B7 - Unconscious bias, gender stereotypes and sexism in pedagogy and the research environment

Workshop overview: 

Research and media reports have drawn attention to the prevalence of unconscious bias, gender stereotyping and sexism that manifests in higher education pedagogy and the research environment.  It is well known that subject choice is divided by gender, resulting in limited role models and isolation for many doctoral researchers.  Higher education studies highlight a range of challenges from ‘lad culture’ on campus (Dempster, 2009) to jokes, pejorative sexist remarks towards female students and pressure to ‘prove’ oneself in STEM (Bristol SU, 2015), to unconscious or implicit bias that manifests in the doubling of standards for women, gate-keeping, engendered decisions in placements, and so on (European Commission, 2004). Marked bias against women in doctoral dissertations has also been reported (Vallejo, 2015), and a number of studies point to resources, time, social networks and encouragement being unevenly distributed between the sexes - all of which are necessary prerequisites to a successful researcher career. 

This session opens with an outline of these issues, followed by an introduction to an intervention designed at the University of Reading. Participants will be offered the opportunity of taking part in an interactive experiential ‘Generative lab’ session followed by discussions.

Workshop topics covered: 

• Unconscious bias, gender stereotypes and sexism in pedagogy and the research environment
• Introducing a design for a teaching and learning session, and the resources developed (e.g. cartoon strips and storyboards) to address this challenge at the University of Reading 
• Experiential activity in the form of a ‘Generative Lab’ to tackle different aspects of a particular issue
• Discussion on the approach adopted at the University of Reading.  
• Participants will be invited to share and discuss examples of interventions developed to address these challenges at their own/other institutions.
• The workshop will conclude with participants generating suggestions for next steps/future directions for research and interventions.

Themes covered:

• Developing a pipeline of research talent, including widening participation, strategies to attract and retain research talent, and approaches to mainstreaming equality and diversity for researchers in the research environment

Workshop outcomes: 

• Increased self-awareness of own biases and recognition of experiences of bias
• Ability to notice and challenge behaviours in own professional context
• Knowledge of novel approaches to tackle unconscious bias, gender stereotypes and sexism in institutional space.

Format:

Overview of the issue and approach; experiential ’Generative Lab’ to tackle different aspects of the issue; discussion, sharing examples of approaches from other institutions; next steps, future directions.