After transcribing my interviews on Otter, I was able to conduct a thematic analysis of interviews using a wordcloud generator.
I also filtered each interview for specific words and phrases relating to my original objectives for the project:
- Establish what my participants believe procrastination is and how it affects them.
- Gain a better understanding of how procrastination manifests in creative students.
- Help students who experience EF to reframe their ideas of themselves and their procrastination behaviours and feel supported.
- Provide ESI tools to tutors with students experiencing EF.
Results
- 60% associate procrastination with shame
- 20% see procrastination as positive/useful
- 20% feel they were given appropriate ESI tools while learning
- All agree that procrastination and laziness are not the same
- 90% admit that procrastination is part of their creative process in some way
- 100% associate the term ‘Executive Function’ with “a man in a suit”
- 80% said that they procrastinate because they need processing time
- 40% related their mental health to the amount they procrastinate
- 60% feel they are easily distracted (phones, emails, children)
- 90% open to attending workshops on EDF/procrastination in the future
Conclusions
There appears to be a loose link between EDF and creative practice. While there is plenty of theory to corroborate this, for the purposes of this research project there needs further research to gain more conclusive data. I am curious about the statistics on disabled students in the UAL Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Report 2018. According to the report, 16% of students at UAL declared a disability, 84% did not. Given the links between EDF, neurodivergence and disability (Meltzer 2007), I would be curious to know the percentage of students attending UAL who procrastinate or experience EDF in another form. Further to this, I am also curious about what role ableism and lack of knowledge around diagnosis and disability have played in these statistics. I believe accurate reporting on the issue of EDF in Higher Education is the key to getting students and staff the support they need.
My decision to use the terms EF/EDF in this project needs to be revised moving forward. I decided to use these terms interchangeably instead of procrastination because I found that procrastination is part of EDF during my research process. However, my participants all associated the term ‘Executive Function’ with “a man in a suit” and considered it a corporate term. Additionally, EF & EDF are colloquial and ableist terms that centre neuro-typical ways of approaching projects and privilege the Western concepts of time = money and productivity = worth. Decolonising and reframing these terms is another important aspect of supporting students and staff who procrastinate.
ESI is an effective tool for students only when they are aware they are being given tools for the how of learning. Although my participants stated that they were not aware of receiving ESI during their learning careers, I have seen tutors on the PGCERT utilise ESI techniques while teaching. However, the ‘explicit’ element of ESI has been very soft, leaving students unaware that it is happening. If students are unaware that they are being taught a technique that will assist them with the ‘how’ of learning, they are less likely to pay attention to it. Particularly as the strategic elements of the lesson usually come at the end of the class when students are already saturated with information.
Both tutors and students need more effective tools to manage EDF in the classroom than what is presently available. Upon investigation, the Academic Support website at UAL has no articles or workshops available that are explicitly about procrastination. Therefore, a student searching for support on this topic might miss it because the resource does not contain the word they are searching for, even if the resource addresses procrastination by another name. Students are aware that procrastination is an issue for them and want to address it but do not know how. This supports the research I did prior to conducting these interviews and I have spoken a little more about this in my blog on procrastination. Learners are very receptive to attending workshops and receiving additional support around procrastination so that they can learn how to work around it, or potentially stop altogether. Although procrastination can be a useful tool, particularly for creativity, the majority of my participants consider it as a negative trait that adversely affects their mental health. As I mentioned earlier, reframing and decolonising EDF is a key element of empowering students and staff in this regard. However, this is a long term process, which does not do much in the ways of practical support for students and staff in the present.
Bibliography
Meltzer, L. (2018). Executive Function In Education: From Theory To Practice. 2nd ed. New York, London: The Guilford Press.
Grooms, E. C, ‘The Race for Time: Experiences in the Temporality of Blackness’ (2020). Senior Projects Spring. 241. https://digitalcommons.bard.edu/senproj_s2020/241
UAL Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Report 2018 https://www.arts.ac.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0024/144474/190206_EDI-Report-2018.pdf