Awards for diversity-sensitive teaching 2020 conferred

© Amac Garbe

This year, awards for diversity-sensitive teaching were conferred for the third time in a row. The teaching award has been designed to honour teachers and teaching concepts that address diversity, or one or several aspects of diversity (e.g. gender, inclusion, origin, family responsibilities, etc.) in line with TU Dresden’s Diversity Strategy 2030. This year, a total of €10,000 award money was available, financed from the Equality and Diversity Incentive Fund (€6,000) and from the Women Professors Programme II of the Federal Government and the Länder (€4,000).

All members of TU Dresden were invited to participate by submitting proposals until 17^th July 2020; self-proposals were also possible. As in the previous years, the response was high, resulting in a total of 14 applications and suggestions being received by the Staff Unit Diversity Management. Based on the award criteria, four proposals were then selected by the Advisory Board on Diversity, chaired by the Vice-Rector for University Development, Prof. Dr. Antonio Hurtado.

The award-winners are:

Prof. Dr. Alexander Lasch (Chair of Linguistics and History of German) for the Seminar “Comprehension-orientated and accessible communication“

In Prof. Alexander Lasch's seminar “Comprehension-orientated and accessible communication“, students and people with cognitive disabilities as well as the curators of the Albrechtsburg castle in Meissen worked together to develop an accessible audio guide that was tailored to the needs and wishes of the target group. Conversations and interviews conducted in advance with people from the target group served as a focus for the guide. On the basis of the collected material, the students wrote and narrated easy-to-understand texts, which were then made available on a website in the public domain. The seminar focused on the principle of comprehension-orientated communication according to VERSO, the scientific fundamentals of which have been introduced. This way, the seminar bridged the gap between science and applied, active participation with a benefit for the public.
The award money will be used e.g. for subtitling videos for the audio guide that was created during the seminar.

The KritMed University group* for the theme week “Self-determination. Gender. Reproduction.“

In November 2019, the KritMed* University group held a theme weekend on “Self-determination. Gender. Reproduction”, in which medical and non-medical aspects of sexuality, gender and reproduction were discussed in lectures and workshops. The aim was to raise awareness of discrimination against LGBTQIA* people in the medical system and to illustrate sexual and gender diversity. According to the university group, these topics still receive little attention in conventional medical studies. The theme weekend was characterised by a number of diverse methods and a critical approach to the contents of the human medicine degree programme.
The KritMed* university group will use the award money e.g. for further events to promote discrimination-free care in medical settings.

The Critical Psychology university group for its event series "Therapy a little different”

Since the summer semester 2019, the event series "Therapy a little different” has been organised and carried out on a voluntary basis by members of the Critical Psychology university group and a free group of psychology students from TU Dresden. The aim is to address topics that are not included in the curriculum of conventional psychology degree programmes. The series of events is open to all interested parties from the university and the public and thus provides a space for discussion and reflection also for non-psychology students. Some of the events that took place as part of the series focused explicitly on the topic of diversity (e.g. on the topics of "Trans* in psychotherapy", "Behavioural therapy involving adults with mental disabilities" and "Reflecting privileges - intersectional therapy"). The organising team also attaches great importance to transversal and intersectional approaches when planning the events.
The university group will use the award money to continue the series of events, including the funding of guest speakers.

Paula Letalik and Julia Nowak (Educational Teaching and Research Laboratory, ELF) for the peer counselling and in cooperation with the LAG Queeres Netzwerk Sachsen for the event Sexual and Gender Diversity in School and Classroom: Theory and Practice^{Team at the time of application consisting of: Julia Nowak, Paula Letalik, Hannah Bartels, Paul Druschke, Anna Marie Wolf}

Since 2013, the Educational Teaching and Research Laboratory (ELF) has been conducting several events each semester focusing on practical relevance for the teaching profession. The aim is to acquire social and personal skills to supplement the degree programme. In various teaching formats (seminars, block courses, etc.) students are being prepared for everyday life at school and are confronted with their own teaching personality. One of the services offered by the teaching and research laboratory is peer counselling. Students learn how to apply a structured solution scheme in a group in order to develop as many varied strategies as possible with regard to a pedagogical action problem. The students present personal cases that they have experienced during their placements. In order to create a collegial, anxiety-free atmosphere, individual students on an equal footing assume the moderation of the case group. Different people's ways of thinking and approaches are brought together with the objective of broadening the educational perspective.
Another seminar of the ELF laboratory is the two-day competence training "Sexual and Gender Diversity in School and Teaching: Theory and Practice", which is offered in cooperation with experts from the LAG Queeres Netzwerk Sachsen. Students are sensitised to gender and sexual diversity at schools using practical methods, and they are trained to recognise and reduce discrimination. This approach also fosters reflection and self-reflection.
The award money will be used to plan further workshops with guest speakers and for team-internal continuing education.

The date and format for the official appraisal and the award ceremony will be announced at a later date.

The Staff Unit Diversity Management and the Advisory Board on Diversity would like to congratulate the award-winners on their success!

© Christina Kurby

Representative for Diversity Management

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Dr. Cornelia Hähne

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