The Importance of Inclusivity in Teaching and Learning

Inclusivity is a core value here at the University of Leeds and a key part of our Student Education Strategy.

In 2016 Jenny Brady, then working as a Disability Coordinator at Leeds, concluded that the culture of teaching needed to change. She believed that designing out systemic inequalities and fostering a securer sense of belonging in students through a wider academic approach to inclusive teaching and learning could benefit progression and attainment.

Jenny’s belief in a cross-institutional approach to inclusivity coincided with new Government guidance urging universities to incorporate inclusivity into teaching and learning practices to make them relevant to diverse cohorts of students, instead of focusing on individual students with additional needs.

A university-wide approach

As part of Jenny’s work, the University adopted six Inclusive Baseline Standards and established dedicated School Academic Leads for Inclusive Pedagogies (SALIPs) in 26 schools across seven faculties, including the Lifelong Learning Centre, Digital Education and Library Learning services.

These Academic Leads work to promote and embed inclusive approaches by helping colleagues understand what this means within their school-specific disciplinary context. They work closely with Heads of Schools, Directors of Student Education, other key staff and in partnership with students. Above all, the Academic Leads are there to ensure clarity, avoid assumptions of prior knowledge, share good practice around accessibility and consider where flexibility can be built into delivery and engagement.

Inclusive Pedagogies Spotlight: Developing discussion in the Lifelong Learning Centre

Catherine Bates leads an interdisciplinary degree designed specifically for adults returning to learn BA Professional Studies. This experience of working with mature students informs her SALIP role, as does her previous experience as a Dyslexia Support Worker in HE. Catherine says

“I’ve always had an interest in inclusion and that's partly why I work at the Lifelong Learning Centre because we're all about widening participation and making sure that students from all different experiences and backgrounds are welcome. But one of the reasons I've had an interest in inclusion at the Centre is because when I was doing my PHD (around 2002) I trained as a Dyslexia Support Worker where I ran 1:1 sessions with lots of different students. I supported quite a lot of people, got to know a lot of individuals in-depth, and that really got me thinking about the University experience in a more inclusive way. You get to know that students are people that want to do well, that have challenges, and see the experience from their side - how they're responding to assignment guidance, how they're experiencing the teaching and that stays with you, I think. And for me, it made me feel passionate about supporting students further.”

Catherine has held the role of SALIP since October 2022 and sees the role as a key method of supporting good inclusive teaching and learning practice within the LLC. To boost the visibility of inclusivity within the Centre, reinforce that it is a collective responsibility and create a focused forum for discussions, Catherine has set up an ‘Inclusivity Working Group’ for LLC staff. The group includes a representative from each programme and area in the LLC and provides a place for colleagues to talk about issues altogether, and then go back to their individual teams and influence practice.

Additionally, Catherine enjoys getting involved in the University-wide discussions on inclusivity and the SALIP role has allowed her to contribute her specific expertise cross-institutionally through the SALIP Forums set-up by Jenny Brady. These meetings allow Catherine to share good practice which has been tried and tested in the LLC:

“There are things that are a bit different about the Lifelong Learning Centre. One of them is, you know, we're very student-centred in that we were specifically set up to support students and to connect with communities, and we also teach and conduct research alongside this. There is always room to improve, but we're coming at inclusion from a bit of a different perspective. I like it when there's opportunities to share that mindset or that perspective or that good practice with other people, and the SALIP Forums enable me to do that.”

Alongside setting up the Staff Inclusivity Working Group in the LLC, Catherine recognises that Student Voice is an important part of developing inclusive pedagogies and is eager to ensure that all LLC Students feel heard:

“What I really want to do is spend more time talking to students. Now, I speak regularly with the School and Course Representatives but the reps are only a tiny minority and so it would be good to set up some kind of inclusion working group with students. I think if we could maybe have another group that could have some staff representation with students where the students really have a voice that would be a solid next step because one of the challenges is there's always some students that, when you ask for feedback, will always give feedback and there's other ones that don't because they lack the confidence or appropriate forum, and it's never the right thing to assume that they are just not interested - we need to make sure that we are asking the questions in the most inclusive and accessible ways.”

