Reflections on non-EDI-compliant ‘languaging’ in the UK HE sector and some suggestions for inclusive practices to foster belonging

Description

In this talk I will discuss how ‘belonging’ is becoming one of the key themes associated with students’ wellbeing and attainment in the higher education (HE) sector in the UK. As stressed by Morgan (2024), HE institutions need to recognise the intersectionality of belonging and consider the diverse backgrounds and experiences of their students and address them with culturally responsive approaches that can help minority and underrepresented students with feeling included.
Language choices can create barriers to inclusion and instigate ‘othering’ in subtle ways that can affect attainment and/or reflect colonial heritage and foster deficit discourses in academia instead of celebrating and respecting difference. This is illustrated for example by research on the wording of written feedback that demonstrates how the type of feedback provided by tutors on assignments that can prove to be alienating for ethnic minority group students and exacerbate their marginalisation.
I will provide examples of how we can attempt to move away from problematising and (mis)classifying students into categorisation that are not appropriate for them (such as the now disbanded BAME) and discuss how we can also utilise curricular approaches and assessment tasks that encourage pluriversal perspectives and give voice to difference.
I will finally illustrate a case study of how the Virtual Exchange approach provided a powerful Third Space that enabled students reading for an MA in English Language Teaching (ELT) and Applied Linguistics and the staff teaching them to co-construct knowledge ‘otherwise’, while also developing useful transversal competences that fostered appreciation and respect for the different ‘other’. The VE Third Space can be utilised to raise awareness of relational inequalities, and not just in the field of ELT.

Selected References
Alsop, S. & Gardner, S. (2019) Understanding attainment disparity: The case for a corpus-driven analysis of the language used in written feedback information to students of different backgrounds. Journal of Writing Analytics, 3, 38-68. https://pureportal.coventry.ac.uk/files/27908592/alsop.pdf

Morgan, J. (2024). Fostering belonging in Higher Education: Implications for student retention and wellbeing. Advance HE https://www.advance-he.ac.uk/news-and-views/fostering-belonging-higher-education-implications-student-retention-and-wellbeing

Mittelmeier, J. (2025). Against ‘Integration’ in Research and Practice with International Students. Journal of Studies in International Education. https://doi.org/10.1177/10283153241308744

Orsini-Jones, M., Chen, Y. H., Koseoglu, G., Mkpayah, P., Suri, P. & Zhang, K.(accepted, forthcoming 2025) Virtual Exchange as an Equality, Diversity and Inclusion-Compliant Approach to English Language Teacher Education. In L., Ching-Ching, C., Vaz Bauler, & E. Servano (Eds.). Virtual Exchange as Justice-oriented Practices : Navigating Identity, Language and Power. (pp. TBC). Multilingual Matters.

Wimpenny, K., Finardi, K., Orsini-Jones, M., & Jacobs, L. (2022). Knowing, Being, Relating and Expressing through Third Space Global South-North COIL: Digital Inclusion and Equity in International Higher Education. Journal of Studies in International Education, 26 (2), 279-296 https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/10283153221094085

Period	17 Mar 2025
Held at	Open University, United Kingdom
Degree of Recognition	National