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- Dialect Bias<\/strong>: There is insufficient guidance on teaching spoken language, particularly regional dialects, due to the curriculum’s strong focus on Standard English. This negatively impacts students who speak regional dialects, hindering their confidence, identity, and educational aspirations.<\/li>\n
- Gender-gap in Writing<\/strong>: Primary education often holds gendered assumptions, particularly the stereotype that boys underachieve in writing. The project’s research indicates minimal gender differences in actual writing ability but finds significant impacts from these stereotypes on boys’ motivation and emotional responses to writing tasks.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
The project addresses these inequalities by collaboratively developing teaching materials with local Merseyside schools, aiming to benefit teachers across the wider UK. This toolkit is designed to help reduce educational inequalities related to dialect bias and gender-based assumptions in language teaching.<\/p>\n
Open-source materials developed as part of the project are available on the website by following the links in the menu at the top of the page.<\/p>\n
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMeet The Team
\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>
\n![](\"https:\/\/changeempowerinclude.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/victorina-2.jpg\")
\n Dr Victorina Gonz\u00e1lez D\u00edaz<\/strong>
\n BA (Hons), MA, PhD
\n Reader in English Language at The University of Liverpool
\n Contact: vgdiaz@liverpool.ac.uk<\/a>
\n![](\"https:\/\/changeempowerinclude.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Sofia_photo2-2.jpg\")
\n Dr Sofia Lampropoulou<\/strong>
\n BA (Hons), MA, PhD
\n Reader in English Language at The University of Liverpool
\n Contact: S.Lampropoulou@liverpool.ac.uk<\/a>
\n![](\"https:\/\/changeempowerinclude.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/place-holder-4.png\")
\n Dr Liz Parr<\/strong>
\n BA (Hons), MA, PhD
\n Head of Primary Programmes at Liverpool John Moores University
\n![](\"https:\/\/changeempowerinclude.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/KateFlynn-3.jpg\")
\n Dr Kate Flynn<\/strong>
\n Researcher at The University of Newcastle
\n![](\"https:\/\/changeempowerinclude.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Paul-Cooper-2.webp\")
\n Dr Paul Cooper<\/strong>
\n Senior Lecturer in English Language at The University of Liverpool
\n Contact: p.cooper@liverpool.ac.uk<\/a>
\n![](\"https:\/\/changeempowerinclude.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Nourie_K-768x863-3.jpg\")
\n Dr Kristi Nouri<\/strong>
\n Senior Research Associate in the School of Education and Lifelong Learning at the University of East Anglia
\n![](\"https:\/\/changeempowerinclude.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/rachel-byrne-300x400-2.jpg\")
\n Rachel Byrne<\/strong>
\n Researcher at The University of Liverpool
\n![](\"https:\/\/changeempowerinclude.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/IMG_20240829_085213-1.jpg\")
\n David Clay<\/strong>
\n Researcher at The University of Liverpool
\n Contact:<\/strong> david.clay@liverpool.ac.uk<\/a>
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t![\"\"](\"https:\/\/changeempowerinclude.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Screenshot-2025-03-05-at-08.56.05-1.png\")
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t![\"\"](\"https:\/\/changeempowerinclude.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Screenshot-2025-03-05-at-08.47.21-1.png\")
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\nThis research was funded through an Economic and Social Research Council Impact Acceleration Account (ESRC IAA) UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) grant.\u00a0To find out more about this, please follow this link (University of Liverpool \u2013 ESRC IAA Grants<\/a>).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Changing Teaching Practices and Empowering Students: Towards a More Inclusive Language Teaching in Merseyside and Beyond The Change Empower Include project aims to address educational inequalities related to spoken language (oracy) and writing skills in the Liverpool City Region. It highlights two main issues: Dialect Bias: There is insufficient guidance on teaching spoken language, particularly […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-150","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/changeempowerinclude.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/150","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/changeempowerinclude.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/changeempowerinclude.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/changeempowerinclude.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/changeempowerinclude.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=150"}],"version-history":[{"count":118,"href":"https:\/\/changeempowerinclude.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/150\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":625,"href":"https:\/\/changeempowerinclude.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/150\/revisions\/625"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/changeempowerinclude.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=150"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
- Gender-gap in Writing<\/strong>: Primary education often holds gendered assumptions, particularly the stereotype that boys underachieve in writing. The project’s research indicates minimal gender differences in actual writing ability but finds significant impacts from these stereotypes on boys’ motivation and emotional responses to writing tasks.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n