In this episode, Mike and Catherine meet with Dominic Henri, who splits his time between the University of Hull’s School of Natural Sciences and the Teaching Excellence Academy. Dom is a Senior Lecturer in Zoology whose disciplinary specialism is conservation and ecology, but whose primary focus is Higher Education pedagogy (particularly the interface between assessment, student development, and employability).

In the podcast, we discuss the journey behind a published study evidencing one way of raising the visibility of diversity in STEM Higher Education. The journey starts with a conundrum of how to increase perceptions of diversity within the discipline when little of that diversity is represented directly within the teaching team. By the end, we consider how engaging with diversity is not just important for students, but can completely revitalise our own understanding of the subject and the narrative that our students take from our teaching.

“What you conclude on a subject holds weight... If you say that something is good or bad or well-evidenced or not, some students are going to remember that... So how can I provide as balanced a perspective on this as possible?”

If anyone would like to be part of the future of this project, please contact Dom directly via email.

Study reference:

Henri, D.C., Coates, K. and Hubbard, K., 2023. I am a scientist: Overcoming biased assumptions around diversity in science through explicit representation of scientists in lectures. Plos one, 18(7), p.e0271010.

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Cup of TEA artwork created by Layla Jabbari

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