1. Disabled and Teacher ALDinHE 2015 Southampton University 1 st April 2015 Dr Zrinka Mendas Lord Ashcroft International Business School Anglia Ruskin University zrinka.mendas@anglia.ac.uk

2. 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

3. 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.

4. Exploring the Space Classroom Behaviour People Hierarchy

5. 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 I open-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 correspondence researcher’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 via Webinar 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 correspondence researcher’s notes Setting up the group meeting February 2015 Internal e-mail University wide E-mail correspondence researcher’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 correspondence researcher’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-mail one to one interview Cambridge E-mail correspondence researcher’s notes Widening the impact: university wide learning and teaching strategy (department head & academic lead for academic & professional development) April 2015 Internal e-mail one to one interview University wide E-mail correspondence Audio transcripts Researcher’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

6. 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

7. 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).

8. 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.

9. 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?

10. 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.”

11. 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?