Alice Robson on behalf of the Decolonising and Diversifying Curricula in Life Sciences Team

Alice shares more detail about their practice us and how they felt about being shortlisted for a Bristol Teaching Award.  

  1. Which Award were you shortlisted for? 

Inspiring and Innovative Teaching Award – Team

  1. How did you feel when you found out you had been shortlisted for an Award? 

Delighted and proud – it is nice to have this work recognised by colleagues. However, the real award for us would be to see real progress in removing the systemic inequalities in academia, for example closing the racial and gender pay, recruitment, and promotion gap for staff and the awarding gap for students.

  1. Can you tell us a little bit about your practice and why you were nominated? 

Our ongoing work involves a range of projects within the Faculty of Life Science which aim to decolonise and diversify the curriculum, including collaborative work on creating a Faculty handbook, and a joint project on the perception of decoloniality in the different Schools. We have also been engaging students as partners to review our course materials and to act as ambassadors to broaden engagement with the projects. This work has now resulted in collaborations with Schools in other Faculties and has gained external recognition, for example, being named within the new British Society for Immunology EDI Framework.

  1. What inspires you to go the extra mile with your teaching? 

Determination to see a curriculum that is inclusive and representative for all our students. Making real change that has a positive impact on our students.

  1. What would you like to share with others about your teaching practice? 

Our advice would be to involve students in reviewing the curriculum at all stages and embed decolonising and diversifying the curriculum into existing educational structures. Collaborate with colleagues: working together brings diversity of thought, shares best practice and provides invaluable support.

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