Introduction

Below, you will find some suggestions or strategies that could be implemented to help promote inclusivity and anti-oppressive pedagogies within the classroom. These are by no means an exhaustive list; these are suggestions to help you get started. Links to the source of the material are embedded. The material included in the following section comes from a variety of websites. A link to each website is embedded within the discussion of the site.

How Do I Promote Equity, Diversity and Inclusion in the Classroom?

Below are some strategies that can be implemented to help promote equity, diversity and inclusivity in your classroom.

Land Acknowledgements

Description:

• Present land acknowledgments at the beginning of the semester.
• Land acknowledgments can also be included in the syllabus and/or on the Quercus Home Page.
• See below for UTSC’s Land acknowledgement.

Tips: 

• After reading the land acknowledgement, provide a brief reflection about what the land acknowledgment means to you, and suggest ways in which students may help move towards reconciliation.
• https://native-land.ca/ is a useful app that helps to map Indigenous territories, treaties, and languages around the world.

Sample Statement to be included in The University of Toronto Scarborough’s Land Acknowledgement.

“I (we) wish to acknowledge this land on which the University of Toronto operates. For thousands of years, it has been the traditional land of the Huron-Wendat, the Seneca, and the Mississauga’s of Credit. Today, this meeting place is still the home to many Indigenous people from across Turtle Island and we are grateful to have the opportunity to work on this land.”

Be Respectful of Gender Pronouns.

Description:

• Use gender-neutral and inclusive language (in group settings).

Reduce Textbook Costs.

Description:

• Consider adopting an open-sourced textbook, or a less expensive textbook option.
• Alternatively, consider using peer-reviewed journal articles as course readings, as all students have access to these articles through UofT Libraries.

Make Sure the Textbook is Available in Multiple Formats.

Description: 

• When selecting which textbook to assign for the course, make sure that the textbook is available in multiple formats (e.g., an ebook, as well as a physical copy).

Tips: 

• Connect with the Course Materials Coordinator at the UTSC Bookstore: Lindsay Spencer at lspencer@uoftbookstore.com or by phone at (416) 724-8213 x 1223

Ensure Representation of Diversity and Various Perspectives.

Description:

• Ensure that the diversity of your students is represented in your classroom materials.
  • Use diverse images and examples in your classroom materials to ensure that students feel that they are represented in the material they are learning about. This, in turn, will increase student motivation.
  • Ensure representation in course materials and assigned readings.
• Bring various perspectives into the classroom environment, especially those from traditionally excluded groups.
  • This will help to ensure that all members of the community and classroom environment are heard.
  • This will also help prepare students for working with others who may not share the same perspective or viewpoint as they do.

Tips: 

• To ensure that various perspectives are included, try to include perspectives from traditionally excluded groups, such as work by women, non-binary or trans authors. Additionally, you could highlight work by authors from Indigenous, Black, and other racialized communities.
• Incorporating various materials and perspectives to increase representation is not limited to scholarly resources or PowerPoint images. Think outside the box! Bring in diversity through social media posts, twitter, blogs, newspapers, news clips, YouTube videos, etc.

How Do I Implement Anti-Oppressive Practices in my Classroom?

Below are some strategies that can be implemented to help promote anti-oppressive practices in your classroom.

Identify, Reflect Upon, and Account for Bias in Evaluations.

Description: 

• In universities, the default teaching approach places teachers in positions of power over students. When evaluating participation, we place value on the specific ways we define participation, most likely based on our experience with how participation is normally evaluated. This typically equates participation with raising one’s hand and speaking in class, which can benefit students who are more comfortable with this type of engagement (often male, often those whose first language is English, and often students whose parents attended university).
• To help elicit traditionally unheard voices in the classroom, make use of different forms of participation (e.g. email, discussion post).

Benefit: 

• Participation activities are essential as they reinforce important material, concepts, and skills. Allowing students to participate in nontraditional ways allows you to communicate with them and support their ideas and queries. As a result, students will believe that their ideas are good and intriguing, will take ownership of them, and will build confidence in their skills.

Tips: 

• Pay attention and respond to conversational trends. Who’s speaking up? Who is staying silent? Why? How might various modes of participation help new voices emerge?
• Structure conversations to promote equity of voice. Giving participants some time to reflect separately or with a partner before a group session might help bring new voices into the topic.

Map Social Identities using the Social Identity Wheel

Description: 

• The Social Identity Wheel worksheet is an assignment that invites students to identify social identities and reflect on how those identities become visible or more strongly felt at different times, as well as how those identities influence how others perceive and treat them. Students will be asked to fill in a variety of social identities on the worksheet, including ethnicity, gender, sex, ability, disability, and sexual orientation. They will also be asked to further categorize these identities according to which ones they believe are most important to them and which ones they believe are most important to others.

Benefits: 

• The activity raises students’ awareness of their shared identities with their peers, as well as the diversity of identities in the classroom, further fostering community and developing empathy.
• The activity demonstrates to students how privilege works to normalize certain identities over others.
• The activity encourages students to think critically about their identities and how they are seen in various social circumstances.

Tips: 

• This can be facilitated as an independent activity, with students answering the questions on their own before leading a whole-class discussion. Note that students should not feel compelled to share information they wish to keep private. Reflections on the process of completing this activity can be emphasized.

Check Your Understanding

References

University of Michigan. (n.d.). Social Identity Wheel. https://sites.lsa.umich.edu/equitable-teaching/social-identity-wheel/

University of Toronto Scarborough. (n.d.). Land Acknowledgement. Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Office. https://edio.utsc.utoronto.ca/indigenous-initiatives/land-acknowledgement

Contributions

Roles follow the CRediT Taxonomy. Names are listed in alphabetical order.

Conceptualization: Anna Michelle McPhee

Writing – Original draft: Showmi Sribaskar, Anna Michelle McPhee

Writing – Review & editing: Showmi Sribaskar, Amanda Uliaszek

Supervision: Jessica Dere