Academic and Cultural Considerations

Design of Inclusivity Pages

All of the Inclusivity pages are designed following the principles of Universal Design for Learning (UDL). You will find a combination of text, video and images, along with some points of reflection, practical examples and case studies.

You can choose to read the text or access an audio recording of the same material. The recordings are at the bottom of each page. Alternatively you could use the Microsoft Immersive Reader, which has the ability to set preferences or use the 'read aloud' function .You can also attend a workshop on the topic.

Top tips:

Learn about your students beforehand either through a pre-session questionnaire or anonymous writing activity.
Be explicit in acknowledging various backgrounds.
Be explicit in your pedagogical approach and the value it has to the discipline.
Provide a broad representation of literature and case studies. If this isn't an option in your discipline acknowledge this imbalance and ask students to critique.

The more you find out about your students and their diverse prior experiences, cultural context, and educational background, the more you can anticipate challenges and plan for and design learning opportunities that remove these barriers. When you apply Universal Design for Learning (CAST, 2018) and culturally responsive pedagogy to your practice you are anticipating challenges and catering to a diverse student cohort designing out the barriers. It is important to acknowledge that this approach to design does not just improve the learning experience for international students it improves the learning for all students. If you would like to find out more about these pedagogical approaches, then visit our Empowering Students to fulfil their potential page.

The socio-cultural integration of international students is paramount to how students develop a sense of belonging within their new context. All students enter university with a range of diverse dimensions, backgrounds, and lived experiences. For international students, the dissonance between their home culture and the UK context can impact their educational experience. Literature extensively reports on pedagogy being context-driven, (Quan et al 2016) and highlights the difference between systems from one country to another. Teaching practice and academic expectations range from country to country. When these are not explicitly explained and shared, students can feel confused by academic language and procedures (Burdett & Crossman 2012).

The increasing internationalisation of universities has shown how intercultural learning and active inclusion efforts can ensure all students gain the most out of their educational experience and prepare them for the globalised world (Slater and Gleason 2022). The opportunity to develop key competencies during their university experience such as cultural competencies, collaboration, and critical thinking prepares students for both their professional and personal future.

We define the term intercultural competencies as those knowledge, skills, and attitudes that comprise a person’s ability to get along with, work, and learn with people from diverse cultures.

(Advance HE 2014)

With cultural awareness comes the need to move away from cultural assumptions and dichotomies that have been attributed to groups of students. When you value the multicultural environment, it helps challenge those previously culturally bonded stereotypes. One of the biggest barriers international students face is the lack of consideration for the student’s cultural context and educational background. Therefore, when working with international students’ consideration of student’s prior educational system, cultural and language background can make the process of learning more difficult (Slater and Inagawa 2019:7)

Below you will find a range of perspectives from EAP tutors and lecturers:

EAP tutor 1

I was wondering how the university currently considers international students in our equality and diversity efforts. This is prompted by discussions with some international students about how much they struggled with classes where e.g. the lecturer uses very complex language that home students understand but international students do not, and the emotional impact of feeling sidelined in classes.
It's perhaps inevitable there would be some challenges in this area, and some would argue that it is the responsibility of students to ensure they have the language abilities to study in the UK. However, these are students who have met the language standards required by the university but find that this isn't sufficient for the level of language used by some lecturers. This isn't about 'dumbing down' content - but rather thinking about the type of language used (e.g. long complex sentences, lots of idioms, cultural references that are known only to home students).

EAP tutor 2

International students often seem aware of the need to do something ‘critical’ in their writing but ask questions about what exactly this means in practice. Looking up the word ‘critical’ in a dictionary may add to the uncertainty. In their essay questions, lecturers can use different words and phrases to ask for a critical approach. A few of these that come to mind are:
o Evaluate
o Critically evaluate
o Assess
o Build an argument
o Show your stance/position/perspective/motivation
And sometimes, just the word ‘discuss’ might be used (maybe with the ‘critical’ input assumed)
Examples of what counts as ‘critical’ in a specific context/question are difficult (and risky) for a writing support tutor to give.

EAP tutor 3

International students often talk about the difficulty of participating in discussions with home students. Sometimes they struggle to understand – particularly more colloquial English – but also to be understood. One student recently told me that that she feels home students avoid talking to her as she thinks she makes them feel uncomfortable if they struggle with her accent. I feel there is a quite urgent need for academic staff to engage home students as well as international students in developing an inclusive classroom - and indeed an inclusive programme and School environment. This needs to happen from day 1. Or even before. To what extent do our home students understand what it means to study at an international university - if indeed we are one?
Many international students also comment that by the time they have formulated something to contribute to the discussion, the home students have moved on to another aspect of the topic. This to me suggests a greater need for the scaffolding of discussion activities – for example, the need to build in thinking and preparation time but also more private (e.g. pair) rehearsal before larger group discussion.

Lecturer 1

International students often have difficulty understanding what the marking criteria mean in a real sense. For example, the criteria may include quite generic ideas like 'written work has to be well-referenced, well-structured and show evidence of evaluation' but those skills are difficult to demonstrate if they aren't properly explained. Similarly, feedback on formative work has to be explained in quite a lot of detail so it's clear what needs to be changed.

Lecturer 2

In many countries, students are used to a system where it's possible (and typical) to get very high percentages on coursework and in exams (e.g. 90-100%). They are often shocked when they get a grade here around 60% and are told that it's 'good'. They often panic that they're failing and worry about telling their parents. Explaining the grading system here and that 60-70%+ constitutes a good/very good grade is advisable.