Diversity & Pedagogy
Student populations across the country and around the world are increasingly diverse. Academics should consider how varying backgrounds, experiences, and knowledge may reshape classroom expectations, behaviors, and activities.
Student populations across the country and around the world are increasingly diverse. Academics should consider how varying backgrounds, experiences, and knowledge may reshape classroom expectations, behaviors, and activities.
Institutions must ensure that all students have access to the tools and resources needed to thrive in rigorous environments. As a result, many universities, including the University of Chicago, are addressing their climates and practices. Read on to gain more insight into our diverse student population and learn how you can help students thrive.
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Increased access to higher education has resulted in multiple dimensions of diversity in our classrooms. Inclusive pedagogy embraces this diversity and aims to engage students in learning that is meaningful, relevant, and accessible.
These are all elements of inclusive pedagogy.
The 2016 University of Chicago Campus Climate Survey showed that across all subgroups (e.g., race/ethnicity, sexual orientation, ability status, and gender identification), members of our campus community have a significantly more positive perception of their proximal climate than the overall institutional climate. Research shows the consequences of negative climates range from students leaving an institution to students struggling to learn while trying to fit into an institution's culture.[5] Creating an inclusive environment through one’s teaching can begin addressing this situation.
Diversity is key to learning. The different ways students grew up may affect how they interact with educators and peers. These experiences can also affect students' attitudes toward various disciplines, the books they read, the papers they write, the way they study, and how they participate in class.
Inclusive pedagogy considers these differences and uses them to positively impact student learning. It provides an avenue for confronting negative aspects of the classroom environment that influence undergraduate and graduate student experiences and builds upon positive classroom aspects to help students thrive.
An inclusive climate is an environment in which all students have access to the tools and resources they need to participate fully in learning and feel a sense of belonging in the classroom. It embraces student diversity and creates a productive atmosphere that can result in improved academic outcomes.
An inclusive climate can improve students' sense of belonging and their motivation to be fully engaged in learning.[6] Many students feel like they "fit" in their chosen university environments, while some historically underrepresented students report feeling less of a sense of belonging in the absence of students and educators who share an identity that is salient to them.[7] For example, a female student in a chemistry class may feel a greater sense of belonging observing other women in the classroom than if she is in a classroom predominantly composed of men.
Although instructors cannot change the numerical diversity in any given class, they can make efforts within their curricula to highlight diversity. For example, you can display posters featuring people from demographics underrepresented in your field as one way to welcome underrepresented students.[8]
An inclusive course climate welcomes and engages students from all backgrounds and encourages everyone to share their different perspectives. It allows students to fully participate in the classroom experience and assures that the course content itself attends to issues of student diversity. Examples of factors that contribute to inclusive classroom climates include:
An exclusive course climate is usually created by factors that inadvertently exclude or by making generalizations about certain groups of students, thereby elevating the voices of others. Examples of factors that contribute to exclusive classroom climates include: