Centre for Global Learning: Education and Attainment

Welcome to the August 2020 edition of Coventry University's

Centre for Global Learning: Education and Attainment (GLEA) Newsletter

We'll be sharing the latest news from across the centre, including an insight in to how we have responded and adapted to the coronavirus pandemic. This edition will focus on project activity from the Intercultural Engagement and Global Education theme.

Responding and shaping higher education in the Covid-19 pandemic and beyond: Global learning in the 21st century

Higher education (HE) has changed, the COVID-19 pandemic and varied mitigating strategies across the world including the Black Lives Matter movement are forcing universities to adapt and respond to the needs of students’, regulators and governments. At the same time HE needs to rise to the challenge of leading the societal charge, shaping how society will adapt and provide the ideas, innovations and resources that will define the new normal.

At GLEA, the Intercultural Engagement and Global Education theme has focused on monitoring, understanding and responding to present needs, we are also articulating how the resources and knowledges we have developed will support how teaching and learning is done in the future. Specifically, we are focusing on the use of online spaces, which have become ubiquitous in the last five months. Our live project work and research interest continues in collaborative online international learning (COIL), including focus on COIL as a space for multisectoral learning communities to engage with wicked problem solving (Moje et al., 2004[1]). This includes more work around decolonisation, working collaboratively and supporting the social skills that enable collaborative, online, transdisciplinary interaction.

[1] Moje, B. J., et al. (2004). Working toward third space in content area literacy: An examination of every day funds of knowledge and discourse. Reading Research Quarterly, 39 (1), 38–70.

Intercultural Engagement and Global Education Projects

British Council/CAPES Brazil Universities of the World Project

GLEA is leading the Universities of the World project which is a collaboration between Coventry University -  (GLEA), International Centre for Transformational Entrepreneurship (ICTE) and Doctoral College and Centre for Research Capability and Development, (DC). The aim of this extensive collaboration is to shape the global environments of the future, focusing on Internationalisation of researcher development and doctoral provision in strategic research areas through collaboration between Coventry University (CU) and Universidade Federal do Espírito Santo (UFES) in Brazil.

The initial team included a team of scholars with expertise in Education, Social Work, and Entrepreneurship; we are developing global collaborations that explore ways to build teams of experts that can work transnationally to tackle the global challenges of today and tomorrow. We have now established new academic contacts, research synergies with Centres across Coventry University and UFES, to include, networks for teams working in mental health and social innovation, Collaborative Online Learning, Future Cities, Feminist perspectives in Society and support for students with disabilities. Teams involved include scholars from our networks in the Ukraine, Spain, Italy, The Netherlands, South Africa and the United States of America.

We have had two visiting scholars based at GLEA from UFES on the basis of the collaboration:

·       Dr Rafael Vieira Teixeira, Adjunct Professor in the Department of Social Work and Collaborator in the Graduate Programme in Social Policy at UFES-Brazil (for 3 months Jan 2020 – March 2020, funded by CAPES/PRINT)

·       Dr Rafael de Silva Barbosa (for 4 months Sep 2019 – DEC 2019, funded by CAPES/PRINT)

Transforming Curricula Through Internationalisation and Virtual Exchange (iKUDU)

The iKudu project (pronounced ee-kudu) is an Erasmus+ Capacity Building in the field of HE project which brings together a consortium of partners to assist with the development of collaborative online international learning (COIL) virtual exchanges, which will be embedded in the delivery of an internationalised and decolonised transformed curriculum in a South African context. Coventry University joins the ambitious ten-partner consortium to allow the South African partner universities to become the country's leading HEIs in internationalisation of the curriculum, curriculum transformation, and COIL virtual exchange.

iKudu is unusual in that it is an EU funded project, but the lead partner is South African. Whereas Erasmus+ projects usually require a European lead, the core aims of the project to enable decolonised COIL delivery in South Africa is strongly reinforced by this decision.

Although some of the partners had previously developed COIL capabilities through the IMPALA project, few students in South Africa have the opportunity to engage in internationalisation. iKudu seeks to address this through the democratisation of internationalisation, with COIL projects being open to participation by students irrespective of economic or cultural background.

The project was initially envisioned as a hybrid of face-to-face training and the development and delivery of COIL in the online space. Split across multiple work packages in order to deliver research around COIL and to tackle the design and implementation of the COIL projects, Professor Katherine Wimpenny and Dr Alun DeWinter are involved in WP1 and WP2, with assistance from Coventry University’s Centre for Global Engagement (CGE).

Although some initial kick-off meetings were able to be held in South Africa, the unexpected occurrence of Covid-19 has required substantial changes to the project. Rather than pause or extend the project, the work packages have moved into a fully online space, utilising virtual collaboration tools such as ZOOM and Microsoft Teams to facilitate project delivery. This transition has allowed the project to continue to make progress but has really reinforced the importance of developing interpersonal familiarity with project partners, which is more easily achieved in face-to-face situations.

To remedy this, Katherine Wimpenny came up with ‘Friday’s Cuppa’ – a regular get together to discuss iKudu project progress in an informal forum, with participants invited to share a virtual drink and to share stories about their work and life. These have been incredibly popular and have served to cement team relationships and to push the project forward during an unprecedented global crisis.

The iKudu project is in its first year, of three.  Both Katherine and Alun are working hard to help produce research around COIL and to facilitate the production of COIL projects with the partners, with support from CGE.

Transforming Staff Doctoral Research: University Capacity Development Programme (UCDP) collaborative project proposal for phase 2 of the university staff doctoral programme

Funded through UCDP - University Capacity Development Programme - South Africa, Transforming Staff Doctoral Research is a collaboration with the Walter Sisulu University (WSU), the University of Stellenbosch, South Africa (SU) and Coventry University (CU). CU project team members include Professor Katherine Wimpenny & Dr Virginia King (GLEA) and Dr Marta Vizcaya Echano (DC).

