We are delighted to welcome Professor Sally Everett (Kings College London, UK) as keynote speaker for the second LTExChange Symposium of the year entitled ‘Decolonising Learning and Teaching’.
Please click here to book your place.
Professor Sally Everett’s keynote address will be followed by a panel discussion exploring an institutional perspective on equality, diversity and inclusivity in learning and teaching.
Symposium Outline:
09:00 – 9:55: Keynote Talk
In this keynote talk Sally will explore issues of power, privilege, and pedagogy in our post pandemic learning landscape. Against a background of raging culture wars, the Black Lives Matter movement, and ever-increasing awarding gaps for black and minority ethnic student groups, it has never been more important and more urgent to collectively “consider how our pedagogic practices might positively respond to calls for a more culturally sustaining pedagogy” (Hanesworth, Bracken, and Elkington, 2019). In positively responding to this challenge, I encourage us all to embrace the opportunity to become less myopic in our perspectives and strive towards practices that aim to liberate our students, our pedagogies, and ourselves, from approaches built on European-centred and western frameworks that have invisibilised subaltern voices and indigenous knowledges.
Although this talk will be underpinned by literature, its primary focus will be on sharing some practical ways to approach the decolonisation and diversification of our learning and teaching – thereby reframing and reconstructing the way we engage in university education. Challenging an institutional hierarchy and monopoly on knowledge is an incredibly daunting prospect and knowing where to start can lead to fear, paralysis, and confusion. Therefore, I hope the discussion might help Teesside University continue in its development of a powerful and penetrating community of inclusive practice. This talk may mark the start of a journey for some, and for others, offer a useful reflection point and some encouragement to continue in their pursuit to overturn and challenge pedagogic tools of exclusion. In sharing ideas and coming together, we are well positioned to collectively explore how we can sensitively and authentically occupy uncomfortable spaces and foster approaches that promote greater social justice, and a more truthful view of the world to our students.
10:00 – 10:55am: Panel Discussion – ‘Equality, Diversity and Inclusivity: An institutional Perspective’
Panel members include our keynote speaker, Prof Sally Everett, as well as colleagues from central Departments (Student and Library Services and Student Learning and Academic Registry) and Academic Schools. Together the panel will explore emerging themes, challenges, and future opportunities for embedding EDI and decolonising learning and teaching practices.
Introducing the panel: Professor Sally Everett (Kings College London); Fran Porritt (Student and Library Services); Dr. Nicola Watchman-Smith (Deputy Direct of Student Learning); Dr. Samantha Gooneratne (School of Computing, Engineering & Digital Technologies) and Eric Bel (School of Social Sciences, Humanities and Law).