Teaching Matters Edinburgh

In this episode, Lucy Crompton-Reid, the Chief Executive of Wikimedia UK, is joined by Linda Bauld, Professor of Public Health, Sarah Lappin, head of the Edinburgh Women in STEM Society, and Áine Kavanagh, a former reproductive biology student at the university, to discuss the underrepresentation of women on Wikipedia pages. This episode is the fourth of our Wikimedia Series, which aims to recontextualize Wikimedia’s role in academia on its 21st birthday.

The quartet offers a variety of perspectives on why women are underrepresented on Wikipedia and what can be done about it.  They discuss the ‘vicious cycle’ of the media favoring male scientists and how the underrepresentation is not confined to just women. They also discuss: How has the education sector improved in regards to representation of women in STEM? What areas need further improvement? And what is each participant’s call to action? This concise, call-to-action episode is an essential listen for anyone interested in bringing equality to digital spaces and looking to improve the representation of underrepresented groups.

Timestamps:

1:27 – Beginning of conversation, each participant answers: ‘Where are the women?’

5:43 – Are schools and universities doing enough in encouraging girls to pursue STEM careers and supporting them when they do so?

8:15 – Each participant shares one thing they would encourage the listener to think about differently? What’s their call to action?

Music provided by Hooksounds. 

Many people turn to Wikipedia articles when introduced to an unfamiliar medical term, especially when it pertains to themselves or a loved one. But who writes these articles?  Some come from within The University of Edinburgh, where fourth-year students in the Reproductive Biology BSc programme have been creating articles about previously unpublished medical terms for the past six years.

In this episode, Áine Kavanagh, a former student from The University of Edinburgh's Reproductive Biology BSc, and her former professor and program organiser, Norah Spears, detail a class project which involves developing new Wikipedia articles about unpublished medical terms.  They discuss this with Ewan McAndrew, The University of Edinburgh's Wikimedian in residence, and Lucy Crompton-Reid, the Chief Executive of Wikimedia UK.  This episode is the third of our Wikimedia Series, which aims to recontextualize Wikimedia's role in academia on its 21st birthday.

The quartet cover captivating questions: What do students gain from these types of projects? What strategies are used to write scientific articles that are digestible to a lay audience? What role do diagrams play, and how are they created?  And, does Wikipedia Medicine have a higher 'standard of proof' than other Wikipedias? This exciting, informative episode is an essential listen for anyone interested in how medical articles on Wikipedia are actually formed, and how projects such as these can be integrated into the curriculum.

Timestamps:

2:09 - Beginning of conversation, with insight into the Wikipedia project involved in the Reproductive Biology BSc course

4:57 - The group discusses: Does the project work in practice? Áine and Norah detail their experiences

10:00 - The group discusses the role of diagrams in medical Wikipedia articles and how they are created

12:40 - Lucy gives a personal anecdote about using Wikipedia with a medical issue

Music for this episode was provided by Hooksounds. 

In this episode, Wikimedians Ewan McAndrew and Jason Evans unpack the role of languages in Wikipedia with Richard Nevell (Wikimedia Programme Director), Lorna Campbell (OER services manager) and three Translation Studies MSc students, Binjie Xiang, Huichao Wang and Nora Albawardi.  This episode is the second of our Wikimedia Series, which aims to recontextualize Wikimedia's role in academia on its 21st birthday.

The group covers fascinating questions: Does translation open the door to a more complete and diverse selection of sources?  What role does machine translation play in the translating process? People typically edit Wikipedia independently, but is this in some ways a community event? And what opportunities are there in Wikipedia for indigenous languages? This thought-provoking episode is an essential listen for anyone interested in digital representation, the ins and outs of translation and the role Wikimedia can play within academia.

