Inclusive Pedagogy:
Transformative Teaching &
Learning
By Paul C. Gorski
University of Wisconsin-Superior
August 2009
1
I. What We Think We
Know
The Who Said It? Quiz...
2
I. Introduction: Who
We Are
1.
2.
Who is in the room?
My background and lenses
3
I. Introduction: Agenda
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Introductory Blabber (in progress)
Starting Assumptions
Morning Calisthenics
Conceptualizing Equitable Education
Dimensions of Equity in a Learning
Environment
4
I. Introduction: Agenda
Cont’d
6. Scenarios
7. Tips and Techniques for Practice
5
I. Introduction: Primary
Arguments
1.
2.
3.
Inclusive pedagogy, at its heart, is
about creating equitable and just
learning environments
It is about curriculum, and it’s about
more than curriculum
Being an inclusive educator involves
shifts of consciousness that inform
shifts in practice
6
I. Introduction:
Objectives
1.
2.
Develop deep understanding of the
process of creating an inclusive
(equitable) learning environment
Connect curriculum development to
pedagogy, classroom climate, and
context for a broad vision of “equitable
learning environment”
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I. Introduction:
Warning!!!
I do not have any of the following:
 “The” multicultural curriculum formula
or workbook,
 A tidy set of activities for you to
implement in your classroom
tomorrow, or
 A single book or video that will make
any class “multicultural”
8
I. Introduction:
However…
I do have all of the following:
 A framework for thinking complexly
and critically about educational equity,
 Strategies for creating equitable
learning environments based on your
curricular and pedagogical expertise,

and
Some difficult, sometimes even
uncomfortable, questions about what
is and what could be in higher
education.
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I. Introduction
You will get the most out of this
workshop if you:
 allow yourself to be challenged;
 react openly to cognitive dissonance;
 acknowledge your own great
expertise; and
 acknowledge your need for even
greater expertise.
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II. Starting Assumptions
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II. Starting Assumption #1
□ All students deserve the best possible
education, regardless of:
□ Socioeconomic status or class
□ Gender
□ Religion
□ Citizenship status
□ (Dis)ability
□ Race or ethnicity
□ Sexual Orientation
□ Etc.
12
II. Starting Assumption #2
□ Educational equity is deeper than
simple curricular content
□ Pedagogy
□ Assessment
□ Classroom/School Climate
□ Distribution of Power
13
II. Starting Assumption #3
□ Education is NOT politically neutral
□ We decide which readings and activities
to use in class
□ We decide how students are to be
assessed
□ We decide to engage (or not engage)
students in the learning process
□ And so on...
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II. Starting Assumption #4
□ The problem of educational inequity is
one of consciousness, not only one of
practice
□Impossibility of implementing a
multicultural education if one
doesn’t think and see multiculturally
□Even with a great curriculum, I
cannot teach against racism if I am
a racist
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II. Starting Assumption #5
□ A single instructor cannot undo
systemic inequities in a university or the
larger society.
□But at the very least we can make
sure we’re not replicating those
inequities in our own curricula and
pedagogies—our own spheres of
influence.
***
16
Morning Calisthenics
The Crosswalk
17
III. Conceptualizing
Equitable Education
Contextualizing the Equitable
Learning Environment
18
III. Conceptualizing
Equitable Education
• How do you define “inclusive
education”? What does it look like?
– Twos or threes
– Quick report back
19
III. Conceptualizing
Equitable Education
Important Concepts
• Equity vs. Equality
• Hegemony
• Deficit Theory
• Master Narrative
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III. Conceptualizing
Equitable Education
Important Concept #1
• Equity vs. Equality
21
III. Conceptualizing
Equitable Education
Important Concept #2
• Hegemony
22
III. Conceptualizing
Equitable Education
Important Concept #3
• Deficit Theory
– See Hurricane Katrina piece
23
III. Conceptualizing
Equitable Education
Important Concept #4
• Master Narrative
24
III. Conceptualizing
Equitable Education
Approaches to Inclusive Education
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Status Quo
Heroes & Holidays (Additive)
Representational Integration
Critical Integration
Equitable & Inclusive Education
25
III. Conceptualizing
Equitable Education
The Four Curricula
1.
2.
3.
4.
Official
Explicit
Implicit or “hidden”
Null
26
III. Conceptualizing
Equitable Education
The Official Curriculum
What the institution publicly tells the
world about itself
• Mission statements, vision
statements, syllabi, other official
and public documents
27
III. Conceptualizing
Equitable Education
The Explicit Curriculum
What is purposefully taught in the
curriculum or co-curriculum
• The units, lessons, readings,
assignments—that which is
assessed
28
III. Conceptualizing
Equitable Education
The Implicit (or “Hidden”) Curriculum
What is taught implicitly, usually
without conscious purpose, through
behavior, policy, relationships, and
social conditions
• Often hidden in “the way things
are”--hegemony
29
III. Conceptualizing
Equitable Education
The Null Curriculum
Part of the hidden curriculum—that
which is learned by what is omitted
from the curriculum
• Ex.: sexual orientation’s omission
from the “diversity requirement”
policy
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III. Conceptualizing
Equitable Education
For your reflection:
• What are two examples of the
hidden curriculum of UW-Superior?
