Browsing by Author "Ansley, Lucy"

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    Addressing differential degree awarding through critical-race methodologies
    (2020-03) Crofts, Melanie; Ansley, Lucy
    In UK Universities, white students are 13.6% more likely to be awarded a good honours degree than students of colour . Historically, a deficit perspective has been used across the sector to counter this reality, rooted in the “view that the problem lies with the students and that it is some attribute of the student that means they attain less well, rather than because of an institutional factor such as curriculum design/development” . This approach not only fails to acknowledge the role the institution plays in differential degree awarding, but also ignores the body of research which shows that even when a range of factors (including prior attainment) are controlled for, an unexplained difference still occurs between students of colour and white students (Broecke and Nicholls, 2007 ; McDuff et al., 2018 ). This suggests that further exploration of the experience of students of colour is required. At De Montfort University, the Freedom to Achieve project aims to address differential degree awarding through a multi-faceted programme of individual projects designed to enhance our cultural diversity and support success for all. A core element of the project to date has been the implementation of student consultations, which allowed for further exploration of the lived experience of the curriculum for students of colour. Underpinned by a Critical Race-Grounded Methodology, these consultations sought to unearth the non-dominant narratives of student experience at De Montfort University. Of particular interest are the findings from these sessions which suggest that a focus upon the curriculum alone is not sufficient to impact student experience on campus. Therefore, this paper will share the findings of the Freedom to Achieve project and will use these to illustrate why initiatives aimed at addressing differential degree awarding needs to include work around the curriculum, but also around a sense of belonging, relationships, community and student development.
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    Addressing differential degree awarding through critical-race methodologies
    (2020-07) Crofts, Melanie; Ansley, Lucy
    In UK Universities, white students are 13.6% more likely to be awarded a good honours degree than students of colour . Historically, a deficit perspective has been used across the sector to counter this reality, rooted in the “view that the problem lies with the students and that it is some attribute of the student that means they attain less well, rather than because of an institutional factor such as curriculum design/development” . This approach not only fails to acknowledge the role the institution plays in differential degree awarding, but also ignores the body of research which shows that even when a range of factors (including prior attainment) are controlled for, an unexplained difference still occurs between students of colour and white students (Broecke and Nicholls, 2007 ; McDuff et al., 2018 ). This suggests that further exploration of the experience of students of colour is required. At De Montfort University, the Freedom to Achieve project aims to address differential degree awarding through a multi-faceted programme of individual projects designed to enhance our cultural diversity and support success for all. A core element of the project to date has been the implementation of student consultations, which allowed for further exploration of the lived experience of the curriculum for students of colour. Underpinned by a Critical Race-Grounded Methodology, these consultations sought to unearth the non-dominant narratives of student experience at De Montfort University. Of particular interest are the findings from these sessions which suggest that a focus upon the curriculum alone is not sufficient to impact student experience on campus. Therefore, this paper will share the findings of the Freedom to Achieve project and will use these to illustrate why initiatives aimed at addressing differential degree awarding needs to include work around the curriculum, but also around a sense of belonging, relationships, community and student development.
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    “Addressing differential degree awarding through critical-race methodologies”
    (2021-07) Crofts, Melanie; Ansley, Lucy
    In UK Universities, white students are 13.6% more likely to be awarded a good honours degree than students of colour . Historically, a deficit perspective has been used across the sector to counter this reality, rooted in the “view that the problem lies with the students and that it is some attribute of the student that means they attain less well, rather than because of an institutional factor such as curriculum design/development” . This approach not only fails to acknowledge the role the institution plays in differential degree awarding, but also ignores the body of research which shows that even when a range of factors (including prior attainment) are controlled for, an unexplained difference still occurs between students of colour and white students (Broecke and Nicholls, 2007 ; McDuff et al., 2018 ). This suggests that further exploration of the experience of students of colour is required. At De Montfort University, the Freedom to Achieve project aims to address differential degree awarding through a multi-faceted programme of individual projects designed to enhance our cultural diversity and support success for all. A core element of the project to date has been the implementation of student consultations, which allowed for further exploration of the lived experience of the curriculum for students of colour. Underpinned by a Critical Race-Grounded Methodology, these consultations sought to unearth the non-dominant narratives of student experience at De Montfort University. Of particular interest are the findings from these sessions which suggest that a focus upon the curriculum alone is not sufficient to impact student experience on campus. Therefore, this paper will share the findings of the Freedom to Achieve project and will use these to illustrate why initiatives aimed at addressing differential degree awarding needs to include work around the curriculum, but also around a sense of belonging, relationships, community and student development.
