Reflecting on the ‘Inclusive Teaching and Learning’ Unit

Iris Ching Man Yau, London College of Fashion, UK.

I first heard of the ‘Inclusive Teaching and Learning’ (ITL) unit at the 2 days ‘Thinking Teaching’ for ‘Teaching Within’ cohort back in 2016.

The two day workshop was very intensive. We were told that the ITL is a very popular unit but I did not know why back then. Last January in the Pg Cert. Academic Practice Self-initiative Project Conference, I was impressed by the ITL participants’ inclusivity interventions, that inspired me to join the force.

Although I have attended some professional development workshops in the inclusivity area, for example :

• Support Disabled Students

• Fairness in Selecting students; Selecting the best (fairness interview)

• Mental Health Awareness

• Intercultural Competence - Clear and Accessible English.

In order to teach well, I feel that it is necessary to increase the depth of the knowledge in inclusive teaching and learning. Fortunately, I was able to join this ‘Inclusive Teaching and Learning’ community via my MA Academic Practice in Art, Design and Communication this year.

The face-to-face sessions were always intensive and mentally challenging but at the same time an invaluable experience to share and critique issues on disability, religion and race… oh, yes, the elephant in the room ‘racism’.

The discomfort:

During the ‘White Fragility’ audio note discussion in the 3rd face-to-face session last week, I was so moved and mesmerised by my peers’ honesty when they shared their perspectives and experiences, from ‘feeling uncomfortable’, to ‘getting comfortable and confident’; ‘but it is still difficult to talk about it with friends...’ on racism?

‘Unconscious or conscious’ bias?:

Hong Kong where I grew up, an island in the Canton/Guangdong Province in China, a bilingual and multicultural city, where 92% of the population is ethnic Chinese. The rest of the population are immigrants who come from all over the world.

Like Robin DiAngelo confessed:

‘We were not taught to discuss racism at school’ in ‘White Fragility’. I reflected on my experience of growing up in Hong Kong during the British Colonial era, we had and still use racial terms or slang for people who are different to us/Hong Kong Chinese i.e. people who have paler skin, so called Western (in Cantonese); darker skin for people from South Asia, (in Cantonese); people with African and Caribbean heritage (in Cantonese)… in the present day.

Some of us were and are still ignorant or uneducated about the consequences when some local slang or racial terms are misused or misinterpreted and became racially offensive. Through this unit, I have developed more self-awareness on racism and inclusivity, and became a more reflective teaching and learning facilitator.

Confucius says:

‘以和為貴 harmonious and merging’ is one of the basic principles to deal with different cultures, however there is a very fine line between ‘denial’ and ‘in pursuit of the harmony’.

I agree with my peers after studying some of essential reading from this ITL unit, I have gained more confidence to critique inequality with colleagues and students.

I now know why this ‘Inclusive Teaching and Learning’ unit is in such demand, not just as a selective unit for the Pg/MA, as well as a standalone teaching unit for staff at UAL. It is not just a titanic iceberg breaker but also a safe space to critique and reflect on social injustice around us.

“Students don’t care what you know until they know you care” as John Smyth reminded us in his ‘Critical Pedagogy for Social Justice”.

I have been inspired and empowered by the teaching team, and enriched by my like-minded colleagues.

This unit has generated fruitful and meaningful dialogues, sown seeds for interventions and collaborations to enrich teaching and learning experiences in higher education and beyond.