2023 Outputs

Best practice for Access Arrangements

Dr Catherine Antalek led a workshop with a group of Special Education Needs Co-ordinators, specialist assessors, parents and students as part of her fellowship activity. The aim of this workshop was to share findings from her Nuffield Foundation supported research, examining best practices for Access Arrangements. Dr Antalek drew on the expertise of practitioners and the knowledge from parents and students who have had experience with access arrangements to create a resource which provides a visual representation of the purpose of access arrangements, so that relevant students may learn to use these effectively.

Improving inclusivity in fertility clinics

 

Research shows that trans and non-binary people often report negative experiences within fertility clinics. This short film explores these experiences, and gives some tips on how to make the clinic a welcoming space for patients of all genders. The video is informed by research conducted with trans and non-binary parents at the Centre for Family Research, University of Cambridge, and this research was funded by the Wellcome Trust. The video was produced by Dr Susie Bower-Brown and Rasha Rad as part of the IOE Impact Fellowship 2023.

Developing a framework for inclusive teaching in Ecuador

Research has highlighted the challenges in implementing inclusive education in Ecuador created by the current curriculum and pedagogy. During her fellowship, Dr Rosanne Esposito developed an activity building on the foundations of a UCL partnership with the leading university in Ecuador, established through an IOE International-funded project. The result was a high quality report with actionable points arising from a workshop, which brought together education professionals and government officials to look at barriers and facilitators for the development of an inclusive teaching framework. This digital resource will promote a shared vision of the inclusive principles that should underpin the curriculum framework and ongoing professional development in educational settings in that country.

• Read the findings: Inclusive Initial Teacher Training (IITT) Framework for Quito, Ecuador

Cultures of Decolonisation in UK Higher Education

  

As part of the 2023 IOE Early Career Impact Fellowship activities, a roundtable discussion organised by Simon Eten brought together Higher Education policy and equality, diversity and inclusivity (EDI) specialists to engage with the ‘Cultures of Decolonisation at UCL’ report, funded by UCL Grand Challenges. Speakers from the Higher Education Policy Institute and the Dorcas Inclusive Education Consultancy, among other organisations, deliberated on the findings from the report, focusing on the interplay of EDI and decolonisation initiatives in universities and their uptake in Higher Education policy and practice. The participating audience (mostly from the UCL community, but also comprising representatives from a few external organisations, such as the Runnymede Trust) engaged in the discussions by raising questions and commenting on the findings of the report as well as presentations from the speakers.

Promoting the participation of under-represented families in research

 

With the support of the Fellowship programme, Dr Jie Gao held a hybrid Impact Engagement Meeting to promote the participation of under-represented families in educational research. Around 40 attendees, including NGO stakeholders, researchers, Research Engagement and Impact managers and PhD students participated. Dr Gao shared the research findings of the project entitled 'Engaging low-income families in education research: an interdisciplinary exploratory study'. She discussed how to make research more impactful and beneficial for under-represented families and launched the initiative of setting up a network platform to connect researchers with schools, NGOs, local authorities and individual families. Based on the Impact Engagement Meeting, she worked with a graphic designer to create an e-brochure to showcase the research findings and the meeting discussion points to raise public awareness.

• Read the findings

Promoting student happiness and wellbeing in schools

Evelyn Kim created this infographic and booklet as a valuable resource for schools and teacher education institutions – aimed at supporting school actors to overcome their perceived challenges and mental barriers, and promote student happiness and wellbeing. These resources share insights and recommendations derived from research that involved 50 South Korean teachers, school leaders, and education professionals. They provide a deep understanding of the diverse ways in which happiness is perceived as the ultimate goal of education. Additionally, they shed light on the perceived roles of and challenges faced by school actors in fostering student happiness in their daily school lives, as well as how schools and teacher education institutions can actively support these actors' aspirations.

• Read the booklet
• View the infographic

From Global Solidarity to Local Action: Co-designing Environmental Initiatives with Faith and Community Groups in the UK

Environmental organisations have faced criticism for lacking diversity and inclusivity, especially among working-class and minority communities. The inclusion efforts of faith communities often failed to generate genuine exchange and expectations for substantial policy contributions. Alessandra Palange worked with Zero Hour – the campaign for the Climate and Ecology (CE) Bill – to widen and diversify engagement with climate policy, and build on her research, which aims to understand faith and grassroots communities' perspectives on climate change and address barriers to engagement in this area. The programme involved delivering workshops as part of her IOE Fellowship to facilitate discussions and co-design environmental initiatives. Participants valued social interaction and learning from each other, and reported an increased awareness of climate change issues and the government’s role in mitigation. They also reported appreciating local expertise, sharing and generating ideas in groups and the potential for community action, alongside personal commitments to take action on environmental issues in a personal capacity.

• Read the findings

‘In-Visible? – Un-Heard? – Un-noticed?’ – an intervention through pop-up banners

The banners build on research conducted as part of Dr Silke Zschomler’s ‘Developing (language) learning opportunities for precarious migrant workers at HE institutions’ project, which was funded by BERA and included a photovoice element. The banners communicate some of the key outcomes of the participatory photography project and feature photographs taken by cleaners at universities, designed with support from the Thomas Coram Research Unit Artist in Residence, Nora Wuttke. The banners are aimed at raising awareness of the tension between the cleaners’ labour as essential to institutions, while highly precarious, with the cleaners often being invisible, unheard, and unnoticed. This intervention is part of a series of activities to open up novel spaces and possibilities for increasing their visibility and counteracting the exclusion of precariously employed cleaning staff – and to develop innovative engagement tools for staff, students, and precarious migrant workers at universities.