EDI Awareness Guidance
We are committed to enhancing the student experience by listening to their opinions and implementing change to create an educational environment where EDI values are lived. We are aware of offensive and outdated terminology used by staff primarily due to unawareness which students may find triggering or uncomfortable, however we also acknowledge that it could also be context specific and hence we feel that the following talk from one of our students would provide some contemplation for our staff and students.
Any outdated or inappropriate language/terminologies in the classroom can be raised with the lecturer as it happens, however we understand it might not be convenient or feasible for the student to do that. In this case, students can report in confidence to by sending an email to smmsn.edi@abdn.ac.uk . When reporting, we ask that students are specific about the context and content. It is also important that students are explicit about the feedback they would like, to enable us to provide an effective response and provide support/training required to those it may concern.
A verbal/written warning on content by the lecturer in advance to the class would allow students to make informed and conscious choices on how they wish to access the content. It may be useful to signpost students to a relevant support service within the University if required.
Thomas Short - Is It Just Semantics? To watch the talk, please click here.