In the spring of 2020, our Centre for Teaching and Learning (CTL) developed the Transforming Teaching and Teaching Assistant Toolkits, consisting of in-house and curated open-access resources on various aspects of remote teaching, along with accompanying webinars. We deliberately infused principles of equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) and decolonization and Indigenization across all aspects of the resources for several reasons: our CTL’s commitment to these principles as institutional priorities that are the responsibility of all staff, numerous theorists’ advocacy to adopt inclusive pedagogies across the curriculum rather than tokenistic “add-and-stir” gestures, and a desire to counter the inequities in education and society at large re-exposed and perpetuated by the COVID-19 pandemic. We share our approach, explore its impact by outlining the toolkits’ design and delivery and by analyzing data from a survey of instructors who engaged with the toolkits, and propose some strategies for educational developers engaged in resource development to undertake their own infusion initiatives.
The COVID-19 pandemic prompted countless successes and stumbles in postsecondary education as in the rest of society. The rapid pivot to online teaching and learning in March 2020 benefited some students and instructors more than others (
This article provides an opportunity to reflect on one teaching and learning center’s response to both the sudden shift to online teaching and learning and the inequities that existed prior to and continued during the COVID-19 pandemic. In the spring of 2020, we all worked at the same teaching and learning center at Queen’s University, a mid-sized Canadian university. Our center had already begun placing a strong emphasis on decolonization and Indigenization alongside equity, diversity, and inclusion (usually abbreviated as EDI in Canada, a practice we will follow here) in teaching and learning before the pandemic. Numerous conversations, workshops, and policy changes in the previous two years had primed us to put these topics at the heart of all our work as educational support professionals. As we developed two remote teaching web resources (the Transforming Teaching Toolkit and the Teaching Assistant Toolkit) and accompanying webinars, we infused these values across all our programming rather than isolating them into special-focus activities that would be more easily tokenized or ignored, with the goal of encouraging instructors at our institution to do the same.
We describe our Summer 2020 pandemic programming and explain our approach to infusing principles of decolonization and Indigenization and EDI within it. Then we consider the impact of our approach through a survey conducted in the summer of 2021: Did those who engaged with this programming notice our emphasis on decolonization, Indigenization, and EDI? If so, what results did it bring in terms of their own approaches to teaching and learning? Finally, we offer some guidance for other educational developers, critically examining our approach as part of broader calls to bring greater equity to teaching and learning in higher education.
Over the course of four months (May–August 2020), we designed two static web resources along with colleagues in our center, the Transforming Teaching Toolkit and the Teaching Assistant Toolkit, and delivered 24 associated webinars. The main Transforming Teaching Toolkit resource featured six “start here” guides on topics we thought would be most relevant and timely for instructors, while the Teaching Assistant Toolkit had subpages named by topic; both also included overview sections.
Our decision to infuse rather than isolate discussion of decolonization, Indigenization, and EDI principles was inspired by advocates for curricular change who emphasize the importance of meaningful rather than tokenistic approaches. In disciplines including music (
Connected to this attitude is our understanding of EDI and decolonization/Indigenization as separate but related initiatives that share many features but are also unique, an observation that also came out in our research findings. These terms are complex, and local, regional, and national contexts shape their manifestations in practice; readers’ understandings may differ from our own. Decolonization for us relates to the undoing of colonial and settler-colonial institutions, processes, and practices and at its core involves the return of land (
As we planned our programming, we held these principles in mind but also needed to rapidly develop new resources in the midst of a pandemic. We wanted to give instructors practical, timely, and straightforward strategies for shifting their teaching to a remote setting. But we also wanted to take advantage of a moment when instructors were attending to teaching and learning far more than usual to promote their critical reflection on problematic existing practices that were inequitable, inaccessible, colonial, racist, Eurocentric, sexist, and more. Finally, we wanted to critically reflect on our own practices as educational support professionals, ensuring that our programming dismantled rather than perpetuated these inequities (
The Transforming Teaching Toolkit and associated webinars were developed first, since we knew instructors at our institution would use the summer months for professional development and course design in preparation for a fully remote Fall 2020 semester, whereas TAs would need resources just prior to the semester’s start. We explicitly highlighted decolonization, Indigenization, and EDI in the Transforming Teaching Toolkit landing page with our first guiding principle: “maintain and strengthen your commitment to institutional priorities around inclusivity, equity, and diversity; decolonization and Indigenization; active learning; aligned assessment; and experiential learning.” This guiding principle presents an assumption that EDI, decolonization, and Indigenization already are (or should be) users’ first priority in teaching and learning. Even in centers in which these elements are not institutional priorities, putting these concerns at the forefront of any static resource is a sign that they should matter to everyone. Both online materials and webinars emphasized EDI, decolonization, and Indigenization visually by placing them at the top of the initial landing page and prominently displayed in branch pages. Of the six start here guides, the first one listed on the landing page was “Inclusive Community” (not course design or technologies as in many other remote teaching resources); similarly in the 2020 webinar offerings, the first webinar after the general overview focused on inclusion in teaching and learning.
