Teaching Resources: Representation and inclusivity in teaching materials

This section looks at representation of diversity in teaching materials such as lecture slides, case examples, role-play scenarios etc. Please refer to the ‘Who should be considered’ section when thinking about groups and individuals who may be underrepresented in teaching resources.

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Reflective Questions:

  • To what extent do visual resources, case examples, role-play scenarios etc. used in your teaching represent diversity and illustrate different perspectives?
  • Do your resources reflect the diversity of our society? Are there groups who are absent? (see also ‘Who should be considered?’)
  • Are people represented in a respectful way, avoiding tokenism and stereotyping?
  • When referring to specific clinical presentations in teaching, have you considered inclusion of varying presentations across a diverse range of patients? Are people with certain characteristics represented when it comes to specific clinical presentations but not otherwise included?

     Suggested actions:

  • Consider ways to develop authentic examples which represent diverse experiences and perspectives. Can you draw from your own and colleagues’ experience? Can external voices and experiences be added to the content you are producing (eg. by seeking advice from knowledgeable others, seeing what resources are available made by people representing specific groups etc…)?
  • Make sure that examples you include are authentic and joyful (where appropriate) representations of different groups. Avoid the ‘token’ diverse person being included in a way that reinforces assumptions and stereotypes.
  • Consider also the option of removing personalising details (e.g. names, cultural references, social background, gender identity etc) from case examples where they are not relevant to the clinical content or the learning outcomes. Invite students, colleagues and role-players to consider the case from a variety of backgrounds. What would the commonalities and differences be?

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