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    Decolonising DMU Progress Report: March 2024
    (De Montfort University, 2024-03-11) Ansley, Lucy; Hall, Richard
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    Decolonising DMU: Interim Report, 2022
    (2022-01) Hall, Richard; Ansley, Lucy; Aujla Sidhu, Gurvinder; Connolly, Paris; Crofts, Melanie; Hall, Chris; Patel, Kaushika; Prescod, Mark; Towlson, Kaye
    The aim of DDMU is to create the anti-racist University. In the first phase of the project, work built upon a previous Office for Students' project on the awarding gap, Freedom to Achieve, in order to focus work upon the following priorities: institution; students; staff; Library and Learning Services; and research and evaluation. This interim report gives an overview of the evaluation of these workstreams between November 2019 and December 2021, and the ways in which this work supports equality, diversity and inclusion/Race Equality Charter commitments. The report includes the collection of qualitative and quantitative data, and analysis of relevant documents, to look at the impact an challenges of project activities. The purpose of this report is to ascertain the impact of decolonising at DMU on staff and student stakeholders so far, and the extent to which it has been embedded across the institution at a range of levels. The report closes by showing how this work has now shifted in Phase 2, to focus upon 4 commitments: equality of education and research; progression, talent and representation; governance and accountability; and understanding culture and behaviour. These demonstrate a renewed mapping across to DMU's Access and Participation Plan, Race Equality Charter, and the awarding gap.
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    Decolonising DMU: Interim Report, 2022
    (De Montfort University, 2022-02) Hall, Richard; Ansley, Lucy; Aujla-Sidhu, Gurvinder; Connolly, Paris; Crofts, Mel; Hall, Chris; Patel, Kaushika; Prescod, Mark; Towlson, Kaye
    The aim of DDMU is to create the anti-racist University. In the first phase of the project, work built upon a previous Office for Students' project on the awarding gap, Freedom to Achieve, in order to focus work upon the following priorities: institution; students; staff; Library and Learning Services; and research and evaluation. This interim report gives an overview of the evaluation of these workstreams between November 2019 and December 2021, and the ways in which this work supports equality, diversity and inclusion/Race Equality Charter commitments. The report includes the collection of qualitative and quantitative data, and analysis of relevant documents, to look at the impact an challenges of project activities. The purpose of this report is to ascertain the impact of decolonising at DMU on staff and student stakeholders so far, and the extent to which it has been embedded across the institution at a range of levels. The report closes by showing how this work has now shifted in Phase 2, to focus upon 4 commitments: equality of education and research; progression, talent and representation; governance and accountability; and understanding culture and behaviour. These demonstrate a renewed mapping across to DMU's Access and Participation Plan, Race Equality Charter, and the awarding gap.
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    Decolonising or anti-racism? Exploring the limits of possibility in higher education
    (Taylor and Francis, 2023-04-19) Hall, Richard; Ansley, Lucy; Connolly, Paris
    Decolonising work in Higher Education (HE) has become increasingly mainstreamed. One issue is the relationship between such work and that of equality, diversity and inclusivity (EDI), or the potential reduction and co-option of decolonising for EDI purposes. This article discusses the characterisations of, and drivers for, decolonising inside UK HE, and then situates this against one, institution-wide programme of work. This programme sought to investigate how staff and students have understood the concept of decolonising, and to evaluate the limits of this work. Analysing surveys and interviews using a grounded theory approach suggested a moderate or limited view of decolonising work, and supports concerns that decolonising is losing its radical edge. Echoing work on the possibilities for epistemic and racial justice from inside capitalist institutions infused with the logics of coloniality, the argument questions whether it is possible to know the University otherwise.