Including these topics at all would be notable, given our impression that most colleges and universities in our region of Canada tended to set them aside in favor of a focus on technology how-tos and rapid redesign of assessments and courses. We explicitly mentioned these topics in webinar titles and descriptions, although not to as great a degree as we could have (of 15 webinars, three had explicit mentions). In a self-assessment tool accompanying the website, we asked early in the survey if individuals had or would incorporate decolonization/ Indigenization and/or inclusion in their teaching, which again promoted these concepts as necessary prerequisites to everyone’s effective teaching and learning.
These topics also appeared in less overt ways. “Transforming Teaching 101” was a web resource and associated webinar (delivered three times over the summer of 2020) that provided an overview of remote teaching and learning. It was difficult to condense our resources into a single webinar; yet EDI, decolonization, and Indigenization remained a part of sessions and handouts. Many “start here” guides and webinars integrated principles of EDI and decolonization/Indigenization, connecting to our own and others’ work on Indigenous pedagogies (
Our collaborative approach to designing these resources led to additional opportunities for infusion. We worked with student support units across campus to highlight academic and non-academic supports for all students, but particularly for those from equity-deserving groups. We explicitly collaborated with offices whose work connected to accessibility, inclusion, and decolonization and Indigenization. We worked with educational technology colleagues in our own center to ensure that our approach informed any advice around technology, reflected in a general philosophy of having technology serve learning and learners (particularly emphasizing accessibility). Finally, our choice to emphasize and promote asynchronous course instruction wherever possible led to greater emphasis on inclusion as we emphasized the needs of students without high-speed internet, in multiple time zones, and in challenging family and home situations.
In the Teaching Assistant Toolkit, developed from May to August 2020 as a “starting point for discussion, and an invitation for further learning,” we collaborated with three graduate student educational development associates, supervised by co-author Karalyn McRae. Yasmine Djerbal, Nevena Martinović, and Andrea Reid demonstrated a passion for and commitment to equity, diversity, inclusion, decolonization, and Indigenization in all their work, and this commitment was manifest in the Teaching Assistant Toolkit. Unlike the Transforming Teaching Toolkit, the Teaching Assistant Toolkit was developed with the intention of creating a permanent rather than pandemic-focused resource.
Our graduate student colleagues used similar strategies for infusing decolonization/Indigenization and EDI. Both websites and webinars explicitly highlighted these principles, embedded them in places beyond their expected locations, gave them priority in web page placement and timing of events, and collaborated with other campus units to ensure that historically marginalized groups were effectively supported. As just two examples, these principles were addressed directly in a section on inclusive spaces highlighting inclusive pedagogies for typical teaching assistant (TA) roles and in a section on leading tutorials/seminars in which topics included the use of gender pronouns, community guidelines, and bias in teaching evaluations. The Teaching Assistant Toolkit also encouraged long-term adoption of these strategies with information on course design that graduate students might use in their future careers.
Our intentional approach to infusing decolonization/Indigenization and EDI into our remote teaching and learning resources helped us uphold our commitments to these areas as institutional and personal priorities in teaching and learning despite the demands of the pandemic. We noted informally that our approach seemed rare among teaching and learning centers regionally, nationally, and internationally. Yet equally important to our intentions was the impact this approach had on those who engaged with these resources. Did anyone notice our efforts? Even if no one noticed, did it have an impact on the degree to which individual instructors integrated attention to EDI, decolonization, and Indigenization in their own teaching during the pandemic?
To explore these questions, we conducted a web-based survey with institutional ethics board approval, administered through Qualtrics.
We received 22 responses, a low response rate given that we invited 389 people who we identified as engaging in some way with our resources and programming. Even though our survey missed a large percentage of potentially impacted individuals, our respondents’ roles on campus were distributed in roughly similar proportions to the population we typically serve in our CTL: two tenure or tenure-track faculty members, seven adjunct faculty members, seven PhD students and one master’s student, two educational support professionals, and three other staff members. Also typical was that most respondents declared less than five years’ teaching experience and that respondents’ disciplines reflected proportions on campus.
