2. Inclusive teaching
As “white” and “male” have been the default for so long, the original approach to diversity treated it as a special situation that required special solutions. Now, however, we recognize diversity as the default, which means it doesn’t get special solutions — all teaching should be designed in such a way that accessibility is in its DNA. In a paper on diversity within the higher education landscape, Rendon (1994) notes that, compared to student profiles of previous years:
Today’s profile of students suggests a tapestry of differentiation in social background, race/ethnicity, gender, disability, lifestyle and sexual orientation. This has resulted…in the proliferation of a constellation of students that challenge traditional values, assumptions and conventions which have long been entrenched in the academy.
(Rendon, 1994:33-34)
Rendon (1994) goes on to outline how colleges and universities are characterized by student organizations and activities that favor majority groups, Eurocentric curricula, competition (rather than collaboration), and passive learning (through lectures). While this article was written and published in the context of the higher education space in the late-20th century, one could level many of the criticisms to many institutions of higher education in the 21st century. To become an effective teacher and create valuable learning experiences for your students, you need to actively take steps and put measures in place to engender an environment in which students feel that they are included – indeed, that they belong in your course.
It is important to note that the matter of how to think and talk about diversity and inclusion in higher education is an open and a constantly evolving question, which has given rise to many different approaches, frameworks, and terminologies. The field of critical pedagogy, based on the works of scholars like Paulo Freire, Henry Giroux, and bell hooks, pursues a “teaching approach inspired by critical theory and other radical philosophies, which attempts to help students question and challenge posited ‘domination’, and to undermine the beliefs and practices that are alleged to dominate” (hooks 1994; Freire 1998, 2000; Giroux, 2011). While this course does not dive deeply into the details of critical pedagogy, teachers interested in developing further their ability to analyze the ways in which power, privilege, inclusion, and belonging play out in the classroom will find a robust field of literature awaits them.
Note:
In Module 8, Professor Caroline Light discusses her feminist or queer pedagogy, which addresses power, privilege, and inclusion in the classroom.
The following sections look at historical and current definitions of inclusive teaching (who needs to be included?), the implications inclusive teaching has on student performance, and how inclusive teaching practices may be applied within the learning context.