Skip to main content

Staff embodied experiences of Curriculum Redefined

Staff embodied experiences of Curriculum Redefined

Sarah Joyce (Digital Education Service)

Project overview

This fellowship complements work already taking place across the university to promote and apply the university’s educational change programme ‘Curriculum Redefined’. Senior leaders have initiated this change programme to address issues of diversity and inclusion across the university. We explore the principle that to create embodied versions of the student-focused benefits of Curriculum Redefined, such benefits must be part of the embodied experiences of staff.

The research approach

  1. Literature and grey document review including the university's multimedia promotional materials for Curriculum Redesigned.
  2. Asynchronous open-question "interviews" using Flip.com (and hosted via Minerva) for participants to submit video responses to three questions and collaborate to co-create themes for thematic analysis. Repeated release of this method every four months to capture changes in experiences as Curriculum Redefined becomes more embedded.
  3. Ethnographic anonymous studies with five colleagues whose experiences increase our understanding of the themes.

Change programmes to increase the wellbeing and success of students are an important part of university life. This study will contribute to our knowledge of how we can support staff who are embedding change into the university's pedagogical practices and university life more generally. It will identify hidden challenges within ways of working that may prevent staff from achieving change for students, but also for themselves. It will showcase examples of where staff are successful in addressing issues of diversity and inclusion, including successes that are currently hidden. In highlighting staff experiences, we aim to improve the context within which staff work so that they benefit from Curriculum Redefined and can pass on these benefits to students.

  1. Narrative-based outputs that tell the real-life stories of staff in relation to Curriculum Redefined, and share these with staff as relatable stories that prompt reflection and demonstrate best practices, or areas of needed culture change.
  2. Publish the key themes emerging from staff-embodied experiences as useful for other universities assessing their change programmes and equity priorities.

If you would like to find out more about the project contact Sarah Joyce (s.joyce2@leeds.ac.uk)

Each fellowship has a project sponsor that helps the fellows achieve impact across the institution. The sponsor for this fellowship is Louise Banahene.

Project start date: 1 September 2022