Inclusive teaching at UW

At the University of Washington inclusive teaching refers to pedagogical practices that support meaningful and accessible learning for students of all races, ethnicities, genders, socio-economic classes, sexualities, disability/ability statuses, religions, nationalities, ages, and military statuses. Teaching inclusively means leveraging the diverse strengths students and instructors bring to the learning environment, as well as recognizing how systems of power and privilege may play out in the classroom.

“This is our community — to truly fulfill our public promise of both access and excellence, we must make progress on diversity. Stereotypes and bias are in the air we breathe. They are part of our societal fabric. We’ve got to begin by not being part of the problem, or less a part of it. We can only do that by recognizing it and acknowledging that it resides in us. We can’t just will it or ignore it away — we have to become culturally aware and self-aware in order to make our campus community more inclusive and just.”

– Ana Mari Cauce, UW President, Leading Change in Public Higher Education

Myths about inclusive teaching

• “I treat all students the same, therefore, I have an inclusive classroom”
• “My classroom is inclusive because my students are demographically diverse including race, gender, age, etc.”
• “I teach in the STEM fields so discussions of inclusion aren’t relevant to my courses.”

Inclusive teaching doesn’t occur automatically. It requires planning and promoting across a spectrum of teaching practices (from course design to assessment) with the aim of creating a learning environment that allows all students to engage, regardless of discipline and course content.

“In my opinion, inclusive teaching can exist when the instructor values both development of the heart and mind. In other words, there are methods of structuring inclusive education, but it can never be reduced to specific practices particularly if the heart — or desire — is not also present. Also, the opposite is true and inclusive education cannot exist when just a desire is there without a clear understanding of techniques to structure inclusive education and use pedagogical moves to foster inclusion.”

– Jacob Hackett, doctoral student and instructor, UW College of Education

As Hackett describes, inclusive teaching is most successful when evidence-based practices reflect an investment in student learning.

CTL’s resource pages on inclusive teaching contain evidence-based practices, strategies, and resources from instructors at the UW.

UW campus resources

For faculty and staff

• ADVANCE: Center for Institutional Change 
• Center for Communication, Difference and Equity
• Graduate Professional Student Senate (GPSS)
• Leadership without Borders provides Undocu Ally Trainings for faculty and staff to learn about and support students without documentation of U.S. citizenship
• Race and Equity Initiative

For students

• The UW diversity Requirement focusses on helping students identify courses with a focus on the sociocultural, political, and economic diversity of human experience
• Leadership Without Borders supports students without documentation of U.S. citizenship
• Office of Minority Affairs and Diversity (OMAD):
  • Champions: Support for youth and alumni of foster care
  • Educational Opportunity Program (EOP) promotes academic success and graduation for under-represented ethnic minority, economically disadvantaged, and first generation students
  • College Assistance Migrant Program (CAMP) supports students from migrant and seasonal farmworker families during their first year in college
  • TRiO Student Support Services at the University of Washington serves over 400 low-income, first-generation students and/or students with disabilities each year