Journal of Academic Development and Education JADE Issue 10 | Page 90

ARTICLE #7 | 91 JADE | 90 LETTER TO THE EDITOR Title DigiFest 2018 Author Katherine Haxton Contact [email protected] Sometimes going more digital feels like straying into regions of the map marked ‘here be dragons’; it’s a place you really want to go but you also know that it might not be the smoothest journey and you may well end up in a bit of trouble. The 2018 Digital Festival was a three day tour of some of those regions of the map, given by some very capable tour guides. h t t p s : //w w w. ke e l e . a c . u k / academicdevelopment/ learningteaching/ keeledigitalfestival The highlights for me were varied. I enjoyed hearing about some shiny new technology such as the holo lens to include augmented reality to enhance teaching. I enjoyed virtually decorating the exhibition suite with molecules. It was also really useful to hear more about different apps and features of our Google accounts, particularly G Suite for education and the tools readily available to us such as GoogleForms, and the upgrades to Gmail that are coming soon. I’m looking forward to trying Google Classroom in the new academic year, and working smarter not harder with technology in general. There are dragons as Cat Hallam showed us very clearly. Technology is only as good as the uses to which it is put, and may act as a lens to magnify unconscious bias and privilege. Cat provided us with a succinct reminder that we must take care to ensure that we critically engage with the outputs of digital tools and ensure that they are respectful and representive, not just of ourselves, but of those in our audiences and of broader society. Relying on the top few images in an image search to illustrate our teaching materials, particularly when representations of people are required is insufficient to ensure that the images are truely reflective of the culture from which the people come, or the culture we wish to create in our classrooms. The underlying theme of inclusivity continued with discussions on lecture capture around enhancing the experience of students who struggle to take notes, with Blackboard being present to talk about Blackboard Ally, a tool that can check uploaded material for accessibility, and on various talks using technology to enhance feedback or opportunities for formative assessment. Dr. Katherine Haxton Senior Lecturer in Chemistry ARTICLE #7 Title The Challenges of a Diverse Curriculum: A Case Study from the Humanities Author Maria Flood DOI http://doi.org/10.21252/ KEELE-0000036 Contact [email protected] Introduction The Universal Declaration on Cultural Diversity states that ‘[diversity is] the common heritage of humanity… [a source of] exchange, innovation and creativity’ (Silverman and Ruggles, 2007, p. 36). Cultural diversity in this sense refers to the positive valuation of the interaction of differing social groups, and contemporary characteristics of diversity are based on characteristics pertaining to ability, class, ethnicity, gender, language, nationality, religion, race, and sexuality. Diversity also implies a non-hierarchical relationship of mutual inclusion between individuals with differing characteristics. 1 Within the context of Higher Education (HE), diversity is also a key strategic aim for the internationalization agenda of the Higher Education Academy: ‘a vision to promote a high quality, equitable and global learning experience for all students studying UK HE programmes, irrespective of their geographical location or background’ (HEA). A focus on diversity has come to signify a range of policies, goals, and practices in HE for example: the Race Equality Charter which aims to drive racial equality in terms of access and outcomes in HE; pedagogical research on racism in HE and inclusive practice in the classroom; promoting diversity in terms of staff employment; outreach programmes targeting students from non-traditional backgrounds; student and staff-focused welfare campaigns around discrimination; and student- led initiatives regarding the ‘decolonization of the curriculum’ through the introduction of texts and practices that recognize the historical and structural inequalities that underscore pedagogy in the present day. In this article, I focus on diversity of curricula in the university, through a consideration of the challenges of working with diverse cultural texts in the Humanities. 2 I offer potential solutions and practices that can enrich the student experience when encountering diverse texts for the first time. In considering diverse curricula, I identify two intersecting issues: the level of the text itself, which 1. The arguments around the potential for diversity as a policy or strategy to re-entrench notions of a normative inside and a ‘diverse’, non- normative outside merit consideration, but are beyond the scope of this paper. It is worth noting that Maria Scott’s definition of inclusive practice as it relates to diversity in education emphasizes that a focus on diversity is not about making diverse students ‘fit’ a particular normative category: ‘Inclusive practice does not assume that the student body is white, middle class, aged 18 or label them as “different” if they do not possess these characteristics. Nor does it make the assumption that, if they do not match this stereotype, they somehow need to “fit in” or “integrate” with the majority’ (Smith, 2010, p. 215). 2. We use to word ‘text’ to signify an cultural object of study in the classroom: films, books, music, academic articles and books, art, poetry, etc.