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Queering University Collective Vision of Success

The programme hopes to embed & centre queer perspectives, with the goal of understanding and improving the student and staff experience and dismantling barriers that hinder community, belonging, achievement, attainment, continuation, completion, and progression.

Our collective vision of success for the programme

Queer pedagogy accessible to all

  • All staff and students feel able to engage with queer pedagogies with confidence.
  • Peer support, training, and resources facilitate access to, and engagement with, queer pedagogies.

Visible widespread role modelling

  • Queer pedagogies and inclusive practice are widely modelled across all faculties, subjects, and specialisms.
  • An extensive network of queer pedagogy practitioners that is visible, knowledgeable, and supportive.

Recognition of the value of activism

  • Activist experiences and approaches embraced as valuable within teaching & learning spaces.

Engagement from non-LGBTQUIA+ people

  • The value of queer pedagogies and perspectives is recognised as relevant and valuable for all, LGBTQUIA+ and non-LGBTQUIA+ people alike.
  • Non-LGBTQUIA+ people's engagement and enthusiasm for the programme and its themes are on a par with LGBTQUIA+ people's.

Foregrounded queer pedagogies and perspectives

  • Queer pedagogies and perspectives achieve prominence across the University, and the perceived value of queer work is elevated.
  • An expectation on all members of the University community to engage with queer pedagogies and perspectives, and LGBTQUIA+ inclusive practice.

Rejection of deficit thinking

  • Clear rejection of perspectives and approaches that blame students for disparate outcomes, rather than the policies and practices that perpetuate oppressive and inequitable systems.

Universal mastery of 'the basics'

  • Every member of our community has a grasp of the fundamentals of queer and LGBTQUIA+ inclusive practices.

Space to question and challenge

  • Members of the University community are open and responsive to challenge, rather than defensive.
  • Students are equipped with the ability to think critically, particularly as a means to engage less marginalised students.
  • The teaching & learning space is perceived as a space in which all present are encouraged, and feel safe, to question and challenge.
  • Rigorous investigation and challenge is recognised and taught as integral to the scientific method.

Recognition of value in queering the University

  • Perceptions of queer pedagogies and perspectives as irrelevant, distracting, or detracting from any subject or specialism are challenged and overcome.
  • Queer pedagogies and perspectives are recognised as enriching for all, and it is understood that their value is not limited to LGBTQUIA+ students.

Free to be your whole self

  • Every member of the community is able to freely express and share their identities, their experiences, and their perspectives.
  • Within a University community which is not specifically a queer community, LGBTQUIA+ people nevertheless feel like full members.

Transcendence of the legal minimum

  • Work meets the requirements of, but moves beyond and away from the legal framework of inclusion as its basis, including the Equality Act 2010 and its language.

Burden of work is proportionate and recognised

  • There is recognition of and reimbursement for labour carried by marginalised people against their own oppression.
  • Ultimately, marginalised people are not undertaking a disproportionate level of the work involved in queering the university.

Students as co-creators

  • Students are co-creators of their education, with ongoing, visible, and accessible opportunities for students to take an active role in teaching & learning at the University.
  • Recognition that the above is distinct from an expectation that students 'fix' practices which are not diverse or inclusive.

Support from University leaders

  • Support and meaningful engagement from leaders within the University community.
  • Recognition that leaders may be students or staff, of any rank or grade, within any department.

Progress is shared to benefit others

  • Progress, resources, and other outputs are published or otherwise distributed for the benefit of others in similar contexts, including further and higher education.
  • Significant levels of collaboration with further and higher education institutions.

Inclusive language used and developed

  • Members of the University community are knowledgeable and confident in their use of inclusive language, generally and within subject specialisms.
  • There is consistent adherence to best practice, as well as engagement with the development of inclusive language, generally and within subject specialisms.

Teaching beyond a single subject lens

  • Interdisciplinary approaches are recognised as having intrinsic value across all disciplines.
  • All teaching & learning is interdisciplinary, and the boundaries between subjects are recognised as artificial.