Ethical Action Plan (500-750 words)*
This document is a chance for you to begin shaping your project while thinking through its ethical considerations, implications, and responsibilities. We know this might feel early in your action research journey, but this short plan is here to help pin down your ideas and work-in-progress.
Write in a format that suits you – lists, bullet points, statements or paragraphs – and follow the suggested links stated alongside some of the questions for guidance.
A good starting point is the BERA Guidelines for Educational Research, fifth edition (2024) alongside the ‘Ethics Files and Resources’ on Moodle.
When you’re ready, email your draft to your allocated tutor 48 hours in advance of you first group tutorial in the week commencing 5 October 2026, so it can help guide the focus of discussions and support your project development.
Note, you will need to have your ethical action plan signed off / agreed to by your tutor by email prior to commencing any data collection. Upload the document to your blog once finalised.
| What is the working research question for your project? Expand on this with a few sentences to describe the focus of your project. Working Research Question: Can Object Based Learning (OBL) support students in navigating access requirements during their Diploma in Professional Studies (DPS) placement year? Project Focus: Expanding on my intervention proposal, ‘Space as Reassurance: Navigating Identity and Access Needs in Creative Workplaces,’ the project operates as a holistic, open-ended co-learning process and a material metaphor that shapes itself around the participants. Using their chosen artifacts as physical props to role-play workplace scenarios, participants select an ordinary, mundane artifact (such as a tool, a pen, a water bottle, or a digital interface) representing a boundary they want to maintain, a routine that keeps them grounded, or a reasonable adjustment they require. This creative exercise around the ‘Curriculum Vitae of an Object’ (rendering it employable) initiates an impetus for participants to explore workplace adjustments through practical communication tools such as Access Riders (derived from the real-world Access Docs for Artists framework) to outline their accessibility needs as a lived physical practice and human right. As the project involves students currently undertaking their DPS year, this material exploration addresses their lived experiences within creative industries. Rather than focusing on the placement student in isolation, the project is an attempt to cultivate a peer support network by building a collaborative archive on a UAL digital interface (Padlet). The archive serves as a tool to evidence active object role-play, documenting both creative activities and informal discussions locally at CSM, alongside the asynchronous reflections DPS placement students share in situ from their (inter)national workplaces. As a repository, it also operates at the intersection of the untaught and the intuitive (Chee, 2021), capturing material reflections within the ‘broken middle’ (Armstrong, 2000) of student placement experiences. This collective learning resource connects placement students with alumni and shared narratives such as the student prayer mat from the faith, religion, and belief IP blog post) to demystify workplace rights and navigate industry transitions. |
| What sources will you read or reference? Share 5 to 10 references / resources. Access Docs for Artists (2026) Access Docs for Artists. Available at: accessdocsforartists.com Adams, C. and Thompson, T. L. (2016) Researching a Posthuman World: Interviews with Digital Objects. London: Palgrave Macmillan. Barrow, M. (2006) Assessment and student transformation: linking character and intellect. Studies in Higher Education, 31(3), 357–372. Boal, A. (1974) Theatre of The Oppressed. London: Pluto Press. Chee, L. (2021) ‘Affect’, in Practising Ethics. London: The Bartlett Faculty of the Built Environment, University College London. Available at: practisingethics.org. Ellis, C. S. and Bochner, A. P. (2006) ‘Analyzing Analytic Autoethnography: An Autopsy’, Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, 35(4), pp. 429–449. Foucault, M. (1984) ‘Of other spaces, heterotopias’, translated by J. Miskowiec, Architecture, Mouvement, Continuité, (5), pp. 46–49. Land, R., Cousin, G., Meyer, J.H.F. and Davies, P. (2005) ‘Threshold concepts and troublesome knowledge (3): implications for course design and evaluation’, in Rust, C. (ed.) Improving student learning: diversity and inclusivity. Oxford: Oxford Centre for Staff and Learning Development, pp. 53–64. McNiff, J. and Whitehead, J. (2002) Action Research: Principles and Practice. London: Routledge Falmer. Smith, L.T. (2021) Decolonising Methodologies: Research and Indigenous Peoples. 3rd edition. London: Zed Books. Willcocks, J. and Barton, (2017) ‘Object-led self-reflection’, in Chatterjee, H.J. and Hannan, L. (eds.) Engaging the senses: object-based learning in higher education. London: Routledge, pp. 43–56. |