A complete list of survey questions is included in
It was important to us to understand how respondents themselves understood EDI, decolonization, and Indigenization, given that these concepts are complex and variously defined. In an open question where we asked respondents to describe their own beliefs, most agreed that it was important (
When we asked survey respondents whether they noticed EDI, decolonization, and/or Indigenization in resources and webinars, eight remembered one or all of these principles as part of the Transforming Teaching Toolkit, four remembered them as part of the Teaching Assistant Toolkit, and 14 remembered them as part of webinars. In a later open-ended question, one participant added, “I have noticed that these aspects are brought up more often in live sessions. Perhaps they can be incorporated more and more in permanent sources online.” This comment suggests that our efforts were indeed noticed, although free responses temper that conclusion somewhat. Some respondents couldn’t remember where exactly they’d seen the references, which could suggest a few things: that our reputation as a center that supported these initiatives prior to the pandemic influenced respondents’ perceptions; that our programming since the summer of 2020 may also have influenced perceptions; and that other things respondents consulted during the pandemic may have blurred into their memory of the resources we targeted with the survey (two responses directly mentioned this possibility). And, of course, given our small sample size, it could be that those who were motivated to complete a survey about EDI, decolonization, and Indigenization in teaching and learning were more likely to notice these efforts than the general campus population.
A related point of influence could also be which resources participants accessed or attended: if they engaged with resources that highlighted EDI, decolonization, and/or Indigenization more strongly, they could have different memories than if they engaged with resources in which our approach was less visible. In the Transforming Teaching Toolkit, the “Assessment Strategies” start here guide was most accessed (
Turning to participants’ teaching practices, some areas of inclusive, decolonial, and/or Indigenous pedagogies emerged as more important than others. Strategies such as emphasizing diverse perspectives and viewpoints in curriculum and the syllabus, diversifying instructional methods, and fostering a sense of community and belonging among all students were rated as slightly more important, whereas using accessible technologies (close captioning, materials available in multiple formats, etc.) was rated as slightly less important. Yet when asked about their own practice over the previous year, more instructors indicated that they had “often” used accessible technologies and UDL principles, whereas diverse perspectives, instructional strategies, and a sense of community tended to be rated lower. Many participants cited a lack of time as a barrier, with one person who self-identified as an educational developer sharing, “I am just trying to hang on right now … and this next year looks like it will once again be about managing to make it through.” Perhaps technological and accommodations-related pedagogies are easier for instructors and support professionals to adopt in general and in times of crisis.
Finally, we note interesting trends regarding the impressions and practices of respondents on the topic of integrating Indigenous pedagogies. As indicated previously, we see EDI, decolonization, and Indigenization as separate but related, and this understanding seems borne out in the data. When participants were asked about the
In another open-ended question in which participants were asked to describe their beliefs on these topics (Q15), several participants expressed a similar split. P5 said all aspects were “central, though I spend more time thinking about EDI than decolonization,” and P11 shared various strategies they used relating to UDL before remarking, “I want to do more, but have limited knowledge of indigenous [
Still, we believe these responses point to two key issues in decolonization and Indigenization of higher education. They likely reflect the politics of the conversation in Canada currently, where themes of reconciliation and redress are increasingly common in national and local media and on campuses across the country. Movements such as #IdleNoMore, work by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (2008–2015) and the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (2016–2019), and events such as pipeline protests and findings of human remains at increasing numbers of residential school sites have maintained a focus on the importance of these concerns. Canadian public opinion increasingly favors the need for reconciliation (
It seems obvious to say that the more we emphasized EDI, decolonization, and Indigenization in toolkit websites and webinars, the more noticed it was. Yet our analysis reminds us that getting the message out is not the same as changing teaching practices. We did not ask participants to indicate what specific changes (if any) in their teaching were made in response to our programming and hesitate to draw clear conclusions. We also do not want to over-emphasize the impact of a set of mostly static resources; there are certainly better models of developmentally oriented programs that focus on long-term change in practice (see
Yet we see great potential for educational developers to adopt our approach for other static resources, infusing EDI, decolonization, and Indigenization across their work for meaningful rather than tokenistic impact (an approach recently promoted by As individuals and/or as a center, do the necessary self-work and self-education to better address these topics in your work and personal lives. Start a reading group, attend a workshop with a few colleagues, and explore other options for personal development as appropriate to your context. Include discussion of these topics within Consider the visual design of any resource. Introduce concepts early in the material and build on them throughout the content. If you have a series of resources that include portions related to EDI and/or decolonization and Indigenization, put those portions first in your series. Consider developmental trajectories for these topics: What are easier first steps? Which strategies will take more time? What other supports might instructors need? Collaborate with colleagues within your center and across your institution whose perspectives differ from your own, working to help one another rather than working in isolation. Promote the importance of EDI, decolonization, and Indigenization as critical work for all educational developers rather than the responsibility of a select few.
