Disabled and Teacher

ALDinHE 2015Southampton University

1st April 2015

Dr Zrinka MendasLord Ashcroft International Business School

Anglia Ruskin Universityzrinka.mendas@anglia.ac.uk

Structure

Introduction (5min) Research project “Harnessing Dis-Ability” Workshop’s aim Small group discussion (15 min) Discussing issues associated with individual disabilities in chosen scenario: How

much do we know about disability, disabled students and disabled lecturers? Experience sharing (30min) An interactive discussion: How can we, as learning developers, facilitate the process of learning and

teaching and develop disabled students and disabled academic colleagues? What strategies can we develop to help us do so? How can your institution (and PDWG) support you in doing so? Technologies?

Information? Training and development?  Plenary (10 min) Feedback from the previous workshops Questionnaire

Introduction

The workshop is an initiative to spread impact from the research project “Harnessing Dis-ABILITY” currently carried out at Anglia Ruskin University. o Teaching project award (£2900)o This project aims to improve the understanding of how disability can affect

disabled lecturers in a teaching and learning classroom environment and involve the students in the process.

o Project Plan (see Table 1)o Methodology - ethnography in classroom and higher education environment

o Examining the relationship between the ethnographer and the observed: o the notion of "the field"o the validity of data o participant observation - observing "real people“o the issue of connections (e.g. widening the impact) o a common and mutual perception of the physical context

This workshop introduces an interesting new dimension by including learning developers in the process and interact with a disabled lecturer which will lead to learning experiences for ALDinHE members.

Exploring the Space

Classroom

Behaviour

People

Hierarchy

Activity

Month

Communication

Location

Outcomes

Issuing call for participation through ARU Bulletin vol:11 no:8

September 2014

Staff newsletter

University wide

Disseminating the information about project

Identifying the participants (disabled lecturers) in study

September 2014

Internal e-mail

University wide

Setting up the dates for one to one interviews and for classroom observations

Interviews with participants

October 2014

Iopen-ended interviews: one-to one, Skype

University wide

Audio recorded conversations: Identifying the main issues to be explored

Participant observations

November 2014 - February 2015

Internal e-mail

University wide

Video and audio recording of participants’ lectures

Widening the impact: departmental management (deputy dean & head of student experience)

December 2014

Internal e-mail; one to one interview

Cambridge

E-mail correspondenceresearcher’s notes

Widening the impact: internal learning developers (academic lead in distance/online learning, learning technologies and digital media)

December 2014

Participation in PG Cert programme viaWebinar and in-class workshop

University wide

E-mail correspondence, videos, workshop notes, student feedback, researcher’s notes, webinar page

Writing up a preliminary research report

February 2015

Internal e-mail

Learning and Teaching Department

Written report

Widening the impact: students and student representatives (engagement officers, head of student equality and diversity)

January/February 2015

Internal e-mail; one to one meetings

Student services

E-mail correspondenceresearcher’s notes

Setting up the group meeting

February 2015

Internal e-mail

University wide

E-mail correspondenceresearcher’s notes

Widening the impact: university senior management (head of equality and diversity, chancellor)

March 2015

Internal e-mail; one to one interview

Head of Equality and Diversify

E-mail correspondenceresearcher’s notes

Group meeting

March 2015

Internal e-mail

Cambridge Campus

Video and audio recording of participants’ lectures

Collecting participants’ notes

April 2015

Internal e-mail

University wide

Diaries: written, video

Widening the impact: external learning developers

April 2015

External e-mail

ALDinHE Conference 2015, Southampton

Running the workshop: “Disabled & Teacher”

Widening the impact: a dean of business school

April 2015

Internal e-mailone to one interview

Cambridge

E-mail correspondenceresearcher’s notes

Widening the impact: university wide learning and teaching strategy (department head & academic lead for academic & professional development)

April 2015

Internal e-mailone to one interview

University wide

E-mail correspondenceAudio transcriptsResearcher’s notes

Widening the impact: university staff and beyond

July 2015

ARU Teaching Conference 2015

Cambridge

PowerPoint

Writing up a final report

May-June 2015

Internal e-mail

University wide

Networks Journal

Widening the Impact

Disabled lecturers

Departmental management (dean, head of department)

Students (including disabled) and student representatives (equality and diversity, engagement officer)

Learning developers (internal and external)

University senior management (equality and diversity)

Low level impact High level impact

Definitions

ARU Corporate Plan 2014-17 (agreed 24/11/2014): Values: “Supporting each other. We are friendly and inclusive, and celebrate

individuality and diversity. We support and encourage everyone, and strive hard to anticipate needs and aspirations“

Goals: “Focus the classroom experience on modern pedagogies which include stimulating interactions with academic content rather than pure knowledge transmission [..].“ (Goal 3)

“Learning Developers share a common desire to empower students in their learning through helping them make sense of academic practices within higher education and supporting them to acquire the generic underpinning skills for the environments in which they are working. Informed by these values of empowerment and partnership, a Learning Development perspective encourages and supports all students to be actively engaged in their own learning and to analyse and assess their own development within experiential and social contexts” (ALDinHE).

Outcomes

The workshop explores the idea of engaging students, learning developers and disabled lecturers in the learning process.

For disabled students, lecturers and learning developers, the funding support for disabled students will be considerably reduced. Is there something I can do as a teacher to make my teaching more inclusive?

Many international students and lecturers choose to remain anonymous when it comes to declaring their disability.

Learning developers can also be defined as someone who encourages students to promote a tolerance of disability by empowering students to take action and help lecturer in the process, e.g. a dialogue between learning developers, disabled lecturers and students. In this way, they become an important stakeholder group in the project.

Like learning developers, disabled lecturers have a shared desire to help their students work more effectively.

Group activity

Small group discussion (15 min)

Discussing issues associated with individual disabilities in chosen scenario: How much do we know about disability, disabled students and disabled lecturers?

 

Experience sharing (30min)

An interactive discussion:

How can we, as learning developers, facilitate the process of learning and teaching and develop disabled students and disabled academic colleagues?

What strategies can we develop to help us do so? How can your institution (and PDWG) support you in doing so? Technologies?

Information? Training and development?

Feedback

Why did you ask me to come and do a workshop for you? “I really thought it was such good practice for students to be able to see teaching from the view of ‘others’ – it really feeds into the whole ethos of how we talk about inclusive practice but more than this – how we can model good practice. I was also aware of how those with disabilities have so much to offer – but are prevented from doing so because of a lack of understanding –and thought if our PG Cert students listened to your thoughts and insights, it would help them think a little more carefully about the needs of those with a disability – whether a colleague or a student.”

How did you benefit from my workshop? What kind of impact it had on you? “For me, it really helped me ‘see’ how difficult it was living life with a disability, and how brilliantly this could be managed by a positive role model. It helped me grasp the ‘possibilities’ for altering/amending/ thinking about my own practice in a different way. I also was aware that I did not have a full range of resources for PG Cert students to draw upon, and very much hoped that you would identify some new materials that would help to inform the ‘patches’ students would write, as in the past this patch tended to be rather descriptive. I really liked the different ‘scenario’s’ we worked through in class, and thought that ALDinHE would like to have a workshop based on these materials.”

Question time

Was this workshop useful to you?

What aspect of the workshop did you like?

What kind of impact it had on you?

How can you help?