April can sometimes get tarnished with the line that it is ‘the cruellest month’; T.S. Eliot’s subversion of Chaucer’s ‘The Canterbury Tales’ perhaps proving more pervasive to modern parlance than the original.
The original Chaucer poem depicts it at as a time where the sweet showers ‘bath[ed] every veyne in swich licóur/ of which vertú engendred is the flour’. The image of the flower [flour] growing and blossoming is nicely captured in the suggested etymology of April. From the Latin ‘aperire’, connected to aperture, we have April – a time of opening up.
In the final scenario in this series, we have one instance which covers different experiences of opening up, of ambitions and possibilities. In UK universities it can often feel like a time of flux, with the structure of the academic year approaching its conclusion, yet with new directions being considered, new virtues being engendered.
Scenario 1
You brings the seminar to a close. The group of students and You recognise that this is the last formal part of the course which will involve study in the same space. From this point onwards, students will prepare for their final assessments on the programme and You will prepare to offer ongoing support and then embark on marking their assessments, as well as all of the attendant work which follows.
Two students, We and Us, stay behind at the end of the seminar to approach You.
We is keen to speak to You first. We has really appreciated You’s engagement on this part of the unit. Despite approaching some of the units with scepticism, We has read more widely on this unit than anything else previously, and has felt an excitement and anticipation ahead of the seminars.
We reflected that:
‘A lot of the topics on the course I approached in a functional or practical way. I felt like I was on a bit of a conveyor belt and my approach to studying was to keep things functioning smoothly and get to the end point. I’m not sure how I think I will use my degree – it’s not clearly vocational, but I have found this particular topic something I want to keep exploring. Maybe it is just one of those things which I will have books about in my room in a few years’ time, because I’m not sure whether I could plan a whole career on the basis of this recent interest.’
Us hovers on the other side of the room, waiting for We to finish speaking to You. Us has been planning to continue studying in this research area for a number of years. Us has ambitions to be an academic and work at a university. Us wants to speak to You to find out more about the experience which You have had, and ask them what they think about Us continuing their study.
‘In a few years’ time I’d like to think I’ll be producing my own research on this topic. I already have a few ideas about how I could imagine taking some of this research in a new direction. I’m not sure about the idea of teaching the subject though. Refining the concepts and investigating the field further is my goal, I’m not sure if that explaining things to students would be the focus of what I see in my work. But I wanted to talk to You about some of these research interests.’
After the conversations with We and Us, You starts to pack up and leave the room. It has been a long year for You, and sometimes all of the things which are lives beyond the world of work are elided. And these are elided here, but they are important as to how the year has felt for You.
You reflects that:
‘How I remember it is that sometimes I was a bit like We, and there were moments when I was younger where I was a lot like Us. I’m really proud of how I have engaged with this group of students and shared my passion for my subject, but also my craft. I don’t always talk about craft, but it is craft, whether noun, verb or adjective. I find it so difficult to offer advice anymore on what people ‘should’ do next. I say that because people normally phrase it in that way. I feel like the questions asked to me about the future are never ‘What might…’ or ‘What could…’, but ‘what should…’. There’s enough uncertainty floating about anyway that I don’t feel I can offer the certainty that people seem to be looking for.’
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So, with this month’s scenario we offer the opportunity to ‘open up’ discussion and share reflections on directions taken and not taken, looking backwards, looking forwards as the path leads ever onwards…
We’ll follow up with a reflection blog in a few weeks’ time from different people with different backgrounds from across the university. If you would like to share any of your reflections to the scenarios in this blog, you can contact us to share your thoughts, or post any comments below.
Further details about different ways to contribute, including contributing anonymously, are outlined in our ‘call for contributions’.
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