Mentor

External Mentor Meeting – Prof. Pauline Kneale: 14/12/2020

Agenda

  1. Introductions
  2. Team summary of the project – what success looks like;
    • Research grant value (£8,641.31)
    • Collect considerable data
    • Submit final report
    • Write a research paper on the topic
    • Assistant the university in efforts to decolonise the curriculum (Delta)
    • Develop a workshop to share findings of the study.
    • Present our findings at the Learning & Teaching conference in June 2021
    • Being able to influence University policies and strategies on Widening participation
    • Reduction in attainment gap at UoN
    • Feed into the development of workshops/guest lectures
    • People responding to findings
    • Increase awareness of the attainment gap
    • Getting colleagues to reflect on their practices
  1. Expected timeline;
    • The study should be completed by June 2021
    • Get ethical approval by End December 2020 (in the process)
    • Recruit participants
    • Collect data (Jan – March) 2021
    • Transcripts (Apr)
    • Research paper (February – June)
    • Workshop (May 2021)
    • Presentation of the findings at the LT conference (June 2021)
  1. Activity plan;
  2. Worries / Concerns;
    • Not getting participants for focus groups
    • Difficulties in publishing our work
  1. Ethics (if required); We have applied for ethical approval
  2. Plans for dissemination of results;
    • LT conference
    • Black History Month in Oct 2021
    • Workshop development for academic and support staff
    • Findings shared in various university boards/committees (EDI: Equality Diversity & Inclusion strategy)
    • Possible directions
    • External funding/collaboration/potential of extending possible partnerships
    • Impact
    • Creation of a centre of Race and Diversity studies (Decolonisation/ internationalisation of curriculum/BAME studies/international students experiences/ various race clubs within the university)
  1. Next steps; 
    • Complete the ethical application
    • Start data collection
    • Start transcript of interview
    • Start working on Research paper
  1. Any Other Business. 
    • Would you recommend conference on WP where this kind of work could be published?
    • What is the process of creating a journal/book series/call for papers
    • FACE conference (https://www.face.ac.uk/who-we-are)
    • Open University conference
    • International Journal of Educational Development (Elsevier)
    • Journal of Learning Development in Higher Education
    • Journal of Education Policy (Taylor and Francis)
    • Innovations in Education and Teaching International (Taylor and Francis)
    • Race Ethnicity and Education ( Professor David Gillborn, CRT)

The University of Leicester’s new vice-chancellor (Professor Nishan Canagarajah) has pledged to eliminate the ‘awarding gap’ which sees many students missing out on top degrees. by 2025

Some thoughts for the team to consider:  

Can students be more involved in the research and dissemination process? Possibly working with the SU team.  Getting students to make the case for you is frequently the path to change. Find ways to promote your research outcomes to the students.  

Change in HE requires evidence pushed consistently and persistently at the staff who can effect change. 

Some potentially useful web resources:  

The biennial widening participation (WP) conference, http://www.open.ac.uk/about/wideningparticipation/events/previous/biennial-wp-conference 

The Hertfordshire Conference has an excellent reputation https://www.herts.ac.uk/about-us/learning-and-teaching/learning-teaching-institute/conferences.  

The ‘Partners in Learning Conference 2020’ and links from this page will give you some examples of presentations   https://www.canterbury.ac.uk/learning-and-teaching-enhancement/excellence-scholarship-and-research/Partners-in-Learning-Conference-2020.aspx   This might lead you to International Journal for Students as Partners   https://mulpress.mcmaster.ca/ijsap

Pages: 1 2