 6 aspects of Core Knowledge (K1-K6) as defined in the UKPSF
• D3.3 A commitment to all 4 Professional Values (V1-V4) as defined in the UKPSF
• D3.4 Successful engagement in teaching and/or learning support practices related to all 5 Areas of Activity (A1-A5) as defined in the UKPSF
• D3.5 Successful incorporation of subject and pedagogic research and/or scholarship to inform the above activities, as part of an integrated approach to academic practice.
• D3.6 Successful engagement in continuing professional development in relation to teaching, learning, assessment, scholarship and, as appropriate, related academic or professional practices
• D3.7 Successful coordination, support, supervision, management and/or mentoring of others (whether individuals and/or teams) in relation to teaching and learning

Additionally, I had to have two advocate statements to support my application.  Below are what my Head of Department and a Principal Lecturer wrote.

Dr Anne Felton, Head of Department:

Andrew Kirke, Principal Lecturer in paramedicine:

Senior Certified Membership of Association for Learning Technology (SCMALT) - awarded on 15 August 2023

Senior CMALT is peer-assessed and recognises and celebrates individuals with more than three years’ experience in a learning technology-focused role, and have management, leadership or strategic responsibilities or equivalent level of impact.

Association for Learning Technology is my professional body - I talk more about them in my previous blog posts.  My current membership status can be viewed on ALT's CMALT Holders List.

I first gained the typical CMALT accreditation in April 2013.  Originally planned to do this back in 2020 as part of my membership renewal (it expired that May) - I talk more about this in my blog post 'Preparing for SCMALT'.  However I changed tact on specialist and advanced areas due to changing in the meantime.  I then postponed it due to priorities around the pandemic, and then I pursued to achieve my Chartered Management Institute (CMI) Level 5 Diploma in Management and Leadership qualification.  Then further delayed in 2021 due to me writing my book, new job, life, and other external work stuff.  So I put it on hold for sometime until Summer of 2022 when I officially started work on a brand new portfolio - it was much easier to start afresh than build on a portfolio that was based in further education and updated in the private sector.

I named a particular assessor that I knew would be critical and hold me accountable as a learning technologist.  And they did just that, so huge thanks to them (if I got that person - marked anonymously) for their assessment and words.  Lots of reminders in there about going deeper with my impact - silence my modesty and shout it out!  Although I did feel somewhat like I failed due not being as deep about impact, but that doesn't mean I am not doing impactful things.

I expected it to come back as a major referral 1) September 2022 was my last chance of submitting for SCMALT after registering in 2020.  2)  I productively worked on this in quick succession due to my upcoming wedding that October.  Therefore some quality aspects would have been overlooked.  But I wanted to clear this off 'my table' and be reassured that it is in the system.  So I submitted start of August for submission end of September.  Having the opportunity to re-submit allowed me to update it with new and stronger evidence, and the writing I did for SFHEA, as well as general refining this following the thorough feedback.  Plus lots of work and practice has happened since then too, including my promotion as a Digital Curriculum Manager, so this allowed me to include that detail and impact.

I wasn't interested in aiming for the distinction that is available, especially as it is not a weighted grading system and acknowledged on the paper certificate counterpart.  So I felt it wasn't worth me slogging myself to death over, even though I know I am capable of it.  SFHEA doesn't have this grading, and it doesn't seem to have two assessor reviews.

I couldn't stop writing on this submission, give it was the first accreditation I started on.  I feel this one is a bit messy, but it started out messy so I had to be consistent with that I guess.  And the role itself is messy as some will come to know - so it's a reflection of that chaos, and that I write too much to the point its hard to omit anything.  I don't encourage it, but sometimes this happens and people are like that.  This is why processes and standards like this exist, not just to get the award but the feedback to better articulate our work, expertise, achievements and impact.  Therefore I had to let the 'perfect submission layout' go.  I wrote that much that ALT added a checklist confirmation word limit of 20,000.  Glad to see I inspired change amongst the chaos. 🤭  Achieving SCMALT specifically feels good to be part of a professional body again, having my previous CMALT expire.

