Diversity and Inclusive Teaching
Last Updated: April 2012
Knowing how to work with a diverse student body is an important skill. The following links include guidebooks and papers filled with inclusive teaching strategies and techniques that can help faculty successfully engage students from a variety of backgrounds. Included are discussions of race, class, gender, disability, and sexual orientation, and how a lack of awareness or sensitivity towards difference can adversely affect teaching outcomes.
Related LTO pages:
Disability Awareness
Universal Instructional Design
- Discrimination and Harassment Prevention Services (DHPS)
Ryerson University
- Ryerson International
Ryerson University
- International Services for Students
Ryerson University
- Anti-Oppression Web Tool
OPIRG, McMaster University.
This anti-oppression/pro-diversity web site is a great starting place for anyone interested in learning more about privilege, and how to prevent discrimination through gender, sexual orientation, disability, race, religion, age or class.
- Diversity and Complexity in the Classroom: Considerations of Race, Ethnicity, and Gender
By Barbara Gross Davis. From Tools for Teaching. 1993.
"The following ideas, based on the teaching practices of faculty and on current sociological and educational research, are intended to help you work effectively with the broad range of students enrolled in your classes." General strategies for diversity in the classroom and tactics for overcoming stereotypes & biases are provided. Additional inclusive strategies developed by Barbara Gross Davis in Tools for Teaching have been adapted in the paper "Making Classroom Groups Inclusive" [pdf].
- Checklist: Responding to Student Diversity
Enhancing Education. Carnegie Mellon University.
- Multicultural Teaching: Information and Strategies
Center for Research on Learning and Teaching. University of Michigan.
The CRLT presents "key teaching strategies that help engage students from a range of academic or social backgrounds, help faculty anticipate and respond to difficult discussions as well as examine the impacts of social identity on teaching, either for students in class, or for themselves."
The CRLT has also published a series of papers on diversity and inclusion:
- Classroom Dynamics and Diversity
Derek Bok Center for Teaching and Learning. Harvard University.
- As If Equity Mattered: The Difference Difference Makes. [pdf]
Highlights of the 16th Annual Cross-Faculty Teaching Forum. Edited by Joy Mighty, Ronald Irwin, and Heather Sparling. Queen's University. May 3, 2004.
"This publication summarizes the sessions which adressed equity issues with respect to attitudes and beliefs, policies and resources, curriculum design, teaching, evaluation, and technology. You will read about the experiences of students who identify themselves as homosexuals, aboriginal peoples, international students, and people with learning disabilities. We hope that you will be motivated to continue exploring issues of diversity."
- Teaching & Learning for Diversity at UTSC: Reflections from a Conference [pdf]
Teaching & Learning Services. University of Toronto at Scarborough. 2003.
Divided into four sections, this handbook presents the need for a scholarship of teaching and learning for diversity. It then sets out a method for developing an inclusive classroom, fostering inclusivity, and creating methods of assessment that support diversity.
- Recognizing and Addressing Cultural Variations in the Classroom [pdf]
Teaching in an Increasingly Multi-Cultural Setting: A Guide for Faculty. Eberly Center for Teaching Excellence and Intercultural Communication Center. Carnegie Mellon University.
This paper is intended to "raise awareness about the types of challenges international students face, provide examples of the kinds of issues that may affect students in your courses, and offer suggestions based on strategies members of faculty in the university have successfully employed."
- Suggestions for Teaching International Students More Effectively [pdf]
Oxford Centre for Staff and Learning Development. Oxford Brookes University.
- Teaching a Diverse Student Body: Practical Strategies for Enhancing Our Students' Learning
University of Virginia Teaching Resource Center.
The University of Virginia has also provided some additional essays on diversity.
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Western Guide to Mentoring Graduate Students Across Cultures [pdf]
By Nanda Dimitrov. Teaching Support Centre. University of Western Ontario.
"The Western Guide to Mentoring Graduate Students Across Cultures is a handbook for graduate supervisors who work with students from cultures around the world. The guide addresses the most frequently occurring challenges in supervision across cultures and includes concrete mentoring strategies and case studies to help supervisors promote independence and initiative in their mentees, bridge power differences in the relationship, set boundaries, communicate effectively and support their students in the transition to Canadian academia."
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How to Mentor Graduate Students: A Guide for Faculty at a Diverse University [pdf]
The Rackham School of Graduate Studies. University of Michigan. 2006.
- Cultural Inquiry Process Web Site
Designed by Evelyn Jacob. George Mason University.
"This site presents the Cultural Inquiry Process (CIP) to help educators improve education through action research about cultural influences on students."
- Multicultural Awareness Project for Institutional Transformation (MAP IT) [pdf]
By Karen L. Miksch et al. Multicultural Concerns Committee (MCC) & Center for Research on Developmental Education and Urban Literacy (CRDEUL). University of Minnesota-Twin Cities. 2003.
- Inclusive, International, Indigenous: Educating citizens of the world - Diversity Resources and Links
Institute for Teaching and Learning. The University of Sydney.
- Diversity Essay Series
Faculty Teaching Excellence Series. University of Colorado at Boulder.
This series of essays from University of Colorado faculty members discuss topics ranging from encouraging participation in multicultural classrooms to enriching science through diversity.
- The Diversity Toolkit
University of Calgary.
- Diversity and Inclusive Teaching
Center for Instructional Development and Research. University of Washington.
Includes links to CIDR Bulletins with instructions on how to tranform a course using inclusive teaching and how to rethink disability in the classroom.
- Diversity & Inclusive Teaching
Center for Teaching. Vanderbilt University.
Various resources covering inclusive teaching strategies, racial ethnic and cultural diversity, gender issues, sexual orientation, and disabilities.
- Online Resources on Diversity Issues
The New York University Center for Teaching Excellence.
- DiversityWeb: An Interactive Resource Hub for Higher Education
Association of American Colleges and Universities.
- Avoiding Heterosexual Bias in Language
American Psychological Association.
- Guidelines for Gender-Fair Use of Language
National Council of Teachers of English.
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