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Facilitated and chaired by: Prof Alex Owen, Dr Emily Danvers and Prof Namrata Rao who are the convenors of the Learning, Teaching & Assessment Network. For more details about the network and its activities, please click here.

Overview

Equity-centred practice can play a pivotal role in enhancing learning, teaching, and assessment for all learners in Higher Education contexts.  Understanding the needs of marginalised groups in Higher Education can lead to informed inclusive practice. 

This event is an opportunity to explore some of the latest research relating to the development of socially just pedagogies to support learners in Higher Education contexts from marginalised backgrounds.  The event will include keynote presentations, as well as opportunities to take part in relevant discussions, with a view to co-constructing a list of key characteristics that could inform learning, teaching and assessment practices. 

Our hope is that through this research-informed event we will be challenged to think critically about how learners’ identities and lived experiences can inform the learning experiences and assessment practices that we design.  

Schedule

Speaker bios

Nadine Cavigioli PGCE, MA, EdD, SFHEA is the Deputy Programme Manager for BA (Hons) Learning and Teaching with SEND at University of Leeds. Her teaching practice is equity-centred and trauma-informed, aiming to reduce psychological barriers that a return to study later in life can bring.   

Charlie Davis is an Associate Professor in Higher Education at the University of Nottingham since January 2020. He is the current course leader on the Postgraduate Certificate of Higher Education (PGCHE), module convenor on the BA Ed and teaches research methods on the Professional Doctorate. Charlie’s research focuses on inclusion and epistemic access in HE contexts, particularly by under-represented social groups. He uses a range of creative narrative methods in co-production contexts to generate knowledge which can be accessed by audiences within, and beyond HE contexts. His most recent work used storytelling methods to create a series of composite web-based comics representing transitions into and through academia by academics from working-class backgrounds. He is currently co-authoring a book based on research carried out to understand the affective dimensions of becoming a new teacher in HE contexts. Charlie is a co-convenor of the Society for Research into Higher Education (SRHE) Newer Researcher Network and a committee member of the Alliance for Working-Class Academics (AWCA).

Charmaine Davis is a lecturer at the University of Southern Queensland and Director of the UniSQ College Incarcerated Students Program. She is the Secretary of the National Association of Enabling Educators of Australia (NAEEA) and has worked extensively with marginalised students in tertiary education environments. Her research focuses on the distinctive epistemology and pedagogies of pathways programs for educationally marginalised students in Australian universities.

Stacey Mottershaw (she/her) is an Associate Professor (Teaching and Scholarship) at Leeds University Business School. She is a trustee of the National Educational Opportunities Network (NEON) and incoming Chair of the Working-Class Academics Section of the Working-Class Studies Association (2026-27). Her research predominantly seeks to understand the needs of marginalised groups in higher education, with a particular focus on equitable and socially just career development work.

Rachael O’Connor (she/her) is an Associate Professor in Legal Education and University Academic Lead for Personal Tutoring at the University of Leeds. She is also a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and trustee of legal mental health charity LawCare. Rachael comes from a working-class background and was first generation in her family to attend University. This contributes towards Rachael’s passion for improving experiences and opportunities (now and in the future) for under-represented students and empowering under-represented identities and voices. Much of Rachael’s research and advisory work explores the development of authentic relationships through reverse mentoring within higher education and beyond. She has won prizes internally and externally for this and published several papers. Rachael has also co-authored a book and several publications exploring working-class identities in HE and co-leads the University of Leeds’ Staff Working-Class Network