Creating an Inclusive Syllabus

The syllabus is important for every course in higher education. It’s part contract, part roadmap, part policy manual, part reading list, and a host of other things wrapped into one document. However, we often overlook the tone and content of our syllabi in the context of how it invites our students to interact with ourselves as instructors and the course content. How can we craft a syllabus that helps us create a warm and welcoming learning environment? Here are some quick ideas to include in your syllabus creation to make it more inclusive.

Empathize with the Student Reader

The best place to start if you are looking to make your syllabus more inclusive is to put yourself in the shoes of your students as they are reading the document. Imagine a first-generation freshman student reading the syllabus of an introductory course. What are they thinking and feeling as they read each section of your syllabus? An example that we take for granted but can be crucial is when we list our office hours in the syllabus. What does that phrase, “office hours” mean? Those that have experience with higher education may know exactly what we mean, but those without insider knowledge may think it is something very different from the intention. Some ideas to combat this lack of knowledge:

• Rename the office hours to something more concrete like “student hours,” or “drop-in hours.”
• Contextualize your office hours in the syllabus and explain what they are for and how students can take advantage of them throughout the semester.
• Create a structure for your office hours by reserving blocks of office hours for specific topics, exam questions, general course questions, etc.

Include Resources for Students

Often our students find their trouble in the classroom doesn’t start with their coursework. It’s food insecurity. It’s working to make rent. It’s roommate problems. It’s family and personal emergencies. We cannot be everything to every single one of our students, but we can point them in the right direction to get the help they need. Creating a section in your syllabus that points students in the right direction for support and emphasizing those resources when you teach can help them get support and help their performance in the classroom. Student Mental Health Services, food pantries, minority student support, and a whole host of others can help students with their extra-classroom needs.

Add to Template Language to Invite Encounter

Every institution of higher education has boilerplate policies that instructors are advised (or required) to include in their syllabi to ensure students are aware of important campuswide policies and their options. However, these policies are often written in a way that is coldly legalistic and uninviting for students to discuss their specific situations with the instructor. Why not add language to those template statements to make them more welcoming and less legalistic? Invite students to discuss their circumstances with you, rather than coldly informing them that you are required to respect certain aspects of their life.

Think about the Course Design: Acknowledge Many Voices

How much thought do you put into who you are referencing or using as readings in your courses? We like to use the important and critical scholarship of our field, but there is an elephant in the room. The scholars who generated that critical research come from identities that had the privilege of access to the resources and education to be scholars of their field. In many cases, this lack of diverse bodies of scholars does not reflect the diversity of our classroom, or the diversity of the field as it stands. Acknowledging where the research in our field comes from can help contextualize why the field has developed the way that it did and allow students who do not see themselves reflected in the scholarship a chance to see themselves thriving in that field. Some ways to acknowledge this historical lack of diversity can be done in some of the following ways – and others:

• Avoid “teaching to the textbook.” Instead, focus on the “big questions” of the discipline and the avenues that are current to the field.
• Critical Pedagogy: use time in class to question the way the discipline has been structured and to address problems or issues using critical thinking.
• Supplement the textbook with more diverse scholars to show the development of the field.
• Add to academic readings popular writing that helps contextualize the discipline, and helps answer the question “why should I care?”