Again , I have selected the positive comments from assessors below by way of appreciating my identified strengths:

"This portfolio comes from an interesting and relatively unique academic context, and contains many good examples of practice and broad experience of different learning technologies."

"...some interesting points are made about learning alongside users..."

"The reflection is this section is particularly honest and thoughtful..."

"Two strong examples of disseminating practice and working with colleagues and peers are given in section 4."

"The use of the virtual whiteboard is a particularly good example of use of technology."

"This section is particularly well-researched and your pedagogical approach to VR and Immersive Learning is well supported.  You have developed a strong approach for converting academics ideas into immersive experiences using the technology."

"You describe your ambition and goals for your current role well in this section, and are clearly passionate about your role and focussed on what you can contribute in future.  You have articulated well the impact you hope to make at your institution and wider..."

"Thank you for your portfolio submission. It was clearly presented and easy to follow."

"2b. A good example of drawing conclusions from student survey and consideration of what to do next."

"4a. Well evidenced and reflected on your specific approach and shows how you bring others along with you."

"Section 1a covers an interesting topic, and the critical evaluation of H5P clearly show how you compared and contrasted the constraints and benefits of H5P and its alternatives to meet the needs of users, as aligned to a number of pedagogical theories."

"Section 1c. You make some interesting points in your reflection on learning alongside users, and the unique insight this has given you in developing supporting resources. [Evidence] is provided in the form of a blog post, which does include further detail of the training plan, and a competencies mapping document. In particular, the SFHEA advocate statements are particularly strong evidence of your impact."

"In Section 2a.  It is interesting to read about the CPD you are engaging with to developed your pedagogical skills. A strong example is given of the impact of your work on the practices of your colleagues."

"Section 2b.  Reflection on the clarity of questions in the questionnaire is good, with some interesting points made on the confidence levels of students in different disciplines. Some interesting next steps are discussed, and it is good to see a commitment to making consultation with learners a regular occurrence."

"Your approach is well-researched, and you describe how you apply specific pedagogical approaches to asynchronous learning design, such as Laurillard’s practice learning type, and Gilly Salmon’s E-tivity invitation. along with flipped learning and internal frameworks. This demonstrates your commitment to exploring and understanding the interplay between technology and learning...The mentoring provided to the graduate intern demonstrates your ability to adapt your approach in response to learner needs. The virtual placements project is a particularly strong example of your evaluative process, and your planning and development skills. The workshop again provides strong evidence of your empathy and willingness to learn from colleagues from different backgrounds and specialist areas."

"The learning process you have undertaken to become a leader in this area is particularly well-documented, and very interesting to read. This section is particularly well-researched and your pedagogical approach to VR and Immersive Learning is well supported. You have developed a strong approach for converting academics ideas into immersive experiences using the technology."

"Your operations plan, as you reflect, contains a lot of content, and your plan for a self-away day or deeper discussion with your head to identify realistic priorities is a particularly good one."

"You describe your ambition and goals for your current role well in this section, and are clearly passionate about your role and focussed on what you can contribute in future."

I worked and evidenced to the following structure and criteria, up to date standards can be found here.  I successfully achieved Senior CMALT accreditation by:

• Demonstrating and reflecting on my knowledge and experience in the following four Core areas and subsections;
• Demonstrating and reflecting on my knowledge in two Specialist areas;
• Demonstrating and reflecting on my knowledge in one Advanced area.

And throughout my portfolio, I:

• Demonstrated my commitment to the core principles and values which underlie CMALT;
• Demonstrated and reflected on the impact of my work, and showed that I am providing leadership and influencing others, within your particular context

Whilst addressing the four core CMALT principles and values:

1. A commitment to exploring and understanding the interplay between technology and learning
2. A commitment to keep up to date with new technologies
3. An empathy with and willingness to learn from colleagues from different backgrounds and specialist areas
4. A commitment to communicate and disseminate effective practice

My portfolio consisted of the following, again I have hyperlinked to blog posts that detail the work I referred to:

