Nadine Cavigioli

Source: https://www.leeds.ac.uk/directory-record/22772/nadine-cavigioli Parent: https://www.leeds.ac.uk/lifelong-learning/doc/contact-LLC-staff

Job title : Deputy Programme Manager (Learning and Teaching with SEND), Lifelong Learning Centre

Contact

• Email Nadine Cavigioli: n.m.cavigioli@leeds.ac.uk
• Follow Nadine Cavigioli on X

My role

I support admissions, programme development and student support on our part-time Learning and Teaching with SEND BA. My core teaching is focused on academic and professional skills and educational research.

I also act as a dissertation supervisor at both undergraduate and postgraduate level.

I am an external examiner, co-organiser of the University of Leeds Working-Class Staff Network, and a reviewer for the Journal of Class and Culture.

Professional experience

I'm a first-generation working-class educator who uses a trauma-informed, inclusive and equitable practice, with the aim of reducing the psychological barriers that can be encountered when returning to study later in life.

I spent several years working in the fashion industry (sourcing and buying), later (as a new mother in my early thirties) making a career change to lecturing in post-16 education.

I was made a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (SFHEA) in August 2023 in recognition of my work informing best practice in supporting a sense of belonging and mattering for under-represented students, and raising awareness about classism specifically. In the view of the awarding body:

“You are clearly well-immersed in pedagogic research and are influencing and leading others through publishing in the relevant literature and participating in institution-wide networks on embedding belonging in HE.”

Qualifications

• Doctor of Education, University of Leeds
• Thesis: 'Non-traditional' at an elite university: Exploring the lived experiences of mature part-time undergraduates using an online peer support community.
• MA in Education, University of Leeds
• PGCE in Lifelong Learning, University of Leeds
• BA (Hons) in Fashion/Textile Design, Somerset College of Arts and Technology

Research interests

• Affective domain
• Autoethnography
• Classism in higher education
• Lived experiences
• Practitioner research
• Underrepresented student experiences.

I am working on a two-year collaborative research project with Dr Kendi Guantai and Dr Salma Alarefi: Race, class and me: Exploring student authentic self and belonging. We are looking at psychological safe spaces to enable under-represented students to have a sense of belonging and authentic self-expression at the University of Leeds.

Publications

• Spring 2025 – Chapter 12: A collaborative autoethnographic reflection on social class and student belonging in higher education. Book title: Student belonging in higher education: perspectives and practice. Co-authors: Stacey Mottershaw (Leeds University Business School) and Rachael O’Connor (School of Law, University of Leeds).
• October 2023 – New perspectives on inclusion - Medium. Reflections on a conference paper co-presented with two recent graduates from the Lifelong Learning Centre and the collaborative autoethnography which informed it. Co-writer: Anita Collins, Lifelong Learning Centre, University of Leeds.
• January 2023 – Helping working class students to feel seen – Medium.
• January 2022 – The Open Circle podcast, ‘Working Class Identity’, Practitioners from Under-Represented Sections United through Education (PURSUE) Network.
• January 2021 – Reflecting on Belonging at Leeds – Medium.
• 2020 – Lifelong learning and Covid-19: new approaches at the University of Leeds – blog post, Universities Association for Lifelong Learning.