Where Are the Students in Efforts for Inclusive Excellence? Two Approaches to Positioning Students as Critical Partners for Inclusive Pedagogical Practices

Abstract

Most educational development for inclusive excellence does not draw directly on the experiences and perspectives of students. This article presents two different approaches to positioning undergraduate students as critical partners in developing inclusive pedagogical practices. Co-authored by the directors of and student partners who participated in each approach, the article defines inclusive excellence and inclusive teaching and provides selected examples of partnership work that strives for equity and inclusion. It then describes our different approaches, discusses potential benefits of launching student-faculty partnership work through these approaches, and offers recommendations for developing pedagogical partnership efforts for inclusive excellence at other institutions.

UDL for Inclusive Teaching

“…Hogan and Sathy (2022) defined classroom inclusion as "a culture in which all learners feel welcome, valued, and safe, and it requires intentional and deliberate strategies" (p. 5). The terms "welcome" and "safety" are present in most definitions of inclusive learning environments (Addy, 2021;Cook-Sather et al, 2021;Gamrat, 2022). My goal has always been to create engaging and inclusive classroom environments, as these are generally things that I can plan for and control.…”

“…This level of engagement is also an indicator of feelings of inclusion: Students need to feel both welcome and safe to participate in class discussion. Additionally, since most definitions of inclusion involve feelings of welcome and safety (Addy, 2021;Cook-Sather et al, 2021;Gamrat, 2022), that those words (plus "included" and "comfortable") appeared in so many student responses indicates that multiple areas of the course revision positively impacted student inclusion.…”

Employing customizable digital observation tools to support classroom-focused pedagogical partnership

“…The Inclusive Pedagogy Partnership, proposed within the ND Learning | Kaneb Center for Teaching Excellence in Fall 2021, was built on the model of other successful classroomfocused partnerships and drew from the extensive scholarship on DEIJ (diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice) and partnership work (Cook-Sather et al, 2021;de Bie et al, 2021;Cook-Sather, 2020;Cook-Sather et al, 2020;Cook-Sather, 2019;Cook-Sather, Krishna Prasad, et al, 2019;Cook-Sather & Agu, 2013). The program was piloted with five student-faculty pairs from across the disciplines who worked together in Spring 2022, with GORP was already being used by the center's Learning Research team to conduct observations for various research projects.…”

Coda: A wicked problems mindset for educational development

“…In other words, we may not be able to solve diversity, equity, and inclusion challenges, but we can, hopefully, get people to think more deeply about them. (Dietz et al, 2022) In supporting this, educational developers can help "build new rooms" where those who have been historically marginalized have voice (Táíwò, 2020), beginning with students, who have been the primary drivers of anti-racist activism throughout the pandemic (Black Student Athlete Coalition, 2020;Cook-Sather et al, 2021;Nguyen, 2020).…”