Timestamps:

1:30 - Introductions and each participant detailing why they believe it's important to have Wikipedia pages in multiple languages

11:45 - The group covers issues that arise with translation, the role of machine translation and having sources in multiple languages

23:35 - The group discusses the opportunities and challenges faced by smaller Wikipedias and the communal rejuvenation of the Scots Wikipedia

Ewan McAndrew, our Wikimedian in Residence, provided the following resources for anyone interested in further readings regarding Wikimedia and languages:

• Building bridges not walls – Wikipedia in Translation Studies
• Address Knowledge Gaps (Program)
• Growing Wikipedia Across Languages via Recommendation
• Videos on Wikipedia and Translation Studies
• Videos on Translation more generally

In this episode, University staff (Kirsty Lingstadt), students (Hannah Rothmann, Grace King and Lucy Parfitt) and Wikimedians (Ewan McAndrew and Richard Nevell) discuss Wikimedia's current role within academia and hypothesize what that role can be in the future.  This episode is the first of our Wikimedia Series, which aims to recontextualize Wikimedia's role in academia on its 20th anniversary.

The group's conversation begins with each member detailing how they use Wikipedia in their work, then expands to Wikipedia's current and potential role in academia. Throughout, fascinating questions are posed and talked through: Is Wikipedia regulated, and to what extent? What utility does it have in academia? And is there a role for Wikipedia to be a middle ground between academia and the public? This episode serves as a fantastic re-introduction to Wikipedia, and we hope it helps listeners join in on recontextualizing Wikipedia's role in academia on its 20th anniversary.

Timestamps:

2:30 - Introductions with each participant detailing how they use Wikipedia in their work

7:22 - The group entertains Wikipedia's reputation of being unreliable and discusses the role of media literacy

13:33 - The group discusses Wikipedia's potential to be a middle ground between academia and the public

19:30 - The group finishes off the discussion by theorizing Wikipedia's potential role within academia

Ewan McAndrew, The University of Edinburgh's Wikimedian in Residence, provided the following resources for anyone interested in further readings regarding Wikimedia:

• Wikipedia on Olive Schreiner, like it or what? 
• Wikimedia in Education (collection of case studies)
• How Wikipedia keeps political discourse from turning ugly (Harvard Business Review article)
• Why didn’t Wikipedia have an article on Donna Strickland, winner of a Nobel Prize? (Wikipedia Foundation article)
• Female Nobel prize winner deemed not important enough for Wikipedia entry (additional article about Donna Strickland from the Guardian)

Music for this episode is provided by Hooksounds.  Cover art was created by Eric Berger using a template from http://ereyes.github.io/

In this podcast, the Institute for Academic Development's (IAD) Dr Catherine Bovill, Senior Lecturer in Student Engagement, and Celeste McLaughlin, Head of Academic Development for Digital Education, discuss a collaborative international research project that sought to understand the changes to teaching practices as they went online during the initial period of the Covid-19 pandemic. This episode complements the blogpost, "Learning together during a global pandemic: Practices and principles for teaching and assessing online in uncertain times".

Catherine and Celeste's conversation covers fascinating questions about how teachers have collectively adapted to the pandemic, as well.  How did sentiment towards online learning change from the onset of the pandemic to six months in? How has online teaching led educators to rethink their practices? How has the pandemic changed the practices of teachers who were already teaching in a digital space? What did educators consider to be the 'biggest losses' from transitioning to online teaching?

Timestamps:

1:05 - Celeste and Catherine introduce themselves and their research project

6:29 - Celeste and Catherine discuss educators' sentiments about the 'emergency period', and how these compare to the responses gathered well into the pandemic

9:00 - Catherine introduces the idea that teachers have had the opportunity to 'step back' from their normal teaching practices, and the two discuss

14:50 - The pair discuss how smaller blocks of recorded content has been used as an adaptation to digital learning

In this Teaching Matters podcast series, produced by The Race Equality and Anti-Racist Sub-Committee (REAR) at The University of Edinburgh in collaboration with Teaching Matters, we hear from different academics at the University about what Decolonising the Curriculum means for them, and how they have put this into practice in their learning and teaching or research. They also share some readings that they have found useful.

