Visualising Justice as a Practice-Based Model for Student Partnership and Institutional Learning

This working paper documents the development of the Visualising Justice initiative, a collaborative student–staff partnership project delivered through the Changemakers programme at London College of Communication in partnership with SOAS University of London. The initiative situates creative practice as a method for exploring questions of racial, social, and climate justice within higher education, while simultaneously functioning as a mechanism for institutional learning and curriculum innovation.

Emerging from the conceptual foundations of Disrupt the Discourse, the project positions student co-creation as a structural intervention within institutional systems rather than a consultative engagement activity. Through events, student-led research, and participatory evaluation processes, the initiative explores how creative storytelling and artistic practice can surface lived experiences of inequality, challenge institutional assumptions, and generate new pedagogical approaches to equity and inclusion in the arts.

Drawing on evidence from the launch events held in January and February 2026, this paper outlines the conceptual rationale, partnership architecture, and emergent themes from participant engagement. It also introduces the Situated Evaluation Framework (SEF), a participatory research methodology developed with student partners to translate creative and dialogic knowledge into institutional learning.

The paper argues that initiatives such as Visualising Justice offer a scalable model for integrating student partnership, creative inquiry, and justice-oriented pedagogy within institutional governance and curriculum development. In doing so, the work contributes to wider sector conversations about how universities might move beyond traditional staffstudent binaries toward more collaborative models of institutional change.