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Inclusive Pedagogy

The ND Learning team is committed to supporting your development of equitable teaching practices in order to serve students of all backgrounds and abilities.

“Teaching inclusively means embracing student diversity in all forms — race, ethnicity, gender, disability, socioeconomic background, ideology, even personality traits like introversion — as an asset. It means designing and teaching courses in ways that foster talent in all students, but especially those who come from groups traditionally underrepresented in higher education” (Hogan and Sathy 2021).

Inclusive teaching moves beyond the specific content we deliver to students (readings, assignment descriptions, research, etc.) to also address our pedagogical practices more broadly. How can we interact with our students in equitable ways? How do we organize the classroom space to make it more democratic and accessible? Which student identities are prioritized and/or marginalized through the classroom activities we select? Inclusive pedagogy asks us to continually reflect upon our teaching practices in order to support learners from all backgrounds. Research shows that when we do so, black, indigenous, and students of color can experience improved cognitive development and self-confidence in the classroom (Chang et al., 2016). Inclusive pedagogy also extends beyond the classroom because students who experience cross-racial dialogues and diversity initiatives during college are more likely to be open to and accepting of diversity in their post-university lives (Shim & Perez, 2018).

We offer a range of programming and resources to help faculty, staff, and other campus partners generate inclusive learning experiences. 

Inclusive Pedagogy Partnership

Partnership is about dialogue and shared inquiry into the process of teaching and learning in a space where students and faculty can learn from one another about inclusive pedagogical practices that will meet the needs of our diversifying community. 

The ND-IPP launched in Spring 2022 as a pilot to help faculty members create inclusive and equitable classrooms. The semester-long partnership pairs student consultants with a faculty member for the course of a semester to observe their teaching with weekly meetings to discuss the observations, share experiences, and exchange perspectives. In Fall 2023 we are launching the short-term partnership, a menu of mini-partnerships—self-contained, discrete interactions between faculty and student partners that take place over a few days or weeks rather than the whole semester. In developing the short-term partnership, we hope to be able to reach a greater number of faculty by lowering a barrier to entry into partnership: the time commitment of the entire semester. With the short-term partnership, faculty can focus on specific inclusive and equitable practices with their student partner. Partnership options include:

Classroom observations: a student partner will observe a class of your choosing. After, you will meet to discuss their observations, share experiences, and exchange perspectives on teaching and learning.

Assignment review: a student partner will review an assignment sheet for a course assignment or project using principles of transparent assignment design and will provide suggestions to increase the assignment’s transparency to your students.

Syllabus review: student partners will review your syllabus using the principles of inclusive syllabus design, checking that the language, policies, principles, and in some cases content, promote an inclusive and equitable classroom environment.

Student focus groups: use up to 30 minutes of class time for a student partner to gather feedback from your students on their experience in your course. Your student partner will share that feedback while keeping students’ identities confidential.

Our goals for the program are to:

  • Intentionally bring together students, faculty and staff involved in course design to collaborate as partners in the teaching and learning process;
  • Encourage and empower faculty within a supportive structure to engage in scholarly and reflective teaching as well as document their growth;
  • Establish and support mechanisms for using student knowledge and expertise in classrooms as a basis for making informed pedagogical decisions. 

We invite any faculty member or postdoctoral and graduate instructors of record to learn more and sign up for the short-term partnership here. If you’re interested in the semester-long partnership, email kaneb@nd.edu. 

Consultations and Workshops

We also offer a variety of ways to engage with inclusive pedagogy including workshops, individual teaching consultations, reading groups, and programmatic DEI assessments for specific departments. We can help you explore and address DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) topics such as:

  • Inclusive curriculum design and syllabus development
  • Creating equitable assessments, assignment descriptions, discussions, and more
  • Crafting an effective diversity statement
  • Implementing anti-racist teaching practices
  • Facilitating difficult conversations that may arise from course content, group dynamics, or other classroom scenarios
  • Responding to microaggressions
  • Addressing challenging instructor/student interactions

We can also develop customized workshops on DEI topics that are of interest to your specific discipline, department, or academic program. The goal of these targeted workshops is to combine conceptual knowledge of DEI issues with practical, skills-based exercises and resources. If you would like to commission a new or existing workshop for your academic unit, please contact us at kaneb@nd.edu.

Inclusive Teaching Resources