Equality and Diversity as Functional Skills

Equality and Diversity as Functional SkillsFircroft has bid successfully to NIACE for an Equality and Diversity Innovation Fund project. The title of our project is

You can read more about EDIF and the other projects athttp://www.equalitiestoolkit.com/

Materials produced by our project will be shared here

Just as they need Functional English and Maths, our learners must now leave with a sound understanding of Equality and Diversity in order to function successfully at work and as citizens in a diverse society.

Over the 13/14 academic year, this project will properly test 3 different strategies for ensuring our curriculum delivers this, with a particular focus on the LGB and T strands. This sums up the aim of our project

10 years to the day since Section 28 repealed #S28pink

Ofsted now judge whether:teaching learning and assessment promote equality and support diversity

Our training session on 18th November happened to beThe political context has shifted to the point that.

% of learners agreeing they have a better understanding of equality and diversity as a result of coming to Fircroft

10/11 45%11/12 54%12/13 32% opps not sure what happened last year!Our annual impact survey gives a good baseline for the project, because it tells us

% of learners agreeing they have a better understanding of equality and diversity as a result of coming to Fircroft

10/11 45%11/12 54%12/13 32%13/14 100%?Were not seriously thinking that the 100% of learners will agree this yearBUT the mindset of the project is that our curriculum should be ensuring that 100% of learners really should be coming out of Fircroft with a better understandingThanks to everyone who replied to Simons questionnaire mapping how our teaching Values Diversity and Promotes Equality.Heres a link to his mapping on our G drive. Most equality groups are covered, but not to the same degree. Coverage is better on the Access course than on Short Courses, although age isnt really covered and is an issue

o The greatest barrier reported forlearning was insensitive curriculumcontent.Our EDIF project can cover any of the protected groups. However it has a particular focus on LGBT groups. Click on this report to read why

Our project has support from this forum: https://sgforum.org.uk/ If you register for their activity space you can watch this short video clip which shows how empowering it could be for LGBT learners if we pink our curriculum:

And heres feel for what that might look like!

3 strategies (and outputs and products)Classroom embedded: Development of embedded materials across each of 4 short courses

Classroom discrete. Development of specific sessions for 26 learners

Residential: Observation of interactions through 3 enhancement activities

Our EDIF project will try 3 different ways to increase understanding of quality and diversityTheres a clear parallel with Functional Skills here. Some learners know they need to develop English/Maths/E&D and sign up for discrete courses. Others have a different primary learning goal but we have a responsibility to help them develop the same skills through naturally occurring opportunities.

Heres one very simple way were using the residential environment.

During the training we concluded that the college lacks visuals and positive statements. While EDIF is focused on the curriculum this needs backing up by a whole college approachDuring the training we flip-charted the following anxieties about the project:Individual students may not be readyPerceived conflicts between protected groups (eg religious and LGBT)Fall-out when we foreground one groups experienceExtent of our own knowledge Having to respond very quickly on complex issuesRisk when we ourselves belong to the protected groupAnd some partial solutions:Signpost new emphasis in pre-course materials so learners arent surprisedReinforce this with displaysHas to be naturally occurring and not forcedCant be about sharing our own experience. Need case-studies and links to published materialNeed some specialist training on the groups and we each lead on groups we are more confident aboutNeed to reflect on how we manage classroom discussionsUse residential events to showcase and celebrate the projectMethodologyBriefing and some training for TutorsRecruit LGB and T Reference GroupMilestone is mapping to ensure that coverage is complete by December 13. Implementation of 3 strategies. December 13 to completion by end of May 14.

Evaluation. November 13. Design and check robustnessEvaluate individual programmes as they complete. End of May 14. Write up for final on-line reportSeptember 14. Follow-up individual learners using Impact Survey, compare strategies and benchmark against previous yearsMarch 15. Impact assessment follow-up for NIACEDissemination3 national NIACE events June/July November 14 Fircroft one day event for other providers and partners. Post-event email to non-attenders linking to materials on-line

Heres how the project will be organised. It runs for the academic year and were already a bit behind!The good news is that weve had a really positive response to the survey setting up the LGBT reference group. Challenge from NIACEHow to make this about skills and not just awareness?

For one of your courses:Write down an additional learning outcome. By the end of this session in relation to Equality and Diversity, learners will be able to.

Think how that could be measured?What really excited NIACE about our project was that it was about equipping learners with skills as well as knowledge. Thats not going to be easy, but one starting point would be to try this little exercise Challenge from NIACEHow to make this about skills and not just awareness?Additional Learning Outcomes we came up with on the training:Able to describe the impact of gender identity on life choicesAble to interpret equality data to support a given viewpointAble to demonstrate how own opinion can set up barriers with others Able to make a service more accessibleAble to present the same information to different groups in a way which is helpful for each

Assessment activities included:Producing a poster or bookletCommenting on a scenarioResources16K Research officer at NIACEthe forum (including on-line modules) UCU officer and chair on LGBTPrevious projectsWhat else do we need?

Were planning some specific training around Trans issues. In preparation for that, some tutors have committed to work through the Gender Identify Equality course on the forums Moodle:http://www.moodle.sgforum.org.uk/

Our bid was for 16K which includes time for VTs working on the project. In additional NIACE are helping withAn EDIF project at Brighton Friends Centre produced some very practical LGBT resources which you can access here