Exploring the Experiences of Black & Ethnic Minority Students

This webinar aims:

• To discuss the experiences of BME student’s in higher education

• To explore diversity in the classroom

• To explain and identify the concept of unconscious bias

Register here

In recent years higher education has seen greater diversity among undergraduate students throughout Ireland. The galvanisation of the Black Lives Matter movement has once again highlighted that racism and discrimination is a problem world-wide. A race consciousness approach and the impact of unconscious bias at the individual, structural, and institutional levels is warranted to identify and dismantle embedded racial injustices in higher education. By sharing the collective BME student voice of their experiences on campus, as an important source of information, will help us consider policy and strategic initiatives to create more inclusive campuses in higher education. This webinar will be interactive and participatory in format and delivery.

Useful advance reading:

Speaker:

Dr. Fionnuala Darby is a senior lecturer at Technological University Dublin with over 20 years of experience in higher education. In 2020 she completed an EdD on Belonging and Inclusion for BME students in higher education at Maynooth University. Fionnuala is currently working on the following projects at TU Dublin: IMPACT Celebration of Teaching + Learning, the Athena Swan application process at the university and the development of a Curriculum Framework from the CoCREATE project. On the Blanchardstown Campus of TU Dublin, current roles include Research Champion at the School of Business and Campus Champion for staff training on Unconscious Bias.

Dr. Darby writes: My teaching and learning philosophy is anchored in relational pedagogy and in developing critical thinking skills in the modules that I teach on Diversity in the Workplace, HRM and Organisational Behaviour.

What excites me most about my involvement with the National Forum seminar series webinar with you, is to share my findings from my research on BME students’ experience in higher education and to engage with you on how you can use these findings in your practice. In addition, your understanding and impact of unconscious bias will be enhanced at this session.