SKILLS21 is on hold for the 2024/25 academic year. If you have questions about recognition of your participation, please email myinvolvement [at] mcgill.ca.
The Inclusive Workshop Toolkit includes a rubric, checklist, templates, and resources to incorporate accessibility and inclusivity into workshops. It provides considerations for the logistics of workshop preparation, facilitation, and participant engagement, incorporating themes from Universal Design for Learning (UDL) and active learning pedagogy.
If you are starting a workshop from scratch, use the initiate, plan, and facilitate sections of the SKILLS21 Facilitator Guide, and then after you have your first draft, use this rubric to guide your revisions.
Once you have an outline or first draft of your workshop (including structure, preliminary content, ideas for activities, etc.), use the rubric to review your workshop and make edits accordingly. Once you have a final draft, create the Facilitator and Participant Guides. If you have an existing workshop, you can use the rubric to review it, and perhaps use the Facilitator and Participant templates to create guides, if they don’t exist already.
Download the toolkit (pdf)
Download the toolkit (.docx)
You can also download the interactive elements of the toolkit individually:
Additional resources on anti-oppression and decolonization for your workshops
University center resources
Creating an inclusive online environment – University of Toronto: EDI Office
Decolonizing pedagogy library guide – Concordia University
Diversity and inclusion resources for curricula: General teaching resources – Salisbury University
Inclusive teaching strategies – University of Washington: Center for teaching and learning
Creating an inclusive classroom culture – University of Washington: Center for teaching and learning
Effective teaching is anti-racist teaching – Brown University: The Harriet W. Sheridan Center for Teaching and Learning
Teaching with justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion – The University of Rhode Island: Office for the Advancement of Teaching and Learning
Racial Equity Course Review – University of Pennsylvania: Center for Teaching and Learning
Articles
Anti-oppressive facilitation for democratic process – Anti-Oppressive Resource and Training Alliance
Decolonizing education in Canadian universities: an interdisciplinary, international, indigenous research project – Canadian Journal of Native Education
Engaging with issues of cultural diversity and discrimination through critical emotional reflexivity in online learning – Adult Education Quarterly
From ‘Decolonized’ To Reconciliation Research in Canada: Drawing From Indigenous Research Paradigms - An International Journal for Critical Geographies
How to make your teaching more inclusive – The Chronicle of Higher Education
Indigenization as inclusion, reconciliation, and decolonization: navigating the different visions for indigenizing the Canadian Academy - AlterNative: An International Journal of Indigenous Peoples
Books
Decolonizing education: Nourishing the learning spirit (2013)
Driving Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (2022)
Indigenizing education: Discussions and case studies from Australia and Canada (2020)
Glossary of terms
Accessibility: The quality of an environment that enables a person to access it with ease.
Active learning: Any approach to instruction in which all students are asked to engage in the learning process. Active learning stands in contrast to "traditional" modes of instruction in which students are passive recipients of knowledge from an expert.
Anti-oppression: Strategies and actions that actively challenge existing intersectional inequities and injustices
Barrier: A physical, structural, technological, socioeconomic or cultural obstruction, or one that is related to information, communications, attitudes or mindsets, that hinders the full and equal participation of a person or group of people in society.
Decolonization: A process that consists of challenging and dismantling colonial ideas, values and practices embedded in society in order to restore Indigenous ways of knowing, being and doing.
Diversity: The variety of identities found within an organization, group or society. Diversity is expressed through factors such as culture, ethnicity, religion, sex, gender, sexual orientation, age, language, education, physical abilities and disabilities, family status or socioeconomic status.
Equity: The principle of considering people's unique experiences and differing situations, and ensuring they have access to the resources and opportunities that are necessary for them to attain just outcomes. Equity aims to eliminate disparities and disproportions that are rooted in historical and contemporary injustices and oppression.
Inclusion: The practice of using proactive measures to create an environment where people feel welcomed, respected and valued, and to foster a sense of belonging and engagement. This practice involves changing the environment by removing barriers so that each person has equal access to opportunities and resources and can achieve their full potential.
Indigenous pedagogy and epistemology: Indigenous pedagogy (or the method and practice of teaching) incorporates Indigenous worldviews into engagement with information. Indigenous ways of knowing (or Indigenous epistemology) are deeply linked to both Indigenous pedagogy and Indigenous research methods. As Dr. Marie Battiste (Mi’kmaw) writes “Indigenous knowledges are diverse learning processes that come from living intimately with the land, working with resources surrounding that land base, and the relationships that it has fostered over time and place”.
Positionality: How differences in social position and power shape identities and access in society
Settler: Anyone who lives somewhere that is not part of a group indigenous to that land. This could be from immigrating to the land recently or being descended from someone who arrived to that land as a product of setter colonialism.
Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC): This provided those directly or indirectly affected by the legacy of the Indian Residential Schools system with an opportunity to share their stories and experiences.
Universal Design for Learning (UDL): A tool used in the implementation of Universal Design for Learning. These guidelines offer a set of concrete suggestions that can be applied to any discipline or domain to ensure that all learners can access and participate in meaningful, challenging learning opportunities.
Sources for definitions can be found in references; primarily from the Government of Canada Guide to Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Terminology.
