Introduction
In this report, I reflect upon the design of an image based glossary for teaching tailoring terminology, and how it has evolved through the Inclusive Practices unit. I hope this new glossary will even out the playing field for the First Year students on our course, and mitigate some of the disadvantages students encounter because of neurodivergence, differences in cultural capital and proficiency in English.
My Positionality
My intervention is inspired by the needs of my students, and my experience of teaching them for the last five years. I want to give my students a head start by providing them with an accessible, inclusive and multi-purpose glossary that can be both a revision aid and a class game that fosters student community.
I am interested in languages and the social psychology of communication. Before becoming a tailor, I studied languages and linguistics, and worked briefly as a foreign language teacher. Having lived abroad for most of my adult life, I have extensive experience of navigating unknown vocabulary, expressions and cultural references.
I am also an alumni of the Bespoke Tailoring course that I am now teaching. When I arrived from my native country of Sweden to start my degree, I encountered a lot of unfamiliar tailoring terminology and cultural references. I still encounter new words to this day! Learning and developing a language, including your first language, is a lifelong process. The mastery of a specific discourse is by no means a challenge reserved for international students alone.
Context: The Bespoke Tailoring Discourse
In Bespoke Tailoring there is a lot of specialist vocabulary, from the names of tools and materials to parts of garments and trade jargon (Aldrich, 2011, Cabrera, 2022, Savile Row Bespoke, 2025). We explain the terminology during our sessions, and provide the students with written presentations as well as some glossary lists. However, the information is spread out over many different presentations and worksheets. Currently, words and expressions are explained mainly through written text. I find many students struggle to understand the resources and memorise the terminology. This affects their overall comprehension of the delivered content, as well as their ability to talk about their work and ask questions.
When they go on to work placements, and later work in the industry, it is important that they know this terminology. It not only ensures clear communication with employers and customers, it is also a key signifier of professionalism and knowledge in the workplace. While many tailors are welcoming, the trade can be a traditional and hierarchical environment. Using the wrong terminology could cement the idea that someone does not “fit in”.
Inclusive Learning: Neurodiversity, Intersectionality, Cultural Capital and the Power of Language
We have a lot of students with dyslexia and ADHD, and many others are visual learners1. This might make it difficult for them to interpret our written resources.
At UAL, disabled students do comparatively well2. However, the statistic does not account for students with undeclared disability or ‘intersecting identities’ (Crenshaw, 1991), for example socioeconomic background, ethnicity or gender.
My peer at the PGCert have examined the underrepresentation of Chinese students in the disability statistics. (Undy, 2025). Because of the unique nature of Chinese scripts, developmental dyslexia was not believed to be an issue for Chinese learners in the past. However, recent research has recognised that the “prevalence rate for Chinese dyslexia is similar to that in alphabetic readers” (Cheah et al, 2024). It is therefore likely some of our students have the intersectional disadvantage of both having English as an additional language and undeclared dyslexia.
Approximately half of UAL students are from overseas (UAL, 2025), and for many of those, English is not their first language. It is likely some of our home students also have English as an additional language, though UAL does not collect statistics for this.
Banerjee (2024) found that one of the factors behind the degree awarding gap for students from “lower socio-economic backgrounds and minority groups” is a “scarcity of social and cultural capital.” These students are less likely to have a preexisting vocabulary from the milieu of bespoke tailoring, such as terminology relating to formal dress and hunting suits. Defining key ideas or terminology at the beginning of a course makes a significant contribution to mitigating the differences in cultural capital that students arrive with (Bamber & Jones, 2015).
A language barrier does not only affect how you understand communication, but also how people perceive you. John Baugh writes about how communities of “speakers of non-dominant dialects are disenfranchised from a society’s loci of power and influence.” He also stresses the need for developing local strategies to promote the acceptance of linguistic diversities (Mesthrie, 2011). At university, I believe we should provide our students with a non-judgemental environment to express themselves, but to prepare them for industry, and improve their chances of future employment, we must teach them the long established vocabulary of the trade.
Another benefit of creating the resource is that it will aid the learning of all our students: autonomy support and well-organised, clear learning activities have been found to relate positively to student engagement, which in turn enhanced study results (Banerjee, 2024).
Action
The glossary will be imaged based, with an accessible design, and using a dyslexia style guide (British Dyslexia Association, 2023). Each page will show the terminology alongside an image of the object or concept to explain it. Where helpful, a short textual definition will be included. Ideally, the glossary will be both printed and digital, and there will be the option of listening to a recorded voice pronouncing the word.
I will make a PowerPoint presentation, with the vocabulary divided into chapters, such as Tools, Trousers Components, Tailoring Terminology etc. The glossary will also be printed as revision cards, the image on one side and the word on the other.
The physical revision cards will be used to play a kind of Pictionary game in-class. Drawing enhances memory (Salamon, 2018), so this game would aid the students learning. Played in groups it will also promote community, which can help in reducing the awarding gap (Banerjee, 2024).
Further development ideas
If possible, I would like to make digital revision cards, where the image appears first, then the word next to it when you click on the card.
Ideally these digital cards would be converted into a digital game or app, where users can pair the images with the words and score points. Gamified learning has been repeatedly shown to increase the engagement and the motivation of students, and help them learn more effectively (Christopoulos & Mystakidis, 2023). A friend working in special needs education suggested the coding for this digital game might be achievable using AI models like ChatGPT.
I would like to explore if the cards could be translated into different languages, possibly using the free online AI translation tool DeepL.
Feedback
Relatable: Many of my peers at the Inclusive Practice unit and members of my course team related to the need for a glossary, either from personal experience as students or from lecturing (or both!).
Promote community: One of the things that has arisen in my discussions, both with my course team and my peers, is the need to promote community to improve student engagement, well-being and peer learning. We find that students are more likely to engage in social activities that are related to their studies. My original idea was to find a way to use the glossary as a single-player online game, but I have since been inspired to find in-person, group ways to use it.
Share my experience: My peers have made me aware of how I can use my own experience of having English as a second language when I introduce the glossary. By admitting to my own lack of knowledge, previous and current, I can normalise asking for clarifications, and make my students feel more comfortable. Banerjee (2024) writes about the benefit of students being able to visualise themself as successful in the future, and Clair suggested it might help my students to hear my journey in this respect.
Co-creation: Both peers and my tutor have suggested I find a way to co-create the glossary together with the students. It would engage the students in the learning, and give me insights to the kind of vocabulary they both want and need. Their active participation would “recognises their agency and help flatten the hierarchy” (UAL, 2024). Ana suggested the project could qualify to the Teaching and Learning fund that support tutors and students with projects (UAL, 2025). I will explore how I can organise this practically.
Available during sessions: It would be helpful for the students if the glossary is physically available in the workshop so that they can refer to it during sessions. This could happen in many formats, for example as posters, a deck of cards, or hanging on a wash line.
Conclusion
I believe that creating this glossary is feasible. A lot of the material is available in our course resources. My course leader was looking for a community building activity to add to the Welcome Event at the beginning of year 1, and we will be playing Pictionary with the students.
In order to develop the glossary into a gaming app, I must remedy my ignorance of software coding, or find a programmer who is interested in collaborating. The co-creation with students, some of whom will have an extensive digital knowledge, opens possibilities not only of expanding the content, but also the format.
To see if the introduction of the glossary has a positive effect, I could conduct qualitative interviews with the students, asking if they have used it and if they found it helpful. I could also test a sample of the vocabulary at the beginning and the end of the unit, together with a questionnaire to see if the students used the glossary.