• Contextual statement
• 1: Operational Issues
• 1a: An understanding of the constraints and benefits of different technology
• H5P
• 1b: Technical knowledge and ability in the use of Learning Technology
• Digital curriculum technologies
• 1c: Supporting the deployment of learning technologies
• VR immersive wall
• 2: Learning, Teaching and Assessment processes
• 2a: An understanding of teaching, learning and/or assessment processes
• Learning, teaching and assessment expertise
• 2b: An understanding of your target learners
• Digital curriculum questionnaire
• 3: The Wider Context Understanding and engaging with legislation, policies and standards
• 3a: Understanding and engaging with legislation
• H5P content type accessibility
• 3b: Understanding and engaging with policies and standards
• Aligning Quality Matters standards rubric to online content
• 4: Communication and working with others
• 4a: Communication and working with others
• Establishing a digital development group
• Certified DigiLearn Sector Community Membership
• 5: Specialist areas
• 5a: Specialist area 1:
• Online asynchronous learning design
• 5b: Specialist area 2:
• VR and immersive learning
• 6: Advanced area(s) One or more Advanced areas:
• Advanced area: Digital leadership and management in the effective application of learning technology EDIT: I have since realised it should be; Digital and academic leadership and operational management, in the pedagogical and technical design and application of learning technologies, to create and support effective and innovative digital learning experiences in healthcare higher education.  But strategy should also have presence somehow.
• Future plans

Now, take some of my own advice.  In response to Stephen Taylor when he asked me "So now I'm a cmalt what do I do with it? Lol".

Me "Well from an achievement angle, parade it everywhere on your CV and post-nominals, external profiles, internally on email signatures etc.  It's an accreditation like AdvanceHE and if you look to progress internally and externally, it will serve you well.  You could publicise your portfolio or repurpose it's material.  You should now be on the public list of members who have membership.  Do you have access to ALT-MEMBERS Jiscmail list?"

I've a clear plan to achieve the coveted Principal Fellowship, naturally given my strategic role and abilities.  However, there is no rush and it would be great to take a slower pace on such application and to allow a deeper and more thoughtful analysis of my work and achievements.  But do I have the courage to say no and say this is enough?  As you can go forever and a day getting accreditations, and there are plenty of accreditations available!  But for now, it's important that I now take the time to take in and celebrate these two new milestones.

EDIT:

Anne Felton - "That's brilliant news Dan!  Congratulations!!  I'm so pleased."

Anne Felton - "Just to join last weeks fellowship good news I want to congratulate Dan Scott-Purdy on achieving both his Senior Fellow with Advance HE and the Senior Certified Membership of the Association for Learning Technology (SCMALT).  These are fantastic achievements which reflect Dan’s impact on digital education.  Well done Dan!"

Arwa Abdelrahman - "Congratulations 🎉"

David Hopkins - "Wow, what an achievement.  Congratulations!"

Rachel Challen - "Top job!  Well deserved and congratulations!"

Daniel McKevitt - "Congratulations Daniel brilliant 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👍🏼😀"

Roy Scott - "Well done son"

Colette Fuller - "Fantastic! Well done Dan!! 🙌"

Chris Pritchard - "Well deserved dan 😊"

Isabel Turnbull - "Congratulations on your Senior Fellowship and the membership. 🙂"

Amy Underwood - "Congratulations!!"

Carl Webster - "Great job Dan! Well done"

Carl Webster- "...I had a look at the technology one and you've done great to get that as well as the SFHEA"

Jan Royal-Fearn - "Congratulations on the SFHEA and SCMALT – lots of work behind both of those achievements.  Well done."

Sarah Deacon - "Congratulations Dan!!"

Kelly Stewart - "Yeah! Well done you x"

Sophie Waters - "Amazing Dan well done!"

Anna Price - "Congrats Dan, well done!"

Jayne Brown - "Hi Dan, I just wanted to add my congratulations to that of Anne and others on your recent achievements.  You are really demonstrating your sills and abilities, there is no doubt you will go far.  If you ever want to talk careers or research you know where I am.  Well done you!"

