In celebration of this year’s UK Black History Month – ‘Time for Change: Action not Words’ – your October issue of OTnews brings you the key messages to emerge from the incredible BAMEOT UK Inaugural Symposium, a personal account of using reverse mentoring to understand students’ experiences in a unique way and a university project to develop understanding and resources for practitioners on allyship and being an active bystander in the workplace.
Sian Burgess, a member of the academic team at the University of Derby, explains in this issue why she recently began exploring reverse mentoring to better understand her students.
Her experience focused on the acceptance of having a lack of knowledge and experience in terms of culture, spirituality and race. The knowledge gained from the reverse mentoring conversations that took place helped her to question the current delivery of teaching, learning and support that is provided to students.
While in their article, Dr Channine Clarke and students Marie Rule and Bartolomeu Cunha, talk about a project that aims to support Black, Asian, mixed heritage and minority ethnic students on placement from the University of Brighton and Canterbury Christ Church University. To date, 27 students have been involved in the HEE funded project, with ‘transformative’ results.
There is also a wide range of other insightful articles this issue, from topics as diverse as neonatal, to intergenerational working and a student placement with the Royal Navy.
We hope you enjoy reading and remember, if you want to share your work, personal journey or placement experience, please get in touch at editorial@rcot.co.uk. As well as the printed copy, you can also view the magazine online.