This action-research project in programme design and delivery, is developing a dual award that is the first of its kind for CU in bringing together three HEIs. It sets a model for transformative doctoral collaboration that fosters transnational and intercultural knowledge under Ubuntu principles, building on contextualised research and teaching and learning environments of three HEIs and PGR cohorts.

Designed as a tripartite programme where all three partners’ contributions are key, close collaboration at all stages takes this doctorate beyond CU’s existing dual awards. The partners have been working hard to work with three sets of institutional regulations to make it feasible, whilst crucially ensuring its rigour.

We are aiming to start recruiting an international cohort of doctoral candidates for this programme from end of July 2020, which will comprise staff at WSU who meet the funders’ profiling and equity targets, and institutionally funded staff from CU and SU. This cohort represents the principles of equity and reciprocity in learning that are central to this consortium. The programme will draw on and develop taught components and online resources from all three institutions. It will exemplify, test and provide a platform for international research education; build supervisory capacity and capabilities; and enrich the research environment of all three institutions.

An ‘Expression of Interest’ advert will be promoted and shared through CU university channels, during and up to the end of August 2020 for a September 2020 start.

Please contact Professor Katherine Wimpenny for further information

EduHack – An Erasmus+ Project building Digital Teaching Capacity adapts to the Coronavirus Crisis, and gets close to its final phase.

Edu-Hack is an international initiative supported by the Erasmus + Programme, supported by GLEA and DMLL in Coventry University, and by a number of academic and non-academic institutions across Europe. The Edu-Hack project developed a capacity building methodology which utilises online courseware and EduHackathons, whereby teaching professionals learned how to become active creators of digitally supported learning experiences.

During the last few months, the project entered its final phase, with online hackathons being organised in Turin and Coventry, and quickly adapting to the new situation determined by the pandemic. Events that were supposed to happen in face to face environments where moved to online spaces, where the consortium experimented with new facilitation and co-creation strategies.

Online co-creation and collaboration across languages and institutions - Screenshot by Luca Morini

Following the hackathons, GLEA ran a webinar to illustrate the journey of the project, from the curation of its online resources to the ongoing EduHackathons.  Focus was on how the take-up of the EduHack training materials  and activities were impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic, but also on how the learning resources provided participants with the tools to support their pivot to online teaching.

Through the webinar we shared the struggles and successes, and introduced participants to an evolving digital and conceptual toolkit to scaffold the transition of participants to active digital learning content producers.

Please contact Dr Luca Morini for further information.

Remote Teaching and Learning Research

Researchers from GLEA and Academic Development at CU, led by GLEA Faculty Research Associate Dr Farzana Aslam,  are conducting research on staff and student experiences of remote teaching and learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. Staff and students are invited to complete a short online survey to share their experiences of remote teaching and learning. The aim of the study is to understand and improve current remote teaching and learning practices across different disciplines and contexts in Coventry University Group (CUG). The research aims to contribute to CUG preparedness and inform wider HE Institutions around teaching practices and remote learning; additionally, to inform local and governmental education strategy and policy considering the current and future higher education landscape. In particular, this study will inform, enhance and support CUG teaching and learning strategy planning and practices, including how academics can advance the student experience and improve academic teaching practices, resources and tools. are inviting staff and students to complete a short online survey to share their experiences of remote teaching and learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

For further information please email Dr Farzana Aslam

Recent news

Other updates from across GLEA

Welcome

A warm welcome to Professor Suzanne Clisby who has joined the team as Professor in Gender Studies, and to Dr Que Anh Dang as Assistant Professor supporting the Intercultural Engagement and Global Learning theme.

Publications

Articles

Chen, Y. F. & Adefila, A., 1 Apr 2020, 'Enhancing school safety through university engagement in DRR education.' In : International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction. 44, 101386.

Grove, M., Croft, T. and Lawson, D. (2020) 'The extent and uptake of mathematics support in higher education: results from the 2018 survey', Teaching Mathematics and Its Applications, 39(2):86-104. 

Levesque, K., Breadmore, H., & Deacon S. H. (2020 – early view). 'How morphology impacts reading and spelling: Advancing the role of morphology in models of literacy development.' Journal of Research in Reading. 

Morini, L., 12 Mar 2020, (Accepted/In press) 'The Anti-Ecological University', In : Philosophy and Theory of Higher Education. 2, 2, p. (In-press)

Book / Chapters

Alsop, S., King, V., Giaimo, G. and Xu, X. (In press, 2020) Uses of corpus linguistics in education research: An adjustable lens. Theory and Method in Higher Education Research. Tight, M. & Huisman, J. (eds.). Emerald

Beelen, J., Wimpenny, K., & Rubin, J. (2020) Internationalisation in the classroom and questions of congruence: embedding COIL in an internationalised curriculum. In,  Paul G. Nixon, Vanessa P. Dennen & Rajash Rawal (Eds), Reshaping International Teaching and Learning: Universities in the Information Age. London Routledge. Elspeth Jones’  Routledge series (Forthcoming) 

Carroll, J. M., & Critten, S. (2020). Developmental Language Disorder. The Encylopedia of Child and Adolescent Development. Eds: Stephen Hupp & Jeremy Jewell. Wiley.

Holmes, S. (2020). 'The wider cognitive benefits of engagement with music'. In A. Creech & D. Hodges (Eds), Routledge International Handbook of Music Psychology in Education and the Community. Routledge. (in press)