Across June and July 2021, the Institute of Teaching and Learning in collaboration with the EDI Directorate ran a series of Inclusive Teaching Workshops. 

1. What does an inclusive university mean to us? Judy Williams, Mehrunnisa Lalani, Emma Smith, Freddie Gent (22/06/21)
2. Inclusive Assessment – Gabrielle Finn, Idris Ogunlade, Nana Agyeman (29/06/21)
3. Inclusive Curriculum – Susie Miles, Siân Morgan, Mukuma Kawesha, Debbi Ralls (07/07/21)
4. Inclusive Teaching Practices – Daniella Ryding, Stephen Doyle, Raska Soemantaro (09/07/21)
5. Inclusive Feedback – Nick Weise (12/07/21)
6. Creating Inclusive Learning Environments – Holly Morse (13/07/21)
7. Towards an Inclusive Education Framework - Judy Williams, Mehrunnisa Lalani, Freddie Gent (15/07/21)

Despite this being a busy period within the University calendar, over 350 staff, students and SU representatives signed up to one or more of the workshops. Each workshop was created in partnership with students and facilitated by colleagues whose own teaching practice has been recognised as a leader in the field of inclusivity.

The workshops offered opportunities for reflection on personal experiences of inclusive teaching and learning and to share best practice among the group. Each workshop was pitched as a standalone theme to offer participants maximum flexibility and choice, but the overlap within inclusive teaching of assessment, curriculum, teaching practice, feedback and environment was very quickly acknowledged by all. This created a useful scaffolding for the final 90-minute workshop in which we discussed an initial draft of the University’s Inclusive Teaching and Learning definition and took the first steps in creating an inclusive education framework and the resources needed to support this.

Following the workshops, a Microsoft Teams space has been set up to continue consultation and collaboration on the development of both the inclusive teaching definition and framework. Recordings of the workshops can be made available for colleagues who were unable to attend.

Led by Dr Leonie Smith, Cardiff University

Thursday, 24^th March, 2022 – 13:00 – 15:00

Middle-class and working-class students typically bring distinct behaviours and educational strategies to the classroom in higher education (Calarco 2018). These different strategies are equally epistemically virtuous, in terms of what they say about student capability and attitude. But, in the usual case, our classroom activities and educational strategies are unintentionally designed to allow only middle-class behaviours to actually flourish and enable success (Jack 2019; Smith and Archer 2020).

The result is a distorted view of working-class students’ abilities and potential – sadly, as viewed by both themselves and by those teaching them. This workshop aimed to help participants do something about that. Participants were:

• introduced to some of the key differences between middle-class and working-class educational strategies, and to the ways in which our classroom strategies and educational favour middle-class behaviours;
• asked to hear and share insight into the exceptional epistemic strengths and virtues that students from marginalised socioeconomic backgrounds who make it to HE actually have;
• invited to reflect on how to apply this knowledge to create assessment and teaching which allows those strengths to flourish.

Led by Dr Wendell Kimper, ITL Fellow and Lecturer in Linguistics, School of Arts, Languages and Cultures

Tuesday, 10^th May, 2022 – 13:00 – 14:30

In order for our teaching to be truly inclusive, we need to be pro-active about building accessibility into the way we structure our course units; how can we teach in a way that does not present physical, cognitive, or organisational barriers to learning?

In this workshop, Wendell explained the principles underlying Universal Design for Learning (UDL): an evidence-based framework that offers concrete methods for enabling the meaningful participation of all learners. 

We looked at how its three principles (multiple means of Representation; multiple means of Engagement; multiple means of Expression) might apply to teaching delivery and assessment within our course units, and talked about practical solutions for implementing UDL in our teaching.

