Student engagement reflections

1. The Criminology Team
University Centre at Blackburn College

2.  Thisinitiative sought to address the
engagement features identified by Trowler
and Trowler (2010). The features were
identified from a literature review and
recommended learning experiences that
sought to: pose academic challenge, open up
additional interaction with staff, encourage
learning beyond the classroom, respond to
individual needs, have an extra-curricular
approach, encourage participation in a
learning community and encourage
interactions with diverse peers (para. 2.1.2).

3.  This paper seeks to explain how a change in
assessment methods enabled these features
to be directly addressed in the teaching and
learning of UCBC criminology students.
 It will consider issues that impede such
changes and suggest ways for circumventing
restrictive interpretations of assessment
regulations.
 The use of online resources will also be
assessed:
http://criminology.sost.blackburn.ac.uk

4. This paper considers the findings from including
photography in the teaching and assessment of
undergraduate criminology students. The catalyst for
this project was the ‘What is Crime?’ photography
competition held by the Centre for Crime and Justice
Studies that was announced in September 2008.
The competition required entries in any of three
categories:
 Environment
 Finance
 Violence

5. “The title of the competition ‘What is crime?’ invites
imaginative, possibly subversive entries.”
(What is Crime judge, Ken Loach)
The task was incorporated into the formal assessment
of first year criminal justice students on the HND and
FdA Criminology programmes.
A student research group that included other cohorts
was established in order to hold a public exhibition of
the photographs at the end of the academic year.

7. Course Number of Usual word limit per Total
assignments assignment
HND Criminology (2 years) 20 1,750
35,000
FdA Criminology (2 years) 16 2,500
40,000
BA Criminology (per year) 5 4,000 and 10,000 for the
dissertation 26,000
(plus 4 exams)

8. Are these methods appropriate for ‘the new
undergraduate’ (Newburn, 2007) or ‘Digital Native’
(Prensky, 2001)?
Do they prepare them for their post-University
life? (Handel, 2007)
Do they get the best out of staff?
Do they equate with ‘doing criminology’? (Hayward
and Presdee, 2010: Framing crime: cultural
criminology and the image.)

9. "Go and sit in the lounges of luxury hotels and on the
doorsteps of the flophouses; sit on the Gold Coast
settees and on the slum shakedowns; sit in the
Orchestra Hall and in the Star and Garter Burlesque. In
short go and get the seat of your pants dirty in real
research.” (Park, 1927)
“Both insight and reliability are needed, but insight
does not need to always arise simultaneously out of
the same exact protocol as reliability. Powerful insight
can arise out of walking down a street by mistake.”
(Kane, 2004)

10. A valid form of assessment? Ethics committee approval?
Health and safety implications?
The marks for the assignment were split equally with
half based on the photograph and application of
semiotic principles and the other half for an assessment
of the rationale behind WIC including a justification for
why their photograph was suitable.
The assignment was undertaken in groups due to the
nature of the task, the need for resources and its
requirement for the students to actively observe life
in their communities.

11. ‘Text books have a tendency to encourage
‘right’ answers… Visual imagery encourages the kind of
critical perspective our schools have found it so hard to
engender through the traditional curriculum… There is
enough ambiguity of interpretation in judging what we
make ourselves that one may be bold to think for
oneself’
(Takata and Curran, 2009: 32).

12. Support from colleagues in other disciplines
enabled two lectures and seminars on
photography and semiotics to be provided.
The students were given time for ‘Practising
Looking’ (Sturken and Cartwright, 2001) and their
‘Semiotics 101’ sessions introduced them to the
work of writers such as Roland Barthes (1981).

13. (i) ‘prohibited places’ under the Official Secrets
Act 1911.
(ii) Article 8 of the ECHR (e.g. Wood v
Commissioner of the Police for the Metropolis
[2009] EWCA Civ 414).
(iii) s. 44 of the Terrorism Act 2000
(iv) s.58
(v) s. 58(A)

14. When police powers under s.44 were in place the police no
longer had to have objective suspicion for stopping and
searching people for ‘articles of a kind which could be used
in connection with terrorism’ (s.45) in a specified area for
28 days.
Research by the British Journal of Photography (2009) has
revealed the extent of this power.
In April 2011 it was announced that in 2009-10 there were
92,000 people stopped and searched under these powers
and a total of two people were arrested for terrorism-
related offences (The Independent 15 April 2011).

15. ‘It seems to me inevitable, however, that so long as the principal
terrorist risk against which use of the section 44 power has been
authorised is that from al Qaeda, a disproportionate number of those
stopped and searched will be of Asian appearance (particularly if they
happen to be carrying rucksacks or wearing apparently bulky clothing
capable of containing terrorist-related items)… Ethnic origin
accordingly can and properly should be taken into account in
deciding
whether and whom to stop and search provided always that the
power
is used sensitively and the selection is made for reasons connected
with the perceived terrorist threat and not on grounds of racial
discrimination.’ (as per Lord Brown in R. (on the application of
discrimination
Gillan), (on the application of Quinton) v Commissioner of Police of
the Metropolis (2006) paras. 80-1).

