Title: Professional Services and Anti-Racism

Presenters: Poonam Pedley and Christine Bradford 

As a professional services staff member, where do I start? What first steps can I take if I don't have a module to decolonise?

Join two professional services colleagues who asked themselves the same question, hear about some projects that came out of their anti-racism journeys, and start thinking about your own next steps in a brief brainstorming session.

Open to any colleagues who wish to consider what part they can play towards anti-racism, beyond the classroom and curriculum context.

Title: Student Case Studies

A Hole in the wall: Seminars, Pedagogy, Curricula and what it all means for Inclusion.

Presenter: Yinka Aresa

Students coming from the UK education system, particularly widening participation students are not always well equipped with what it means to be a university student. Some departments do their best to supplement their transition but it doesn’t seem to be a wide spread attempt. This presentation hopes to question how the curriculum can be improved to benefit all students in the most inclusive way. Research for this presentation has been done through WIHEA with ‘The Seminar Project’ and my own undergraduate dissertation which asks the same questions about the humanities.

Title: Decolonising Social Sciences

Presenter: Dipbuk Panchal

‘Decolonising education’ is often misunderstood or even misinterpreted. This is perhaps due to the media attention, combined with some misuse of the language of ‘decolonisation’, which has created a lot of debate. With this session, we invite the attendees to embark on the journey of understanding what is meant by decolonising education, how to engage with the ongoing efforts on this, and to support the start of this process in Social Sciences at Warwick.

Title: Virtual Reality for Small Group Facilitators; Understanding Experience of Minoritised Groups

Presenters: Isabelle Gallier-Birt and Kaldora Ibekwe

Students have reported that when in small group sessions, facilitators did not always intervene when either microaggressions occurred or cultural explanations were requested of students. The students have raised that they then have an added burden of feeling the need to manage the situation themselves, an action which may be impacting their learning.

This room will explore the concerns of facilitators and barriers to action followed by the development of a student-devised training package using virtual reality to help facilitators understand the impact on students and support their development in this area.