Designing Inclusive Environments

What constitutes good teaching and learning? Ask any member of staff, or any student, at UNSW, and they'll give you a different answer, influenced by their own culture and life experiences. For many, the educational environment at UNSW is a new and possibly challenging experience. Much of what we do is actually framed by tacit cultural rules about:

  • the ways we teach and learn
  • the curriculum intent, design and content, and
  • our attitudes and values about schooling and education.

People tend to take their own culture for granted, notice what's different about other people's cultures. In an educational setting, even well-intentioned teachers and students can say, do or teach things that seem strange or offensive to others. Sometimes doing what seems "normal" means unintentionally excluding others from participating fully.

Thinking about culture

To start thinking about your own and others' cultures, notice what you find surprising, or perhaps offensive, about differences in everyday behaviour between someone from a different cultural group and yourself. What cultural rules might be determining the other person's actions, and your reaction (Carroll 2000)? How do your expectations differ, about roles, responsibilities and relationship of teachers to students?

Consider the rules as used by the student and the lecturer in this situation:

If the lecturer does not answer a student's questions in class, but asks the other students what they think, in my country we would think that teacher is poorly qualified or lazy. But in Australia this way of not giving the answer ... is common in our class, even when the Professor is our teacher (3rd year Botany student from Thailand). (Ballard and Clanchy 1991, p.1)

Questions to guide reflection

What can I say about myself and my own culture?

  1. What national, ethnic or religious group(s) do I belong to? How does my teaching reflect this?
  2. What seems normal or strange to me? What sort of student/staff behaviour am I most familiar or comfortable with? What surprises or challenges me?
  3. What experiences do I have as a result of studying/working in different cultures, and how can I use these experiences?

What do I know about my student and staff colleagues?

  1. What do I know about the cultural and education systems of my student and staff colleagues?
  2. How current/accurate is my information?

Strategies and tips

These strategies and tips will help you design a culturally inclusive teaching and learning environment.

Introductions

  1. Set up an introduction system so that all students can get to know something about you, their class colleagues and the diversity of experience in the class.
  2. Develop your own website where you talk about your approach to teaching and learning. Include some information about your own cultural origin and any cross-cultural teaching/learning experience you may have had.
  3. Provide opportunities for students to introduce themselves to you and other students through online postcards on Moodle.

Establish appropriate modes of address

  1. If you interact one on one with students, ask what form of address they prefer,
  2. Use inclusive language that doesn't assume Western name forms: "family" name, not "last" name; "given" name, not "Christian" name.
  3. Students from more formal educational cultures, where status differences related to age or educational qualifications are important, might be uncomfortable in addressing teaching staff by their given names. A compromise can be for students to use your title and given name, e.g. "Professor Marie", "Dr Ivan".
  4. If in doubt, ask what students find appropriate in terms of modes of address.

Make the class a safe place for all students

  1. Establish a classroom in which teachers and students demonstrate mutual respect.
  2. Manage behaviour that might stimulate "classroom incivilities". Teacher incivility can include prejudice and neglecting the needs of individual students or groups of students. Student incivility can manifest as poor punctuality, lack of preparation for or non-participation in classes, disruption of classes, distracting the teacher or fellow students, and cheating. (For strategies for managing classroom incivility, see Boice 1996.)
  3. Establish inclusive class ground rules that safeguard against racism and harassment.
  4. In small classes, guide students to negotiate their own code of conduct.
  5. In larger classes, provide a framework and ask for student feedback and ratification of ground rules.
  6. Define how class members discuss issues, especially potentially sensitive issues. For example, "People must have valid support/evidence for what they say."

Appreciate the challenges and adjustment stresses

  1. When people live and work in a new culture, they may experience "culture shock". This is characterised by a series of phases influencing how people perceive and respond to others and events around them. 
  2. Recognise that people for whom English is not their first language can experience frustration and isolation from not being able to express themselves fully in English, especially when they are used to being highly successful in their own language and culture.
  3. Use a respectful tone of verbal and non-verbal communication. Be aware that there may be an unconscious inclination to "talk down" or to talk  simplistically to international students or local speakers of other languages if English is not their first language.

Treat diversity positively

  1. Avoid generalising behaviour (such as expecting particular behaviour from an individual because that person comes from a certain cultural group) or having stereotypical expectations of people (positive or negative), e.g. "All Asian students are quiet in class."
  2. Don't expect any individual student to speak as a representative of his or her culture.
  3. Utilise diverse experiences and perspectives as a resource.
  4. Plan opportunities for all students to contribute input related to their own culture (but avoid making any student a cultural representative).

For further information see Culturally Inclusive Practice.

Establish clear expectations in the classroom

  1. Explain and clarify academic expectations and standards regarding written work.
  2. Check that your students understand the Australian university context and what is expected of them.
  3. Clarify the format and purpose of the particular session type you are teaching and the type of student participation expected.
  4. Explain the written topic outlines, objectives and outcomes that are provided to students, checking that everyone understands.
  5. Teach appropriate citing, referencing and how to avoid plagiarism in papers. Provide relevant information and resource sessions if necessary.
  6. Make your marking scheme quite clear. Let students know if the emphasis is on communicating information and ideas or on language accuracy. Sometimes students can be anxious about being penalised for poor English expression.

Developing a checklist for reviewing your teaching practice

The following questions can be used as a framework for developing a checklist either to monitor your own practice or as a peer review instrument.

  1. What strategies/methods do I use to establish an inclusive teaching and learning environment?
  2. Which strategies/methods work well?
  3. What evidence do I have that these strategies/methods are successful?
  4. Which strategies/methods do I need to modify?
  5. What new strategies/methods could I adopt?

References and further resources

Ballard, B. and Clanchy, J., 1991, Teaching Students from Overseas: A Brief Guide for Lecturers and Supervisors, Longman Cheshire, Melbourne.

Boice, R., 1996, First-Order Principles for College Teachers: Ten Basic Ways to Improve the Teaching Process. Anker Publishing Company, Bolton MA.

Perry, W. G. (1999), Forms of Intellectual and Ethical Development in College Years: A Scheme, Jossey-Bass Publishers, San Francisco.