References
Canadian Centre for Diversity and Inclusion. (2022, January). Glossary of Terms. Canadian Centre for Diversity and Inclusion. Retrieved October 28, 2022, from https://ccdi.ca/media/3507/ccdi-glossary-of-terms-v11-eng.pdf
Cambridge Centre for Teaching and Learning. (n.d.). Why use content notes? University of Cambridge. Retrieved September 20, 2022 from https://www.cctl.cam.ac.uk/content-notes/what-are-content-notes/why-use
CAST. (2018). Universal Design for Learning Guidelines version 2.2. Retrieved from http://udlguidelines.cast.org
Digital Library Federation. (2017). Guide to creating accessible presentations. Web. https://www.diglib.org/dlf-events/2017forum/guide-to-creating-accessible-presentations/
Government of Canada; Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada. (2021, June 9). Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement. Government of Canada; Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada; Retrieved October 28, 2022, from https://www.rcaanc-cirnac.gc.ca/eng/1100100015576/1571581687074
Government of Canada; Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada. (2022, September 29). Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada. Government of Canada; Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada. Retrieved October 28, 2022, from https://www.rcaanc-cirnac.gc.ca/eng/1450124405592/1529106060525
Government of Canada. (2022, September 22). Guide on equity, diversity and inclusion terminology. Glossaries and vocabularies - Resources of the Language Portal of Canada – Canada.ca. Retrieved October 28, 2022, from https://www.noslangues-ourlanguages.gc.ca/en/publications/equite-diversite-inclusion-equity-diversity-inclusion-eng
Hardy, E. (2022, May 6). Asking about disability on a form. Celebrating Disability. Retrieved September 21, 2022, from https://celebratingdisability.co.uk/asking-about-disability-on-a-form/
Inclusive Education. (n.d.). Identify potential barriers to learning and wellbeing. New Zealand Ministry of Education. Retrieved October 28, 2022 from https://inclusive.tki.org.nz/guides/universal-design-for-learning/identify-potential-barriers-to-learning-and-wellbeing/
Indigenous Initiatives. (2022). Learn about the land and peoples of Tiohtià:ke/ Montreal. McGill University. Retrieved October 28, 2022 from https://www.mcgill.ca/indigenous/land-and-peoples/learn-about-land-and-peoples-tiohtiake-montreal
Laing, R. (2021, September 15). Why use content notes? Cambridge Centre for Teaching and Learning. Retrieved September 20, 2022, from https://www.cctl.cam.ac.uk/content-notes/what-are-content-notes/why-use
McGill Sustainability. (n.d.). Document & presentation accessibility. McGill Sustainable Events Certification Program. Retrieved October 28, 2022, from https://www.mcgill.ca/sustainability/files/sustainability/quick_guide_to_document_and_presentation_accessibility.pdf
Posey, A. (n.d.). How to break down barriers to learning with UDL. Understood. Retrieved October 28, 2022 from https://www.understood.org/en/articles/how-to-break-down-barriers-to-learning-with-udl
Pronouns.org. (n.d.). What are pronouns? Why do they matter? Pronouns.org Resources on Personal Pronouns. Retrieved October 20, 2022, from https://pronouns.org/what-and-why
Simon Fraser University Library. (2021, August 21). Indigenous knowledge and pedagogy. Indigenous Curriculum Resource Centre. Retrieved October 28, 2022, from https://www.lib.sfu.ca/help/academic-integrity/indigenous-initiatives/icrc/indigenous-knowledge
Smith, T. (2016). Make space for Indigeneity: Decolonizing education SELU Research Review Journal, 1(2), 49-59. https://selu.usask.ca/documents/research-and-publications/srrj/SRRJ-1-2-Smith.pdf
Teaching and Learning Services. (2022). SKILLS21 facilitator guide. McGill University. Retrieved September 20, 2022 from https://www.mcgill.ca/skills21/facilitator-guide
Teaching and Learning Services. (2022). Teaching strategies. McGill University. Retrieved October 28, 2022 from https://www.mcgill.ca/tls/instructors/strategies
University of British Columbia. (n.d.). Positionality & Intersectionality. CTLT Indigenous Initiatives. Retrieved October 28, 2022, from https://indigenousinitiatives.ctlt.ubc.ca/classroom-climate/positionality-and-intersectionality/
University of Michigan. (2021, August 10). Intersectionality, positionality, and privilege: Infographic: U-M LSA Center for Social Solutions. LSA. Retrieved September 20, 2022, from https://lsa.umich.edu/social-solutions/news-events/news/insights-and-solutions/infographics/intersectionality--positionality--and-privelege.html
University of Minnesota. (n.d.). Active learning. Center for Educational Innovation. Retrieved October 28, 2022, from https://cei.umn.edu/teaching-resources/active-learning
While this web page is accessible worldwide, McGill University is on land which has served and continues to serve as a site of meeting and exchange amongst Indigenous peoples, including the Haudenosaunee and Anishinabeg nations. Teaching and Learning Services acknowledges and thanks the diverse Indigenous peoples whose footsteps mark this territory on which peoples of the world now gather. This land acknowledgement is shared as a starting point to provide context for further learning and action.
