Exhibition: Time to Think

Wherever an OU student is located in the world, the teaching role and influence of the OU tutor, through tutorials, one to one contact and marking and feedback, is fundamental to the learning development of students. The importance of tutors was highlighted in student interviews for the Time to Think Project. Tutorial visits were a window into a different world, a chance to explore course ideas and a source of support when studying became difficult.

Student H describes the importance of his tutors:

And the fact that I was meeting people from outside and coming into the Wing and I was at a level with them; these academic people, tutors, and they were very, very supportive you know. The fact that I was the only one bringing these people onto the Wing and they were meeting other people on the Wing as well. And that whole conversation with them was good... and it actually took me out of jail for the time that I was doing that course...

Student H

While OU tutors had the choice whether to teach in the prisons, some had reservations. Nevertheless, as teaching professionals, many saw it as part of their job, even if they never told family and friends about it at the time.

In the first audio clip on this page Rosemary Hamilton describes her anxieties before going into the Maze and Long Kesh Prison and how her concerns were soon allayed. But for every tutor it was different. Some treated it simply as another tutorial location. Others experienced it as a unique teaching situation and environment. Several interviewees declared it the most rewarding teaching experience of their OU careers. Some also reflected on how it challenged their own assumptions and stereotypes, and how the learning was a two way process. Eugene McElhinney reflects on teaching and learning about stereotyping in the second clip on this page.