1. Why creating an inclusive environment, curriculum and approach to learning and teaching will improve the performance of BAME students and close the attainment gap.
Winston Morgan, BSc, PhD, FHEA, FRSB Reader (Toxicology and Clinical Biochemistry)

2. The presentation will cover:
What is inclusive teaching and why an inclusive approaching is needed.
Some key factors which cause and sustain differences in attainment.
Evidence that an inclusive approach works.
Practical steps to move towards inclusive teaching.

3. For several markers of university success, there is a significant “gap” between BAME and white students.
In response everyone in HE talks about inclusive

4. What is inclusive teaching?
With inclusive teaching, the curriculum (what is taught) and approach to L&T (how it is taught) are designed so that a student’s background is less important.
Every student will find elements within their programme that is engaging and Inspirational
Student success is linked to effort and hard work rather than identity.
Inclusive teaching is most effective when carried out in an inclusive environment for learning (where it is taught).

5. What is going on?
Historically fewer people went to university and they came from similar backgrounds to those who taught at university.
In 2016 the student body is large, very diverse with over 20% coming from BAME backgrounds.
Is there a significant change in the profile of university staff ?

6. Wide BAME Attainment gap
How the messages impact on students outcomes
Student body
Very Diverse
Ethnicity/Culture
Educational background
Socioeconomic
Age
Learning styles
Distance
University staff
Less Diverse
Ethnicity/Culture
Educational background
Teaching styles
Identity
Gap
BAME student outcomes
Reduced Academic Confidence
Progression slow
Poor Completion rates
High levels of Academic Misconduct
Wide BAME Attainment gap
Low levels of Employability after Graduation

7. Why do BAME students feel excluded from university?
We cannot separate what goes on outside the university from the behaviour of staff and students on campus.

8. What are the common assumptions about university staff and students
Intellectual elite (what does a professor look like).
“Difficult to get in”, “only for clever students”, “the rich go to university”.
A typical students is a school leaver.
Articulate, confident.
A clear idea of what university is about and why they are there.

9. As a student, what if the messages you receive on campus tells you your profile does not match that of a successful university student?
Not belonging (exclusion, even if you continue to attend)
You quickly lose academic confidence.

10. Academic Confidence? A student’s confidence in their ability to:
Attend and follow lectures,
Complete assignments,
Communicate with lecturers inside and outside of teaching spaces,
Study and pass exams.
To maintain academic confidence you need positives messages from the university

11. If academic confidence is not reinforced by the messages sent by the university at the start of a programme then academic confidence is quickly lost.
Students adopt behaviours (missing lectures, lack of engagement, academic misconduct) which are detrimental to high attainment.

12. Three processes compound the impact of negative messages on BAME students at university, particularly in the absence of inclusion.
Stereotype threat
Some messages reinforce stereotype threat
Mindset
Tutors who assume a fixed mindset reinforce the negative stereotype,
Unconscious bias
Places students into: In/Out groups and then act on it.

13. STEREOTYPE THREAT?
Stereotypes are oversimplified, rigid & generalised beliefs about groups of people in which all individuals are regarded as having the same set of leading characteristics. Furnham & Lamb
Stereotype threat refers to being at risk of confirming, as a self characteristic, a negative stereotype about one’s social group. Steele & Aronson (1995)
This is more likely to manifest in a non-inclusive L&T situations and impacts on engagement, the learning process and performance in assessments
taylorstewart.com
Dr Marie Stewart MBE

14. STEREOTYPE THREAT How do we know? GIVEN THE SAME TESTS…
Black students performed worse when told that it was a test than when told it was to look at problem-solving.
Girls performed worse on maths tasks when it was implied that boys are better at maths.
Steele (2010)
taylorstewart.com
Dr Marie Stewart MBE

15. ‘FIXED’ MINDSET ‘GROWTH’ MINDSET
Basic qualities like intelligence are fixed traits,
Academic success depends on fixed inherent ability
‘GROWTH’ MINDSET
Abilities are developed through effort
Talent is just the starting point
Dweck (2006)
taylorstewart.com
Dr Marie Stewart MBE

16. DISCRIMINATORY PROCESSES
IMPLICIT/UNCONSCIOUS BIAS
Unconscious assumptions and beliefs,
of which we may be unaware
or unwilling to acknowledge,
that can affect our behaviour.

17. ‘IN GROUPS’ / ‘OUT GROUPS’ Attribution of success or failure
POSITIVE /
ACHIEVEMENT
Internal / Permanent
External / Temporary
NEGATIVE /
FAILURE

18. Without inclusive teaching the impact of unconscious bias, fixed mindset and stereotype threat is magnified at all levels:
Environment, Curriculum, Approach to L&T.

