Equality, diversity and inclusion in the curriculum: developing a strategic approach in the medical school

School:  Edinburgh Medical School [Molecular, Genetic and Population Health Sciences]

Team Members:  Jeni Harden, Karen Chapman, Gwenetta Curry, Dawn Livingstone

Abstract

Approaches to equality and diversity in higher education are shifting from interventions responding to the needs of individual or specific groups of students, to systemic change. Core to this, is the development of curricula that actively and intentionally engage with difference and discrimination; often discussed as the need to ‘decolonise’, ‘liberate’ or make the curriculum more ‘inclusive'. 

Universities are responding to student, staff and societal pressures and some are rushing to act, with ill-considered policies possibly further entrenching inequalities. This highlights the need for research to underpin a coherent and strategic approach towards embedding and enhancing equality and diversity in the curriculum. While staff in the College of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine (CMVM) are supportive of equality and diversity in the curriculum in principle, feedback has suggested that staff in these disciplinary areas are less likely to see the relevance, and are unclear how to engage with this agenda in their  disciplinary contexts. Within the Medical School there are pockets of progress focusing on specific aspects, however, these do not take account of intersectionality and may introduce the danger of  overlapping, potentially contradictory requests for change being made to staff.

The aim of this project is to generate a holistic, research-informed approach to support staff in the development of inclusive curricula within the Medical School UG programmes.