Please find a brief recap of the key highlights from the two Teaching Cafés at the 2023 AIB UK&I Chapter conference in Glasgow, Scotland, UK
The first Teaching Café on “SDG 8 in IB” brought together a group of very motivated educators to discuss ways of incorporating SDG 8 into our IB teaching. SDG 8 aims to promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all. Rob van Tulder, William Newburry, Shasha Zhao, and Noemi Sinkovics discussed many practical and inspiring applications. Some highlights included: 1) taking students out in the field to help local communities bring business ideas to life, 2) using board games to provide students with an experience of systemic interdependencies, 3) engaging students in case and poster competitions. There was an emphasis on co-creating knowledge with students and taking into consideration the differences across cohorts, programmes, and age groups. The following quote from Rob van Tulder’s principles-based approach to lifelong, virtuous learning (and teaching) sums up the spirit of the session “Use the warmth of your heart to keep your head cool and your hands productive” (van Tulder, 2018, page 128).
The second Teaching Café on “Promoting D&I in teaching curriculum” addressed different perspectives of Diversity and Inclusion in Higher Education. Cyntia Vilasboas Calixto Casnici lead the discussion of gender inequality and some initiatives to diminish the under-representation of women in leadership positions. We discussed the different lenses that diversity brings and the need to question your lens and appreciate others. During the session we discussed institutional practices to engage faculty in D&I, challenges, and opportunities to include D&I across the curriculum. We shared our experiences about ongoing initiatives in universities to promote D&I. We discussed more widely the challenges to be inclusive regionally, for example with regards to small and remote states. The session concluded with a discussion led by Iyke Ikegwuonu and Margaret Fletcher on how Team-based Learning (TBL) was used in an IB course to foster D&I practices in the classroom. We discussed how to create balanced diverse teams for example in gender, regional diversity, prior qualifications, personality profile. The advantage of having English first language in a team was highlighted. We discussed how TBL can support engagement by students in group work where preparation in advance of a class is required and student dairies record participate and can inform assessment.