It is clear to us that our center amplified and continued its preexisting focus on EDI, decolonization, and Indigenization as institutional priorities through our COVID-19 pandemic programming. We may have already had a reputation for such work on campus pre-pandemic, but our decision to continue this infusion approach made it easier for some instructors (full-time, sessional, and graduate student) and educational support professionals on our campus to do the same. We could not have done this alone, and we want to acknowledge the collaborations along the way, including with other campus units and with educational support professionals of diverse backgrounds, held identities, and perspectives.
Those of us who have remained at the center where we did this work together also note that this experience motivated us to work more cohesively to create frameworks that emphasize the interrelatedness of all these important commitments. We recognized that to promote approaches to teaching and learning founded on collaborative and action-oriented solutions to changing our praxis as educators, we needed to collaborate to create frameworks that leveraged each of these areas of importance, and our individual areas of expertise, to provide more practical resources and exemplars for how to go about infusing these theories and concepts into practice. We initiated weekly conversations and shared educational resource development time to braid together our wisdom. Our collective development of the toolkits taught us that working together continuously to create resources is a practice that allows us to keep our institutional, collective, and personal commitments to this work top of mind and at the heart of all we do.
The COVID-19 pandemic could be seen as a barrier to incorporating pedagogies relating to EDI, decolonization, and Indigenization given the unprecedented demands in both work and home life that it wrought, and certainly comments from our respondents bear this out. Our strategy of infusing these topics within timely and targeted resources seemed to help participants overcome at least some of the barriers that the pandemic provoked. Yet it is also clear that there is much left to do, particularly in participants’ focus on easy-to-adopt strategies and their expressed lack of time and resources to adequately engage with more complicated practices. We are also mindful of
We do, however, see our research as pointing toward an important lesson: With determined effort, these concerns can become more important for more instructors, and the impacts can be felt by more students. We find ourselves encouraged by the possibility that emerged in this research for individual agency in fostering systemic and institutional change. Our respondents made choices about which approach to take and what to emphasize in their teaching. As educational support professionals, we also made choices, and those choices may have influenced our campus community. Writing specifically about gender impacts during the pandemic,
The authors would like to acknowledge colleagues at Queen’s University’s Centre for Teaching and Learning who contributed to the development of the resources and programming discussed in this article, particularly Dr. Sue Fostaty Young, director of the CTL at the time of the toolkits’ development and implementation.
This source is one among many. Interestingly, Western feminism came under critique for using that same “add-and-stir” paradigm as it attempted to diversify the field beyond the experiences of white Western women (
GCTL-044–21 Integrating Principles of Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Decolonization in Toolkits for Remote Instruction; TRAQ # 6032902.
Transforming Teaching Toolkit |
Teaching Assistant Toolkit |
---|---|
Description of purpose |
Description of purpose, differences in course delivery methods, and types of TAs Key questions for teaching assistants to ask course instructors Teaching assistant rights and responsibilities |
Link to a self-assessment survey |
N/A |
Links to six start here guides:
Inclusive Community (EDI, decolonization, and Indigenization, accessibility) Course Organization (course design strategies) Student Engagement (active learning strategies for various teaching contexts) Assessment Strategies (assessment design and implementation) Tech Solutions (ideas for selecting technology, link to educational technology website) Communications (student/instructor communications) |
Links to eight websites with further information:
Elements of Course Design for TAs Creating Inclusive Classrooms Leading Tutorials, Seminars, and Guest Lectures Teaching as a Laboratory TA Assignments and Exams Educational Technology Academic Accommodations Campus Resources and Supports |
Link to “Transforming Teaching 101” (overview of how to shift a course to remote instruction, summary of start here guides) |
N/A |
Link to “Deciding between synchronous and asynchronous approaches” information page |
N/A |
Transforming Teaching 101 (offered May, August, and September)
Strategies for Inclusive and Equitable Teaching in Remote Environments
Selecting Appropriate Technologies
Innovative Assessments for Learning
Active Learning Strategies in the Traditional or Virtual Classroom
Copyright and Remote Instruction
Let’s Sit Together
Accessible Teaching in Every Context
Active Learning Strategies for Non-Lecture Style Teaching
Communicating With Students
Supporting and Leveraging Teaching Assistants
Effective Course Organization in the LMS
What is your current primary title/role?
