Academic leadership at the programme level to address the BME attainment gap

© 2018 Leadership Foundation for Higher Education. As the publisher of this work, the Leadership Foundation would like to encourage its circulation as widely as possible while retaining the copyright. Permission is granted to reproduce for personal and educational use only. Commercial copying, hiring, lending are prohibited. If you would like to use this work for your own non-commercial personal or educational purposes – for example download, save, perform or distribute it in any format, including translation – you may do so without written permission. Please note that the following will be required: The Leadership Foundation and the author(s) are credited, Our website address www.lfhe.ac.uk is prominently displayed, The text is not altered and is used in full, The work is not resold, and a copy of the work or link to its use online is sent to the Leadership Foundation.The BME attainment gap (i.e. the difference in the percentage of White students achieving a first or upper second class degree (2i) compared to the percentage of Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) students achieving a first or 2i degree) has been a long-standing concern within the higher education sector. Many initiatives and projects have identified the need for Institutional commitment and senior leadership to develop inclusive practice strategies but there has been limited discussion on the importance of localised leadership to ensure that strategies are operationalised and enhancements are embedded and sustained. Within the University we have recognised the crucial role of the programme leader and the impact of localised leadership on the student experience. This project provided us with an ideal opportunity to consider how programme leaders reviewed their programmes and identified inclusivity related enhancements. The consideration of programme level data (Value Added (VA) scores) enabled programme leaders to consider ethnicity related attainment gaps within their courses and to discuss appropriate actions with their programme teams. The aim of the project was to support academic leadership at the programme level to enable inclusive curriculum enhancements and subsequent improvements in outcomes for students from Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) backgrounds. The project thus enabled the integrated discussion of leadership, equality and learning and teaching. Following attendance at workshops that focused on promoting inclusive curriculum approaches for programme leaders, and up to three members of their programme team, structured interviews were conducted with 30 programme leaders. The aims of the interviews were to: explore examples of inclusive practice and actions identified by the programme leader as well as any potential challenges they perceived in trying to enhance inclusive practice. Objective review of annual monitoring and evaluation reports (AMERs) plus follow up discussions with programme leaders, enabled the identification of the range of actions implemented by programme teams as well as consideration of any benefits and challenges associated with implementing inclusive practice changes. Analysis of the initial interview transcriptions resulted in classification of responses into one of three categories on the basis of their expressed intention, or lack of intention to influence change. The three categories were: • Effecting programme level change • Personal commitment to inclusivity • Limited action Effecting programme level change: some programme leaders had an in-depth understanding of the challenges associated with ethnicity related attainment gaps. They had engaged in training previously and were aware of national data and in some cases, discipline related data. They had already made some changes to their own practice and identified clear actions to influence change across the programme. Some examples included; programme leaders raising the profile of BME authors by reviewing reading lists and resources to ensure they were inclusive and representative; increasing the use of BME case studies in the curriculum; and showcasing BME role models within the programme. Personal commitment to inclusivity: for some programme leaders, the workshop stimulated personal change, for example, in their own teaching, and/or within their module. They identified the need for enhancements but were not yet influencing change in the wider programme team. Barriers identified by programme leaders in this group included the challenge of leading without line management responsibility. Limited action: A number of programme leaders identified limited actions or no actions. Lack of action seemed to relate to one of four themes: i) general lack of awareness; ii) competing priorities and discussion of other issues such as gender equality; iii) deficit approaches where actions focused on student support; iv) deflection of responsibility. The reviewing of AMERs enabled the identification of a range of actions associated with inclusive practice and follow-up discussions with programme leaders provided details on how actions were being implemented as well as challenges associated with implementing change. Despite all programme leaders having attended a very similar workshop there was variability in approach when considering inclusive curriculum actions. Programme leaders had different levels of understanding based on their own previous experiences as well as the amount of race-related staff development in which they had previously engaged and their willingness to consider their practice and their own privilege. To support programme leaders in leading change at the programme level, 11 case studies of good practice have been produced. The case studies provide different examples of race related actions and are drawn from programmes reflecting a range of disciplines, size of cohort and level of study

