OCA & D&A: Session 2: Intersectionality, What Is It & Why Is It Important?

About the Open College of the Arts & Diversity & Ability workshop series.

Aim 

To equip the Open College of the Arts community with the knowledge and skills to embrace a diverse, accessible and enduring inclusive learning and teaching environment. 

Objectives 

By the end of the workshop series, attendees will:

• Be able to identify exclusionary barriers that exist physically, digitally and systemically.

• Feel confident talking about and addressing societal privileges and biases.

• Understand how and why an intersectional approach to diversity should be listened to and celebrated.

• Have an increased awareness, understanding, and confidence around disability, specifically how we talk about disability, and communicating with disabled people.

• Understand the models of disability, and how they interact with student identities and disclosure rates.

• Be able to implement small everyday practices that foster inclusion and improve experiences through changing attitudinal and cultural understandings of what is meant by diversity and inclusion.

Approach 

We think it is important that diversity, inclusion and disability awareness support is delivered by those with lived experience. Where facilitators, often through firsthand experiences of marginalisation, can bring an authentic voice to discussion. Our workshops will be led by our Accessibility and Inclusion Specialists, namely former NUS Disabled Students Officer, Piers Wilkinson and supported by former chair of NADP (National Association of Disability Practitioners), Brian Lutchmiah. Both providing attendees with a valuable insight into what inclusion good practice

in education looks likes.

Attendees will come away from the workshops, not with a long sheet of simple do’s and don’t, but with a practical and emotional understanding of the topics discussed. Information will be delivered progressively, allowing attendees a safe space to consider and reassess their own understanding. This experience will underpin future interactions, as well as wider decision making, to allow for inclusion and accessibility to be rightfully celebrated!

Format 

Workshops will be delivered as a series, with members of the Open College of the Arts community able to register to the sessions they feel most relevant to them. Sessions will be run by D&A using the Zoom Meetings feature to allow for interactive engagement. The Open College of the Arts will be sent the session registration links ahead of time to be distributed among their community. The links will include full session descriptions as well as accessibility information.

Copies of the session's slides, links to mentioned resources, and full recordings will be provided to attendees after each session.

The five workshops below will not only increase awareness of diversity and inclusion but will also  provide a range of practical information, advice, and guidance that attendees can take forward in  their course and career.

We take a conceptual approach with the sessions, ‘Dismantling Bias and Celebrating Diversity’,  ‘Intersectionality, what is it and why is it important?’ and ‘Changing The Way We Understand  Disability’ putting this understanding into practice with the sessions, ‘Managing Stress and  Anxiety in Education’ and ‘Inclusivity Through Accessibility’.

At D&A, we regularly talk about  how crucial it is to take an intersectional approach when considering diversity and inclusion. However, many are unsure of what we mean by intersectionality, with even more uncertain of how it  plays out in a practical sense.

This session will provide attendees with an introduction to intersectionality, with a key focus  on the variety of structures and  identities that make up an educational environment and what  this means when creating an inclusive space.

We will explore the relationship between identity and belonging and how the higher education environment can help progressively nurture what this means for both  students and staff.

Find out more about Diversity & Ability here.