| What action(s) are you planning to take, and are they realistic in the time you have (Sept-Dec 2026)? Driven by ongoing reflections on placement tutorials, student diary keeping, and workplace settings, the actions outline an initially two-step action research cycle rooted in Creative Autoethnography. To test the speculative learning resource within the 10-week timeframe, informal discussions are activated through creative prompts and templates adapted from the real-world Access Docs for Artists framework for students with neurodivergent and access needs, and/or religious, belief, or philosophical accommodations: Action 1 (Weeks 1-4): Tools & Visual Mapping I plan to design the initial, open-ended conversational prompt (the ‘Absurd Questionnaire,’ Object CV template, and/or Access Rider template) to explore how material culture can be used to safely project boundaries. In the meantime, I intend to capture an autoethnographic photo essay documenting my own physical adaptation tool (a bright pink gym ball linked to my IP Unit Disability blog post) navigating institutional thresholds across the CSM building, documenting how material artifacts look in situ. Action 2 (Weeks 5-8): Asynchronous Testing & Building the Archive I plan to start a password-protected online Padlet Archive to function as a speculative digital heterotopia. I hope to informally distribute the 3-question object prompt to a small, trusted pool of select cross-cohort students, alumni, close colleagues, and administrative staff, to see if and how they choose to use the material metaphor to outline their personal/professional boundaries. Action 3 (Weeks 9-10): Qualitative Document Analysis & Reflection Instead of gathering strict data, I intend to carry out a qualitative document analysis on the open-ended text fragments and object profiles collected on the Padlet. The final action involves a reflexive review of how this unstable process can inform the scaffolding for a Placement Access Rider communication tool before the January submission. |
| Who will be involved, and in what way? (e.g. colleagues, students, local community…). Note, if any of your participants will be under the age years of 18 yrs, please seek further advice from your tutor. Following action research principles, this project operates as a holistically shaped network of critical learning partners. To explore how everyday material culture can map personal/professional boundaries, participation is voluntary and limited to a contained group of participants within the CSM community of practice: Select BA Jewellery and Textile Design Students & Alumni (Invited): A cross-cohort group – this includes Second-Year (Stage 2) students preparing for industry experience, current Diploma in Professional Studies (DPS) students asynchronously sharing placement diary extracts/visuals in situ within their workplaces and returning Final-Year (Stage 3) students or select Alumni (including those currently operating as industry placement hosts) uploading object photos to the private Padlet archive to test the Object CV prompt and Access Rider concept. Myself (as Researcher-Tutor): Initiating the autoethnographic cycle by documenting the journey of my physical adaptation tool (the tutorial gym ball) across building thresholds as live self-study (McNiff and Whitehead, 2002), creating an Object (Gym-Ball) CV and Access Rider. Close Colleagues & Administrative Staff (Invited): Engaging in informal discussions to test the non-traditional Object CV prompt. This explores UAL staff understanding of how students navigate administrative/institutional barriers and data collection within the university. But also following this shared process can expose how physical objects and digital spaces mirror student and staff intersecting identities, reflecting at its logical extreme how systemic power affects everyone within educational environments and workplaces. Building Gatekeepers (Invited): Participating through brief, everyday spatial interactions (the infra-ordinary). The movement of the gym ball past physical entry thresholds serves as a material metaphor and a reductio ad absurdum of the UAL digital portal, playing out institutional power dynamics and threshold concepts at their logical extreme. Note: All potential participants are adults over the age of 18; no minors are involved. |
