Inclusion Equality and Diversity

We are now going to look at inclusion, equality and diversity. Inclusion is a way to ensure that all of your learners feel part of the lesson, all of the time. You wouldn't want to exclude anyone. Sometimes it can be quite difficult to get individuals to take part in a session, and you need to do what you can to make them feel as though they are as included as possible. Addressing people by their names may sound obvious, but it really makes them feel part of the group, so try and learn names as early as possible. If you find it hard to remember names then consider asking them to wear name badges or having name cards on the table. All these things are good ideas to help you remember names, both for you and others in the lesson and will help incorporate inclusion within the lesson. Classroom layout helps to ensure inclusiveness and engagement between you and the learners, and a lot of the things that we have covered already promote inclusion naturally, so make sure that you follow these guidelines.

Equality is about ensuring that all learners have equal rights to the training, which means that neither you nor anyone in the lesson discriminate against each other, or indeed anyone else. This includes things like; Race, Age, Disability, Sexual Orientation or indeed any other factors that may make them feel that they are excluded from the lesson. Diversity is about respecting and valuing all people, no matter who they are.

With diversity, equality and inclusion, we need to plan the lesson correctly. Things we can do to make sure we are not judgmental and that we treat everyone fairly may be things like ensuring there is no favouritism, we make sure that we initially assess the group to make sure everyone is included, and we treat everyone with respect and dignity. Ensure that the assessments are pitched at the right level, it may be that some things need to be adapted due to a disability, so make sure that we don’t cause any embarrassment. The Equalities Act 2010 brought all this legislation into one act and as a teacher it’s our duty to ensure that we promote inclusion, equality and diversity in all of our lessons.