Introduction
When it comes to providing a safe, welcoming, and inclusive learning experience for students, it can be hard to know where to start.
Inclusive Pedagogy can be considered an umbrella term that can be broken down into three key elements:
Separating and distinguishing between all three can help make inclusive teaching feel more manageable and less like a one-size-fits-all model.
These pages contain an overview of what each element encompasses, important considerations for instructors who seek to integrate inclusive teaching into their practice, and a discussion of how inclusive teaching impacts students.
It is important to remember that just as inclusive teaching aims to be responsive to and reflective of diverse learners in the classroom (Gumport, 2000), these options are intended to be flexible and adaptive to the diverse courses, disciplines, and teaching experiences of instructors at Concordia. It is equally important to note that instructors should adopt small changes from the guidelines to gradually integrate inclusive practices in their approach to teaching and learning.
Summary
Inclusive Pedagogy is about making decisions about course design, course delivery, and classroom environment to facilitate and sustain a more inclusive learning experience for students. Though there are many different ways to adopt and integrate these practices into teaching, the focus lies in selecting and incorporating the methods that best suit the instructor. Just like a menu offers a variety of options to cater to different tastes and preferences, inclusive pedagogy provides a range of approaches so that instructors have the flexibility to pick and choose strategies that align with their teaching style, subject matter, and the needs of their students. While every instructor may be working from a different starting point when incorporating inclusive pedagogies, the shared outcome is to set the foundation for creating an equitable and student-centred course (Guðjónsdóttir & Óskarsdóttir, 2016).
References
Guðjónsdóttir, H., & Óskarsdóttir, E. (2016). Inclusive education, pedagogy and practice. Science education towards inclusion, 7–22.
Gumport, P. J. (2000). Academic restructuring: Organizational change and institutional imperatives. Higher Education, 39(1), 67–91.