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    Defining a self-evaluation digital literacy framework for secondary educators: the DigiLit Leicester project
    (Association for Learning Technology, 2014-04) Hall, Richard; Atkins, Lucy; Fraser, Josie
    Despite the growing interest in digital literacy within educational policy, guidance for secondary educators in terms of how digital literacy translates into the classroom is lacking. As a result, many teachers feel ill-prepared to support their learners in using technology effectively. The DigiLit Leicester project created an infrastructure for holistic, integrated change, by supporting staff development in the area of digital literacy for secondary school teachers and teaching support staff. The purpose of this article is to demonstrate how the critique of existing digital literacy frameworks enabled a self-evaluation framework for practitioners to be developed. Crucially, this framework enables a co-operative, partnership approach to be taken to pedagogic innovation. Moreover, it enables social and ethical issues to underpin a focus on teacher-agency and radical collegiality inside the domain of digital literacy. Thus, the authors argue that the shared development framework constitutes a new model for implementing digital literacy aimed at transforming the provision of secondary education across a city.
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    The Digilit Leicester Framework Project
    (Leicester City Council, 2015) Hall, Richard; Atkins, Lucy; Fraser, Josie
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    DigiLit Leicester: 2013 Survey Results
    (Leicester City Council, 2013) Hall, Richard; Atkins, Lucy; Fraser, Josie
    This report provides a high-level summary of the city-wide findings of the DigiLit Leicester survey, contributing to a clearer understanding of the current digital literacy confidence levels of secondary school staff, and recommendations that the project team will be taking forward within Leicester schools.
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    DigiLit Leicester: 2014 Survey Results.
    (Leicester City Council, 2014) Hall, Richard; Atkins, Lucy; Fraser, Josie
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    DigiLit Leicester: Initial Project Report 2013
    (Leicester City Council, 2013) Hall, Richard; Atkins, Lucy; Fraser, Josie
    This paper collects together the secondary school digital literacy framework and survey content created in consultation with Leicester BSF schools.
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    DigiLit Leicester: Project Activities Report 2014
    (Leicester City Council, 2014) Hall, Richard; Atkins, Lucy; Fraser, Josie
    This report collates activities that have taken place across Leicester between January 2013 and April 2014, some of which are currently ongoing. During this period, the DigiLit team led on six events and projects, and 21 school-led projects were undertaken. It is designed to share the processes, outcomes and benefits of the work that has been undertaken, and concludes with recommendations for the next round of activity and planning, drawing on lessons learnt.
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    Exploring teachers' professional development and digital literacy: a grounded theory study
    (De Montfort University, 2018-01) Atkins, Lucy
    Many aspects of living and working now involve the use of technology and this trend will continue to grow. Over 93 per cent of jobs in the UK now require at least basic digital skills. Outside of work, many aspects of day to day life are also mediated by technology; from banking and shopping to socialising. In this increasingly digital society, an individual requires the knowledge and understanding to make use of technology to suit their own unique needs. One response to this was the inclusion of digital literacy as part of the National Curriculum, viewed as a key foundation skill equivalent to traditional literacy and numeracy. But in order for teachers to help students develop their digital literacy they need support too. This became particularly important in relation to educational technology when in 2012 the UK's primary organisation for supporting the professional development of teachers with technology was abolished. This thesis has taken a constructivist grounded theory approach to investigating how current professional development strategies support teachers’ digital literacy continuing professional development (DL CPD). Focus groups, interviews and observations collected the experiences and opinions of in-service teachers, creating a theory that has been developed by prioritising teacher voice. The emerging theory suggests that within a climate of increasing accountability and performativity, teachers do not have the luxury of time and support to effectively engage with DL CPD. Due to restrictions on their available time and resources teachers must be discerning about the CPD with which they engage to ensure that they meet statutory requirements and school priorities. In particular four spheres of concern were identified that hold significant influence over a teacher’s decision to engage with DL CPD: professional, personal, environmental and cultural. These spheres were synthesised with existing theory to create the Teachers’ Digital Engagement Framework, a tool which can be used to both explore an existing DL CPD programme and support the design of future DL CPD programmes. The Teachers’ Digital Engagement Framework was applied to the data collected in order to formulate recommendations for teachers, schools, educational research and Government policy.
