Pedagogical Resources
15 Inclusive Pedagogy
At the heart of inclusive pedagogy is the idea that the classroom can and should be a space that engages all students in meaningful, enriching, and accessible learning processes. Inclusive pedagogy is a student-centered approach to education; an approach that embraces the diverse range of intersecting identities students bring to the classroom. Embracing the wealth of identities and positionalities that every student (and every teacher) brings to the classroom involves engaging with a multiplicity of learning strategies in course design, classroom management, and assessment.
Inclusive pedagogy, therefore, is not a mere afterthought to the curriculum. Instead, it is something that affects the classroom at its roots. Ultimately, fostering a more inclusive approach to education will increase learning and engagement. According to The Office of Teaching and Learning at Denver University, through inclusive pedagogy, faculty members can:
- Engage diversity to create dynamic, engaging, and relevant individual and group learning experiences.
- Establish an environment that challenges each student to achieve academically at high levels, and furthers their path to academic success
- Constructively handle difficult moments in the classroom when controversial material is discussed, and classroom discussions become heated
- Co-create and foster a collegial environment in which students feel comfortable sharing their ideas, thoughts, and questions
- Support the success of all students regardless of background and ability
Here are some resources to help facilitate these practices and learn more about inclusive pedagogy:
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A Tool to Advance Inclusive Teaching Efforts: The “Who’s in Class?” Form
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Introducing Inclusive Pedagogy with the University of Chicago
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What is Inclusive Pedagogy? with the Office of Teaching and Learning
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The Rhetorical Possibilities of Accessibility by Rachel Donegan
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Writing toward Racial Literacy by Mara Lee Grayson
Resource Highlight: What Inclusive Instructors Do by Tracie Addy
Dr. Tracie Addy is the Associate Dean of Teaching & Learning and Director of the Center for the Integration of Teaching, Learning, & Scholarship at Lafayette College and co-author of a recent anthology on inclusive pedagogy called What Inclusive Instructors Do: Principles and Practices for Excellence in College Teaching.
What Inclusive Instructors Do is a compendium of wisdom from hundreds of instructors who were surveyed as part of a national study to define what inclusive teaching meant to them and what inclusive teaching approaches they implemented in their courses. As explained in the book’s summary, inclusive pedagogy is “teaching that recognizes and affirms a student’s social identity as an important influence on teaching and learning processes, and that works to create an environment in which students are able to learn from the course, their peers, and the teacher while still being their authentic selves. It works to disrupt traditional notions of who succeeds in the classroom and the systemic inequities inherent in traditional educational practices.”
The pictured quote — which reads, “inclusive teaching is being responsive to the diversity of our class and designing learning environments that include all of our students” — comes from this podcast with Dr. Addy from Teaching in Higher Ed.
