This toolkit supports staff and students in the design and development of curricula that enable course programmes to be as inclusive as possible. The toolkit contains multimedia describing the experiences of staff and students in the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences whilst on their journey. There is also a checklist covering many areas aligned to teaching and learning, as well as assessment and feedback where both staff and students can reflect over the degree of diversity and inclusion in the curriculum. The purpose of the toolkit is specifically to support and reassure those wanting to take their first steps on the equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) journey, that the task is a lot easier and straightforward than one may originally imagine.
Definitions
Reflecting on what an inclusive curriculum means to us
As a faculty, our definition of inclusive curriculum was formulated following a review of the literature as well as from consulting with the task and finish group members. We were keen for the definition to be a true reflection of the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences community, hence we decided upon a more ‘holistic’ definition.
Inclusive Curriculum
An inclusive curriculum is one that seeks to provide an equitable education regardless of background and immutable characteristics in order to improve the experience, skills and attainment of all learners.
Additionally, an inclusive curriculum is one that should progress beyond the curriculum content (e.g. reading lists and accessibility of materials) with factors such as learner and educator *positionality, *structural privilege, the *hidden curriculum and learning environment also considered.
*Positionality:
‘Positionality refers to the personal values, views, and location in time and space that influence how one engages with and understands the world. For example, your gender, race, class, and other aspects of your social identities influence and inform how you move through the world, what knowledge you produce and value, and the biases through which everything you say, think, and do, is filtered, intentionally or otherwise’
Source: https://ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/universaldesignvls/chapter/positionality-intersectionality/
*Structural privilege:
‘The complex and collective structural advantages experienced over time and across generations by a group of people who share an identity, affiliation, or circumstance. These structured advantages may include financial and economic rewards, as well as legal, social and cultural freedoms that were denied to others’.
Source: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/1177180117742202
*Hidden curriculum:
‘The hidden curriculum is different from the explicitly stated and published curriculum, and it reflects the complete social-cultural learning environment …and involves learning about discipline specific values, norms and expected professional behaviours. The hidden curriculum can be inaccessible for many as it is based on assumptions, prior experience, being in with the crowd, confidence to be involved, understanding the environment and detecting social cues.
Source: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/tct.13408
Each School’s journey
The strength of the toolkit is that it is a tangible output from across all the Schools in the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences. There is no doubt great work is happening all across the Faculty and the toolkit is a showcase of those efforts. However, every School, department, team and individual is also at different stages in their journey, so the toolkit is an aggregation of the best of what we know about in the present. As time goes by, the toolkit will evolve as more people will share their experiences for others to learn from, and as each School develops more maturity around the way they make their curriculum more inclusive for all.
Student voice
As a faculty, the student voice has been integral to this toolkit development. We have been intentional in engaging with our student community through various platforms including ensuring representation in the task and finish group. Moreover, part of this journey has involved our facilitation of two student forums. It is clear from our experience that students want their curriculum to be more inclusive and representative of the society they live in. That said, we are reassured from an acknowledgement by students that they have noticed the effort and progress being made towards the delivery of a more inclusive curriculum. As a reflection, we encourage you to embed the student voice into any curriculum development effort undertaken.
Race and ethnicity within the curriculum
Embedding inclusion
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Correspondence: Yvonne Mbaki, School of Life Sciences (Medical School), Division of Education, University of Nottingham, Nottingham NG7 2UH, UK.
Email: yvonne.mbaki@nottingham.ac.uk
