Uni course - option of EDI focus

[HalloweenScrooge]

Evening all. I’m hoping to embark on a masters in leadership/MBA after Christmas. I’ve just been offered a January start for a regular intake or a March start for a ‘new version with EDI woven into the course’. I’ve asked for further details but am a bit perplexed. In general I’m quite interested in EDI as a subject and have already considered that some of my assignments might explore opportunities for womens progression etc. but I’m wondering if this is going to be the ‘right kind’ of EDI. Everything EDI I’ve encountered at work lately has mostly been about gender (and not sex). If a course is going to be Uber woke then I’m going to struggle. I believe that biological sex is important and immutable, and separate to gender. Members of FWR - which way would you go on this?

Personally wouldn't touch it with a barge pole. Not only will it be lots of gender identity and queer bollox, it will probably have some badly thought out "decolonising the curriculum" thrown in for good measure. High on the Butler-waffle scale.

Thanks that’s my feeling too. Just wanted to sense check

I'd check the module details. If it's recent then probably run a mile. If it's long established then you might well get lots of interesting stuff about sex discrimination. Business Schools are less far along the woo-curve than Sociology departments.

Yeah it’s a new development for the course. I’d really like to do a feminist MBA, but I don’t think I’ll get that in 2021 sadly.

I think i would go with the regular course to be honest. You don't want to end up having to write an assignment in a certain way in order to pass.
Congratulations though 🥂

I think they’ve launched this too late to be honest. It sounds going in hard on Betamax when everyone else has realised that VHS is going to claim the market. If EDI becomes toxic because of gender identity and critical race theory fallout, an EDI badged MBA could be a liability.

It will depend on the individual lecturers and what they want to teach. I'd email them and ask. Also look at their publications as that will give you some idea. MBA courses aren't the best for rigourous academic debate though because the breadth of subjects is so vast that you don't get much time for depth.

I think @BettyFilous has hit the nail on the head. Thanks for articulating what I’m thinking.

Don’t know if I’m worried about rigorous debate, I already have a PhD so have done plenty of that over the years. And still do get my debate on, when I can find a good debate partner.

But I can’t think that any academics would be happy teaching gender/sex in a way I’d want to engage with right now.

So I think I’ll try and get on the nom-EDI version of the course.

I could not touch DEI with a 10 foot pole.

Yes, there is some base truth to it (a homogenous group of people are likely to have the same weaknesses and blindspots, etc. ), however, as usual, it has been taken far out of proportion so that it is nothing but performative ideological drivel.

As a lecturer I'd say well that the EDI agenda is allowing a lot of us to consider case studies / subjects / histories etc from international communities, women, gay communities etc that we've not had space to centre before. I welcome the opportunity to move the focus from the straight white male. Personally, I find it allows students to centre issues and ideas of their own choosing and I'll support that - no lecturer should be setting an agenda other than ensuring that students can break out of the historically accepted canon for their subject. I'd strongly suggest speaking to your lecturer before making a decision.

Christ, you can do case studies of people other than straight white males without an EDI focus. People were always supposed to use their brains and try and think about things like which case studies might be representative when they choose what to teach from.

To me this is representative though of one of the problems with EDI - it becomes the only lens. Even though it's often not especially relevant. Like rainbows on street crossings.

Yes I think I agree with @LobsterNapkin, on a regular course you could include some EDI inspired content. On an EDI themed course I’d worry that everything had to have an EDI slant. The upside might be that you could then go into senior EDI roles, but realistically my views probably prevent those being an option for me in the current climate.

I know you can include that content elsewhere and I do. I was just trying to give the OP an alternative viewpoint and perhaps encourage them not to dismiss it out of hand. Where I work EDI doesn't automatically mean just one focus, or particular agendas, that's all. For example I've found it's allowed me to include some material that old bosses have told me no one would been interested in, because it was on pre 1950s women (and it's been really popular). So for me it's been a positive. But it sounds as if I'm just supposed to say that it's awful?

@tinselvestsparklepants I absolutely appreciate where you are coming from, and I would love material on early 20th century womens issues in the workplace. But a part of me will die inside if i have to have agendas dictated to me. I already struggle with the mandatory EDI training we receive from Inclusive Employers. So EDI plus my workplace will end up being extremely woke.

It’s good to know that it doesn’t always mean the worst though, and I’m pleased that it’s given you exactly the kind of focus points I would want it to. Hence this post and not just dismissing it out of hand…

Realistically, any MBA course will cover issues of EDI in regard to the law and many other areas, as already integrated into management theory/praxis. There will be lots of scope for students to explore EDI issues of many different kinds in their assignments and projects.

The 'regular intake' course sounds like the best bet.

Not a university course but this woman has run training on feminist governance that might be really relevant to someone studying anything business-related

www.consultantsforgood.org.uk/consultant/shirley-otto-2/

Plus Dorothy Smith's work on institutional ethnography is fab.
Just if you wanted to add to your course from your own reading/learning.

Edi is definitely a big focus currently but most people teaching it are not very well qualified or experienced in it, from what I can discern so i agree that speaking to a course leader might be good.

I work in workplace training. There is a move to ensure that EDI areas and equality policy are to be considered in all training courses (and also in the ways that the material is presented and delivered). In my case, it will be based very closely on a combination of the law and the organisation's own policies. We use external trainers as well, and have had to prepare guides for them on the ways that both prongs are to be applied to their material (even though their courses may not show obvious areas in which to add this). This is not MBA territory of course, but some of the aims behind the plan sound to be similar.

I approve of some of this, especially the 'how' (considering differences and disability much more than previously), but know that with a Stonewall agenda being influential on the internal policy and the connected training data that's under the microscope, that some who have different views could be disadvantaged. I also know that one 'agenda' (not trans or gender) will be prioritised over all others where I work, essentially because the statistical stakes and the workload are apparently much higher - but it looks to me as if at least 3 other areas on the equality portfolio have all been lumped in together without much similarity to each other, that I can work out.