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    Freedom to Achieve: addressing the attainment gap through student and staff co-creation
    (University of Greenwich, 2019-06-11) Ansley, Lucy; Hall, Richard
    This paper examines the role that curriculum co-creation can play in creating a more inclusive higher education and, in so doing, addresses the complex challenge of differential student outcomes and attainment. It achieves this by exploring Kingston University’s Student Curriculum Consultant Programme (SCCP), which is an integral part of the institution’s Inclusive Curriculum Framework (ICF). Students who work as Curriculum Consultants use their own diverse lived experiences and Kingston University’s ICF to collaborate with staff to create more accessible, meaningful and globally-relevant curricula at all levels of the institution. The consultants work with staff in a variety of ways to address potential barriers in the curriculum. This paper examines three instances of co-creation facilitated through the SCCP. We argue that this programme acts as a mechanism through which the institution can not only legitimate, but also actively endorse and encourage co-creation in order to create more inclusive curricula.
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    Freedom to Achieve: Project Evaluation Report
    (De Montfort University, 2018-10-12) Atkins, Lucy
    Freedom to Achieve (FTA) is DMU’s commitment to ensure that everyone, whatever their background, can achieve their potential and can see themselves and people like them reflected in the institution. The project is a multi-faceted programme with a number of individual projects designed to enhance our cultural diversity and support success for all. This report presents the work completed over the last academic year.
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    Scoping a Muslim friendly Universities audit: DMU Interim Report
    (De Montfort University and The Aziz Foundation, 2024-09-27) Hall, Richard; Ansley, Lucy; Loonat, Sumeya; Nemouchi, Lamia
    The De Montfort University (DMU), Muslim-Friendly Universities audit focuses upon the student experience of British Muslim, first-year undergraduate students. It situates this experience against those students’ conceptions of their faith, and also in relation to ethnicity, gender and disability. The primary intention is to understand how these students experience their Muslimness in HE. A secondary intention is that this research will materially impact the ways in which universities can recognise intersectional and faith-based complexities in the undergraduate student experience. We intend to understand these experiences, in order to define a co-created action plan to ensure that HE is as inclusive for British Muslim students as their non-Muslim/religious peers. Our starting point for this is through partnerships with students, facilitated with support, advice and guidance from the Aziz Foundation.
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    Struggling for the anti-racist university: learning from an institution-wide response to curriculum decolonisation
    (Taylor and Francis, 2021) Hall, Richard; Ansley, Lucy; Connolly, Paris; Loonat, Sumeya; Patel, Kaushika; Whitham, Ben
    Increasingly, institutions are amplifying work on race equality, in order to engage with movements for Black lives and decolonising. This brings universities into relations with individual and communal issues of whiteness, white fragility and privilege, double and false consciousness, and behavioural code switching. Inside formal structures, built upon cultures and practices that have historical and material legitimacy, engaging with such issues is challenging. The tendency is to engage in formal accreditation, managed through engagement with established methodologies, risk management practices and data reporting. However, this article argues that the dominant articulation of the institution, which has its own inertia, which reinforces whiteness and dissipates radical energy, needs to be re-addressed in projects of decolonising. This situates the communal work of the institution against the development of authentic relationships as a movement of dignity.