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Key themes – HE research on student learning

LGBT Student Learning in Higher Education: Key Concerns and Questions Dr Vicky Gunn Director Learning and Teaching Centre. Key themes – HE research on student learning. How does being identified as, self-identifying as: ‘different’ impact on each of these?.

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Key themes – HE research on student learning

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  1. LGBT Student Learning in Higher Education: Key Concerns and QuestionsDr Vicky GunnDirectorLearning and Teaching Centre

  2. Key themes – HE research on student learning How does being identified as, self-identifying as: ‘different’ impact on each of these?

  3. Contributing academic factors:1. Pedagogic • Curriculum approaches (programme design & implementation including assessment processes); • Newness & size of subject (Gibbs, 1989); • Academic’s approach to teaching (Trigwell & Prosser, 1999); • Accessibility via the transparency of the discipline’s requirements (Lea, 2004; Haggis, 2003);

  4. 2. Reciprocal • Impact of power relations on alienation and engagement (Mann, 2001); • Abstract or authentic situations of disciplinary learning (Lave, 1998;Lave & Wenger, 1991); • Tacit values & hidden curriculum (Margolis, 2001)

  5. Campus cultures: An explanatory aside:

  6. So what? Location of real tension for groups including people with multiply identities. Current example: Same-sex marriage

  7. Key Campus Climate Topics • Experiences and perceptions of a particular single minority • Intersecting equality groups’ experiences and perceptions

  8. Hurtado, S., Carter, D.F. & Kardia, D. (1998) • Fears for their physical safety; • Frequent occurrences of disparaging remarks or jokes regarding sexual orientation; • Anti-gay graffiti; • A high degree of inaccurate information and stereotypes reflected in student attitudes; • Lack of visibility of gay role models or access to supportive services;

  9. Conflicts in classes regarding the topic of sexual orientation; • Students’ feeling as if they need to censor themselves in classroom environments or academic activities for fear of negative repercussions; • Lack of integration of sexual orientation into the curriculum.

  10. Individual Academic’s Approaches? Assumption: even with regulatory processes, curriculum design highly personalized in higher education – big questions about what a curriculum is in HE Deliberate omission of material: • relating to LGBT perspectives on a subject. • that portrays LGBT people in a positive light. Deliberate inclusion of material where LGBT persons are portrayed in a negative light.

  11. More likely? • deliberately ignoring matters of sexual orientation when they arise in the classroom; • not reacting to derogatory remarks made towards staff, students and folk outwith the classrooms; • behaving differently to those we suspect of being LGBT in orientation.

  12. How do these issues get played out? • Conflicts in classes regarding the topic of sexual orientation • Students’ feeling as if they need to censor themselves in classroom environments or academic activities for fear of negative repercussions • Lack of integration of sexual orientation into the curriculum • Privileging one identity over another

  13. Individual psycho-social spaces of discrimination Micro-aggressions Negative graffiti Negative stereotyping of being disliked for who or what you are; for physical safety Lack of role models Absence of representation in the curriculum Avoiding conflict Internalization of norms ‘Passing’

  14. Approaches to change? • Raising awareness (It gets better videos!) • Engaging with learners • Developing queer theory based pedagogies (antidotes to normative approaches) • Identifying institutional and discipline champions • Getting discipline-specific professional bodies on-side • Embedding within programme approval and other quality enhancement systems

  15. Bother because: • In Further and Higher Education what we include in our teaching and how we teach are, in many cases, intrinsically linked. • Together these, along with the personalities in a department, make up the dominant culture. • If the dominant normative culture sees LGBTQ experience as irrelevant or wrong – this might impact on student learning outcomes.

  16. Additional resources • Gunn, V.A. (2010) Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Perspectives and Learning at University. Equality & Diversity Unit commissioned briefing, University of Glasgow, http://www.gla.ac.uk/media/media_175529_en.pdf • Additional materials can be found in the LGBTQ section of my website: http://www.psy.gla.ac.uk/~steve/qee/vg/pmwiki.php/Main/EqualityAndDiversity , see in particular: • Ellis, Sonja J. (2009) Diversity and Inclusivity at University: A Survey of the Experiences of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Trans (LGBT) Students in the UK. Higher Education: The International Journal of Higher Education and Educational Planning, 57(6): 723-739 • Epstein, D. et al. (2003) Post-Compulsory Heterosexuality: Silences and tensions in curricula and pedagogy in Higher Education. In: Silenced Sexualities in Schools and Universities, Trentham Books, Stoke-on-Trent, 101-120. • Also see: recent Equality Challenge Unit publication on the experience of LGBT Staff and Students in Higher Education (England and Wales only): http://www.ecu.ac.uk/publications/lgbt-staff-and-students-in-he

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