ALT Sarah stands in front of a large monitor displaying a PPT about Learning Theory with hands outstretched.
ALT Student writing about small group teaching.
ALT Student writing about small group teaching: widening participation
ALT In recent years, ‘inclusion’ has emerged as a normative pedagogic principle in UK Higher Education (HE).1 Particularly in the critical social sciences, where questions of social justice structure the field, the quest for more inclusive education is widely considered a self-evident good. Along with initiatives to ‘transnationalise’ or decolonise the curriculum, and ongoing efforts to widen participation at ‘elite’ universities, the educational ‘grey literatures’2 reflect a belief that teaching practices can themselves be instrumental in fostering more inclusive universities. It is this way of thinking through inclusion – as a political commitment that can be ‘practiced’ by teachers in the seminar-space – that is the focus of our research.
ALT The supervision relationship is long-lasting, involving close collaboration and characterised by power dissonance. Supervisors, and doctoral students certainly, sense that ethical aspects are navigated in the supervision relationship, even if there would not be the tradition of explicitly talking about ethical issues. When things go smoothly, there is no need to really fuzz about Ethics. However, there is a point in making the hidden visible, because only then can ethical issues be recognised before they become challenges, and challenges dealt with before they become problems.
