Staff at the University of Edinburgh have been taking part in training sessions to tackle “accent bias” within lectures.
Toning down accents, bias within classrooms and being mocked for the way they speak – these are all things Scottish students say they’ve experienced while studying at Edinburgh University.
The institution made headlines last year following previous guidance given to students, advising them not to be “snobs”.
A group of students called The 93% Club—which stands for the percentage of people in the UK who are state school educated—has been working with the university to provide “accent bias” training sessions for staff.
President of the Edinburgh University club Grace Mai Clark said: “A lot of the time there is a perception that this is just peer on peer and, don’t get me wrong, that does definitely happen.
“But unfortunately, there can be staff who can make off-hand comments – I had a tutor in my first year who said he could tell who was privately educated based on people’s writing, and we had a Scottish student who had her accent mocked back to her by a member of staff.
STV News“And these are obviously one-off incidents – we’re not making any generalisations about staff – but it is something that still happens.
“But what stood out to us was that those instances really stood out to people because if anyone should know better, it should be the staff.”
Third-year English literature student Holly Longman-Bradfield says she’s often mocked for her accent in class.
“I’m from Ayrshire originally, so for that reason I say ‘po-yum’ and not ‘poem’. That has been kind of the main thing on my actual course, being giggled at in seminars for the way that I pronounce different things,” she said.
STV News“It sounds like quite a small thing from the outset, but it is quite a confidence knock, especially when you are younger. You’re in first year and coming into an environment that you’re not necessarily familiar with and comfortable with. You want to be taken seriously, especially academically.”
Jessie Chen, from Stirling, is in her second year and says she frequently feels she has to “tone down” her Scottish accent.
She said, “Especially when I first came to the university, if I was in a social situation, such as a freshers’ event or in my business tutorials, I did try to change my accent a bit to slow down or make it sound less Scottish.”
Dr Christian Ilbury is a lecturer in sociolinguistics at the university.
He’s been encouraging staff to think about their bias when it comes to accents in the classroom.
STV NewsHe said: “I think we’re one of the few universities having a conversations about this and I think it’s positive that the university, rather than shut this down, is actually letting us work on this.
“I’m a professional who works specifically on linguistic discrimination so I think we should really think about how that could be utilised in the future as a potential strategy to addressing these issues.
“My hope is that this does actually improve student and staff experiences and essentially addresses the issue of access bias.”
Staff who’ve taken part in the sessions say they’ve gained a new perspective on the issue.
Widening Participation and Outreach Manager School of Engineering, Dr Katie Grant, said: “I think it is about being aware of your own bias, I’d say that maybe I have a bias in perhaps the opposite direction, I could be bias against people that maybe have what we’d class as a ‘posh’ accent.
“So I think that it is about being aware of your bias and sort of taking that step back.”
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