A webpage collating introductory information in Inclusivity in teaching – why bother?
A key strategic goal for UAL is to close the attainment gap and to develop truly inclusive teaching practice (see 2017 UAL Learning, Teaching and Enhancement Strategy).
In this context, this current project has arisen from my studies on the PGCert Inclusivity in Teaching in HE unit. I am creating a webpage which collates key introductory information on inclusivity in teaching, specifically on the BAME attainment gap. This includes sector reports (e.g. HEA) as well as journal articles and e-books.
This investigation is to gauge staff needs in this area: do people seek out this information currently? If so how and where do they look? Is there a perceived need for such a resource? If so, where would people expect/want to find it?
I am conducting a small scale investigation into information needs of staff in a teaching role relating to inclusivity in teaching. I have approached you as a representative member of academic teaching staff, I also plan other members of staff and ask the same questions.
I will ask you some questions about your engagement with this area, starting with your own context in terms of your experience. I then will ask about your information needs in this area.
Your participation is completely voluntary, you can stop the interview at any time. All information gathered will be treated in confidence and findings will be anonymous.
- What are your thoughts on this in the context of your own teaching?
- E.g. In your view do you need staff development in this area? What form might that take?
- And/or are there any projects you are involved in - what?
- What information have you sought on this, if any?
- Where / how did you search for this info? What did you find?
- And how far did this match what you were seeking? E.g. was it art & design specific?
- Would you think of looking on the intranet?
- What further information would be useful to you?
- Where would you expect/want to find this?
- Did you change your teaching as a result? How?
Interview notes –Interviewee A.
- What are your thoughts on this in the context of your own teaching?
As a resource this sounds very interesting. It’d be great to have useful tools, videos, articles, theories in one place – helpful for time-poor staff.
Interviewee A asked: Who will curate this? Can it be edited by anyone? – will there be a part to add recommended further reading? Interviewee A suggested: have a forum for views and discussions.
Interviewee A is part of the Vision22 Attainment Group at LCC – talked about an “awarding gap”, they are gathering useful stuff onto a website – e.g. Shades of Noir, Duna Sabri’s reports etc.
Interviewee A asked how can all this be joined up?
Interviewee A: asked if there would be an annotated bibliography. I explained that there are annotations, and keywords.
Interviewee A asked: would there be a way to search for words in the text of the articles? E.g. looking specifically for information on BAME.
Interviewee A : for example, if staff look at their dashboard and see e.g. there is a particlart issue with international attainemnbt, could they then seek information on this? Said there are a lot of projects across UAL in this area, but not enough joined up-ness. Could we be more imaginative about how to devlop a joined up approach?
Interviewee A: reading and information should be provocative.
Interviewer: Where would you expect to find this info ifyou were seeking it?
Interviewee A: if there’s so much out there already, it’s not necessarily about where it ism but how people know about it. It should be on the intranet, but there is too much interesting stuff to read!
Interviewee A then conducted a Google search on UAL and inclusivity and found TLE material.
Interviewee A: asked interviewer “what is your USP?”
Interviewer: explained that the webpage collates articles and e-books not accessible via the open web (e.g. Via a search engine like Google).Described the conversation with AD Learning, Teaching and Enhancement at CSM: promote/launch through staff development week, e.g. A discussion based on a reading from the material in the webpage.
Interviewee A: suggestedthat giving access to such deep web material could be the focus of the page. He questioned the value of having Duna Sabri’s reports, Terry and Aisha p’s reports as these are ‘everywhere’. He suggested that instead of being “introductory”, the page could be for those who want to read further, beyond the google-accessible material.
As an aside, while we were talking, Interviewee A did a Google search for inclusivity + UAL and came up with TLE pages, also Andrew Slatter’s “Changing Mindsets” project.
Interviewer: how did you search for information previously?
Interviewee A: Had searched on the intranet – specifically the Teaching & Learning Exchange pages and found some useful info.
Interviewer: mentioned Zetoc – alerting system. There would be a link to this on the webpage: Zetoc allows you to set up a search, then whenever a new article is published which matches that search, you are emailed with the details. Interviewer A Said that sounded really good.
Interviewer: where would this info be best located?
Interviewee A: Mentioned the newly redesigned intranet “Canvas”. – is this a way UAL can promote? Also said the University should be proud of all these projects and want to promote them.
Interviewee A: Talked about recent Academic Leaders away day, which had a theme of inclusivity.Said that some people in that group were not informed about inclusivity and the need for it.
Talks about the philosophy of otherness, staff can tend to make students the ‘other’ in the way they talk about them as a homogenous group, rather than as people. Mentioned a recent example of a colleague who complained about “all the black boys sit at the back”; that colleague didn’t seem to understand underlying reasons for this. Talked about white privilege, also that there are other privileges e.g. Chinese privilege, western-centric approach. (I got a bit lost in the note-taking here, may have missed something). Interviewer wondered how that sort of issue could be included. How to change the way we think.
Interviewee A: so It would be good if there could be an area where people could upload material/articles to share. Where the page sits is important, it needs to ‘come to you’, not have to be discovered. It needs links in other places to make it discoverable. Wondered how you could make it exciting to make people want to click to follow the link.
How to get someone who hasn’t yet engaged in this area to be interested? How to make people interested enough to read and actually want to change their ways of thinking, their practice.
Teaching & Learning days are good, but not everybody comes; parallel sessions mean you can’t go to everything plus sometimes something excellent/important is attended by few people. The T&L assoc. Deans lack visibility, which is problematic.
Interviewer: to finish - would this resource giving further information be of interest to you?
Interviewee A: Yes, with USP of resources not accessible on the open web.