Create a welcoming climate in your course and provide accommodations for students who need them. The University of Wisconsin – Madison values and supports an environment of inclusion.
UW Madison Institutional Statement on Diversity
Diversity is a source of strength, creativity, and innovation for UW-Madison. We value the contributions of each person and respect the profound ways their identity, culture, background, experience, status, abilities, and opinion enrich the university community. We commit ourselves to the pursuit of excellence in teaching, research, outreach, and diversity as inextricably linked goals.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison fulfills its public mission by creating a welcoming and inclusive community for people from every background – people who as students, faculty, and staff serve Wisconsin and the world.
Inclusive environments are spaces where all students feel welcomed, respected, and valid. Every student is given the tools they need to succeed. Some students may require more tools than others to achieve the same success. These tools are called accommodations. Learn more about accommodations through the McBurney Resource Center.
There are small things you can do in your teaching to create a more inclusive atmosphere for your students. Some key examples for Engineering:
- Use gender neutral or inclusive language in examples in class.
- Avoid using sports metaphors as not all students can relate to sports or have sports knowledge.
- Select examples of engineering, math, and science success that include lesser known figures from history from diverse backgrounds.
Further Reading and Resources
Inclusive Teaching Good and Better Practices
Good
- Use Real World examples in class
- Research shows that providing real world context helps motivate and engage all students.
- Learn your students’ names and respect them as individuals
- Learning about your students helps them feel like you care about their success.
- Use group-work in class to help students engage with each other
- Working in groups creates built in study groups.
- Welcome all students with a warm and jovial atmosphere
- Talk about the realities of student life
Better
- Use examples from multiple perspectives/disciplines/cultural contexts
- Shake things up! Try to use examples from all around the world and different disciplines that highlight the same content.
- Embrace students’ individual identities by not reducing them to be a representative for their race/gender/culture/disability
- Randomize groups and switch them up throughout the semester
- Avoid putting all students of a minority into one group OR a “token” person in each group, and give all students a chance to meet people different from them.
- Choose jokes and references that make sense to all students
- English idioms may be difficult for non-native speakers.
- We are UW, with many lifestyles, needs, and experiences. Try to consider all walks of life when discussing students in general
- Not all UW Madison students attend football games or drink alcohol.