Inclusivity at what cost?

I have been doing a lot of work over the past couple of weeks on the inclusivity project and it has brought me into several discussions with a variety of colleagues, friends and family about the practice of being inclusive. What does it mean? How is it achieved and at what cost? 

Inclusivity in its basest form is ensuring that your organisation or company (in my case a university) doesn't unnecessarily exclude particular groups because of a practice or procedure. In order to develop an inclusive culture most organisations will need to identify the current groups that may be excluded, typically excluded groups (especially within a university) are students from BME backgrounds, those from lower socio-economic backgrounds and disabled students. On certain courses students from some religious groups, LGBT students and male and female students are under represented and work needs to be concentrated on their inclusion. This is all fairly obvious really. What has struck me in my discussions this week is the commonly held view that inclusivity means lowering standards. Even those people who believe strongly about building a more inclusive environment will often assume that this will in some way mean 'making it easier'. 

For me inclusivity is not, and never should be, about lowering standards, if anything the reverse is true. If your standard of teaching and course content and delivery is good enough to reach a wider audience and not exclude people because of your approach then it is not only more accessible but richer and of a higher calibre. 

This idea of 'lowering standards' really troubles me as it has the potential to undermine work around inclusivity culturally. We need to move away from this idea in order to avoid patronising highly talented students. We also need to look to ourselves more as educators of the diverse communities we work with and see this as a challenge to INCREASE our standards of quality not dumb them down. 

All this talk of standards brought me to a further thought about how we measure a standard or a student's individual achievement. If you think about an 18 year old, white, male student from a relatively middle class background who has been through the education system and applies to a university to study a history degree - we will be able to track this student's progression statistically and it will look good. He will more than likely enter the university with the required entry grades and he will progress quickly as the familiar environment allows him to develop academically. On graduation we should see the student leave with a good 2:1 or first degree and therefore their student journey will represent a success for both the institution and the individual. It is all very nice. However consider the 35 year old single mother from a low income background. She has decided to give up her job and go back to university to retrain as a social worker. Her entry to the course will be through access qualifications and her previous experience of education is quite negative. She graduates with a third degree but her experience at university and her achievement of a degree has had a transformative impact on her life and that of her child. However statistically she is not a success. 

These are fairly stereotyped and cras examples and there is nothing to say that the student in the first example may leave or drop out and the second achieve a first class honours. However, they are useful examples in this debate of inclusivity.  I am interested in the way that we measure success and the impact of a higher education qualification on students who are typically excluded. If we are in the business of transforming people's lives of shaping and supporting communities and of creating excellence who is the best example of this and how could we measure this more accurately? 

How can we promote this transformation of people's lives, how can we see success as the process by which someone has obtained their degree rather than just assessing the final outcome using a system that entrenches pre-established prejudice?

By finding a rigorous way of doing this we also get to demonstrate how much a university is able to put back into its community and is not an elitist playground for the educationally privileged. 

Conferences of inclusion and a stubbed toe

Last week I went off on my travels to Leeds and a place called Weetwood Hall and very nice it was indeed. I was attending a Higher Education Academy conference on building inclusive cultures in HE, it is part of a wider project that myself and a colleague are working on with 16 other institutions. It is not directly linked to the PhD (as in it wasn’t a conference where I was presenting my research) however most of the debates and topics discussed were very relevant as they focussed on how not to exclude people unnecessarily, which links nicely with my work on disability and societal barriers.

It was a pleasure to be surrounded by colleagues from across the sector who are showing a level of commitment to not just introducing a couple of tokenistic policies but thinking around ideas of institutional change that could drive forward a more inclusive culture within their university and the sector. Chatham House rules so I can’t blog too much about some of the discussions but I can say that there was a real mix of institutions and it was fascinating to hear the challenges of other colleagues. Real mix of attendees too academics, support and professional staff and PVCs and Deans – meant discussions about change at all levels had real substance and weren’t just lip service at a workshop.

