Summary

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Summary Diversity in Learning and Teaching: Module Summary Section 1: Wider context The diversity of learners continues to increase and this has implications for how learning and teaching is organised, structured and delivered. Students bring a wide range of issues, experiences and needs to the classroom; there is a danger that failure to recognise and respond to these will impact on learner success and satisfaction. Legislation also places duties on all public bodies, including education providers, to consider different needs, with reference to equality characteristics, when designing and delivering their services. The Equality Act 2010 protects against discrimination on grounds of ‘protected characteristics’. Under the Equality Act, several specific types of discrimination are unlawful: Direct discrimination; Indirect discrimination; Harassment; Victimisation; Discrimination arising from disability. Under the Equality Act there is also a public sector equality duty, which applies to all public bodies, including individual Universities. It requires public bodies to eliminate discrimination and harassment; to advance equality of opportunity; and to foster good relations between people who share a protected characteristic and people who do not share it. Section 2: The ‘diversity mix’ Depending on your curriculum area, your students may be diverse in terms of gender, ethnicity, religion, nationality, age, sexuality, type of disability (or none), previous family tradition of education or learning, caring responsibilities, social 'class', and/or many other aspects.

By acknowledging the diversity of your learners, through their situations, experiences, beliefs and goals, and by developing a teaching strategy that responds to this diversity, you take the most important step in making students feel that they can succeed. Section 3: The ‘diversity curriculum’ A ‘diversity curriculum’ has four main aspects: Facilitating learner inclusion to fulfill potential. Integrating equality and diversity into the curriculum area. Encouraging learners to reflect on personal attitudes. Teaching about equality and diversity rights and responsibilities. Section 4: Issue areas A safe and inclusive learning environment. The atmosphere you establish in the classroom is as important as what you actually teach. To enable them to speak up, all learners need to feel valued and safe voicing their opinions. Student diversity makes this all the more important, but also makes it more challenging. Faith-related adjustments. Faith-based adjustments must be seriously considered, and a positive and helpful approach taken. It is important to establish what the faith actually requires, and to learn about the individual’s approach to practicing their faith, rather than to take action based on stereotypes or from a desire to avoid controversy and potential allegations of discrimination. Classroom resources to promote equality and diversity. A minor change to your course materials could make a major change to the way a learner, or a group of learners, responds to the course. Employ inclusive design principles for paper-based materials or electronic presentations to ensure accessibility

Disability equality. Students with disabilities often require additional support. However, there are many different ‘types’ of disability, and it is important to guard against generalising about needs and situations. Understanding the potential requirements of disabled students, as well as the basic legal requirements and possible strategies and approaches, is a good place to start. The Equality Act 2010 targets the ‘less favourable’ treatment of students with disabilities and/or learning difficulties compared to that experienced by their non-disabled peers. To avoid ‘less favourable’ treatment, Universities are required to make ‘reasonable adjustments’ to services including learning, teaching, assessment and any other dimensions of their courses and curricula in response to the requirements of individual students, and on an anticipatory basis. Supporting trans learners. Everyone involved in supporting a student who is transitioning will need to be well-informed about transsexuality. It will be important to discuss the timetable that the person wishes to follow, and to agree the date for an announcement, and the date when the person wants to make the social change. Reflecting on your own assumptions. It is important to recognise that the world is not made up of ‘main’ people and ‘others’ when considering this in relation to aspects of diversity that are invisible or unseen, such as sexuality, religion, or even ethnicity. These characteristics may affect learning just as much as the elements of diversity that are visible. As well as being aware of how your comments and behaviour may be perceived by some learners, you should try to anticipate issues of sexuality, religion or other values for students as you give assignments and lead discussions. The Eurocentric curriculum. Within the curriculum, Eurocentrism can be reflected through the topics that are taught (or not taught), the examples that are used (or left out) and the cultural or ethnic traditions that are drawn on (or ignored). While these aspects are more relevant in some subject areas than others, even in the sciences, for example, we should ensure that the contributions to a particular field made by key ‘non-western’ experts are recognised and valued. Because if some students feel that what they encounter at University lacks relevance to their lives or treats them as anonymous faces, their learning will be impaired. Fair assessment. Speaking and listening tests should provide opportunities for all learners to demonstrate what they know, understand and can do. To ensure all learners achieve their potential, diverse needs must be considered when designing and implementing assessments, to ensure they are fair and inclusive. Learner participation, retention and achievement – narrowing the gaps. Once data has been analysed, and patterns identified, Universities may address any gaps or key issues by setting equality and diversity impact measures (EDIMS). These are local targets for the participation, retention and achievement of learners, relating to (for example), ethnicity, gender or disability. Citizenship. There is a clear link between education for diversity and education for citizenship: we need to help learners understand and celebrate the diversity of the UK population and to challenge discrimination that results from those differences, but we also need to acknowledge what brings people together and to promote shared identity and values. Supporting learners in a minority. Men or women are heavily underrepresented on some courses or in some subjects, often as a result of gendered occupational assumptions, stereotyping in careers guidance or ill-defined employment pathways. Take positive approaches to counteract this (e.g. mentoring programmes). Section 5: Developing a ‘diversity mindset’ With diversity, there is rarely a standard response - every situation is different. So it’s critical to develop a way of seeing people and situations that is open-minded, non-judgmental and creates a learning culture which values, responds to and uses difference in a positive way. We can call this the ‘diversity mindset’.