Student Reflection on the BA Education Studies Placement, Pt. 2
By Sarah S Pipkin, on 2 May 2025
The Special Collections Outreach Team has been fortunate to host two students on a placement from the IOE’s BA in Education Studies. As their time comes to a close with us, they’ve written a blog post about their experiences. In this post, Joann Zhang reflects on her experience.
As part of my placement module this term, my colleague Elena Yu and I had the opportunity to work closely with the Outreach team at UCL Special Collections. This experience not only deepened my understanding of how the collections operate behind the scenes but also gave me a new perspective on how historical resources can be used for educational purposes.
This wasn’t my first time engaging with the UCL Special Collections. In Year 1, during the module The Worlds of UCL, Professor Georgina Brewis introduced us to various selected materials from the collection as part of our classwork. As a BA Education Studies student, I also often wonder how these resources could be used in school teaching. So, I was very excited when I knew that I was allocated to the Special Collections team—and even more so when I found out we would be developing a series of GCSE History learning materials.

Selection of photographs from the Worlds of UCL seminar
However, using collection items in a taught class and actually working as part of the team that selects and prepares those materials are very different experiences. In classes, items are pre-selected, but the process behind this is far more complex. First, our topic this year focused on Commonwealth immigration—something I had very little prior knowledge of. Also, I was unfamiliar with archive search engines and didn’t know how to begin locating relevant materials. In total, everything felt new to me at the beginning.
Luckily, with the support of Vicky Price and Sarah Pipkin, Elena and I were able to start with a presentation on the history of Commonwealth immigration, which gave us a basic understanding and helped us set a direction for our research. We then learned how to navigate UCL Library Services and use the archive catalogue to search for materials. Finally, we booked the Reading Room to check items in person and arrange our findings into a spreadsheet.

Viewing items in the IOE and SJRR Reading Rooms
Throughout this process, I was impressed by the diversity of items held in the collection. Beyond published rare books, there were small press materials like magazines and newspaper clippings, as well as personal letters and ephemera. My favourite item among all my findings was a videotape called Motherland, found in the Marina Foster collection. It was a play created by a group of female students at Vauxhall Manor School, based on the real-life stories of 23 Caribbean women who migrated to the UK in the 1950s. It might be particularly inspiring for GCSE students to learn about what students of the same age were creating more than 40 years ago.

Watching the Motherland VHS
This research experience felt like a treasure hunt: starting with almost no knowledge and slowly digging deeper to uncover hidden gems with teamwork and guidance from our supervisors. There were times of disappointment, especially when items didn’t quite match what I was looking for. But there were also rewarding moments brought by unexpected findings. Over the last four months, I was glad to see my confidence grow with each visit to the Reading Room, and I have developed new research skills that I can apply in other contexts.
At the end, I would like to express my sincere appreciation to Amy Howe, Becky Sims, Chelsie Mok, Colin Penman, Liz Lawes, Sarah Pipkin, and Vicky Price, who supported me throughout the placement with patience and kindness. I’m truly grateful for this opportunity and hope to see you in the future, both in and beyond the Special Collections.