| Are there any health & safety concerns, and how will you prepare for them? https://canvas.arts.ac.uk/sites/explore/SitePage/42587/health-and-safety-hub https://canvas.arts.ac.uk/sites/explore/SitePage/45761/health-and-safety-policies-and-standards Physical Environment and Fire Safety: The project involves briefly photographing everyday material objects in situ across the CSM building (for example, the tutorial gym ball navigating thresholds). To ensure safety, all photography will be contained to quiet, low-traffic hours. No corridors, fire alarms, or emergency exit paths will ever be obstructed. Where necessary, access needs will be facilitated. Participant Wellbeing: The creative prompt focuses solely on ordinary material artifacts rather than personal histories, acting as an emotional safety valve to prevent psychological distress or forced disclosure for the contained pool of participants. |
| How will you manage and protect any physical and / or digital data you collect, including the data of people involved? https://www.bera.ac.uk/publication/ethical-guidelines-for-educational-research-fifth-edition-2024-online#consenthttps://www.bera.ac.uk/publication/ethical-guidelines-for-educational-research-fifth-edition-2024-online#privacy-data-storage Participant Consent Form & Withdrawal: All participants receive an Information Sheet / Consent Form before choosing to take part to define the scope of the project, the reasons behind the research, what it will involve, and how they can withdraw at any stage. Data Security Intentions: To align with the Data Protection Act 2018 and institutional safety, all shared images and text fragments will be kept within password-protected UAL accounts and a secure UAL OneDrive folder. Anonymisation: To protect student privacy within this small teaching scope, all direct identifiers (including participant names and company/placement host names) and indirect identifiers (such as specific student academic or professional trajectories) will be excluded from the archive and AR final portfolio/presentation to prevent identification. Data Lifecycle & Future Continuity: To potentially sustain the project as a living cross-cohort learning resource, anonymised object CVs and Access Rider templates could be preserved on the UAL network beyond the end of the AR Unit. Participants are asked if they are comfortable with their anonymised profiles remaining in this archive, while retaining an ongoing right to ask for their deletion at any future stage. |
| How will you take ethics into account in your project for participants and / or yourself? https://www.bera.ac.uk/publication/ethical-guidelines-for-educational-research-fifth-edition-2024-online#responsibilities-participants https://www.bera.ac.uk/publication/ethical-guidelines-for-educational-research-fifth-edition-2024-online#responsibilities-sponsors https://www.bera.ac.uk/publication/ethical-guidelines-for-educational-research-fifth-edition-2024-online#responsibilities-wellbeing See Emotionally Demanding Research PDF on Moodle (when Moodle is live). Ethical Participant Selection: Participants are invited from an existing pool primarily of current 26/27 DPS but also of Stage 2/Stage 3 students and alumni within my teaching context who are actively navigating industry transitions and/or workplace accommodations. Because current 26/27 DPS students are undergoing 1-to-1 Autumn Term Progress Tutorials, invitations to share object reflections are explicitly extended after the formal tutorial space concludes. Setting this as a boundary separates the research data collection from formal placement assessment, university grading, or student monitoring. Positionality and Insider/Outsider Dynamic (BERA Guideline 19): As a CSM DPS Placement Tutor, an inherent power asymmetry exists between myself and the participants (BERA, 2024; McNiff, 2016). To mitigate institutional hierarchy, participation is voluntary. Students are explicitly reassured that choosing to engage or opt out will have no impact on their academic status, degree progress, or ongoing placement support. Critical Vulnerability as Reflexive Data: Documenting the autoethnographic journey of my tutorial gym ball across physical CSM entry thresholds places my own practice and body in a position of exposure. Following BERA 19 principles, any spontaneous spatial friction or institutional discomfort encountered during these micro-interventions will be recorded in my research diary as honest qualitative data tracking how institutional structures respond to non-standard bodies. Interrupting Professional Masking: To counter power dynamics, the project proposes an open-ended Object CV rationale and Placement Access Rider framework as creative communication tools equipping students with the agency for intersectional negotiation as a fundamental, lived human right rather than a transactional favour. |
* The form itself is around 300 words, so with your additions the total length will come to a maximum of about 1,050 words.