This blog was kindly contributed by Dr Emily Danvers, Lecturer in Higher Education Pedagogy (Education), School of Education and Social Work, University of Sussex. Emily is on Twitter @EmilyDanvers.
Since 2019, my colleagues and I at the University of Sussex have partnered with Friends, Families and Travellers to deliver outreach to young people of Gypsy, Roma and Traveller heritage in schools across the region. These experiences have taught us some important lessons in how to work inclusively with groups who have been marginalised in, and excluded by, higher education. Crucially, we have learnt that working with these communities involves acts of ongoing critical unlearning – rethinking the way we understand and work with diverse learners and approaching outreach practices in more nuanced and culturally responsive ways. However, these processes are not always usefully captured by the current policy talk of ‘quick wins’ or ‘what works’.
