Wednesday, July, 17th, 2019
Your syllabus can be a powerful tool in creating an inclusive learning environment. It conveys your priorities as an instructor and sets the tone and your expectations for the course.
Adapted from the University of Minnesota Center for Education Innovation
Whether reviewing a prior syllabus or creating a new one, most of us make some revisions. As mentioned above, the syllabus is a primary tool for helping to set an inclusive, supportive climate for learners. It reflects your tone and pedagogical choices that will make students feel supported and able to be successful, or not. This document contains an incomplete, but initial list of questions to help you make your syllabus more inclusive.
Inclusion by Design is a research-based framework for developing an inclusive syllabus
Make a More Inclusive Syllabus describes and links to Tulane’s Accessible Syllabus Project (ProfHacker)
Gender Inclusive Guidelines offers advice on using gender-inclusive/non-sexist language (University of Pittsburgh’s Gender, Sexuality. and Women’s Studies Program)
A Syllabus’ Worth of Difference suggests “points of entry” for making a syllabus more inclusive (Georgetown University)
In The Danger of a Single Story, novelist Chimamanda Adichie warns about the danger of a singular representations of groups of people. This is useful to understand the importance of diversifying course content.
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