Inclusive Pedagogy for Teaching Assistants and Instructors
As the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. wrote in his 1963 Letter from a Birmingham Jail, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.” At its core, education creates opportunities. Inclusive frameworks and practices are integral to all teaching and curriculum development. Through this Inclusive Pedagogy for Teaching Assistants and Instructors, The Graduate School will provide graduate students and postdoctoral scholars with tools to craft intentional teaching practices.
Explore Resources
Inclusive teaching embraces varied perspectives as an asset in the classroom.
Northwestern’s Remote Learning Inclusive Teaching Guide has strategies, recommendations, tutorials, and resources that can assist in developing an inclusive learning environment in virtual classrooms.
Northwestern’s AccessibleNU has valuable information for faculty and students about accessible teaching environments and universal design for learning.
Learn more about maintaining an inclusive and accessible environment for the Northwestern community and visitors to the community, digitally and in buildings/facilities through Northwestern’s Office of Civil Rights and Title IX ComplianceAccessibility Resources Page.
The Office of Civil Rights and Title IX Compliance offers a variety of Campus Trainings (informational sessions and workshops) designed to inform students, staff, faculty, and visitors about their rights and responsibilities as members of the Northwestern community and to equip community members with the tools to create a vibrant, equitable, and accessible learning environment for all.
The Northwestern Guide to Inclusive Learning Environments offers eight inclusive teaching principles, supported by accessible strategies and case studies, which instructors can use to create and sustain inclusive learning environments.
Northwestern’s School of Professional Studies has resources to help instructors think about how to make their content more inclusive.
Northwestern Feinberg School of Medicine has Inclusive Learning Environment information for medical school students that has applicability across graduate education.
According to scholars Viji Sathy and Kelly A. Hogan, “Teaching inclusively means embracing student diversity in all forms — race, ethnicity, gender, disability, socioeconomic background, ideology, even personality traits like introversion — as an asset.” Sathy and Hogan argue that inclusive teaching expects courses to be designed and taught “in ways that foster talent in all students, but especially those who come from groups traditionally underrepresented in higher education.”
Check out their inclusive teaching resources at inclusifiED.