Jo Brown - "Sorry forgot to say a massive congratulations on your achievements."

10 years of blogging

10 years to the day that I published my first blog post on this blog site.  How I and this blog material have evolved is very significant.  232 blog posts (including this one), with overall viewership at 136,225 (at time of writing) across the site.  EDIT:  July 2024 175,199.  Though the stats don't motivate the content on my blog but good to know.  Thank you to the readers that keep returning and following my journey.

Me - "Originally following a 'call' in mid-2013 to trust the process of expressing not impressing."

A surprise hobby it turned out to be, which brought me so much clarity, opportunities and personal and professional impact.  This blog site evolved into an online space to reflect and discuss my work and life.  To the left is what I defined as it's purpose.  Further details on my rationale, writing approach and other open journaling benefits of my blog are in the blog post 'Why openness is good', 'How to create an authentic blog' and 'Voice'.  But here's an extract that captures a bit of this; "My blog is largely for personal expression so I can look back on my journey - journaling mainly about me, for me, with some intended for other audiences blog post.  As well as "...writing/typing to think, rather than think to write/type."  My writing style is usually anecdotal, descriptive and reflects my accessible, pragmatic and simplified nature.  It is part of my reflective process; digesting, consolidating and forming new directions and focus points.  The process of writing blog posts allows me to gather my thoughts, freshest thinking, think things through and make sense of the mess that is my note taking.  Which is a reflection of my mind - lots of thoughts and ideas that need to be joined up.  In most writings the process is more important than the outcome of the blog posts.  And I rarely revisit my blog posts, unless the need calls.  I keep things as real and authentic as possible - recording and journaling thoughts, feelings and outputs in the moment which adds further richness, rather than jut relying on-post reflection.  If I have experienced something and has made me think, I just write on what happened etc."

Some blog posts can be academic, which some are, especially in the Career development category.  But I am more confident when creating and expressing through my own unique reflective, pragmatic and accessible way.  I've talked about some very deep and extremely personal things in here, Personal development category, that contain lots of heartfelt learning and wisdom, and not always from positive experiences.  As in sync with my personality, I am open and honest person.  When I write here, I am often at peace and self-alignment - something that generative Artificial Intelligence cannot replace.  Often with a sense of joy when producing something of purpose work-related or leisure, usually digital, whether that be creative writing, a presentation, document or video.  In fact that is a way of engaging me through a purposeful output that can be used.  The cathartic reflective writing process allows me to be with myself.  With hope that it may help or inspire others as a result of my learning.  Some blog posts are external facing, but as I say this is predominantly for my own expression to look on my personal and emotional growth and impact and self-confidence.  Because oh boy do we need it in these modern workplaces!  Not many will praise you, so you have to acknowledge and praise yourself.

Me - "I really have found a way that works for me.  And I do feel a sense of personal success with how I use my blog.  Perhaps a reason is that I don't treat it as a service for others..."

Not many in my professional and perhaps personal networks know that I have this blog. Even though it is in the public domain, I don't particularly make the effort to share the content publicly.  For a number of reasons, namely fear of attention and the anxiety of people's responses.  Even though I have never and won't enabled comments on any of my blog posts.  I used to share my blog posts on my social media platforms but not as much as I used to, I think this d**kish experience and not wanting to 'join the noise' made me less motivated.  As I state on my blog "I write about me, for me, and my own authentic expression, articulation and development." I have pondered over this for a while, on whether I should or shouldn't but again as I state on my blog " However, people that have an interest in others' personal journeys and the learning technology specialism, may find the content helpful." Therefore, I probably should start to share some blog posts, in no particular order and frequency, as and when I feel comfortable to do so.  I feel my reflective material is worthy of being widely known, but that may come with unwanted criticism which is what I don't want.  If I do start to share my blog posts more widely, and whilst I welcome positive and debate-type responses, I will unapologetically call people out for actual trolling (provoking negativity), and will maintain my space and energy.  But generally I'm not looking for attention on them, but I do share links to blog posts as and when relevant in in-person and online conversations.