My colleague and I have come back with a real drive to push forward our work around the evidence base required to make cultural change. Having listened to some of the other institutions I have realised that our cultural change will not need to be as significant as some others. There was also discussion about getting senior management involved or interested – it appears not everyone’s VC is on twitter – CRYING SHAME, if you ask me. So in some ways we are very lucky, but that luck shouldn’t allow us to be come complacent and having such a sound platform to start from should allow us to start some really valuable work.

That is as soon as colleague’s toe gets better – she broke it – on the bedside table. Nit.

What is the difference between being a wheelchair user and being depressed?

You don't have to tell your mum you're a wheelchair user.


'Coming out' as mad. It can't be easy. I have been writing this morning about making reasonable adjustments for disabled people in Higher Education and tied in with that was thinking about whether we see disabled students as students first and then disabled. There is a definite push for this within the current research. It builds on ideas about inclusive cultures and making the education accessible for all and therefore not having to make reasonable adjustments for individuals. It makes sense when you think about it. Let us have an education that the majority of people can access, rather than an elite system that excludes people not because of their ability to learn, but rather their ability to engage with a curriculum that excludes them because of discriminatory practice. 


This led to me thinking about how we would know people were disabled if their conditions weren't physically apparent. Would we need to? Is there a sense of wanting to define as a disabled person because there is a sense of pride about it? I am running cras parallels with the gay community, but it is similar. No one needs to know you are gay (except perhaps your partner) but people are proud to come out and there is a political gain in doing so. Is it the same within the disabled community? Am I perhaps over simplifying?


This has really got me thinking about this idea of people/students with mental health issues constantly having to 'come out' in order to exist. If in order to exist and make noise about your experience you have to keep telling people what does this do to your identity? Does 'coming out' make it a bigger part of you than you would like it to be?


Whatever the motivation and overall result surely single instances of revealing the personal about yourself to colleagues, family and friends never gets any easier, especially when reactions are often of stepping back, reassessing you and never allowing you to mention it again.

Duck consultation

No really. 


Yesterday I was enjoying the bank holiday a little too much. We have had such glorious weather - it makes working so much harder. This morning it was lovely and sunny and so I took the PhD thoughts for a little walk. I was actually walking for a couple of hours but it was a gentle pace and there was a lot to see and think about.


The more I have read about methodologies the more I am understanding how deeply excluded people with mental health difficulties have been from their own categorization and research. There is a lack of an autonomous political movement surrounding mental health. Without this mental health is predominantly discussed by professionals with varying agendas of their own. 


I talked to the duck about this. His feelings were quite clear. He wanted his voice to be heard and he shouted loudly to tell me so.

After chatting to the duck for a while I went and hid out under a tree in full blossom. I wish this was a scratch and sniff screen because it smelt amazing.

So here to further pondering about my methodology. Whilst I am aware I will need to make a strong academic case for whichever I decide to choose my heart is pulling me towards a narrative approach. I want to give students who have experienced or are experiencing mental health issues the opportunity to tell me their story. I am not a counsellor, I don't want to hear these stories so I am able to in some way 'help'. I am conscious that this itself is not a positive position to take. Perhaps, it is in part the literature student (who is kept hidden from my social science colleagues, but is my background) screaming at me that all people's experiences are lived through their own story and this is where you uncover the most interesting details. I think it was also the duck quacking away at me, happily recounting his narrative, his story. I wish I spoke quack, he had a lot to say.

Take a bow

So today was the big presentation day of reckoning. Can I just say that before one presents their research I suggest the following:


1) Don't spend the night before on the phone to your ex wife for 2 hours
2) Don't sign mortgage papers in the morning
3) Avoid an hour with a student and her dad just beforehand discussing a quite serious and very complex disability related issue that has you almost in tears.


Simple advice but it might help, oh and WEAR PINK.


Today I was only giving a taster of the research. Perhaps I would have been better to give a link to the blog and then sip tea and let people read for themselves. I prepared a very brief overview of the project. As I have not collected any data yet I was conscious that although the research area is very interesting to me it may be less so to my audience and I wanted to keep people engaged. I had decided to focus on the methods, methodology, framework suggestions and an account of what has led me to this area of study.


