ON-LINE TOPIC EQUALITY & DIVERSITY

 Equality is concerned with the rights of learners to be able to access and participate in their chosen learning experiences regardless of age, sex, sexual orientation, ethnicity or disability.  Equality is not about treating everyone the same, it’s about enabling everyone to have the same opportunities. ‘Everyone being different, but having equal rights’  As we have seen in the section on legislation, equal opportunity is a concept underpinned by legislation and it is our duty as tutors to challenge inequality if we meet it in our professional lives.

 Diversity is about valuing and respecting the differences in our learners.  Regardless of age, sex or ethnicity, if you have more than one learner then you will already have diversity.  The learners we meet will all have a range of different life experiences even if they have a common background. Acknowledging & valuing these different experiences and viewpoint gives our teaching greater depth and promotes inclusivity

 In 2010 responsibility for all aspects of equality came under the auspices of the Equality & Human Rights Commission and increased the six original strands to nine:  age  disability  gender  race  religion and belief  pregnancy and maternity  marriage and civil partnership  sexual orientation  gender reassignment  The Commission has an excellent website which can be accessed at: 

 Inclusion is about involving and supporting all your learners ensuring that no-one is excluded.  Through the initial assessment process you should have identified any particular needs that your learners may have and put in place any specific actions or resources that you require to meet these needs.  Many aspects of inclusion, however, can be addressed by you as the tutor recognising that your learners are individuals with different abilities, experiences & needs that you respect.

 Make sure that you know your learners’ names & use them  Promote group work where the members of the groups regularly change so that everyone can share their experiences  Ask learners to contribute their personal experience or knowledge to a topic. For example: in a floristry class you might ask learners from different ethnicities to tell the rest of the group about flowers/colour used for different celebrations such as marriages before going on to demonstrate an English wedding bouquet; in an English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) class you might ask the group to see how many different ways they know of saying ‘hello’.  Ann Gravells (2011) ‘Preparing to Teach in the Lifelong Learning Sector’, Learning Matters. P50 & 51 includes a useful table of ways of promoting inclusion

 In some cases, to ensure equality of opportunity for your learners, you may need to refer them to other sources of support. As tutors, we cannot be expected to have all the answers and some needs will be beyond our expertise but you should know what other support is available for your learners and how they can access this.  For example: learners with financial problems might be referred to student finance, learners with personal problems might be referred to a student counsellor, learners with literacy/numeracy needs might be referred to a learning support worker.  For the assignment, you will need to research other support available for your learners within your organisation

 Explain how you could promote inclusion, equality & diversity with your current/future learners. Identify other points of referral available to meet the potential needs of learners  Word count:

 This assignment should start with a general statement about equality, diversity & inclusion & their importance in teaching/learning  The main part of the assignment, however, requires you to say how you would promote these aspects not just how important they are and you will need to include practical examples here.  Towards the end of the assignment you might acknowledge that, in some cases, you will need to refer your learners to other agencies to help meet their needs and briefly outline what points of referral are available within your organisation.  If you are not already teaching, you might like to take the College as your example here. Information on support available can be found on the college intranet pages.