Using a medium like this also allowed me to make my personal and professional journey more visible.  The ability to view the journey I have taken from back then to now.  Outside looking in it could be viewed that I had what I have now at the start.  But that couldn't be further from the truth.  Hard work, facing the ugly, uncomfortable conflicts, pushing myself outside my comfort zone, asking, fighting, resisting, all led to this.  My working class attitude in me lives on.

I've definitely learnt a lot more about who I am, and developing my professionalism, through journaling and reflecting honestly and most often positively, about my positive and negative experiences, vulnerabilities and anxieties.  Below I summarise the top pieces of learning acquired through my 10 years of blogging, in no particular order.

1. The often I write reflectively the better the quality and clarity of my focus, articulation, thinking and memory.  Improving my perception of situations and vocabulary in the process.
2. The deeper I dive into myself through my writing the more I learn about myself and increase my self-awareness.
3. I can articulate myself better non-verbally than I can verbally - hence being a better writer!  I am more comfortable championing myself in writing than saying it verbally to others.
4. I am a slow learner.
5. I like to talk about what I am doing/have done/have learned/what should and shouldn't have happened - useful for if I forget and helps when providing anecdotal evidence.
6. Readers, personal or professional related, can get a deeper perspective of events and situations that I might not have had the opportunity to express at the time.
7. I am a master of democratising my learning and expertise; through sharing my learning and outputs/outcomes.
8. Develops my skills and provides a base for my reflective practice and scholarship.
9. Ongoing writing and reflection provides evidence for future professional accreditations and qualifications.
10. I can repurpose my writing and thought power into other outputs.
11. My writing is becoming more mature as I grow older.
12. I am slow at processing complex verbal information, therefore I note take a lot which often ends up in blog posts here.
13. I like to be liked and get things right, but I realise neither can always be possible.  However I notice that this can affect my energy and performance, in the moment or throughout the day.
14. I naturally use workplace opportunities, for example questionnaires/interviews, meetings (group and one-to-ones) and panel interviews, as learning opportunities to develop knowledge and observe language and practice.  As well as expressing and disseminating my own expertise, as a vehicle to develop my own knowledge and identify gaps. 
15. I am a proud and open introvert, that in certain situations (and whom with) adapts to being extrovert.
16. I visibly realise my strengths, weaknesses and successes and embrace each of them.
17. I am more intelligent, influential and powerful than I perceived I am.
18. I am inspirational and influential to others.
19. Inspiration for writing is always on constant supply - there is always something to write about, hence at least one blog post a month.
20. My style of writing invokes deep reflection on others.  However, some may find it uncomfortable when prompted to reflect, as it requires to look inwards which might lead to recalling positive or negative actions and decisions and having to acknowledge that.

What working class means to me

For my pre-37th birthday celebrations me, Gary and two friends, Martin and Stu went to Revolución de Cuba for an alcoholic afternoon tea.  We some how ended up on the topic and conversation of what working class means (to much passionate debate!) - related to what Stu may be covering as part of his research for his PhD.  As this topic resonates deeply with me; strongly present in my upbringing and life, which is reflected in this blog site and specifically in blog posts such as 'Growth - from roots to shoots' and 'You can't take the Tarn...'.  I wanted to capture my fresh overall response as it came out, in a sketchy 'thought note', to maybe explore further at a later date.

For a bit of context, I was born and raised in Barnsley, South Yorkshire - an ex-mining community town, and I am currently living in one now.  Despite the negative criticism Barnsley and similar places may receive, I am extremely proud and protective of where I came from, live and the accent I have, and endeavour to maintain this part of me.  It's not something I view as in the past, but very much my present and future - as I educate stereotypes and champion others from similar journeys to me.

I naturally define myself as working class and started out as non-academic.  I started my education journey very poorly being placed in a special needs cohort and left school with only a D, E and F in GCSEs.  Therefore educationally written-off.  I am the first family entrant to study and work at a university.  Without any research on the definitions of working class, which I haven't upon writing this to avoid any influence.  I want to anecdotally capture some responses of what I think working class means, to me personally - purely based on my experience and feelings of it.