Led by Dr Rebecca Farrington, Clinical Senior Lecturer, Division of Medical Education, School of Medical Sciences, Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health, Dr Enam Haque, Clinical Senior Lecturer, Division of Medical Education, School of Medical Sciences, Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health and Clare Clarke, Lecturer, Division of Medical Education, School of Medical Sciences, Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health

Wednesday 19th October 2022, 14:00-17:00, on campus 

Colleagues were invited to join this face-to-face, on campus discussion session focused on how we can all contribute to our academic institution being more inclusive. This session had previously been delivered for staff in the Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health, and following positive feedback was offered to colleagues across the University through the ITL open programme.

In this session, participants had opportunities in a safe and confidential environment to discuss short video presentations and their own experiences of discrimination, from sexism to racism to ableism. We shared hopes and fears about tackling this behaviour, and unpacked terms such as unconscious bias, cultural sensitivity and microaggressions. The session ended with some tips on when and how to safely challenge discrimination.

In this session colleagues were supported to have open and honest dialogue about Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI), and gained some insight into the difficulties facing our diverse staff and student population.

Led by Dr Zhuomin (‘Min’) Huang, Lecturer in Intercultural Education, Programme Director, MA International Education, Manchester Institute of Education, The University of Manchester

Wednesday 23rd November 2022, 12:00-13:00, online 

This session discussed critical, inclusive understandings of ‘international’ students.

Zhuomin (‘Min’) Huang, led the session which is the first, conceptual/theoretical session in the series on Teaching International Students through creative approaches, incorporating the scholarship on international students and intercultural education. The session also provided an opportunity for building a pedagogical network of Creative approaches to international students (CAIS).

This was the first session in the Teaching International Students through creative approaches series:

Session 1 - Reimagining 'international' students

Session 2 - Teaching and supporting international students through creative approaches

Session 3 - Simulating international students' experience

Led by Dr Alex Baratta, Senior Lecturer, Manchester Institute of Education, University of Manchester and Dr Paul Smith, Lecturer in Education, Manchester Institute of Education, University of Manchester

Wednesday 3rd May 2023, 11:00-12:00, online

This session presented the results of the analysis of Chinese MA students’ academic writing, to include survey and focus group results. The purpose was to determine features which are tied to China English, representing a valid and systematic variety of English which simply differs from standard British English. The purpose is threefold: to distinguish between China English and so-called ‘Chinglish’, respectively a valid variety of English, and the other reflecting (translation) errors; to then bring a spotlight on an emerging variety of English and to argue that difference is not deficit; and finally, to determine the extent to which, if at all, Englishes outside of standard British English should be permitted in students’ academic writing, and the implications these varieties have for marking and feedback.

Useful resources

You may wish to read the following paper - English, Chinglish or China English? Analysing Chinglish Chinese English and China English by Megan Eaves

Led by Dr Zhuomin (‘Min’) Huang, Lecturer in Intercultural Education, Programme Director, MA International Education, Manchester Institute of Education, The University of Manchester and Dr Richard Fay, Senior Lecturer in Education (TESOL & Intercultural Communication), Manchester Institute of Education, The University of Manchester

Wednesday 17th May 2023, 13:00-15:00, on campus

The face-to-face, on campus session provided a simulation activity for staff to understand students’ experience of transitioning into a new academic culture and to reflect on the assumptions made about rules and norms in academic-cultural life.

The session included:

• A simulation which originated in intercultural training
• A debriefing and reflection of the simulation
• A discussion of the implications to be drawn from the simulation for supporting international (and other) students with their transitions to academic life at Manchester.

Zhuomin (‘Min’) Huang and Richard Fay led this practical session as part of the series on Teaching International Students through creative approaches. In the debriefing, they linked the experiential part of the simulation to research and scholarship on intercultural education and international students. Some implications for practice also resulted from these discussions. There were also opportunities for participants to contribute to the Creative Approaches to International Students (CAIS) networking.

