Publication details
Supporting inclusive learning across university. Experience from the BELONG project.
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| Year of publication | 2024 |
| Type | Appeared in Conference without Proceedings |
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| Description | As more and more diverse students enter degree programmes at all levels of higher education inclusion increasingly becomes one of the key priorities (Evans, 2023). Teaching staff members are expected to teach students who differ in many aspects, including culture, health condition, gender identity, age, abilities, and others. Clearly, teachers need support to create meaningful learning opportunities for diverse students, encourage peer learning and foster class atmosphere that values diversity. Yet, courses that purposefully address equity, diversity and inclusion are not yet among typical professional development opportunities available for HE teachers in Europe. As revealed by the recent Eurydice report (2022, p. 75), only in seven European countries training in diversity and/or inclusion is recommended or required to academic staff. Another 31 HE systems in Europe make no requirements on, or recommendations to, HE institutions in this respect. During this session, we will share our experience from designing and piloting an AD course on inclusive teaching for 20 teachers from five different institutions: Central European University (Austria), Nottingham Trent University (UK), Masaryk University (Czech Republic), University of Madeira (Portugal) and Comenius University (Slovakia). Course team member, participant, student and coach will present on the following: - course design: how to introduce teachers to complexities of diversity, inclusion and inclusive teaching practice - examples of changes that course participants introduced into student learning and their outcomes as evidenced by students and colleagues - the ways course participants were supported to make student learning inclusive The session will engage the participants in discussing: - what inclusive teaching means and how ADs can support teachers to become (more) inclusive - how to build capacities among ourselves to navigate and influence teachers to nurture the competencies that diverse graduates should exhibit - how to modify presented approaches to inclusivity to fit the specific context that the attendees work in. We recognise that the ability to modify the approach to make it work in a certain institution often determines if the intervention will be successful or not. This proposal is to disseminate the lessons learnt when implementing the BELONG project, an international collaborative Erasmus+ project that aims to foster sense of belonging and mental health among students and staff members. |