I think working class means the true graft and labour, getting your hands dirty being on the frontline - at the coalface and fighting through poverty, in towns and communities that don't have the same funding opportunities as others and are often run down.  Proper working class material.  Not hiding behind the scenes and shying away from such work and effort required to reach the shared outcome.  But there is a clear cut difference from academic, non-academic and working class.  I find many academics and non-academics, often from rich backgrounds (upper class), claim they are working class.  I also get the sense, especially through media, that it is becoming a buzz/marketing word for some people and often used as a pseudo context or masquerading themselves as something they are not truly.  Well yes we all 'do' things and some of us have jobs, but that to me gives no right to say they are working class.  For me personally in my experience, you need to be culturally brought up in a true working class background, not just be declared working and come from a rich background - that to me is not working class. 

Me - "Many have been given it on a plate and don't value the educational opportunities available and subsequent accomplishments.  I had to ask, fight and push myself hard to be where I am now."

Working class often had to work physically hard and longer hours to make ends meet (survive!).  Yes I am thinking of older roles such as working in shops, factories, mines, nursing/caring etc.  But this comes from my true industrial upbringing; my father, grandads and other family members worked in mines, and on my mother's side healthcare, administration\and factories.  Which leads me to think that working class is also biological (muscle memory/trauma-related), in the sense that it is hereditary, passed down through genetics.  Laced in my DNA and engrained in my own personality and character, whether I want to use it or not, it is there.  Therefore it can also be a mindset (attitude/relationship/value) and serve as a motivation, like the ol' mucking in whenever, wherever and whoever with type of thing to achieve the desired/shared outcome - doing a genuinely good job and completing satisfactorily/high standards.  Or if there is a job to be done, let's show willing and get up, show and up and get on with it.  If there are representational songs, Stan Bush's The Touch and Dare are the ones that depict my drive.  From this attitude, I have a strong instinct to provide security and financial stability. Both when I was single and living alone to being married.  I also possess a strong proving element (the northerners are stupid generalisation) around my own education, and upskilling, which is what this blog site is founded on; the self-directed education and career I have forged from my poor educational start, which was accelerated from doing an apprenticeship.  I wonder what the long-term impact of degree apprenticeships will have on classes?  Another top working class trait includes being frugal with money!  Drawing on my own personal survival aspects.  There were times when I lived on my own in my two bedroom mid terrace house.  I really had to be frugal with my finances.  Which I had already had a good mindset for managing.  But there were those miracles from my mum and great grandma that gave me money when I counted on it in those months low on money.  I didn't ask as I don't like asking for money, they gave it every so often out of love.  Which admittedly I used to refuse sometimes due to my own sense of pride.

Conversely, Gary has a similar upbringing and has that legacy in his family.  And his full-time job is a hairdresser.  However, whilst he understands the principle above, he doesn't share the same connection and motivation for what working class is.  So this could mean that yes he has working class in his blood, but doesn't choose to engage with the mindset and use it for motivational purposes.  Which makes me realise that being working class is why I am passionate about my education (lifelong learning) and career and continually wanting to better myself. It has been the fuel and backbone to my work/professional efforts all this time, and how I have now arrived at this point of all my achievements and successes. I could be labelled as a work-a-acholic, which most likely derives from my earlier goal of wanting to make something of myself, not to become superior.  However, as I have been reflecting on recently; I am wrestling with the thought of setting boundaries and learning to say no work-related things.  To avoid burnout and give space for other personal interests and developments to flourish.  Which gives me a sense of relief that I can just be, and have any nagging goals and chasing capitalistic tendencies.  I need to remember that I am rich with my life and experience - it's not always about financial and ego status.

To conclude, working class to me in three words is hereditary, mindset and motivation.  And that working class is a deeply complex topic and means different things to people.  Depending on they were brought up and how well they resonate and apply the term.  However, as I further reflect it is also about cultural upbringings, worked/working to survive and lived experience of it.

The more I reflect on my journey the more important it is becoming in this space.  The more personal and workplace adversity I experience the more I will channel it positively as an advocate.  I think a main big reason for achieving Principal Fellowship is to prove that proper working class individuals like me can achieve such things.  I want to obtain and use it as a torch to support others like me, especially true working class individuals.

I was born and raised working class.  Yes I now work at a university.  But I know my roots and nature are still working class.  I know this as I still speak with my local twang, slightly adapted so others can understand me.  And my work ethic and proactive graft is still strong.  Whilst in my profession I am academic, I still somewhat don't see myself fully academic I.e. I still focus on and prioritise the doing and done (outcomes), not the analysis, evidence and impact.  Plus I am not preachy and snobby about what I do.  Coming from the bottom as it were and have been raised in working class and continue to live in working class.  Therefore, I am glad I see through upper class tendencies and language.  Keeps me true to myself and will always champion the working class.

When I started working at university and moved to north Nottinghamshire, it was a big transformation for me.  In terms of both workplace and geographical environment.  Everything was new and different, and that can be quite stressful.  Despite my new home in a place similar to an ex-mining community like Barnsley.  The travel to and from work and the way I communicate with others.  I now feel more settled, but the adversity of my working class roots is still a challenge I am wrestling with.  Maintaining me but embracing growth at same time and managing the distance it might create between family.

EDIT:  Later in August 2023, I reflected on a session that was part of the Trent Institute for Learning and Teaching (TILT) Annual Learning and Teaching Conference (ALTC), which occurred earlier in the Summer.  I didn't attend this particular session, but obtained the presentation later on.  One of the slides included the text "Motivation is a product of good teaching.  Not a prerequisite."  On the topic of this blog post, this stuck out to me quite strongly, as in my experience this wasn't the case at all.  I didn't have a good teacher that taught me motivation.  My motivation is in-built as I explain above.  Yes sure feedback and praise on my strengths will have helped, but by no means did I have a stand out teacher that really nurtured me.  Which reminds me of what I said back in 2020:

Me - "I've not had an inspirational teacher (within a course/programme) - not that there isn't any, I've just not had that fortunate experience like so many have really."

On Friday 25th August.  As I said to my current intern in one of our Friday catch ups, on the topic of career development.  Because of my own career journey, I'll always be passionate and encouraging of others developing their careers.

EDIT:  In September 2023, related to this topic, in my blog post 'Achieving SFHEA and SCMALT', said; "I decided to just press on with it, and in my own pragmatic style, and that is authentic to my working class attitude.  Intentionally avoiding overusing academic language as it's easy to fall in the trap of just shaping a conversation how you want with little conviction of the actual 'doing the work'."

EDIT:  In December 2023, I wrote the following in my blog post 'Triggered values'.

"Yes I wanted to make something of myself and have a good salary, as I mentioned in my blog post 'What working class means to me'.  I am guided by the principle that as long as you can do what you like to do in life, it doesn't matter how much you get.  Complemented by other sayings that, 'it doesn't matter how much you earn, but how much you spend' and 'we all come to this earth plane with nothing, and we leave with nothing, and then at some point we must learn the act of letting go'.  But I know my spiritual boundaries and know being consumed by richness is something I am not and will not be driven by.  And because of my working class back ground I have a strong instinct to provide security and financial stability.  Both when I was single and living alone to being married.  Which links to my personal saying by not living beyond my means.  It's ok to change your lifestyle after getting a promotion, but it worked excellently for me (so far) by not jumping on that bandwagon; no upsizing to downsize later etc.  And enjoyed work progression in mean time.  That's what my aim is and was, natural progression with no desire to get straight to the pseudo pinnacle.  Like Gary said, I can be successful and still be working class.  In personal life I haven't changed the way I live.  I'm still the original Barnsley me at the core."

EDIT:  In August 2024 I came across this related article that has resonating parts; 'A moment that changed me: I quit my PhD – and left my severe impostor syndrome behind' by Wendy Pratt, with the synopsis; "Two years into a seven-year degree, I walked away.  Now I no longer feel the need to deny my working-class background or change my accent to fit in."

