Creating diverse and inclusive learning environments is crucial to providing students with an education that is truly open, engaged, relevant and responsive to the social issues of today and the increasing diversity of our student population. I have, in my years of teaching, identified several key elements to achieving this: firstly, the careful and considerate curation of reading lists that are themselves diverse and offer a variety of critical-cultural perspectives; secondly, the practice of active inclusivity, rather than passive inclusivity, in the design and delivery of curricula; and lastly, the creation of open dialogues on diversity and inclusivity in the classroom itself, both in relation to the subject matter being taught and its application in society, and in relation to the students’ own personal and cultural experiences of the subject. I will provide examples of the above approaches as I have applied them in the writing courses that I myself have taught and designed, while highlighting how these approaches can be easily adapted by other educators regardless of context or subject area.
Teaching@Sydney