Rock and age relationships within the Talkeetna forearc subduction complex in the Nelchina area, Southern Alaska

Thesis (M.S.) University of Alaska Fairbanks, 2018Subduction-zone processes are challenging to study because of the rarity of good exposures and the complexity of rock relationships within accretionary prisms. In south-central Alaska, a remarkably well-preserved exposure of subduction-related outcrops is located at the foot of Nelchina Glacier. Here, the crystalline basement of the Talkeetna volcanic arc is in contact with the mélange of its associated accretionary complex along the Border Ranges fault. A new zircon U-Pb age of an amphibolite from the Talkeetna arc mid-crustal basement just north of the fault is 188.9 ± 2.2 Ma, coincident with previously published dates from the mafic section of the arc. A new amphibole ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar age from the same outcrop yields a plateau age of 182.6 ± 1.3 Ma, reflecting cooling/exhumation of this part of the arc. The mélange south of the arc and the Border Ranges fault, known as the McHugh Complex, comprises sheared metasedimentary rocks, metavolcanic rocks, and chert, and in the Nelchina area it includes a roughly 100-m-diameter block of pillow lavas that are undeformed but altered. Detailed compositional data show that the pillow lava block formed in an intraplate setting. New whole-rock ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar analyses of two pillow-lava samples yielded irregular plateaus with an approximate age of 60 Ma, which we interpret to be largely reset due to reheating. Hypabyssal dikes crosscut the mélange, as well as younger accretionary prism deposits in the area, and provide a new zircon U-Pb age of 53.0 ± 0.9 Ma, which coincides with ages of near-trench plutonism across southern Alaska. This plutonism has been ascribed to subduction of a spreading ridge that migrated eastward along the southern Alaska margin. These new ages constrain the McHugh Complex formation and subsequent hydrothermal alteration to pre-55 Ma. We suggest that the pillow lava was originally part of a Triassic (or earlier) seamount that was decapitated and incorporated into the mélange as the oceanic plate entered the subduction zone. The pillow lava subsequently underwent extensive hydrothermal alteration that almost completely reset its age during the ridge subduction event. We further posit that the Talkeetna volcanic arc and its associated accretionary prism sediments were in their current configuration during the ca. 55 Ma plutonism that was common throughout southern Alaska

How did the work impact me? Reflections of the researchers and facilitators of BME success projects

Programme leaders and members of programme teams attended inclusive teaching workshops focused on race equality. After the workshops, programme leaders were interviewed to discuss how they were going to implement inclusive practice enhancements. The core team who facilitated the workshops and conducted the interviews reflected on their experiences of leading change associated with reducing the BME attainment gap. Considering a critical incident which theyd experienced during the workshop or during the interviews, they each wrote personal narratives to explore emotions which the incident had stimulated as well as consideration of how theyd responded at the time and what they could have done differently. The four narratives were considered to identify key themes. Two common themes identified were the stimulation of negative emotions (e.g. anger) and the inability to challenge comments and stereotyping assumptions at the time of the incident. Considering the results in light of literature associated with staff development, the use of personal narrative and leading diversity related change, in addition to autoethnographical thoughts associated with the authors own experiences of race, racism and privilege, five recommendations for colleagues involved in race-related staff development were identified

Hostility, Race, and Glucose Metabolism in Nondiabetic Individuals

OBJECTIVE— The present study was designed to determine whether hostility is differentially related to measures of glucose metabolism in African-Americans and Caucasians. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS— The relationship of hostility, as measured by a subset of the Cook-Medley hostility scale (CMHOST) inventory items, to various parameters of glucose metabolism were examined in a young, healthy sample of male and female African-American and Caucasian volunteers. Fasting blood samples were collected during an inpatient admission, at which time the CMHOST was also administered. RESULTS— In the entire sample, the CMHOST was found to be significantly correlated with fasting glucose and insulin sensitivity, as measured by the homeostatic model assessment (HOMA). However, the relationship of hostility to these parameters of glucose metabolism was different in African-American and Caucasian subjects. Hostility was significantly related to fasting glucose in African-Americans and to insulin sensitivity and fasting insulin in Caucasian subjects. The relationship of hostility to insulin sensitivity and fasting insulin was partially dependent on BMI in Caucasians, but the relationship of hostility to fasting glucose was unrelated to BMI in African-Americans. CONCLUSIONS— Our data suggest that the relationship of hostility to measures of glucose metabolism is mediated differently in these two ethnic groups. Therefore, hostility seems to be part of a constellation of risk-related behaviors related to BMI in Caucasians but independently related to fasting glucose in African-Americans

Associations between APOE Variants and Metabolic Traits and the Impact of Psychological Stress

In a previous study, we observed that associations between APOE rs439401 and metabolic traits were moderated by chronic stress. Thus, in a population of stressed and non-stressed Danish men, we examined whether associations between APOE rs439401 and a panel of metabolic quantitative traits, all metabolic traits which may lead to T2D and CVD were moderated by psychological stress.Obese young men (n = 475, BMI ≥ 31.0 kg/m(2)) and a randomly selected control group (n = 709) identified from a population of 141,800 men were re-examined in two surveys (S-46: mean age 46, S-49: mean age 49 years) where anthropometric and biochemical measures were available. Psychological stress factors were assessed by a self-administered 7-item questionnaire. Each item had the possible response categories "yes" and "no" and assessed familial problems and conflicts. Summing positive responses constituted a stress item score, which was then dichotomized into stressed and non-stressed. Logistic regression analysis, applying a recessive genetic model, was used to assess odds ratios (OR) of the associations between APOE rs439401 genotypes and adverse levels of metabolic traits.The APOE rs439401 TT-genotype associated positively with BMI (OR = 1.09 [1.01; 1.17]), waist circumference (OR = 1.09 [1.02; 1.17]) in stressed men at S-46. Positive associations were observed for fasting plasma glucose (OR = 1.42 [1.07; 1.87]), serum triglycerides (OR = 1.41 [1.05; 1.91]) and with fasting plasma insulin (OR = 1.48 [1.05; 2.08]) in stressed men at S-49. Rs439401 TT-genotype also associated positively with surrogate measures of insulin resistance (HOMA-IR; OR = 1.21 [1.03; 1.41]) and inversely with insulin sensitivity (Stumvoll index; OR = 0.90 [0.82; 0.99], BIGTT-S(I); OR = 0.60 [0.43; 0.85]) in stressed men. No significant associations were observed in non-stressed men, albeit the estimates showed similar but weaker trends as in stressed men.The present results suggest that the APOE rs439401 TT-genotype is associated with an adverse metabolic profile in a population of psychologically stressed Danish men

Do Depressive Traits and Hostility Predict Age-Related Decline in General Intelligence?

Certain personality traits are likely to be associated with stress and distress through the lifespan, and as a consequence these traits may influence the rate of age-related cognitive decline. The present study uses data from the Glostrup 1914 cohort to analyze potential effects of personality on decline in general intelligence over a 30-year period. The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory was administered at a 50-year baseline exam, and from this inventory the Obvious Depression Scale and an abbreviated version of the Cook-Medley Hostility Scale were derived. At the 50-year baseline and at the 60-, 70-, and 80-year followups the full version of Wechsler's Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS) was administered to 673, 513, 136, and 184 participants. Mixed effects statistical models were used to evaluate both the effect of the personality scores on level of intelligence and the interaction between the personality scores and the time since followup. Analyses were adjusted for demographic background and a wide range of lifestyle factors. Both obvious depression and hostility were negatively associated with level of intelligence, but personality scores did not influence rate of decline in general intelligence