1. Transforming teaching, enhancing learning: embedding equality, diversity and inclusion in the curriculum
Dr Pauline Hanesworth (Academic Lead, Equality and Diversity / TEF), AdvanceHE (formerly Higher Education Academy).
Oxford Brookes University;

2. Context: External Drivers
Due regard to:
Eliminate discrimination, harassment and victimisation.
Advance equality of opportunity.
Foster good relations.
Protected Characteristics:

3. Context: Student Experience I
Top Left: HESA, UKPI 2015/16, Table D
Bottom Right: Equality Challenge Unit (2017) Table 2.17

4. Context: Student Experience II
Top Left: HEFCE (2018), Figure 1
Bottom Right: Equality Challenge Unit (2017) Infographics
Context: Student Experience II

5. Context: Student Experience III
Gunn et al (2015), Figure 1

6. Theory: Advance HE approach
Cf. handout. Electronic version:

7. Inclusivity
“the ways in which pedagogy, curricula and assessment are designed and delivered to engage students in learning that is meaningful, relevant and accessible to all. It embraces a view of the individual and individual difference as the source of diversity that can enrich the lives and learning of others.”
Hockings (2010), 1

8. Approach I: Enabling potential
Enabling potential: Learning and teaching practices, processes and environments can, in and of themselves, be exclusive. We must interrogate our practices to ensure we are enabling potential.
Approach I: Enabling potential

9. Approach II: Nurturing belonging
Nurturing belonging and engagement: A key way to nurture belonging is to engage students as partners in their learning and teaching processes. This requires careful development of the learning environment.

10. Diversity inclusivity
The definition of diversity developed by Clayton-Pedersen et al. (Clayton- Pedersen et al. 2009), in which diversity in a campus context means “the active, intentional, and ongoing engagement” (p. 6) with differences in a purposeful manner so as to increase one’s diversity-related competencies. They defined differences as both “individual,” such as personality, learning styles, and life experiences, and group or social, such as race/ethnicity, gender, country of origin, religion (p. 6). According to this definition, diversity refers not to the presence of difference in student demographics or course content, but to the act and process of engaging those differences in an intentional, purposeful manner.

11. Approach III: Diversification
Diversifying the curriculum: Diversifying the curriculum and infusing it with critical reflection on equality, diversity and cultural diversity can support belonging and engagement, develop equality and diversity competence, and facilitate deep learning.
Approach III: Diversification

12. Approach IV: Interactivity
Creating interactivity: Students can increase their equality and diversity knowledge, skills and attitudes as well as make significant cognitive gains through interacting with their out groups in their learning.
Approach IV: Interactivity

13. Approach V: Self-reflection
Practicing self- reflection: Students and staff are encouraged to critically reflect on, and understand the implications of, their own attitudes, backgrounds, beliefs, identities and cultural assumptions, working to mitigate unconscious bias and to tackle hidden curricula.

14. Tools: Individual, programme, institutional
Evaluation Framework: Institutions

15. Practical tenets
A successful implementation of EDI in the curriculum ensures the institutional approach is:

16. Select references
Arkoudis, S., Watty, K., Baik, C., Yu, X., Borland, H., Chang, S., Lang, I., Lang, J. and Pearce, A. (2013) Finding common ground: enhancing interaction between domestic and international students in higher education. Teaching in Higher Education 18 (3),
Atkinson, D. (2002) Art in Education: Identity and Practice. Dordrecht.
Barnett, P. E. (2011) Discussion across difference: addressing the affective dimensions of teaching diverse students about diversity. Teaching in Higher Education 16 (6),
Clayton-Pedersen, A. R., O’Neill, N. and McTighe Musil, C. (2009) Making excellence inclusive: a framework for embedding diversity and inclusion into college and universities’ academic excellence mission. Washington, DC.
Cotton, D., Winter, J. and Bailey, I. (2012) Researching the hidden curriculum: intentional and unintentional messages. Journal of Geography in Higher Education 37 (2),
De Lissovoy, N. (2012) Education and violation: conceptualizing power, domination, and agency in the hidden curriculum. Race, Ethnicity, and Education 15 (4),
Equality Challenge Unit (2013) Unconscious bias in higher education. London.
Equality Challenge Unit (2017) Equality in Higher Education: Students Statistical Report London.
Gunn, V., Morrison, J. and Hanesworth, P. (2015) Equality and diversity in learning and teaching at Scotland’s universities. York.
Gurin, P., Dey, E., Hurtado, S. and Gurin, G. (2002) Diversity in higher education: theory and impact on student outcomes. Harvard Educational Review 72,
Hanesworth, P. (2018) Standardising diversity inclusivity. In Auferkorte-Michaelis, N. and Linde, F. (eds) Diversität lernen und lehren – ein Hochschulbuch. Stuttgart,
Hatton, K. (2012) Considering diversity, change and intervention: how the higher education curriculum looked in on itself. Widening Participation and Lifelong Learning 13, special edition,
HEFCE (2018) Difference in student outcomes: The effect of student characteristics. Bristol.
Hockings, C. (2010) Inclusive Learning and Teaching in Higher Education: A Synthesis of Research. York.
Muneer, R., Cotton, D. and Winter, Jennie (2015) 7 steps to: mitigating unconscious bias in teaching and learning. Plymouth.
Nelson Laird, T. F., Engberg, M. E. (2011) Establishing differences between diversity requirements and other courses with varying degrees of diversity inclusivity. The Journal of General Education 60 (2),
Thomas, K. (2015) Rethinking belonging through Bourdieu, diaspora and the spatial. Widening Participation and Lifelong Learning 17 (1),
Thomas, L., Hill, M., O’Mahony, J. and Yorke, M. (2017) Supporting Student Success: Strategies for Institutional Change. London, Leicester and York.