[Faculty (Tenure), Faculty (Adjunct), Graduate Student (Master’s), Graduate Student (PhD), Post-Doctoral Fellow, Librarian/Archivist, Staff (Educational Support Professional), Staff (Other), Senior-Level Administrator (e.g., Vice-Provost Teaching and Learning), Other]
How many years of experience do you have in your primary role?
[< 5, 5–10, 11–20, and > 20]
Please indicate your faculty, school, or unit:
[options listed that reflected the institution’s faculties, schools, and units]
Were you a course instructor within the 2020–2021 academic year (Fall 2020 and/or Winter 2021)?
[Yes/No]
Were you a teaching assistant within the 2020–2021 academic year (Fall 2020 and/or Winter 2021)?
[Yes/No]
To what degree do you recall accessing the Centre for Teaching and Learning’s Transforming Teaching Toolkit, Teaching Assistant Toolkit, and associated webinars in 2020?
[
How frequently do you recall accessing the Centre for Teaching and Learning’s Transforming Teaching Toolkit, Teaching Assistant Toolkit, and associated webinars in 2020?
[
Which of the following resources do you recall accessing? (select all that apply)
[Transforming Teaching Toolkit websites, Teaching Assistant (TA) Toolkit websites, Synchronous webinar(s) offered by the CTL in Spring/Summer 2020]
From the list below, please select which websites from the Transforming Teaching Toolkit you recall accessing (select all that apply):
[Transforming Teaching Toolkit elements listed]
From the list below, please select which websites from the Teaching Assistant Toolkit you recall accessing (select all that apply):
[Teaching Assistant Toolkit components listed]
From the list below, please select which synchronous webinars you recall attending as part of the Transforming Teaching Toolkit in Summer 2020 (select all that apply):
[Respondents prompted to select from synchronous webinars listed in
Describe your beliefs around the importance of equity, diversity, inclusion, and decolonization in your own teaching practice.
[open-ended response]
Reflecting on your teaching before COVID-19, how would you rate the importance of each of the following aspects of equity, diversity, inclusion, and decolonization in teaching and learning?
[Participants scored the following statements on a scale of Use of accessible technologies (e.g., close captioning, materials available in multiple formats, etc.) Universal Design for Learning (UDL) to manage accommodations, extenuating circumstances requests (e.g., flexible deadlines, avoiding timed tests/exams) Universal Design for Learning (UDL) to allow students multiple modes of expression (e.g., choice of assignment type, design, topic, media) Diverse perspectives and viewpoints in curriculum and syllabus (e.g., in course readings, topics, approaches, methodologies) Diverse strategies for instruction (e.g., lecture, group work, sharing circle, guest speakers) Fostering sense of community and belonging among all students (setting classroom conduct guidelines; calling out inappropriate comments/behavior; being transparent about cultural assumptions, norms, and values) Indigenous pedagogies and ways of knowing]
In the last year, how much have you incorporated the following aspects of equity, diversity, inclusion, and decolonization in your teaching?
[Participants scored the following statements on a scale of Use of accessible technologies (e.g., close captioning, materials available in multiple formats) Universal Design for Learning (UDL) to manage accommodations, extenuating circumstances requests (e.g., flexible deadlines, avoiding timed tests/exams) Universal Design for Learning (UDL) to allow students multiple modes of expression (e.g., choice of assignment type, design, topic, media) Diverse perspectives and viewpoints in curriculum and syllabus (e.g., in course readings, topics, approaches, methodologies) Diverse strategies for instruction (e.g., lecture, group work, sharing circle, guest speakers) Fostering sense of community and belonging among all students (setting classroom conduct guidelines; calling out inappropriate comments/behavior; being transparent about cultural assumptions, norms, and values) Indigenous pedagogies and ways of knowing]
Considering what you remember about the Transforming Teaching Toolkit, in your view, to what degree were the strategies of equity, diversity, inclusion, and decolonization in teaching and learning mentioned or incorporated?
[Respondents prompted to rate response on the scale:
Considering what you remember about the Teaching Assistant Toolkit, in your view, to what degree were the strategies of equity, diversity, inclusion, and decolonization in teaching and learning mentioned or incorporated?
[Respondents prompted to rate response on the scale:
Considering what you remember about the synchronous webinars you attended in the summer of 2020, in your view, to what degree were the strategies of equity, diversity, inclusion, and decolonization in teaching and learning mentioned or incorporated?
[Respondents prompted to rate response on the scale:
Please feel free to elaborate on your answers to the question(s) above about the degree to which topics in equity, diversity, inclusion, and decolonization were incorporated into the toolkits and/or associated webinars.
[open-ended response]
Please feel free to share any remaining comments or reflections.
[open-ended response]