Tag Archives: Engagement

Diversity & Inclusion

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When I joined the LCF as an HPL I had to undertake the training in Equality, Diversity and Inclusion.

I believe these are fundamental and relevant topics which I’ve always tried my best to embrace, and to which I can personally relate because I am Spanish and I have lived abroad for few years.

Inclusion comes from many sources including culture, ethnicity, gender, and different learning abilities. My aim is to feel everyone welcome, a part of the group and in a safe space for sharing their thoughts and doubts. During my lectures, seminars and tutorials I seek to create an inclusive space where all the voices are heard.

My approach has had a number of elements:

  • Group Sharing: Students introducing themselves verbally to the group when we meet for the first time, including the reasons behind their academic choice and their future goals. I realise not everyone is comfortable in introducing themselves verbally and I have given them the option of writing their introduction in Padlet. 
  • Learning the names of the students and naming them/asking them directly during the sessions.
  • Knowing where they are coming from. I have had the opportunity of travelling a lot due to my corporate job and can often share stories related with their country of origin.
  • Asking them for examples of their own relevant industry experience. Few of them have had the opportunity of working as design intern and their knowledge of sampling development is very valuable when we cover this topic during the unit.
  • Creating small group activities where each student can participate in role playing.

Thanks to the PG Cert, I also incorporate the following ideas into my practice to increase the student’s inclusion and interaction:

Teaching with Integrity

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I’ve been reading the case study from Bruce Macfarlane’s 2004 book Teaching with Integrity: The ethics of higher education practice (Routledge), in which a fictional lecturer, ‘Stephanie Rae’, receives feedback on her teaching in the form of student evaluation forms and a peer observation.

How relevant is it to get feedback from our students and colleagues to elevate our lectures and ourselves as practitioners.

It’s always a vulnerable position being observed, specially by other colleagues, as it’s easy to get used to a regular way of working that allows us to operate in our comfort zone. However, what we fail to recognize is that we could be seen as being boring, lacking innovation, interaction and engagement with the students. We could also be guilty of being confusing or obsolete. Like Stephanie, who was being compared with other colleagues who were apparently more dynamic, charismatic and thought provoking.

I believe the Peer Observation Exercise will challenge me; however, I am looking forward to it. It’s a sweet and sour feeling which will help me to move forward.

Stephanie had a time constraint and her focus was her research work. That is the reason given by her not to rewrite her lectures as she didn’t have enough hours to do it due to her research workload. However, I wonder, does time really impact teaching quality?  Don’t we need the same time to be interactive than delivering a solo speech? Don’t we need the same time to be boring than charismatic? Of course, time matters as it is a resource that allows you to prepare more interesting sessions, but till which degree is it about preparation vs being skilled?

Pedagogy & Empathy

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Pedagogy is understood as “the method and practice of teaching, especially as an academic subject or theoretical concept”.

Discussing what we understand as pedagogy and which concepts and methods come to our minds, questions are raised about empathy, ludic practices, ipsative teaching, VARK model, digital tools, physical space, experimental learning activities, risk taking stimulation, freedom of expression and so on.

I have been wondering how one would start to teach Empathy. It’s such an important skill for everyone including teachers and students.

I got greater clarity after a discussion with my colleagues from the PG Cert. First of all, can empathy be taught? I am not sure about that as from my perspective empathy is an inner value. Although, in any case, empathy could be encouraged with listening, respect and allowing to each of us to explain our story, where are we coming from and our background. Active listening is key as well as the creation of a safe space where everyone feels comfortable and can share their thoughts freely. Physical space is something I had never considered before James Carazzo’s session, but after reflecting on it, I believe is an essential part of creating an environment of trust.  I am also curious how we can extrapolate this concept to on-line teaching where the physical space is substituted by a cold screen. How can empathy be delivered in a digital world? 

In addition, other thoughts come to my mind. Is the size of the students group relevant when we want to encourage values like empathy? From my experience, it is more challenging to have meaningful conversations across all the students when the group is larger than 25-30 people.