In this episode, Professor Emerita Rowena Arshad, Chair in Multicultural and Anti-Racist Education talks to Dr. Lauren Hall-Lew, a Reader in Linguistics and English Language in the School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences at the University of Edinburgh.

Dr. Hall-Lew’s Recommendations

• Rosa, Jonathan, and Nelson Flores. “Unsettling race and language: Toward a raciolinguistic perspective.” Language in society 46, no. 5 (2017): 621-647.
• Hudley, Anne H. Charity, Christine Mallinson, and Mary Bucholtz. “Toward racial justice in linguistics: Interdisciplinary insights into theorizing race in the discipline and diversifying the profession.” Language 96.4 (2020): e200-e235.
• García, Ofelia, Nelson Flores, Kate Seltzer, Li Wei, Ricardo Otheguy, and Jonathan Rosa. “Rejecting abyssal thinking in the language and education of racialized bilinguals: A manifesto.” Critical Inquiry in Language Studies (2021): 1-26.
• Webinars on “Racial Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion in the Linguistics Curriculum” https://www.linguisticsociety.org/resource/lsa-webinar-series-racial-justice-equity-diversity-and-in…

In this Teaching Matters podcast series, produced by The Race Equality and Anti-Racist Sub-Committee (REAR) at The University of Edinburgh in collaboration with Teaching Matters, we hear from different academics at the University about what Decolonising the Curriculum means for them, and how they have put this into practice in their learning and teaching or research. They also share some readings that they have found useful.

In this episode, Professor Emerita Rowena Arshad, Chair in Multicultural and Anti-Racist Education talks to Professor David Kluth, Chair of Medical Education, Deanery of Clinical Sciences at the University of Edinburgh and a consultant nephrologist.

Prof. David Kluth Recommendations:

• Hannaford, Ivan. Race : the History of an Idea in the West / Ivan Hannaford. Washington, D.C: Woodrow Wilson Center Press, 1996.
• Givens, Marjory L et al. “Deconstructing Inequities — Transparent Values in Measurement and Analytic Choices.” The New England journal of medicine 384.19 (2021): 1861–1865.
• Amutah, Christina et al. “Misrepresenting Race — The Role of Medical Schools in Propagating Physician Bias.” The New England journal of medicine 384.9 (2021): 872–878.
• Oni-Orisan, Akinyemi et al. “Embracing Genetic Diversity to Improve Black Health.” The New England journal of medicine 384.12 (2021): 1163–1167.
• Mukwende, Malone, Peter Tamony, and Margaret Turner. Mind the Gap : a Handbook of Clinical Signs in Black and Brown Skin / Mukwende, M,  Tamony, P, Turner, M. First edition. London: St George’s, University of London, 2020.

In this Teaching Matters podcast series, produced by The Race Equality and Anti-Racist Sub-Committee (REAR) at The University of Edinburgh in collaboration with Teaching Matters, we hear from different academics at the University about what Decolonising the Curriculum means for them, and how they have put this into practice in their learning and teaching or research. They also share some readings that they have found useful.

In this episode, Professor Emerita Rowena Arshad, Chair in Multicultural and Anti-Racist Education talks to Julie Cupples, Professor of Human Geography and Cultural Studies; Head of Geography and the Lived Environment Research Institute at the University of Edinburgh.

Prof. Julie Cupples Recommendations:

