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Inclusive Teaching Guide: Inclusive Teaching

Effective teaching is a dynamic, not static, process. Whether you have years of experience or are just beginning to teach, there is always room to expand your repertoire, explore a new approach, or reflect on an aspect of your practice.

Definition of Inclusive Teaching

The University of Michigan Center for Research on Learning & Teaching defines inclusive teaching this way:

Inclusive teaching involves deliberately cultivating a learning environment where all students are treated equitably, have equal access to learning, and feel valued and supported in their learning. Such teaching attends to social identities and seeks to change the ways systemic inequities shape dynamics in teaching-learning spaces, affect individuals’ experiences of those spaces, and influence course and curriculum design.

Get Started with Inclusive Teaching

Librarians who typically teach via one-shot information literacy sessions can still incorporate inclusive teaching practices into their approach to information literacy instruction. The Guide for Inclusive Teaching from the Columbia University Center for Teaching and Learning lays out five principles for inclusive teaching. Explore the Inclusive Teaching in Library Instruction page for suggested practices for one-shots that have been adapted from the five principles on this guide.

Further Reading

Columbia Center for Teaching and Learning. Inclusive Teaching Guide https://ctl.columbia.edu/resources-and-technology/resources/inclusive-teaching-guide/   

Faculty Innovation Center. Inclusive Teaching and Learning.” 10 July 2017, https://facultyinnovate.utexas.edu/instructional-strategies/inclusive-teaching-and-learning

USC Rossier School of Education. Tools for Inclusive Teaching - Resource Page | USC Rossier.”, 15 Jan. 2021, https://rossier.usc.edu/news-insights/news/tools-inclusive-teaching

Watts, John (2017) "Inclusive Cultural and Social Pedagogy in the Library Classroom," LOEX Quarterly Vol. 44 : No. 1 , Article 4, https://commons.emich.edu/loexquarterly/vol44/iss1/4

Inclusive Classrooms Policy

Library staff members foster an inclusive classroom environment to ensure that all of our students are respected, safe and supported in their learning. We rely on faculty to support this inclusive environment during library instruction. (From UT Libraries Course-integrated Library Instruction Policy)