In the March 2024 blogpost, we shared some of the key changes in Advance HE’s 2023 Professional Standards Framework (PSF 2023) compared with its predecessor, the UKPSF 2011.
One of these changes involved making explicit the requirement to demonstrate practice that is both effective and inclusive across the relevant Areas of Activity (two for Associate Fellow applicants, five for Fellow or Senior Fellow). This helps to highlight how inclusivity should be embedded throughout all areas of practice, rather than something considered separately or only in certain circumstances.
Applicants for Senior Fellowship aligned to the PSF 2023 might like to reflect on not only how they lead others to ensure their practice will be inclusive for students, but how they themselves ensure their leadership of others is inclusive for their peers.
In this blogpost, two of our colleagues share examples of their own inclusive practices.
Firstly, Philippa Price, Subject Librarian and Advance HE Fellow, shares her experiences of making inclusion part of her everyday practice. The work Philippa does as chair of the University’s Inclusive Services Group is an excellent example of collaborating with others to enhance practice, aligned with V5 of the PSF 2023. Directing your students to appropriate support, including the inclusive library services Philippa links to below, aligns with Area of Activity A4 – support and guide learners.
“I’ve been a Subject Librarian at Swansea University since 2015 and I’ve been involved in the Inclusive Services Group (ISG), which I now chair, since it started in 2016. We’re a grassroots community of Professional Services staff with an interest in equality, diversity and inclusion. We aim to encourage inclusive practice across our services. In the library context, that includes working to be ‘inclusive by default’ instead of putting in policy exceptions for particular students (or staff!). This follows the social model of disability. We highlight some of our Inclusive Services on the library’s webpage. I try to take this approach in my teaching too by following best practice advice. SALT and SAI provide excellent information on inclusive and accessible teaching material and approaches.
ISG has helped me to develop a supportive and knowledgeable network of contacts in the university. I don’t consider myself an expert in inclusive practice but being part of the group has given me access to people who know more than me, either from personal experience or through their professional knowledge. I’ve been able to develop my own knowledge and awareness through working with them and educating myself by seeking out internal and external CPD. ISG is one of the most rewarding parts of my work life. Every year I write up our activities from the previous academic year and share the report with contacts in the university. It can be hard to find time to do this, but I find it so valuable to read over the finished document and reflect on what we’ve achieved, the ways the group is making a difference and what we can do next. It’s also a useful way of sharing our achievements with colleagues and perhaps inspiring them to make some changes too.”
Dr Fernando Maestre is a Lecturer in Human-Computer Interaction in the Faculty of Science and Engineering and a current participant on the University’s Postgraduate Certificate Teaching in Higher Education, accredited against Descriptor 2 of the PSF, during which he opted to complete the programme’s Inclusivity patch. Fernando shares his experience of providing students with opportunities to share their diverse perspectives and experiences, aligned with V1 of the PSF 2023, helping students to feel included and valued, and enhancing the learning experience for all.
“Throughout my academic career, I have taught students coming from different countries and cultures to pursue a higher education degree. I have always tried to make a diverse group of students feel integrated and involved in the classroom. One way that has worked well for me in this regard is to have the students identify and use their unique skills and perspectives in a group project. For instance, if a student spoke a different language, I encouraged them to leverage that skill and integrate material or resources in that language into any relevant phase of their group project. After doing this in one of the computing courses I taught, students told me that they had felt quite glad and motivated to work hard on their projects as they felt their uniqueness was being appreciated. More importantly, they felt that it was important that their projects incorporated views and perspectives generated by members of communities only they had links and access to. Thus, the overall process as well as the outcomes of the group projects indeed served as a great pedagogical opportunity to further highlight to the class about the importance of working in diverse and non-homogenous groups as well as to find ways to include diversity in a group in more effective and engaging ways.”
Further Resources
You can find a wealth of resources to support inclusive and accessible practices on SALT’s webpages and also through the Swansea Academy of Inclusivity.
Specifically, there’s self-enrol Canvas Courses on Inclusive Practices or Making Student Experience Inclusive.