Inclusive Pedagogies Spotlight: Creating an action plan in the Library Learning Service

Suzy Beck is a Learning Advisor in Leeds’s Learning Development Team, or Skills@Library as it is known to students. With a teaching background specialising in disability and inclusion, Suzy joined the University of Leeds in October 2022 and quickly took on the role of SALIP to support teaching staff based in the library with inclusive practice. As a joint SALIP with colleague Rachel Myers, Suzy recognises the importance of developing accessible and inclusive pedagogies to underpin teaching activities delivered across faculties and schools by the library.

To produce clear objectives for colleagues, Suzy and Rachel firstly developed an action plan. Suzy explains their approach:

“We initially ran a session where we talked about the Inclusivity Baselines. We reintroduced them and essentially audited ourselves against them to say as part of our practice, where are we at? We looked at our own workshop programme, our 1:1s and the embedded teaching that we do in schools – we are all aligned to different academic schools.

We collated those insights and we have identified several points to work on to make sure that we adhere to the baselines, and in January we are, as a team again, going to put some kind of milestones with those actions so that there is joint ownership and accountability. We want to reinforce a culture where we are continuously reflecting on our practice and making sure that we're adhering to the baselines.”

Suzy and Rachel’s approach to the SALIP role is slightly different to school based SALIPs given that they work across many faculties, each with their own distinct discipline-specific requirements.

“For us it's mainly Inclusivity Baselines 1 and 2 that are immediately relevant, and that we can have direct influence on. For example, Baseline 2 is the one about releasing materials in advance - we definitely do this where we are in control of teaching materials as we make sure that what we provide is uploaded in plenty of time and that the materials are accessible documents. But it’s also making sure we are modelling this if it's not happening. We can be a model of good practice.

“And then within our teaching, it's looking at how we are developing that to be as accessible and as inclusive as we can. For example, we're building in very simple things like offering an overview at the beginning of a teaching session, making sure there are rest breaks identified, making sure that people know they can leave and come back if they want to, providing summaries at different points, pausing and trying to reduce cognitive load, and making sure that there is a level of interactivity so that it's not just very transmissional. Basically, trying to include all those things that we all know about, but consciously making sure that we're thinking about them when we are designing our teaching, so that it's baked in, not bolted on essentially.”

Inclusive Pedagogies Spotlight: Bridging the gap in the School of Civil Engineering

Dr Ashani Ranathunga also took up the role of SALIP in the School of Civil Engineering approximately 1 year ago in October 2022. Ashani became interested in the role due to her prior experience embedding inclusive pedagogies in teaching and learning practices. She was keen to continue this work and support her school with meeting the 6 Inclusive Baseline Standards. Ashani says:

“I joined the University of Leeds actually one and half years ago - and that's when I came to UK as well. It was all a new experience, and I was getting to understand how the inclusive dynamic works in UK’s higher education. Then, during my early days at the University, our Director of Student Education asked if I would consider becoming a SALIP because a lot of the work I have done at previous higher education institutions relates to inclusive pedagogy and, as a SALIP, I could continue this work. I discussed the role with the previous SALIP and was happy to take it on as I have done similar work and I was like, okay, let's take this and see how I can help the school.”

Since taking up the role, Ashani has been focusing on bridging the gap between the University-wide resources and how they relate to the specific disciplinary context in the School of Civil Engineering. To support Faculties and Schools with meeting the 6 Inclusive Baseline Standards, the University introduced Principles of Inclusive Pedadgogy. To help colleagues employ these, Ashani has been producing ‘how-to’ guides with clear examples of how inclusive practice can be applied to the school’s module materials, teaching activities, assessments and use of technology.

"Via the School's Virtual Learning Environment, I am introducing each Inclusive Principle to my colleagues with a set of examples which are discipline-specific, and tips on how they can be applied to teaching practice. Colleagues can access this all-in-one place as a ‘One Stop Shop’ for inclusive pedagogical advice and they are real-life examples which should be easy to replicate in their own practice. This is an ongoing piece of work, but I generally release one per week.”

Ashani has had a good response from colleagues with this approach.

“So far, my colleagues have responded really well to this, and it seems to be working as an approach because I found that staff are more motivated now than before to consider inclusivity within their teaching practices – I have had quite a few comments that they find it useful that the resources being shared are directly related to their context.”

Once Ashani has completed all resource packs to support the Inclusive Principles, she will be officially evaluating the impact of the work via a staff survey.

To find out more about inclusive teaching and learning at Leeds, contact the Student Success Team: studentsuccess@leeds.ac.uk.

This article was written by Jessica Burgess (Impact and Communications Officer, University of Leeds) with support from Access and Success colleagues.

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