• Smith, Linda Tuhiwai. Decolonizing Methodologies : Research and Indigenous Peoples / Linda Tuhiwai Smith. New York: Zed Books, 1999
• Ramón Grosfoguel, and Julie Cupples. Unsettling Eurocentrism in the Westernized University. Taylor and Francis, 2018.
• Hooker, Juliet et al. Black and Indigenous Resistance in the Americas : from Multiculturalism to Racist Backlash : a Project of the Antiracist Research and Action Network (RAIAR) / Edited by Juliet Hooker ; Translated by Giorleny Altamirano Rayo, Aileen Ford, and Steven Lownes. Lanham: Lexington Books, 2020.
• Hooker, Juliet. Theorizing Race in the Americas : Douglass, Sarmiento, Du Bois, and Vasconcelos / Juliet Hooker. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2017.
• Hooker, Juliet. Race and the Politics of Solidarity / Juliet Hooker. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009
• Tzul, Gladys Tzul. “Rebuilding Communal Life: Ixil Women and the Desire for Life in Guatemala.” NACLA report on the Americas (1993) 50.4 (2018): 404–407.
• Tzul, Gladys Tzul. “Communal Strategies for Controlling Microfinance in Chuimeq’ena’ Guatemala.” The South Atlantic quarterly 115.3 (2016): 625–631.
• Santos, Boaventura de Sousa. The End of the Cognitive Empire : the Coming of Age of Epistemologies of the South / Boaventura de Sousa Santos. Durham: Duke University Press, 2018.
• Mutu (Ngāti Kahu, Te Rarawa and Ngāti Whātua nations). “‘To Honour the Treaty, We Must First Settle Colonisation’ (Moana Jackson 2015): The Long Road from Colonial Devastation to Balance, Peace and Harmony.” Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand 49.sup1 (2019): 4–18.

Dave Reay, Professor of Carbon Management and Education in the School of Geosciences and a Director of the Edinburgh Climate Change Institute, discusses his hopes for COP26 and the university's involvement in an interview with Joséphine Foucher, Teaching Matters Co-Editor and Student Engagement Officer.  This episode accompanies our November and December Hot Topic theme: COP26 and embedding the climate emergency in our teaching.

Dave begins by outlining some of the Edinburgh Climate Change Institute's (ECCI) work at the University, before expanding into all things COP26. Throughout, he contextualizes the conference, while considering interesting questions. How can climate change become embedded in our curriculum? How are students participating in the conference? What outcomes are we looking for in the conference? And climate change historically has been viewed as being all about big business or the individual, but what might a different perspective look like?

We hope you enjoy this special one-off episode of Teaching Matters! 

Timestamps:

1:25 - Beginning of the interview with Dave Reay speaking about the ECCI's work at the university 

6:45 - Dave and Josephine discuss student and alum involvement in COP26

10:10 - Dave on his and the ECCI's hopes for the outcomes of the conference

17:30 - Dave discusses how climate change/action can be embedded into university courses 

Music for today's episode was provided by Tunesounds. 

Cop26 logo provided by UK Government - https://www.gov.uk/government/topical-events/cop26, OGL 3, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=99448137

In this episode, Johanna Holtan Co-Convenor of the Race Equality and Anti-Racist Sub-Committee (REAR) and Programme Director, Mastercard Foundation Scholars Program talks to intersectional feminist scholar from the Global South, Dr Radhika Govinda, Senior Lecturer in Sociology at the School of Social and Political Science. Dr Govinda sits on the steering committees for the University’s GenderED and RACE.ED networks. She is Associate Director of CRITIQUE, and an active member of the Centre for South Asian Studies. 

In this episode, she discusses decolonisation as a process of decentring whiteness, which entails unpacking the historical implications of deconstructing knowledge production. For her, the classroom is a key entry point for undertaking such a process in inspiring students to insert dilemmas into their subjectivities. In this way, the classroom is conducive space for exploring discomforts, assumptions, and vulnerabilities.

Dr Radhika Govinda's Recommendations:

• Mohanty, Chandra Talpade. “‘Under Western Eyes’ Revisited: Feminist Solidarity through Anticapitalist Struggles.” Signs, vol. 28, no. 2, 2003, pp. 499–535.
• Hooks, Bell.  (1994).  Teaching to transgress : education as the practice of freedom. New York:  Routledge
• Crenshaw, Kimberle. “Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics, and Violence against Women of Color.” Stanford Law Review, vol. 43, no. 6, 1991, pp. 1241–1299.