Developing Inclusive Mindsets

An inclusive community actively engages with the challenges and complexities of belonging and achievement inherent in traditional and elitist practices. It strives to overcome them through identification of barriers to learning and engagement, to promote ‘A more equal Wales’ (Well-Being of Future Generations Act 2015). Through developing inclusive mindsets, we can support and empower students from all backgrounds to celebrate diversity, and to become agents and change-makers who can actively participate in supporting the development of socially-just futures (UN Sustainable Development Goal 16). 

On this page you will read about how you can draw on the diversity of the community to enrich the learning experience, address bias in your teaching and resources, and support students to develop inclusive mindsets in your approaches to their learning. It is for anyone who is teaching or supporting students, in any role. 

You can develop your understanding of Developing Inclusive Mindsets by engaging with our related workshops, which are available asynchronously, to take in your own time, and can be followed by a live workshop (with enough demand), or a bespoke meeting with the lead to discuss application to your practice. Find out more on the Cardiff LTA CPD page. 

It aligns to the Professional Standards Framework (PSF 2024) overall requirement for ‘effective and inclusive practice’, and in particular to Professional Values V1: Respecting individual learners and groups of learners, and V2: ‘Promoting engagement in learning and equity of opportunity’. It also enables application of K2: ‘Approaches to teaching, supporting diverse learners’, and K5: ‘Requirements for quality assurance and enhancement. 

The Inclusive Education Enhancement model has a number of areas of focus for Developing Inclusive Mindsets, to further support your self-reflection and development.  

Developing inclusive mindsets supports the university mission to offer ‘an excellent educational experience for students of all backgrounds and experiences, and a commitment to flexible lifelong learning that creates positive change’, which is central to Cardiff University’s Strategy, ‘Our Future, Together’. 

Developing Inclusive Mindsets

Higher education is more diverse than ever before, and therefore institutions play a key role in equipping students with the skills needed to become inclusion champions for their future. The diverse learning environment can provide a space to discuss, reflect and critique the concepts, ideologies and histories of disciplines and pedagogies. It can also enable students to draw on their own cultural experiences and foster cultural awareness of the world around them. When we approach our teaching from an inclusive perspective, valuing the diversity of our students and reflecting on our own assumptions and bias, we place the needs of our students at the centre of the learning. 

It is important to acknowledge that students will have varying levels of understanding of EDI and inclusion topics. Therefore, the opportunity to discuss and critically reflect on equality, diversity, and inclusion themes within the curriculum is an important aspect of the student experience.  

Drawing on the diversity of the community to enrich and inform the development of  the student experience

Developing cultural competence within the curriculum fosters the value of respect, and appreciating and understanding different cultural backgrounds, thus enabling all to work effectively in our increasingly globalised world. The Advance HE Report, Creating Digitally Inclusive Strategies (2023), for example, highlights the importance of designing learning environments that not just foster academic growth but also support the cultural and social growth of all learners. 

Unconscious Bias and ‘Epistemic Credibility’

Watch this short introduction to unconscious bias:

How to use Unconscious Bias Training For Students – understanding unconscious bias video

Often, educators seek or claim to pursue neutrality and fairness in their teaching. Regardless of good intentions, by pursuing neutrality, educators may be complicit in ignoring existing power dynamics and maintaining inequitable systems. An educator’s assessments of who can learn and who can produce knowledge are influenced by their assumptions about the students, based on their decision to take into account or exclude aspects of their social identities (Parsons and Ozaki 2020). There is mandatory Unconscious Bias training for all staff. 

Diversifying and Decolonising the curriculum

Much literature has been written on diversifying and decolonising the curriculum, with many perspectives on what each term means. 

“Decolonising the curriculum interrogates the ongoing impact of legacies of colonisation and imperialism on knowledge production. A decolonial approach concerns itself with deconstructing existing hierarchies, in favour of drawing on multiple knowledge systems/ways of knowing in order to integrate a range of perspectives, with a particular focus on amplifying the voices currently under-represented in the curriculum” (UAL 2023: 3). 

How we gain an understanding of the world is grounded in cultural world views that have either ignored or been antagonistic to knowledge systems that sit outside those of the colonisers. We can provide opportunities for the students to discuss the historical legacy of colonisation for that subject area.  

For example, in astronomy when we discuss life, universe, planet and stars, we can open up discussions on how different perspectives might understand these topics. How might different indigenous communities understand and talk about stars? Would it be in the language of exploration and conquest of space or in terms of navigation and survival? (Arshad 2021).  

Decolonising applies to teaching and assessment practices, as well as to source material and consideration of historical legacy, as traditional Western forms of teaching are socio-culturally determined. For example, the individual, written essay or exam is a cultural phenomenon. In many other countries, oral or group forms of assessment are prevalent. 

There is great guidance from University of Arts London which can aid your reflections on this significant issue in inclusive education.

Watch  the video below from SOAS, and read the Case Study (OU 2018), or read more about De Montford’s project on decolonising the curriculum.

Inspiring students to become champions of inclusivity

We all have a role to play in creating and sustaining a respectful, diverse and inclusive university community, thus engaging in inclusivity topics, discussions and wider global issues are fundamental in an inclusive learning environment. However, research suggests that academic departments rarely discuss inclusivity, unless it is a focus of the discipline (Perez et al. 2020). Cardiff University is committed to embedding EDI practices across the institution. An example is the ‘EDI for Students’ module, which all academic staff have access to, and all incoming students are timetabled to complete in the first few weeks of their university experience.  

However, there is a need for academic departments to consistently provide intentional opportunities for individuals to learn about EDI within their disciplines and fields (Parsons and Ozaki 2020: 133). There are a number of ways we can embed equality, diversity and inclusion into the curricula, our practices, the materials and activities used to support learning, and the classroom cultures fostered by student-staff interactions (Advance HE 2018). There are also a range of useful tools to help you embed EDI in your teaching. Try this ‘Brave Spaces’ activity with students. 

In this blog, Maria Grimwood shares techniques that can be employed to challenge problems in the intercultural curriculum: Encouraging inclusive practice- a practical approach, Advance HE (advance-he.ac.uk) 

The Intercultural curriculum (Advance HE 2019) creates a safe space for learners to cohabit, where different perspectives are acknowledged, welcomed, and learned from. Giving space for students to discuss, question and critique in a safe and nurturing environment enables students, regardless of any barriers they might experience, in order to feel valued and have their voice heard. 

Our graduate attributes at Cardiff University provide focus on key skills in critical thinking and inclusivity. To find out more about our work on employability, read our Employability pages in the Toolkit. 

To read about work on Developing Inclusive Mindsets in Cardiff University, read the 3 case studies:

Where Next?

Link to other toolkit pages 

To learn more, you can access the next sections of the toolkit, which each have inclusivity embedded as a page in each section: Design; Teaching Approaches; Assessment and Feedback; and Evaluation, Engagement and Collaboration. 

Additional resources and references. 

Arshad, R. 2021. Decolonising the curriculum: How do I get started? Available online.  

Open University. 2018. Equality, Diversity and Inclusion in the Curriculum. (Online) Available at  

Parsons, L. and Ozaki, C.C. 2020. Teaching and Learning for Social Justice and Equity in Higher Education. Swizerland: Springer 

Perez, R. J. , Robbins, C. K. , Harris, L. W. & Montgomery, C. (2020). Exploring Graduate Students’ Socialization to Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion. Journal of Diversity in Higher Education, 13 (2), 133-145 

UAL 2023. Decolonising Pedagogy and the Curriculum. Available online.