• What are the implications of this
hidden curriculum?
• Who benefits (or is protected) by
it, and who is hurt by it?
31
III. Conceptualizing
Equitable Education
For your continued reflection:
• If I were to ask one of your
students about the hidden
curriculum of your classes, what
would she or he say?
• And the null curriculum?
***
32
IV. Dimensions of Equitable
Education in Practice
33
IV. Dimensions of Equitable
Education in Practice
1. What our students bring to the classroom
2. What we
bring to the
classroom
4. Pedagogy
3. Curriculum content
Adapted from the work of Maurianne Adams and Barbara J. Love (2006).
34
IV. Dimensions of Equitable
Education in Practice
1. What Students Bring to the Classroom
 Past educational experiences (it’s not
always all about us)
 Complex identities, prejudices, biases
 Expectations about the roles of students
and professors
 Varying learning styles, intelligences,
ways of illustrating learning
35
IV. Dimensions of Equitable
Education in Practice
2. What We Bring to the Classroom
 Complex socializations, identities,
biases, and prejudices
 Notions about the purposes of
education and our roles as professors
 A teaching style, often related to our
own preferred learning styles and how
we’ve been taught
36
IV. Dimensions of Equitable
Education in Practice
3. Curriculum Content
 Perspective and worldview: Whose
voices are centered, whose are
“other”ed?
 Is content, whenever possible, made
relevant to the lives of the students?
 The “hidden curriculum”?
 Are multicultural issues addressed
explicitly?
37
IV. Dimensions of Equitable
Education in Practice
4. Pedagogy
 Focus on critical, complex thinking and
asking critical questions
 Paying attention to inequity in
classroom processes
 Attending to sociopolitical relationships
(power and privilege) in the classroom
 Using authentic assessment techniques
38
V. How We Get There: Tips
and Techniques for Practice
39
V. The Equitable Learning
Environment
Part 1: What Your Students Bring
to the Classroom
40
V. The Equitable Learning
Environment
1. What Students Bring into the Classroom
A. Find ways to challenge stereotypes (both in
society and your own field)
Example: Albert Einstein as a white, male
scientist who wrote very progressive essays
about racism, imperialism, etc.
41
V. The Equitable Learning
Environment
1. What Students Bring into the Classroom
B. Watch for and challenge student behaviors
and relationships that reflect stereotypical
roles
Example: Men assuming the lead in lab
activities, women being “note-taker” in small
groups
42
V. The Equitable Learning
Environment
1. What Students Bring into the Classroom
C. Be thoughtful about how you create
cooperative teams or small groups
Example: Avoid temptation to “distribute”
people from under-represented groups
(tokenism)
43
V. The Equitable Learning
Environment
1. What Students Bring into the Classroom
D. Understand students’ reactions to you and
your social identities in context
Example: Even if you don’t think much about
your whiteness (for example), it may mean
something significant to students of color
who may only rarely not have white
professors
44
V. The Equitable Learning
Environment
1. What Students Bring into the Classroom
E. Help students un-learn the ways of being
and seeing that lend themselves to
prejudice
Example: Dichotomous thinking, competitive
nature of learning (NOTE: this also means
WE have to un-learn)
45
V. The Equitable Learning
Environment
Part 2: What You Bring to the
Classroom
46
V. The Equitable Learning
Environment
2. What You Bring into the Classroom
A. Identify and work to eliminate your biases,
prejudices, and assumptions (yes, you do
have them) about various groups of
students
Example: Race/ethnicity, gender, religion,
sexual orientation, religion, socioeconomic
status, (dis)ability, first language, etc.
47
V. The Equitable Learning
Environment
2. What You Bring into the Classroom
B. Identify and work to broaden your teaching
style (which, according to research,
probably suits your learning style)
Note: Research shows that two elements most
effect how somebody teaches: (1) their
preferred learning style, and (2) how they
were taught what they’re teaching
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V. The Equitable Learning
Environment
2. What You Bring into the Classroom
C. Identify and work on your “hot buttons”
Question: What are the issues that set you off
to the point that you become an ineffective
educator/facilitator?
49
V. The Equitable Learning
Environment
2. What You Bring into the Classroom
D. Provide students with periodic opportunities
to share anonymous feedback
Note: Students already feeling disempowered
and disconnected are not likely to approach
you about your teaching or curriculum
50
V. The Equitable Learning
Environment
2. What You Bring into the Classroom
E. Share examples of when you’ve struggled to
climb out of the box and to see the world
and your field in their full complexity
Note: When we make ourselves vulnerable we
make it easier for students to do the same
51
V. The Equitable Learning
Environment
2. What You Bring into the Classroom
F. Consider the significance of the professor/student
power relationship and what this means re: student
learning
Question: What might it mean to be a white male
computer science professor teaching a young
African American woman in a field historically
hostile to African American women?
