Staff Training & Development

Dr Ryan Arthur (IAS) held four workshops for staff, each addressing different aspects of inclusivity in Higher Education:

1. Pedagogy of Discomfort - strategies for facilitating difficult yet essential conversations in the classroom.
2. Pedagogy of Dialogue - the power of dialogue as a tool for deep learning; strategies to foster meaningful discussions and create inclusive spaces where diverse perspectives can thrive.
3. Pedagogy of Inclusive Assessment - how inclusive assessment strategies can enhance student learning and success; pedagogical approaches that promote fairness, accessibility, and diverse ways of demonstrating knowledge.
4. Pedagogy of Inclusive AI - how AI can be leveraged to create more inclusive and equitable learning experiences; pedagogical strategies for integrating AI tools in ways that support diverse learners, enhance accessibility, and mitigate bias.

An Inclusive Voices Forum has also been held annually for the past two years, providing a collaborative space for Warwick staff to discuss best practices for fostering open dialogue on sensitive topics such as race, gender, politics, and ethics.

You can see workshop resources here and view a recording of the Inclusive Voices 2024 forum here.

In 2023, the Social Inclusion Group launched EmpowerHer - a pilot programme for minority ethnic women and their managers. This six-month programme combined workshops and group coaching to equip aspiring leaders with the knowledge and abilities they need to effectively address the unique challenges they face in predominantly non-diverse environments. The programme also equipped line managers to become catalysts for change by understanding and confronting systemic practices and personal behaviours that can perpetuate disadvantages.

Building on this success, and responding to feedback to expand the programme to a wider range of staff, they are now delivering EmpowerUs for disabled, LGBTQUIA+, and ethnic minority staff as well as those who have experienced barriers to career progression through experiences such as career beaks or caring responsibilities.

"I am delighted to be sponsoring EmpowerUs. To my mind, this programme embodies our values by creating opportunities for staff and their managers to understand and thrive on difference; creating space for them to think freely and share opportunities and the connections created between participants and their managers will support them as they progress on their respective career journeys.

One of the features which I believe make this programme leading edge is the involvement of the managers. I would strongly encourage eligible staff to apply and their managers to both support their application and engage in the programme. Through talent development programmes such as EmpowerUs, we are making positive strides towards increasing diversity in our future leaders and that will enable us to point the way ahead together towards a better and more inclusive world."

Rachel Sandby-Thomas, Registrar

Find out more about the EmpowerUs programme here.

During July 2023, staff and students from Warwick Medical School worked together on a project relating to Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (JEDI). As part of this work, four students collaborated with the Director of Student Experience to co-create a workshop discussing key considerations and challenges faced by underrepresented students in learning environments and their wider university experience.

A total of 176 colleagues from across WMS attended one of 17 small-group, three-hour sessions. Evaluation results indicate statistically significant shifts in participant knowledge and confidence levels in pre-post survey data, with qualitative feedback emphasising the strength of the student-led format.

Until this time, there had been no in-person EDI training exploring intersectionality or how policies and practices impact the student experience. The foundational aims of the training were to reflect the reality of students from marginalised communities, and to have a conversational-type training that brings colleagues from across the School together.

Next steps:

• Create a toolkit to expand this training reach to include all staff and students across the University of Warwick and potentially beyond.
• Explore opportunities for further partnership such as the local Trusts training and an event for alumni of the INSPIRE leadership academy.

• Present the project at conferences and consider publishing in a practice-oriented journal.
• Further design the training to be adaptable for replication in other educational institutions.
• Document methodologies, successes, and lessons learned for wider academic community insights.

At Warwick, we are building inclusive research communities and establishing ways to ensure the voices and opinions of researchers and research enablers are heard and influence decision making.

We’ve established a Research Culture Forum which reports into our University Research Committee, giving it visibility at the highest level. This group brings together researchers at all levels, including early career researchers, research students and technical staff, with Professional Services staff from HR, Social Inclusion and Research Support. This ensures voices from all stakeholders are heard and discussed, to share best practice and influence developments in this area. Topics covered in the Research Culture Forum include inclusive research communities, researcher wellbeing, equality, diversity and inclusion, research career development and training, open research and research integrity.

Output: Meet the Research Culture Forum members.

Next steps: The Research Culture Forum is keen to receive input from across the Warwick research community, including research students, and would like to hear feedback about our research culture. Email ResearchCulture@warwick.ac.uk

Various reports on student attainment and experience at Warwick and across the higher education sector show a clear and substantial difference in the attainment, progression and experience of students of colour compared to those who identify as White.

As a means of addressing these issues, a group of staff and students based within WIHEA’s Anti-racist Pedagogy and Process in Higher Education Learning Circle have focused specifically on developing and delivering anti-racism staff training across the institution, through the Tackling Racial Inequality at Warwick staff development programme.

The programme addresses a need among Warwick staff for support in speaking about racism and eliminating the race-based degree awarding gaps. As a result, TRIW has been carefully designed to help academic and professional services staff better understand the social construction of race, the different operations of racism, and the variety of ways racism manifests itself in the sector and specifically at Warwick, both in learning and wider university spaces. The approach taken in TRIW is rooted in the principles of anti-racist pedagogy and its significance to all disciplines.

Above all, encouraging and facilitating self-reflection amongst staff vis-à-vis their own practice, context, social position and dynamics of power is at the heart of the approach.

Initially piloted with 53 academic and professional service staff in 2020/21, by 2023/24 the programme has attracted more than 400 participants from across the institution.

Outputs: Participating staff have learnt how to have thoughtful, open and rigorous conversations about racism, learning to continue talking and working well together when we disagree, when mistakes are made, and when we have to face our own complicity or help colleagues face theirs.

As a result, stronger relationships to further progress anti-racism work have been built which span the institution, reaching across the academic/professional services divide, our differences in lived experience of race and racism, generational and national differences, faculty differences, and more.

The impact of TRIW has also been witnessed by concrete actions/initiatives instigated directly as a result of participating on the programme. These have ranged from greater departmental engagement with Black students, to faculty events, to influencing the University’s Inclusive Education Model.

Read more about the TRIW programmeLink opens in a new window

Next steps: The next step is to build a national network on anti-racism staff training in HE amongst universities across the country interested in adopting the Warwick TRIW model to their institutions.

The INspire programme is designed to support staff who face well documented barriers getting into top leadership positions.

Participants are given the opportunity to explore their unique identity as a leader and plan their career paths, through a combination of peer mentoring, coaching, sponsorship by University Executive Board members, as well as opportunities to converse with leaders from a various sectors.

Academic and professional services staff at grade 9 who identify as disabled, women, LGBTQUIA+ or from minority ethnic backgrounds are eligible to apply.

Learning outcomes include the development of participants' understanding of the evolving role and strategic context of higher education, while also supporting participants to develop their personal and professional awareness. This incorporates consistently reflective practice to enhance experiential leadership learning.

Outputs: Find out more about the INspire leadership development programmeLink opens in a new window