Mrs Mel Green

Professional biography

• Inequities in education 
• Educator identities 
• Intersectionality theory related to personal and professional identities in education 
• Anti-racist pedagogy 
• Humanising and relational pedagogies
• Widening participation through innovative pedagogies and technologies

As stated, I am a Lecturer on the Education Studies (Primary) programme, specifically focusing on chairing the presentation of E209 Developing subject knowledge in primary years and leading the Audio/Visual creation to produce E103 Learning and Teaching in Primary Years. Also, within my role, I create resources and training sessions for equality, diversity and inclusion, specifically humanising and anti-racist pedagogies. I draw heavily from my experiences as an Associate Lecturer to support tutors in working with and assessing our students. I began co-chairing the E209 module in the 23/24 academic year, working with the module team to support students and associate lecturers, planning for new developments, and developing new online content. I have authored content for modules in production, writing study topics and book chapters for the rewrite of E103 and the latest version of E102. I have also authored three articles for the Race and Ethnicity Hub on OpenLearn that examine the intersection between race and neurodiversity, and language learning. The audience for these articles is those working with and/or teaching children and young people. Finally, I am currently authoring free-to-access online professional development materials in the form of a free online course, ‘Understanding Race and Racism in Young People’s Lives’, which will be made available on OpenLearn. My scholarship within this central academic role has involved exploring student use of innovative technologies to increase engagement and the implementation of anti-racist and inclusive practices across the programme. 

My interest in digital pedagogies has seen me attend many workshops, seminars and conferences to increase my knowledge. In February 2021, I used my knowledge of these elements of critical digital pedagogy to co-teach a professional development workshop for the planning and delivery of an AL Staff Development session titled ‘Transitioning from face to face to online tutorial delivery’ after a need for this was identified by two senior lecturers. This session was focused on developing ALs’ confidence in delivering online sessions and sharing good practices of online pedagogy. In 2021, I delivered a session titled ‘Making the best use of forums’. My session focused on addressing the barriers to participation in forums. In this session, I shared screenshots taken from my own forums and forum teaching techniques that had been successful and unsuccessful. I finished by asking ALs to set goals for their own forums, which they did. 30 ALs attended this session, and many took the time to contact me personally to tell me that the emphasis I gave to humanising learning in my session was ‘unique, new, and inspirational’. After the event, one AL shared with my staff tutor, ‘This was honestly the best session I have participated in. Mel’s delivery was excellent, and her enthusiasm and knowledge really showed. I appreciated her honesty in discussing the positive and rare negative experiences she has had, and I came away with lots of practical ideas. This workshop led to me being asked to repeat some of the content and tailor it for ALs who worked on the E102 module for the E102 End of Year Conference. The fact this workshop was adapted many times and shared amongst colleagues within various faculties demonstrates both the reach and the impact I could make with it. Further still, I used my research in this area, the workshop discussion with tutors, and my own tutoring experiences to contribute a chapter to the ‘Working with Tutor Group Forums: A guide for Open University Tutors’ devised by my staff tutor. My chapter entitled ‘Bringing the human online: Taking students beyond the screen by ‘humanising’ the way we work on Tutor Group Forums. Finally, in September, I used my knowledge to produce and record a 10-minute PowerPoint/MP4 for the induction of new-to-the-OU ALs as part of a series of induction resources. 

My interest in the intersection of race and other social inequities has to led me to contribute to the field of education by developing educational resources on race, sociolinguistics and neurodiversity for articles published on OpenLearn. I am writing a mini-course on how children are socialised on race and racial discrimination. These resources are designed to assist students and educators in developing their understanding of complex issues in accessible ways. Based on the interest in my resources, I was invited to present during the OU Black History Month (BHM) event in October 2022. I gave a talk called ‘How we can teach children about race and why we must do’, and in November 2022, off the back of the BHM, I was invited to be part of a panel titled ‘The importance of language in promoting equity, inclusivity and diversity’ for the WELS EDI Festival. I have significantly contributed to inclusive and anti-racist approaches to assessment in higher education. I have conducted an annotated bibliography of key scholarly publications on this topic, which was used to update the assessment practices and assessment design of a level 2 module on the Primary Education degree. I also led a PRAXIS scholarship project exploring staff perspectives on anti-racist assessment practices within the ECYS faculty and as a co-researcher for the Access Participation and Success (APS) funded Black scholarship project in ECYS to develop a better understanding of how to engage with EDI targets around improving critical metrics for the Access, Participation and Success of students racialised as Black. The research team presented our findings at the Teaching Excellence research day in November 2022, which have been disseminated beyond the University. 

I have demonstrated a commitment to innovative pedagogical approaches, including utilising the tool Discord in scholarship to facilitate student engagement through developing a sense of community. I have disseminated my findings to other practitioners through a report at the PRAXIS research day and to the OU Professional and Digital Research Group. 

Peer reviewer - Open Learning: The Journal of Open and Distance Learning

Member of Stakeholder Advisory Group - University College London & Birkbeck University 'Identifying mental health needs & pathways to care SAG'