Inclusive teaching is an explicit intellectual and affective inclusion of all students into our fields and disciplines, through course content, assessment, and/or pedagogy.
- Sheridan Center for Teaching and Learning. (2017). Connecting With Your Students.
The Harriet W. Sheridan Center for Teaching and Learning
Definitions of Inclusive Teaching Across Disciplines
“ A philosophy of teaching that provides equal opportunities for all students to have a successful learning experience. ”
“ Content and other course objectives are “explicitly viewed from the multiple perspectives and varied experiences of a range of groups…and help students understand…how they construct knowledge in any field or discipline." ”
The four dimensions of teaching and learning that appear to have particular relevance to issues of social and cultural diversity are:
- students: knowing one's students and understanding the ways that students from various social and cultural backgrounds experience the college classroom
- instructor: knowing oneself as a person with a prior history of academic socialization interacting with a social and cultural background and learned beliefs
- course content: creating a curriculum that incorporates diverse social and cultural perspectives
- teaching methods: developing a broad repertoire of teaching methods to address learning … of students from different social backgrounds more effectively.”
- Marchesani, L.S. & Adams, M. (1992). Dynamics of diversity in the teaching and learning process: A faculty development model for analysis and action. New Directions for Teaching and Learning, 52: 9-12.
Equity, then, is about striving to structure biology classroom environments that maximize fairness, wherein all students have opportunities to verbally participate, all students can see their personal connections to biology, all students have the time to think, all students can pose ideas and construct their knowledge of biology, and all students are explicitly welcomed into the intellectual discussion of biology.
Structure matters: Twenty-one teaching strategies to promote student engagement and cultivate classroom equity. CBE Life Sciences Education, 12: 322.
Even though some of us might wish to conceptualize our classrooms as culturally neutral or might choose to ignore the cultural dimensions, students cannot check their sociocultural identities at the door, nor can they instantly transcend their current level of development […] Therefore, it is important that the pedagogical strategies we employ in the classroom reflect an understanding of social identity development so that we can anticipate the tensions that might occur in the classroom and be proactive about them.
How learning works: Seven research-based principles for smart teaching. San Francisco, CA: Jossey Bass. 169-170.
We defined the term ‘broadening participation’ to mean efforts that develop talent and promote the inclusion of students and scientists from all social backgrounds in all levels of the life sciences (K–12 through postdoctoral training, early-career independence, and senior leadership). ... It is our vision that the results of broadening participation efforts would be a vibrant scientific enterprise that continues to harness the contributions of those from traditionally well-represented backgrounds while fostering full participation and engagement of those from other backgrounds (e.g., women, racial and ethnic minorities, people with disabilities, sexual and gender minorities, first-generation students, those from low-income backgrounds).
- Gibbs, K.D. & Marsteller, P. (2016). Broadening participation in the life sciences: Current landscape and future directions. CBE Life Sciences Education, 15(3).