Case Studies
Professor Richard Harris
As a Professor of Education in the Institute of Education (IoE), I work with a diverse range of students across UG and PG programmes in terms of age, prior experiences, ethnicities and nationalities.
What motivates you to make learning inclusive?
Inclusion is essential if students are to be successful. I am sure we can all pinpoint instances when we have felt excluded from something and how that can create a sense of disconnection and isolation – in an educational context that can have a negative impact on learning. The way we structure our programmes, choose content and teach can inadvertently make various groups of students feel excluded. Inclusive teaching is not necessarily achieved through implementing a set of ‘tips’ per se, but is a mindset that feeds into approaches to teaching.
What do you do to ensure teaching & learning is inclusive?
At the very basic level, students need to feel welcomed and valued – this involves simple things like using names, showing an interest in them as individuals, providing opportunities to contribute in a safe format, such as using ‘think, pair, share’’ for discussions and so forth. Clearly this is easier in smaller teaching environments, but even in lectures it is possible to give students space for thinking, and to use that time to talk to students and set them up to contribute to any feedback. Creating a psychologically welcoming and supportive environment, and showing you care about the students, their wellbeing and progress matters.
Scaffolding learning, breaking it down into manageable chunks, helps make learning incremental and is more likely to help students feel able to succeed. When students are asked to do tasks, modelling of tasks can be hugely beneficial. Essentially trying to understand what makes something difficult for a student, allows you to find ways to support students. Some people erroneously think that being inclusive equates to ‘dumbing down’, but for me it means identifying where the learning obstacles are, not removing them, but helping students overcome them.
Dr Charlotte Newey
I’m (Dr) Charlotte Newey, a lecturer in the Philosophy Department. I have always wanted to do more than simply deliver content; I want to be confident that it is delivered well, and that students find it useful and interesting.
What motivates you to make learning inclusive?
I’ve taken courses on inclusive teaching and accessibility, and was surprised to learn that some of what I’d done in the past to make slides more interesting, eg adding pictures and coloured fonts could make things worse for students with dyslexia. Since then, working with students with degrees of deafness and those with visual impairments, I made a point of asking what would be helpful and making adaptations accordingly. I have also been influenced by an excellent CQSD session about teaching students with ADHD, run by Prof. Patricia Riddell. At the time, two of my students had met with me to discuss how their ADHD made learning more difficult. It’s easy to forget what a huge advantage it is not to have any of these challenges.
During lockdown, I began reading more widely on issues of racial diversity and globalisation in education – my own research interest is in the Philosophy of Fairness. There’s a huge literature on unfair advantage, and on the importance of people having equal opportunities. Around the same time, the discipline of Philosophy—traditionally dominated by white male writers – started to address the issues of inclusivity and progression for women. Even if I experience some bias as a female academic — and fortunately, I really haven’t felt that here at UoR – being white still brings advantages to me. That got me thinking about my own teaching and how to make it more inclusive.
How do you make teaching & learning inclusive?
I teach a module that ought to go to the very heart of this issue called “Oppression, Inequality, and the Enemies of Democracy. This focuses on contemporary political philosophy, much of which is dominated by a male Western perspective. I spoke with my students about this and started to include more diverse materials. I noticed the essay question about intersectional feminism was very popular, regardless of my students’ race and gender.
Next I decided to address a more core issue. I’d learned the traditional Western, predominantly male canon of writing as a student. Teaching it to my students simply reinforces that position. Within the subject matter, there are diverse voices already raising objections to the entrenched perspective. I opened up the materials even more. Questioning the status quo is at the heart of philosophy. So, not only did we all (I include myself here) have more points of view, but we also had an opportunity to do better philosophy.
The best thing I have noticed is that often, inclusive learning brings benefits not only to those who need it but to the other students too.
To improve classes for those who might have ADHD, I have adopted a “lecture seminar” style with teaching being delivered in bite-sized chunks, interspersed with discursive activities. This style helps everyone to learn, and to participate. A surprising benefit was that it is easier on me as a lecturer too since I was getting instant feedback which I could use to adapt the pace and level at which I was delivering new materials. Using muted PowerPoint backgrounds isn’t only better for students with dyslexia, it is easier on everyone’s eyes. Using Mentimeter polls (or Padlet, say) is not only good for shy students; it generates materials that I can add to Blackboard. Using a pair and share activity isn’t only useful for shy students; it encourages all students to discuss a view or come up with a thought experiment with more confidence. Using a mic in a larger room isn’t only useful for students with deafness; it also spares my voice.