Case study: Micro-learning and the sex industry

Abstract

This article interrogates the experience of introducing a micro-learning approach during the COVID pandemic and provides my reflections. It is argued that lectures delivered as micro-learning ‘chunks’ are preferable to traditional lectures in several ways, and that they facilitate rich and innovative seminar classes (Ahearne, 2021a; 2021b). The article concludes that some of the adaptations made during the pandemic should be retained afterwards if they enhance the student learning experience in that area of study.

Criminalised, victimised or other? A reflexive engagement with Queer Criminology utilising a relational pedagogical approach

“…However, we quickly come to understand that we should not impose a framework of learning upon students, and instead, should be able to learn in a de-hierarchical environment (Cornelius-White and Harbaugh, 2009 ). Our perspective is that the student should be experts of their own lived experiences that enrich teaching and learning opportunities, therefore we decided to “flip” the classroom and support students in developing their own critical disciplinary literacy around understandings of Queer Criminology (see also Ahearne, 2022 ).…”

“…Nonetheless, Queer Criminological thinking should go beyond these binaries and help students to decipher Queer epistemologies, methodologies, and methods to build appropriate disciplinary literacy. As Higher Education professionals, we have made learning materials openly available, instead of gatekeeping the release of information each week via a Virtual Learning Environment (see also Ahearne, 2022 ). Indeed, democratising knowledge production is not a matter of simply expanding the curriculum but, instead, including queer research and case studies as foundational knowledge early on in an undergraduate degree programme.…”