Inclusive Curriculum - What's it all about?

Overview

There is nothing new about recognising that a student's learning outcomes can be influenced by factors such as individual learning styles, communication skills and values. In the 1990s universities have had to grapple with a range of new challenges including the learning needs of a student population which has become increasingly diverse in terms of factors such as gender, race, ethnicity, disability, age and socio-economic status. Research has indicated that traditional curriculum design and teaching practice has reduced access to many disciplines and limited the capacity of many students from non-traditional backgrounds to achieve their full potential.

In practice an inclusive curriculum allows for student differences, be they individual factors or generic factors (e.g. gender, cultural background), which contribute to different learning styles. Furthermore, an inclusive curriculum aims to incorporate the lived experiences of all students. According to a discussion paper from the Flinders University:

University curricula and teaching strategies, therefore, must provide the opportunity for every student in class to relate what is being taught to his or her lived experience as a basis for a critical understanding and analysis of the subject matter (Beasley, 1995, p.2).

UWA's Academic Council recently supported the need to encourage curriculum review by endorsing a checklist which the Council believed would contribute to:

• enhanced learning outcomes for a greater number of students
• validation of student experiences and world views
• developing international skills, cross-cultural perspectives, respect for different values and learning styles, and other skills useful in a diverse global environment
• improving academic standards and the quality of university teaching
• attracting and retaining international students and others from diverse backgrounds

<http://www.csd.uwa.edu.au/tl/99TDChecklist.htm>.

In Australia the term `inclusive curriculum' was coined in the early 1980s to describe a new approach to overcome the exclusion of the knowledge and experiences of women in the traditional curriculum and teaching practice of schools.

The term entered higher education in the early 1990s but was expanded beyond gender issues to include the need for higher education to be accessible, supportive and relevant to all students. In 1996 the Higher Education Council recommended that the overall objective for equity in higher education be:

To enhance the capacity of the higher education system to contribute to Australia's social, cultural, political and economic vitality and strength through system and institutional action, which embraces the full diversity of the community and results in a student profile that fairly represents that diversity (National Board of Employment Education & Training, 1996, p. xiii).

The NBEET Report Equity, Diversity and Excellence: Advancing The Higher Education Framework stressed the need for re-evaluation of existing curriculum content and course design, delivery and teaching methodologies. UWA and other universities across Australia are now active participants in developing inclusive curricula and teaching practices. An invitation to participate in this initiative may be found in the inserted flyer. The following articles highlight some of the issues and aspects of inclusive curriculum.

• Beasley, V. (1995). Developing Inclusive Curriculum - A Discussion Paper. Adelaide: The Flinders University of South Australia.
• NBEET (1996). Equity, Diversity and Excellence: Advancing The Higher Education. Canberra: Australian Government Publishing Service.