This informal CPD article, ‘Designing Inclusive CPD’, was provided by Progressay, an educational teacher tool to make marking meaningful without adding to teacher workload.
Designing Inclusive CPD
Fostering inclusivity in the workplace is an important step towards creating a welcoming and supportive environment for all employees, but the same applies for CPD training and assessment.
Learners retain and engage more with content that relates to their lived experience. In practice, this means that people will be more motivated to learn if they recognise themselves and their social context in the content they cover. This entails considering the place or status of the learner within society and history, as well as considering their race, class, gender, ability, sexual orientation, socioeconomic situation, age, and numerous other factors.
Barriers to Equitable Access
There are a range of barriers to equitable access to your CPD courses. These include:
Technological
Physical
Racial and Cultural
Gender Identification
Age
Family
Class status
Ask yourself the following:
Are there age or family assumptions present in what you are teaching?
Is your language inclusive and neutral in gender terms?
Are all the authors of the resources in your course white?
What might be the physical barriers that occur in your classroom spaces? (think about sight lines and audio). Is the font size on your slides large enough/ contrasted enough?
Are learners able to a) access and b) use the technology you ask them to?
How to foster inclusive workplace training
Caring or Family Responsibilities
False assumptions about your learner demographic or target market can create a barrier. For example, people are increasingly accessing CPD with complex childcare arrangements or demanding caring responsibilities, or they might be at a different stage of life to previous cohorts. It is therefore important to take these things into account when considering the expectations placed upon them.
Example: Those who are parents and/or carers may have unpredictable times where they are needed, on top of their usual responsibilities.
Action: Work with students with ensure they are aware of effective and workable methods of time management. This is as important as expecting them to engage with the specialist content of your course.
Religious Beliefs
Similarly, it is also important that we are aware of religious festivals and celebrations from a wide variety of traditions. Religious celebrations can impact upon attendance, assignment submission, concentration, and mood.
Example: Fasting for Ramadan can impact upon concentration and energy levels. This may affect someone’s ability to complete work or attend lectures.
Action: Work with learners to organise their work flow and calendars. Pay attention to when you are requiring learners to access your courses and hand in assignments.
Technology Access
Access to digital technology is generally assumed however, some of learners use only a smart phone rather than a computer. Therefore, it is important that to consider this when asking for engagement with content. Ensuring it is mobile phone friendly and/or there is enough time allowed for completion are steps towards addressing this.
Example: Students who use a smart phone to access the majority of their content may find it hard to see some content.
Action: Ensure students can zoom in on slides and are only asked to use mobile friendly apps. Make sure they have enough time to find and access a computer if they are expected to write lengthy pieces of work.
Gender Identification
There has been much discussion about the importance of respecting gender identification. It is our responsibility as educators to respect learner’s way of self-identifying and how they wish to be referred to in class discussion.
Example: Learners will want to be referred to by the correct pronoun in class discussion.
Action: Ask learners for their pronouns (or ask the students to add their pronouns to their registered name.
We hope this article was helpful. For more information from Progressay, please visit their CPD Member Directory page. Alternatively, you can go to the CPD Industry Hubs for more articles, courses and events relevant to your Continuing Professional Development requirements.
For more information from Progressay, please visit their CPD Member Directory page. Alternatively please visit the CPD Industry Hubs for more CPD articles, courses and events relevant to your Continuing Professional Development requirements.
