Alan

The transcription is a conversation with a lecturer named Alan discussing his journey into teaching occupational therapy (OT). Alan expresses his love for teaching and how working with students during his clinical practice inspired him to pursue teaching. He also reflects on the changes in the field of OT, particularly in terms of diversity and inclusivity. Alan talks about his transition from clinical practice to academia through a teaching and learning role, highlighting the importance of continuous learning and embracing new challenges in his career. Overall, the conversation emphasizes Alan's passion for teaching and the evolving landscape of OT education. Welcome back. This is what we do. So we have another question for one of our lecturers here, Alice. And that question is, just bring your mic a bit closer. How about now? I can't pick you up, can you? Yeah, it's completely fine for me. Okay. If you guys can hear it, no problemo. Can you hear me, yeah? Okay, sorry. So we're back again with our wonderful lecturer, Alan. Amazing. And wonderful, of course. And I, and Amira as well, and I, Ashley Knight. No one cares, my opinion. Okay, so Alan, one of the pressing questions we had for you, so pressing we forgot to ask, what made you become a lecturer? What is it that got you into teaching in the first place? Did you just enjoy OT so much you need to spread the word and get more OT students in and fill them with the passion that you have for OT? Or was it accidental? Did you just kind of fall into it? Was there an opening, you thought, you know what, I could fill that. I could do this job. What was it? Okay, a bit of a multi-faceted answer then. First of all, I really enjoy teaching. I actually think that this is the best job I've had in my life so far. And I guess what really kind of got me into the idea of teaching to start off with, was when I started getting students through, when I was in clinical practice. I always felt refreshed working with students. It was always nice to have a fresh new perspective, people working with me, find out what was happening in terms of updates and things like that. But the world of OT has significantly changed from when I did my training. And to be honest, I think one of the things that I found challenging during my training was a bit of a mismatch between my perspective as well and also kind of like OT practice. I was one of maybe three, four, five people who weren't from a white, middle-class background when I did my training. So some of the settings I went to and some of the people that I did that training with, I can strongly relate. Do you think that's changed? Have you seen that change over your years of teaching? So I've only been teaching about, maybe close to about six years. Six years! Yeah, so it's only there as long as some of the people that do work here. It's about you, Alex. Yes, all right. Yes, I think it has changed dramatically from when I did my training. I think the viewpoint, the way in which people focus on working with people, I think there's things that have changed. Lots of different kind of like social structures have kind of brought forward a change. Countries up and down the country have seen like a huge change in terms of the population. And even in the last couple of years, you can see that. So say for example, the HCPC consensus had the OT population, the non-white OT population at about, I think it was like 700 and something. And then the most recent consensus, which is about roughly about a year ago now, had about 5,193. So you can really kind of see that step up. I think Salford's always been a bit more multicultural in terms of its population. And that's really kind of drawn. We were discussing this earlier that we think Salford's very inclusive, not just in terms of, you know, we discussed religion, race, and I think even more so genders now. We're seeing a change there, which is refreshing. We know that we have a lot of diversity in our cohort and it is represented in our lecturing team as well as the teaching team. Yeah, yeah. And I think it's, I think it shows an insight into the world that's changing. But really what kind of brought me right into the teaching element of it was, I love working with students. I have this perspective in mind about, you know, how I felt during my training, what would I want my students to kind of think about. I was heavily involved with in-service training and different bits whilst working at the hospital trust. And for me that, I always got a kick out of it. And genuinely speaking, I didn't think I would be here about five or six years ago. What I did do was have a bit of a search online to see what kind of qualifications you might need as a lecturer. And then I just so happened to see the job posting here for what was then called a teaching and learning intern, now it's called teaching and learning fellow, which is, which is a role that is very akin to lecturing. However, it is designed for that transition between practice and academia. So, I would come in, you kind of get your experience up with things like teaching, kind of that preparing module content, managing a module, et cetera, et cetera, and building those skills. And then you can progress to lecture once, once you're a bit more established in terms of experience and obviously the vacancies are also about to be available as well. Honestly, it was a bit of a chance situation. And I'm just very, very lucky that I was appointed for that interview. But I would probably say that I'm one of those people who gets bored quite easily, or gets itchy feet after a couple of years in terms of looking for a new challenge. I can honestly say that there has never been the same day over and over again here. I've never even thought about a different job since. Thank you very much for that very detailed, comprehensive answer. We appreciate that, and we're glad to have you on our teaching staff. We appreciate the dynamic that you bring in lectures. If you are, we like your food related content and your module was very difficult. You're free and we'll be thanking you next year. That's a wrap.