I also came across Joe Wick's speech on accepting his Honorary Doctorate from St Mary’s University in 2022.  During the first half of his speech he was tackling some real deep emotion.  Which sounded like similar educational and working class upbringings and first university entrant issues as me.

And this publication: 'The Lives of Working Class Academics: Getting Ideas Above your Station'.  After seeing a LinkedIn post that mentioned Peter Shukie's working class academic work that featured and led me to this publication.  I reached out to him to say that it resonates with me strongly, and is something I talked about last year through this blog post and that it might be of interest.  Peter - "Thanks Daniel. I will take a look at that. Thanks for sharing."

EDIT:  On 19 September 2024, Loose Women discussed the topic of 'Does Working In McDonald's Make You Working Class?'; "Tory MP and Conservative leader hopeful Kemi Badenoch has ruffled feathers after saying she “became working class” when she started working in McDonald’s at 16 years old. It got us thinking, what does working class actually mean, and can you change your class? Linda and Denise are both proud of their working class roots and say that hasn’t changed with age or success, and Penny says that her hubby Rod still classifies as working class - going from rags to riches!"

I agree with what Linda and Denise was saying, and especially when Linda mentioned about now knowing when to use all the 'posh' knives and forks.  Titanic (movie) taught me well though. 😉  Speaking of Titanic, the scene where Rose's mother says "Do you want to see me work as a seamstress?"  Brief context - Rose's family were wealthy, but aboard the ship they were not due to Rose's father leaving them with apparent debt.  However, the mother's line is an example of upper class not wanting to be working class, in order to survive.  But relying on marriage for wealth.  Again an example of working class being survival.  I digress - I think the culture bit that people refer to is what is partly what I mention above.  The definition Loose Women use in the video is; "Working class is used to describe people in a social class mark by jobs that provide low pay require limited skill or physical labour.  Typically working class jobs have reduced education requirements.  Unemployed people of those supported by social welfare program are often included in the working class.  However, working class can also be defined by your culture.  A close-nit community lifestyle looking out for each other and protecting one another etc etc."  Not sure of it's origin but a quick Google search takes me to part of it here 'Working Class Explained: Definition, Compensation, Job Examples' by Will Kenton, updated 21 March 2021.  Below are some selected comments, in a chronological order as they appeared on YouTube, that I found interesting and that resonate with my views:

• @jean2927 - "It doesn’t matter where you work as long as you are contributing to society! Never let anyone judge you!"
• @ethanjw2005 - "You could be upperclass and  have a job at McDonald’s that doesn’t make u working class."
• @mariannehavisham8323 - "You're born into a class but also your class can change. For example if you are homeless, long term unemployed and on benefits, occassionally need to use food banks, regularly need to use the shower in a soup kitchen because you don't have a working shower in the hostel, live in a hostel, don't have heating or a bed or curtains or blinds, and the lights in the bathroom are broken, are in poverty, and occassionally can't eat for days or can't get a train or bus and need to stay home, haven't been on holiday in 16 years, don't have a passport, but come from a middle class background -are you still middle class? (This is a real example)"
• @riderskater7248 - "Depends on which culture you're from. In America we don't necessarily place social status on a individual's beginnings. Your current educational background or wealth will be weighted higher. Are you higher class if you don't have money or education ,but your parents did? Probably not."
• @sophiebray9489 - "No one talks about those that were born middle class but now live a working class life."
• @grndouwn7338 = "There's more to class than what you earn but if you have to work paycheck to paycheck to survive you are by definition working class regardless of anything else. If you're working in McDonalds but do not depend on your monthly salary you're not working class."
• @jonathanstone - "Working class, is simply working at something to survive you might get a bit more money one year and go on holiday but you killed your self for that. When your working to only add to the stacks of cash you have them you ain't working class your a snob."
• @thomashavard-morgan8181 - "So culturally I think you retain the class that you were born into, however overtime, you can move and change..."
• @bluepeter128 - "No, your class is assigned at birth....."