I am not an academic member of staff and the audience was made up of academic colleagues and research students. First job is to shake the chip off your shoulder and stare through the invisible barrier and tell yourself you do deserve to be there. I hope I did that successfully and I have to say that the staff were incredibly supportive. They listened and didn't laugh and asked good questions afterwards. I was also lucky enough to get a couple of great suggestions. One of these was to do a pilot before I begin my first round of data collection. Embarrassed that I hadn't thought of this but I will definitely be testing out my questions now to ensure that I am asking the right things.


I think it went well. It is the first time I have presented my research and as someone who is never nervous of speaking in public I actually found it quite a challenge - it is different when it is your research you are opening to scrutiny. It has definitely made me want to present more. It is impossible to defend a position publicly, unless it is the right one and this is invaluable.


Afterwards a colleague popped to see me to discuss a couple of things I had mentioned and another colleague joined our 'corridor' discussion. The result was I was loaned a couple of books and had a chance to have a chat with people about their work and mine. Which leads me to conclude tonight that the best thing about today's experience was that I felt part of something and perhaps more importantly accepted as a part of it.


Thanks HLS :-)

Working Girl

In true Melanie Griffith style - I am 'letting the river run'. My metaphorical shoulder pads are in, my jaw is square and my lipstick is apricot. I have a fire in my belly and an attention to detail that will serve me well if Sigourney Weaver turns up and wants to take me on. In other words I have found my inner working girl and by god is she getting a little exposure.


My younger and much wiser sister said to me this evening, 'how long does a phd take?' to which I gave the obligatory ten minute waffle about 'life's work' and 'if one were able to do it full time' and 'striking a life balance being important'. To which she retorted - gesturing to all the paper scattered around me - 'and you have set yourself a three week deadline to do the entire thesis because...?'


I, of course, have not done this, but the last few weeks have seen a decided increase in my output. I have found my drive and this is an exciting, but dangerous place to be. You know when you start a really good book and by about page four you start to realise that your windows are not going to get cleaned and the shopping is not going to get done and you have no chance of an early night because every single spare minute is going to be taken up with devouring the delicious story, language, characters that are languishing behind page after page of recycled paper. Well that feeling is how my research has been going over the last few weeks and this weekend has been like the culminating drama of the closing chapters of a great novel.


My inner Working Girl has stepped up to the plate. She has cast Harrison Ford aside and stared down Sigourney, she has picked up her hem line and her focus and is strutting headlong into the credits. 


Basically, I have written a chapter - but to me this feels like I have just been given a corner office, all of my own, in a very tall city block.


http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0096463/

A model experience

Today I have written nearly 4000 words. This is despite the glorious sunshine, despite the slight hangover and despite the computer crashing on me more than once (six times in fact - once with a total lack of auto-save recovery - mustn't dwell). Anyway the 'rug', as I have aptly named my temporary office, was a hive of activity today. 


I have been working on my models. Theoretical framework models that is. I am pleased to announce I have one. This has taken about a year. Which seems a long time, but the framework is so fundamental to the whole project that I am glad it has taken this long. When it clicks it clicks - it is like buying a house or falling in love - you just know.


For all those who are interested I have been using a Social Model approach to disability and like many I was getting bogged down in the subsequent arguments that follow in relation to the lived experience of impairment. By having a focus on mental health it has allowed me to move one step to the side and actually find a fresh angle worth stretching round for. 


Mental health is not the same ball game as disability, although there are welcome similarities. This new model places the service user at the centre of the conceptualisation of mental ill health. It moves away from diagnosis, treatment and recovery models which are positioned and pushed by professionals. In that regard it is similar to the Social Model of disability but it cannot be identical. As some service users identify a diagnosis can be hard fought over, it often offers a rational explanation for an individual's experiences and it is essential for accessing welfare support. 


This new model is exciting and new and is being developed by academics, practitioners and service users/non-users. It provides me with the perfect framework within which to position my research which is not about the causes and effects of mental health issues but how to make reasonable adjustments within an educational and training setting.


I have now cleared the rug of the days work in order to free up the space I need to jump around in excitement about this.


PS - check out the blog redesign - hope it meets with approval :-)