Topic outline
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Building a Community of Practice of Socially Just Educators in Higher Education
Why Inclusive Pedagogies? Supporting students transition into higher education
When students are enrolled in an enabling program, or are starting their first year of university, they are at a crucial juncture in their educational journey; their early experiences will help define their decisions about continuing their education, such as how well they ‘fit’ and their perceptions of the likelihood of their success.
Underrepresented students at university need support to successfully transition into university life. This quote by Hattam, Stokes and Ulpen (2018) contextualises the importance of inclusive pedagogies for supporting students to transition into Higher Education:
University study is a choice, with many students engaged in a continual and active negotiation to ‘stay or go’. In this context, how may academics better create a welcoming environment for new students while still ensuring progress within the system? How do we best support underrepresented students in navigating their commencement to university culture?
This course has been designed to give university educators the tools and knowledge to create a community of practice ‘CoP’ in your institution. This community will develop the skills and experiences of educators so you can better support students in their transition to higher education.
Throughout this course, you will be prompted to reflect on your own experiences of higher education, and your teaching experiences, to help develop more inclusive pedagogies.
Course Developers
This course has been developed by expert enabling educators, Dr Sarah Hattam and Tanya Weiler. Sarah and Tanya are part of the UniSA College team at the University of South Australia, which has ten years’ of experience in enabling education, educating thousands of South Australian students who have gone onto higher education degrees. Modules built in moodle with expertise of Dr Victoria Fielding.
Dr Sarah Hattam
The experience of being an intergenerational beneficiary of widening participation policy underpins my passion for equitable access to education and guides my approaches to working in enabling education. I am passionate about social justice and strive towards making a positive difference to the lives of others. My teaching approaches are underpinned by the philosophical work of Paulo Freire and Ira Shor (1987) who believe in the liberating and transformational role that education can play.
I teach Critical Thinking (LANG 1002) and Global Sociology (HUMS 1048) courses and facilitate a women’s education program for women who have been recently homeless or experienced domestic violence. I have built a community of practice of the teaching team through professional development initiatives and action research projects in enabling pedagogy. I am the SA Branch Chair of Higher Education Research Development Society of Australasia (HERDSA) and an Executive Committee member of the National Association of Enabling Educators of Australia (NAEEA). I have received international recognition for my leadership of teaching and support of learning through a HE Advance Senior Fellowship, 2020 and national recognition of my leadership of professional development in inclusive and enabling pedagogies: Australian Award for University Teaching (AAUT) 2019; The Educator 2020 Higher Education Innovations Award , placing UniSA in the ‘Top 15 Most Innovative Universities’ and a UniSA Citation for Outstanding Contributions to Student Learning, 2018.
Tanya Weiler
I am a Senior Lecturer and Course Coordinator within Education Futures. From 2015-2020 I was the Program Director for the Aboriginal Pathway Program (APP) and Regions for which I won a UniSA citation. I was also recognised in the 2020 'Winnovation' awards in the category of Social Impact for my leadership of this program. Since starting at UniSA College in 2013, I have developed courses to build literacy skills (Communication for Academic Purposes) and foundations of psychology (Introduction to Human Behaviour). I have also helped develop the course 'Building Academic Success' (EDUC1094) for the APP, as well as coordinated English Language Studies (LANG 46) and University Studies (EDUC1075). I also coordinate into UniSA Business in the course 'International Management, Ethics and Values' (BUSS3053). I am passionate about working with students to build their confidence and sense of student identity. This has led to my leadership and development of initiatives such as 'Starting Strong', an orientation program to socialise students into the academic environment.
Additionally, I lead a suite of professional development initiatives with Dr Sarah Hattam for sessional staff to improve student outcomes. This work resulted in a University citation and was recognised nationally in 'The Educator' Higher Education Innovative Universities report along with a national award for university teaching (AAUT). My current research examines initiatives designed to improve student and staff performance and outcomes and I have completed a Masters in Leadership. My PhD research is investigating how students of generalist degrees foster a sense of Professional Identity.
I am a member of the National Association of Enabling Educators (NAEEA) and the SA Branch Secretary for HERDSA. I am a member of the International Association for University Health and Wellbeing, and was part of the 'Regional Student Success and Wellbeing' National Priorities Pool grant team where I developed extensive resources for educators to use to improve regional student engagement.
Prior to my position at UniSA College I lived and worked in Berlin and Finland. Alongside teaching, I have extensive experience as a Theatre maker and Actor, producing work that has been staged both in Germany and Australia.
Course Modules
This course builds your knowledge of inclusion, diversity and best-practice pedagogies to help you build a Community of Practice at your university. There are four sub-modules, each which include a range of activities to help you explore and apply the topics in a self-paced way.
On completion of the modules you will be able to download a certificate of completion. Please note, to successfully complete each module, you will need to receive a score of 80% or higher for the quiz at the end of each module.
The following key terms are used throughout these modules:
Widening Participation: a policy logic aimed at addressing educational disadvantage in accessing higher education for learners from low socio-economic backgrounds.
Enabling pedagogies: teaching approaches designed to support the transition of diverse learners between educational settings that encompass critical pedagogies through challenging tasks; scaffolding; connecting to life-worlds and valuing diverse knowledges and sensitive to emotions of the learner.
Affect: the external display of emotional state. This can be verbal or non-verbal and expressed through words, tone, feeling, expression, body language and gesture.
Deficit approaches: formulating your curriculum, pedagogy and assessment around a perceived ‘lack’ of the learner or assuming the learner to be incapable of the learning task or assessment.
Life-worlds: Existing knowledges, experiences, cultural and social capital individual to learners which provides a schema with which to access the world.
We would love your feedback about our modules, so once you have completed them, please fill in this short survey HERE
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The first module is designed to set the agenda for this course by contextualising your teaching and the importance of student belonging and recognition within enabling education.
- Why Inclusive Pedagogies? Supporting students transition into higher education
- Education over a life cycle and the widening participation agenda
- Inclusive teaching practices
- Your experiences of higher education
- The challenges of transition from school to higher education
- Sociological concepts: Habitus and Cultural Capital
- Competing discourses of university: equity & excellence
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A minimum of 12 correct answers out of 15 are required to pass this quiz. You can attempt the quiz as many times as needed.
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In the second module, you will learn about a range of theories and research designed to understand the challenges underrepresented students face as they transition from school to higher education.
- Fragile learner identities
- Constructions of capability
- Capability and misrecognition
- Avoiding deficit discourses
- Discourses of being a ‘good’ student versus ‘bad' student
- Manifestations of problematic constructions
- The ‘hidden curriculum’ in higher education
- Gender, capability and belonging
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A minimum of 12 correct answers out of 15 are required to pass this quiz. You can attempt the quiz as many times as needed.
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The third module builds on the first two by presenting a range of pedagogical approaches to improve the classroom and educational experience for students in enabling education.
- Building a Community of Practice (CoP)
- Critical enabling and inclusive pedagogies
- Cultural geography of the school around early school leaving
- Dialogic and transformative approaches
- Connecting with student lifeworlds
- Ethos of care and demonstrating ‘care’
- Scaffolding and challenging tasks
- Independent learning
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A minimum of 12 correct answers out of 16 are required to pass this quiz. You can attempt the quiz as many times as needed.
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The final module is about continuous professional development and presents two programs undertaken at UniSA College: Teaching Squares, and Action Research. These programs have been successful professional development activities within UniSA College’s Community of Practice by helping to de-privatise teaching and to constantly improve our pedagogical approaches.
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A minimum of 12 correct answers out of 16 are required to pass this quiz. You can attempt the quiz as many times as needed.