Background

Before developing the tools, the UU project team conducted focus groups with students. These conversations revealed that there were situations in the classroom that made them feel unsafe, unwelcome, or excluded.

Teachers at UU stated that they wanted to have more tools and information on how to avoid or respond better to such situations. Many of them felt the need to address sensitive issues in their courses but needed extra guidance as to how to do so in an open, respectful, and yet critical manner.

The tools were developed to aid UU staff in dealing with these complex issues and to foster more inclusive teaching.

Development of the Curriculum Reflection Tools

Input from both students and teachers was collected, leading up to the development of a fitting tool. The team held focus groups with students from the three different faculties. During these meetings, students were asked about their experiences and for feedback. The main take-away messages were:

  • that students missed diversity in their curriculum,
  • that stereotypes of teachers can lead to unconsciously hurting students, and
  • that due to the unequal position of teachers and students, teachers should take the lead in creating a more inclusive and diverse curriculum and learning environment.

> (only in Dutch).

A pilot testing a preliminary version of the tool also took place with individual teachers and teaching teams from the different faculties. The main take-away messages were:

  1. that teachers had positively experienced reflecting on diversity and inclusion in their course based on the curriculum reflection tool,
  2. that teachers needed additional guidance when completing certain statements. This feedback was incorporated into the tool by adding concrete examples of student experiences from the focus groups and by reformulating some statements, and
  3. that the tool should be shorter, thus the reflection tool now included optional sections giving teachers the freedom to focus on certain aspects at a time.

Development of the Inclusive Teaching Toolbox

The toolbox covers a range of topics regarding diversity and inclusiveness in higher education organised according to different aspects of pedagogy, including assessment, learning objectives, and learning material. These elements are also included in the reflection tool. Within these areas, topics were selected based on issues that were most prevalent in focus groups with students (article results focus groups), discussions with teachers, and addressed in the literature.

Per topic, relevant (practice-based) literature and tools were collected and then the project team:

Curated tools and teaching strategies: meaning that we gave a short description and/or summary of existing tools and literature;

Combined tools and teaching strategies: meaning that we selected and synthesized relevant information per topic;

Adapted tools and teaching strategies: meaning that we adjusted or updated existing material to fit the needs of teachers or course coordinators at UU;

Constructed tools: meaning that based on the existing literature, we created new tools to enhance inclusiveness of education at the university.

The classroom examples and quotes used in the toolbox are mostly based on focus groups with students, discussions with teachers, and literature on the topic. These examples were sometimes slightly adapted to ensure anonymity and/or simplified for the sake of readability.

Based on users’ contributions, the materials and explanations are improved and expanded continuously. Should you have any feedback on the tools or teaching strategies described in the toolbox, or should you wish to add a relevant case regarding inclusive education, please contact us via: inclusivecurriculum@uu.nl.