This was the third session in the Teaching International Students through creative approaches series:

• Session 1 - Reimagining 'international' students
• Session 2 - Teaching and supporting international students through creative approaches
• Session 3 - Simulating international students' experience

Dr Jennifer O'Brien PFHEA NTF, Academic Lead for Sustainability Teaching and Learning and Honorary ITL Fellow

Wednesday 11th October 2023, 10:00-11:00, online

What should an inclusive, empowering, sustainability education look like? As a student, would you like your course units to include more sustainability learning*? Are you experiencing great sustainability teaching that we should roll out to more students? Do you have frustrations about our sustainability teaching and learning? Do you have enough ‘green*’ support in your broader University experience? As teaching colleagues, do you have excellent practice that you would like to share? Would you welcome any support for your (broadly speaking) teaching, or personal development? How can we underpin our Teaching and Learning strategy with sustainability? These are just a few of many questions these sessions could address….

Led by Jen O’Brien, the University’s Academic Lead for Sustainability Teaching and Learning, these online drop-in Sustainability Teaching and Learning Listening sessions are deliberately open and flexible. They designed for you to share your thoughts. There is no formal presentation, depending upon numbers we might generate breakout groups or jus discuss together, maybe even one-to-one. You can stay for the hour, or pop in for five minutes. The discussion will underpin our new Sustainability Teaching and Learning strategy. An anonymised summary of the discussion and Jen’s action points developed from it will be shared through ITL. If these sessions don’t fit in with your diary and you’d like to chat, feel free email Jen to arrange another time (Jennifer.obrien@manchester.ac.uk)

*At UoM we use sustainability terms interchangeably and unapologetically (there is a discussion there alone!). ‘Sustainability’ and ‘Green’ are used here as short hand for teaching and learning around environment, sustainable development, the Sustainable Development Goals, climate change education, and so forth etc, etc, etc. If you are interested in this discussion, however defined, you are most welcome.

Intended learning outcomes

• An awareness of cross-University likeminded ‘green’* individuals;
• Commonly shared strengths and weaknesses of our current sustainability teaching agenda and practice;
• Responses to questions around the University’s sustainability strategy that Jen can address, either in session or follow-up;
• How to shape personal development around sustainability teaching and learning.

Led by Dr Zhuomin (‘Min’) Huang, Lecturer in Intercultural Education, Programme Director, MA International Education, Manchester Institute of Education, The University of Manchester

Thursday 23rd November 2023, 12:00-13:30, on campus

This session discusses critical, inclusive understandings of ‘international’ students.

Zhuomin (‘Min’) Huang will lead the session which is the first, conceptual/theoretical session in the series on Teaching International Students through creative approaches, incorporating the scholarship on international students and intercultural education. The session will also provide an opportunity for building a pedagogical network of Creative approaches to international students (CAIS).

This is the first session in the Teaching International Students through creative approaches series:

Session 1 - Reimagining 'international' students

Session 2 - Teaching and supporting international students through creative approaches

Session 3 - Simulating international students' experience

Intended Learning Outcomes

By the end of the session, you will:

• Develop critical, inclusive understandings of ‘international’ students and their experience in the UK HE

• Be aware of the key issues in understanding and engaging with the so-called ‘international’ students

• Be open to reimagine what ‘international’ students and their experience and contributions could be in (inter)disciplinary contexts

• Have an opportunity to build/join a critical pedagogical network of creative approaches to international students (CAIS)

Led by Steven Broom, Senior Lecturer and UG Programme Director (Student Experience)

Wednesday 29th November 2023, 11:00-12:00, Online 

In this session we will discuss the findings and outputs from an ITL project investigating how we can identify and support undergraduate

students who are at risk of underachieving or dropping out altogether. We will consider the approach developed by the Department of

Mathematics and discuss what might be possible in attendees’ own departments or areas of interest.

Intended Learning Outcomes

By the end of the workshop, you will be able to:

· Identify and critique possible strategies for early detection of students at risk of underachieving

· Discuss possible approaches to supporting students at risk

· Formulate brief action plan to incorporate ideas into your own departments or areas of interest.