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V. The Equitable Learning
Environment
2. What You Bring into the Classroom
G. Identify the gaps in your knowledge about
equity issues and pursue the information to
fill those gaps
Point: I cannot teach anti-classism if I’m
unwilling to deal with my own classism
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V. The Equitable Learning
Environment
2. What You Bring into the Classroom
H. Build the skills necessary to intervene
effectively when equity issues arise
Examples: Racist joke or comment, sexual
harassment, men talking over women
54
V. The Equitable Learning
Environment
2. What You Bring into the Classroom
I. Mind your compliments
Point: Research indicates that educators,
regardless of gender, are most likely to
compliment male students on their
intelligence. Female students? On their
appearance.
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V. The Equitable Learning
Environment
Part 3: Curriculum Content
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V. The Equitable Learning
Environment
3. Curriculum Content
A. Assign tasks that challenge traditional social
roles
Example: Assign men to be note-takers,
women to be group facilitators
57
V. The Equitable Learning
Environment
3. Curriculum Content
B. Try centering the sources you previously
may have used as supplements
Example: Slave narratives as central history
texts instead of supplements to a more
Eurocentric framing of history
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V. The Equitable Learning
Environment
3. Curriculum Content
C. Avoid other-ing; weave diverse voices and
sources seamlessly together instead of
having separate sections or units
Example: No units on “women poets” or “Latino
voices,” etc.
59
V. The Equitable Learning
Environment
3. Curriculum Content
D. Discuss ways people in your field have used
(and continue to use) their scholarship and
platforms to advocate for social justice
Examples: Leontyne Price, Howard Zinn,
Stephen J. Gould, Ida B. Wells, Mark Twain
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V. The Equitable Learning
Environment
3. Curriculum Content
E. Discuss ways people in your field have used
(and continue to use) their scholarship and
platforms to support inequity and injustice
Examples: “Science”: eugenics; “journalists”:
refusal to critique Bush foreign policy during
war-time; etc.
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V. The Equitable Learning
Environment
3. Curriculum Content
F. Discuss the history of oppression and
exclusion in your field and how this has
affected knowledge bases in your field
Examples: Women and STEM fields (and law,
business, etc.)
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V. The Equitable Learning
Environment
3. Curriculum Content
G. Vary your instructional materials as a way to
draw in students with various learning styles
Suggestion: Consider visual, tactile, aural, and
other dimensions of your instructional
materials
Note: Doesn’t mean every lesson must include
all of these, but that they’re distributed over
the course of the semester
63
V. The Equitable Learning
Environment
3. Curriculum Content
H. Encourage students to raise critical questions, not
only about the content itself, but about how the
content is presented in educational materials
Example: Use of male anatomy as “standard”;
differentiation between “American literature” and
“African American literature” (and misuse of the
term “American”)
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V. The Equitable Learning
Environment
Part 4: Pedagogy
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V. The Equitable Learning
Environment
4. Pedagogy
A. Be very clear about how you expect students
to participate (open discussion, raised
hands, etc.)
Related suggestion: Avoid first-hand-up, firstcalled-on approach
66
V. The Equitable Learning
Environment
4. Pedagogy
B. Never, under any circumstance, invalidate or
allow other students to invalidate concerns
of inequity raised by students from
disenfranchised groups
67
V. The Equitable Learning
Environment
4. Pedagogy
C. Avoid putting students from disenfranchised
groups in positions to have to teach people
from privileged groups about their privilege
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V. The Equitable Learning
Environment
4. Pedagogy
D. Develop your facilitation skills so that you
can effectively facilitate “difficult dialogues”
about racism, sexism, classism,
heterosexism, etc.
Note: When these dialogues happen, be
comfortable advocating for equity
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V. The Equitable Learning
Environment
4. Pedagogy
E. Design assignments that encourage
students to apply what they’re learning to a
human rights issue
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V. The Equitable Learning
Environment
4. Pedagogy
F. Allow students, when possible, to choose
how they will be assessed (as people don’t
demonstrate understanding and application
in the same ways)
Example: Choice between an essay or an
application project
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V. The Equitable Learning
Environment
4. Pedagogy
G. Invite a colleague to observe your teaching
and provide feedback on a variety of
concerns
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V. The Equitable Learning
Environment
4. Pedagogy
H. Use peer teaching, peer feedback, and other
peer interactions to provide students an
opportunity to learn content through a
variety of lenses
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V. Applying These Ideas
The Scenarios
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Closing Reflection
Humility is the ability to see.
-Terry Tempest Williams
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Thank you.
Paul C. Gorski
gorski@edchange.org
http://www.edchange.org
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