Valuing, harnessing and using the unique asset of working in a bilingual institution: introducing the Welsh language into a postgraduate certificate in higher education

An educational development team, working in the UK’s sole officially bilingual research-intensive HEI, has sought to value, harness and use this unique asset in order to support staff new to teaching at their university. For those unfamiliar with the bilingual nature of higher education in Wales, this paper gives a short introduction before detailing how this team, drawing on the work of critical race theorists such as Ladson-Billings (1995) and Paris (2012), has worked to instigate an appropriate culturally relevant curriculum for their postgraduate certificate in higher education (PgCHE). Examples of how the Welsh language has been incorporated to recognise its value as a medium for academic study are given as well as details on how such work has been used as a springboard for supporting the growth of intercultural competencies of both students and staff.