16. According to s. 58(1)(a) it is an offence if a person “collects
or makes a record of information of a kind likely to be
useful to a person committing or preparing an act of
terrorism”.
In R v G, R v J (2010) 1 A.C. 43 the HL declined to clarify
the potential reach of s. 58 and confirmed that it can apply
even where it was not intended to assist somebody,
somewhere, to commit or prepare, an act of terrorism.
An offence could also occur via s.58(A) when a person
elicits, publishes or communicates ‘useful’ information
about members of the police, armed forces or intelligence
services.

17. The eventual submissions from the students showed a
diversity of harms such as elder abuse, psychological
abuse of children, poverty and the effects of
recession. The manner in which the photographs were
generally taken – a snapshot on a mobile phone was
one of the most pleasing aspects of the initiative.
The results also showed an 8% increase in the mean
average grade compared to the previous academic
year.
‘Statistical insignificance?’

18. ‘there is no den in the wide world to
hide a rogue. Commit a crime and the
earth is made of glass.’
(Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1841: para. 36)
Please test this opinion by visiting the
Criminology Department’s student
photography exhibition ‘What is Crime?’ in
rooms H605-6.

20. The research group interviewed 88 people
before they went into the exhibition and four
months later the same questionnaire was sent
to them.
46 people replied and using a test for
differences it was found that attitudes
towards ‘harm’, ‘intent’ and ‘real’ crimes had
changed significantly.

21. In March 2011 these 46 respondents were sent
another questionnaire to which 11 of them
replied.
Their recall for the exhibition was rated at
7.3:10 and ‘images of social deprivation’ were
the most common specific recollections.
The main reasons for their visit were ‘support
for the students’ and ‘curiosity’.

22. “The pictures were very striking and easy to
embed in the memory. The juxtaposition of
scenes of disrepair and neglect with bright
shiny buildings close by was particularly
memorable.” (J)
“A sort of menacing experience came
through… that illustrated the silent, alarming
state of affairs, that exist all around us.” (K)

23. ‘In Hiding’ by Jade Conway, FdA Criminology year 1:
This image depicts a row of rose trees covered by plastic bags for
protection against the cold weather. The connotations of this image
suggest the rose trees represent the powerful people in society –
exactly the ones who are being protected by the current debt climate
we are suffering in. The rose canes also connote the powerful people
standing tall and unharmed by the climate. This photograph was
taken whilst I was out randomly walking with my horse through
some fields. I came across the row of roses and thought it would be a
good image to use as it inspires thought and results in meaning being
established by the viewer.
The students were asked to submit their work on a wiki called
Crime Today (UCBC Criminology Department, 2010).

25.  The method encourages the production of original
work and enables randomness and a ‘sideways
glance’ to be brought into the curriculum.
 It allows the full range of students to undertake
the kind of research recommended by Robert Park,
Stephanie Kane and others.
 The level of interest from the public provides an
additional dimension for teaching and learning. The
youTube video of the exhibition has now received
over 1200 hits (UCBC Criminology Department,
2010)
 However, the ‘digitalness’ of current criminology
students requires further investigation.

26. Barthes, R. (1981) Camera lucida. New York: Hill & Wang.
British Journal of Photography (2009) ‘Why is Derbyshire the best place to live if you are a
photographer?’ Available at: www.bjpnline.com/public/showPage.html?page=868495 (accessed March
2010).
Emerson, R.,W. (1841) Essays – Compensation. URL (accessed May 2009)
ttp://www.bartleby.com/5/105.html
Handel, M. (2007) A new survey of workplace skills, technology, and management practices (STAMP):
background and descriptive statistics. Presented at National Research Council Workshop on Future
Skills. Washington, DC. 23 May.
Kane, S., C. (2004) ‘The unconventional methods of cultural criminology’. Theoretical Criminology, 8
(3), pp. 303–321.
Newburn, T. (2007) Criminology. Cullompton: Willan.

27. Prensky, M. (2001) Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants. URL (accessed October 2010)
http://www.marcprensky.com/writing/prensky%20-%20digital%20natives,%20digital%20immigrants%20-
%20part1.pdf
Sturken , M. and Cartwright, L. (2001) Practices of looking. New York: Oxford University Press.
Takata, S. and Curran, J. (2009) ‘The art of learning by doing’. Criminal Justice Matters, 78, pp 32–
34.
Trowler, V. and Trowler, P. (2010) Student engagement evidence summary. URL (accessed April 2011)
http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/assets/documents/studentengagement/StudentEngagementEvidenceSu
mmary.pdf
UCBC Criminology Department (2010) What is Crime? URL (accessed November 2010)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=3sJ4PUMYiSE
UCBC Criminology Department (2011) Crime Today. URL (accessed July 2011)
http://criminology.sost.blackburn.ac.uk/?q=node