19. Impact of messages sent by the university on the student body
Impact of messages sent by the university on the student body. What students say.
Messages
White students
BAME students
Students receive positive (inclusive) messages from the university.
YES
NO (nuanced)
Students have a sense of belonging and purpose.
NO (partly)
Feel entitled to be at university and to attain a good degree (privilege). NO

20. How academic confidence causes different behaviours at university
Behaviour at University
White students
BAME students
Able to put in practice academic and non academic help seeking strategies.
YES NO
Interaction with lecturers inside and outside class to their advantage.
Question their ability to be in HE.
Vociferous in demanding support and feedback.
Likely to miss lectures.

21. What or who haven't I blamed the gap on?

22. If you ask university staff, why do students fail
If you ask university staff, why do students fail? the blame is often attributed to something to do with the student:
Qualifications on entry (inherent ability)
Lack of commitment
Socioeconomic background
Parental education
Very little is said about the role of the institution and staff:
Teaching quality
Policies and practices

23. That is because many wrongly assume “difference is a deficit”
However when there are no students deficits you will still see gaps in attainment based on ethnicity, the real “attainment gap”.

24. How has the sector responded to differences in attainment?
Over the last 20 years almost all interventions assumed a BAME student deficit model.
Then attempt to “fix” the students, with limited or no success.
In 2016 an inclusive approach is needed.

25. Why inclusive teaching works
An inclusive approach provides interventions for both staff and students.
Does it work?
An example of how inclusive teaching can improve attainment of an underperforming group without the deficit model approach.

26. How inclusive teaching can work; The maths example
For many years doing the equivalent of GCSE (“O” level) in maths and science was seen as a elite activity for only the best students, usually boys.
A double attainment gap (numbers entered and grades attained)

27. A decision was made to change how maths (science) was taught in schools, teaching became more inclusive:
Inclusive Environment (science and maths classes became more welcoming for girls. Inside the teaching spaces, girls felt they belonged, had a purposes and could achieve).
Inclusive Curriculum (non-inclusive references and examples were removed, positive references and examples added).
Inclusive Approach to L&T (teachers attitudes to girls in these classes changed, girls contributions valued, expectations increased)

28. It cannot be a piecemeal approach.
Once deficit thinking was removed for girls in science and maths the attainment gap disappeared.
How can we replicate the success of girls in science/maths with BAME students at university?
It cannot be a piecemeal approach.

29. Key actions include:
Increased awareness at all levels.
Betters understanding of the causes.
Staff must want to change
Staff must be shown how to change.

30. Impact of the attainment gap data on staff
It is like a personal insult, a slap in the face,
To many, the data suggest they are biased or even racist, this challenges everything academics think about themselves.
“Denial and Blocking”

31. The data is challenged, redirect the blame.
“deficit model”
Demand for more data and research.
20 years of only trying to “fix” the students
The results is no real actions to reduce the gap.

32. How can this be countered?
Staff must be reassured that ironically the actions of a good tutor may exacerbate the gap.
Why?
In a non-inclusive system all students benefits from a good tutor, but BAME students suffer more from non inclusive environment and tutors.

33. The starting point should be a series of workshops for staff to reflect on:
Workshop 1: The case for change including professional practice.
Workshop 2: Understanding and using Inclusive teaching practices
Workshop 3: Stereotype threat, mindset, Unconscious bias.
Workshop 4: Qualifications on entry
Workshop 5: Socioeconomic background and age
Workshop 6: Gender and Ethnicity
The discussion must be contextualised in one of the three strands of inclusive teaching: Environment, Curriculum, Approach to L&T.

34. Workshop 1: The case for change to improve BAME student outcomes?
The Equality and Diversity (Social Justice) case,
The Business case,
The professional practice case,

35. Workshop 2: Understanding and using inclusion
What is inclusive:
Environment (where)
Curriculum (what)
Approach to L&T (How)

36. Workshop 3: Psychological process which affect BAME student outcomes.
Stereotype threat,
Mindset,
Unconscious bias.
How will our understanding of these processes improve outcomes for BAME students.

37. Workshop 4: Difference is not a deficit (1)
Understanding differences in:
Qualifications on entry
Why does current teaching lead to different outcomes for students with different backgrounds.

38. Workshop 5: Difference is not a deficit (1)
Understanding differences in:
Parental background
Socioeconomic background and age
Why does current teaching lead to different outcomes for students with different backgrounds.

39. Workshop 6: Difference is not a deficit (2)
Gender and Ethnicity
Why is there no longer sustainable gap associated gender.
Why the sector cannot remove the attainment gap associated race.

40. University staff will only take effective action if:
They clearly understand the key factors which cause and sustain differences in attainment
Why an inclusive approaching is needed.
Evidence that an inclusive approach works.
Practical steps to move towards inclusive teaching.

41. Include BAMe
Remember today is the start of the journey
Thank you!