At UAL, 18% of the students have a declared disability, of which 6.9% have a specific learning difficulty, and 6.5% other or multiple impairments (UAL, 2025). Currently on our course, 23% of First Year students and 28% of our Second Year students have an ISA (Individual Support Agreement). ↩︎
In 23/24, students with a declared disability were 4% more likely to achieve a First/2:1, compared to students with no declared disability (UAL, 2025).
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Resources:
Aldrich, W. (2011) Metric Pattern Cutting for menswear. Fifth edition. Chichester: John Wiley
Bamber, V & Jones. A. (2015) Challenging students: enabling inclusive learning. in H Fry, S Ketteridge & S Marshall (eds), A Handbook for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education: Enhancing Academic Practice. 4th edn, Routledge , Abingdon, pp. 152-168.
Banerjee, P. (2024). ‘Connecting the dots: a systematic review of explanatory factors linking contextual indicators, institutional culture and degree awarding gaps.’ Higher Education Evaluation and Development, Vol. 18 No. 1, pp. 31-52
British Dyslexia Association (2023) Dyslexia Style Guide 2023. Online. Available at: https://cdn.bdadyslexia.org.uk/uploads/documents/Advice/style-guide/BDA-Style-Guide-2023.pdf?v=1680514568. (Accessed 17 July 2025)
Cabrera, R and Meyers, P.F. (2022) Classic Tailoring Techniques for menswear: a construction giude. 3rd edition. New York: Fairchild.
Cheah, Z. R. E., McBride, C., Meng, X., Lee, J. R., & Huo, S. (2024). Is chinese dyslexia similar across chinese societies? Evidence from Hong Kong, Beijing, and Taipei. Reading Research Quarterly. (Online), Available at: https://ila.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/rrq.578. (Accessed 15 July 2025)
Christopoulos, A. Mystakidis, S. (2023) Gamification in Education. Encyclopedia 2023, 3, 1223–1243. Available at: https://doi.org/10.3390/encyclopedia3040089. (Accessed 18 July 2025)
Crenshaw, K. (1991). ‘Mapping the Margins: intersectionality, Identity Politics and Violence against Women of Colour.’ Stanford Law Review. Vol. 43, No.6 pp. 1241-1299
Mesthrie, R. (Ed.). (2011). The Cambridge handbook of sociolinguistics. Cambridge University Press.
Salamon, M. (2018) UAL ‘Drawing Laboratory: Research workshops and outcomes’. Spark: UAL Creative Teaching and Learning Journal. Vol 3/Issue 2 pp. 131-141
Savile Row Bespoke. Tailoring Terms. Available at: https://www.savilerowbespoke.com/about-us/tailoring-terms/ (Accessed 23 May 2025)
UAL (2025) Attainment Profiles. Available at: dashboards.arts.ac.uk (Accessed: 23th May 2025)
UAL (2025) Student Profiles: Characteristic. Available at: dashboards.arts.ac.uk (Accessed: 23th May 2025)
UAL (2024) Supporting inclusive and developmental crits: a guidance for staff at UAL. Available at: https://www.arts-su.com/news/article/6013/Crits-and-Inclusive-Learning-at-UAL/ (Accessed: 6 March 2025).
UAL (2019) Guidance for Inclusive Teaching and Learning. Available at: https://canvas.arts.ac.uk/documents/sppreview/3550bb2f-db31-4a28-8223-6a13d80001e7 (Accessed 23 May 2025)
UAL (no date) Creating Accessible Documents. Available at: https://canvas.arts.ac.uk/sites/explore/SitePage/61338/creating-accessible-documents (Accessed 23 May 2025)
UAL (2025) Teaching and Learning Fund. Available at: https://www.arts.ac.uk/about-ual/teaching-and-learning-exchange/awards-and-funding/teaching-and-learning-fund1 (Accessed 18 July 2025)
Undy, C. (2025). Blog Post One – Disability. Available at: https://pgcertclaireundy.myblog.arts.ac.uk/2025/04/25/blog-post-1-disability/ (Accessed 17 July 2025)