Equal Opportunity & Diversity and ELT

1. Equal Opportunity & Diversity and ELT Fiona Bartels-Ellis Head of Equal Opportunity & Diversity

2. British Council EO&D Framework I n t e r c u l t u r a l a w a r e n e s s / w o r k i n g Intercultural Dialogue I n t e r c u l t u r a l a w a r e n e s s / w o r k i n g Work-lifebalance Sexual identity Creative & Knowledge Economy Disability Business Gender Mainstreaming Moral Legal Age Climate Change Religion or belief Ethnicity Supporting Inclusion & Human Rights Achieving impact for the UK A process not an event Aligned to our values

3. What is driving the EO&D agenda in ELT? Ever-changing global context Changing needs and expectations of customers Relevance to audiences and stakeholders

4. What is driving the EO&D agenda in ELT? Changing needs of staff Values: integrity and professionalism Managing financial and reputational risk Legislation – letter and spirit of the law

5. What are the specific challenges?1 Buy-in from ELT practitioners Intercultural awareness and global citizenship dimension Challenging cultural contexts; lack of guidance and support Absence of EO&D in training; TESOL, CELTA, DELTA

6. What are the specific challenges?2 Absence of EO&D in course-books and other materials Danger of stereotyping; perceptions of “real” & “proper” English Questionable nature of “native speaker” model Diverse learning styles Timetabling issues

7. How is the British Council addressing these challenges? EO&D Handbook for Teachers Diversity Assessment Framework Monitoring Equality Impact Assessment INSETT materials

8. The EO&D Handbook for Teachers What is equal opportunity and diversity? Equal opportunity and diversity in ELT: what’s in it for us? Equal opportunity and diversity in the classroom Equal opportunity in the staffroom Tools for personal professional development

9. E&E Diversity Assessment Framework Based on the British Council’s DAF Five Levels • Level 1 – Embarking • Level 2 – Progressing • Level 3 – Performing • Level 4 – Mainstreaming • Level 5 – Leading Six indicators per level Launching in 2009

10. The DAF as a journey 1.1 Recruitment and Selection of teachers, trainers, academic managers, examiners and invigilators is fair and transparent in line with EO Policy 5.2 The Teaching Centre acts as a role model for language schools and institutions, influencing positive change in the area of EO+D and receiving external recognition

11. Monitoring Who are our teachers? Who are we recruiting? Who are we retaining? What are their experiences? How can we respond to and capitalise on these?

12. Equality Impact Assessment An opportunity to review the way we do things from a range of perspectives. Identifying and addressing potential problems before they have a chance to negatively impact. An added level of risk assessment.

13. INSETT Programme By the end of the INSETT workshop teachers should understand: How the EO&D Policy and Strategy impact on how we work in the classroom and in the staffroom How the Handbook becomes ‘real’

14. Case study1 You manage a teacher training project where most of the ‘delivery’ is offsite, working with teachers in their schools. A teaching couple on your team with children, who have to travel considerable distances away from their normal place of work, ask you to make timetable arrangements that require great flexibility from you and the client, to allow for the children to be safely dropped off and collected from school.

15. Case study2 You deputy feels that your admissions procedures need to be clearer to actively encourage students to declare disabilities, to have their needs and aspirations assessed and enable you to have support put in place as soon as possible (inc. special equipment). You hesitate.

16. Case study3 You are a newly appointed manager. You see that your front office/customer service staff, who are male Christians, are required to cover in Ramadan for Muslim colleagues who might want to leave work early. Teachers who are also Muslim are not given that option because they are more strictly ‘time-tabled’.

17. Case study4 You ask your teachers to complete end-of-term “Preference Forms” indicating their timetable preference for the new term. You struggle to ensure teachers are placed according to skills, experience and competencies. Two married teachers ask that they don’t work a split shift, they leave to take their children to their extra-curricular activities mid-afternoon on Tuesday and Thursday and they don’t come in on Saturdays, which is your busiest day for YL classes.

18. Case study5 You shortlist a man and a woman for a vacant front-office post in your institute. The female candidate enquires about the possibility of job sharing in the post. You explain that you cannot accommodate any such request. You tell her that your students expect to deal with only one person whenever they contact the institute and so the post can onloy be filled on a full time basis.

19. Case study6 In order to maintain the competitive edge of your language institute, your job advertisements state that any candidate applying for a teaching post must be able to speak English to “native English speaker” standard. You have not defined This standard further as you believe it is obvious who can and cannot comply with it. You currently employ teachers from Australia, Canada, the Irish Republic and South Africa in addition, of course, to teachers from the UK.

20. Case study7 Your Information Centre is located at the top of a short flight steep steps. You receive a query from a wheel chair user who wishes to access your services. You apologise to him and explain that at the moment you have no plans to re-locate the Centre and unfortunately you don’t have the money to install a wheelchair ramp.

21. Case study8 In response to customer feedback, you decide to introduce a dress code for all your front-line staff. The code states that whilst employees may wear the hijab, skullcap or other head-covering, they must keep their faces uncovered at all times whilst on duty so that they can communicate clearly with all your customers.

22. Case study9 One of your staff, Sanjay, has a hearing impairment. He has told you that he has recently been feeling uncomfortable in the office: some of his colleagues are telling jokes behind his back about people with disabilities and he feels embarrassed and upset. He has asked them to stop but they haven’t. You have a vacant post in another department, working to a boss whom you are certain will not tolerate any such behaviour. You therefore offer Sanjay the vacancy but are surprised when he turns it down.

23. Case study10 For some time you have been concerned about the performance and sick leave record of one of your supervisors but have taken no action about it, hoping the problems will resolve themselves. You are shocked when she submits a grievance alleging discrimination and you decide the time has come to finally take action. You therefore begin disciplinary proceedings against her on the grounds of poor performance and an unacceptable absence record.

24. Equal Opportunity & Diversity and ELT Thank You Fiona Bartels-Ellis Head of Equal Opportunity & Diversity