Maha, your model is pulling together many important concepts and aspects of making education equitable. (I wonder though, should ‘inclusive’ actually be ‘equitable’ in the title? I recall, from my now well-known comprehensive knowledge of your work (:-)) that in the podcast Complicating Diversity and Inclusion (https://pushingtheedge.org/complicating-diversity-and-inclusion/) you state that inclusion is ‘such a problematic term, because it implies there is a thing that belongs to certain people, and they’re being generous by including others into it, by letting others in’.

As theories are continually being developed, and contexts are continually changing (e.g. Covid) perhaps the model could be presented as something not fixed, and where slices could be added as new ideas emerge. I think the peppercorns are a good inclusion – one person’s enabler is another person’s barrier. I’ve done a few presentations on the affordances and barriers connected with open pedagogy that make just this point.

The UDL approach helps manage this, alongside an approach where students are partners in the learning process (‘learner agency’ in your model, though maybe this should be a flattening of the hierarchy between learner and educator, as in critical pedagogy, and an emphasis on co-creation), and the application of culturally sustaining pedagogy. Hanesworth’s (2019) paywalled article ‘A typology for a social justice approach to assessment: learning from universal design and culturally sustaining pedagogy’ (https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13562517.2018.1465405) proposes a taxonomy combining UDL, students as partners and culturally sustaining pedagogy.

Hope these thoughts are helpful Maha. The peppercorns are probably key in highlighting the fact that strategies for equitable teaching, learning and assessment work for some people and not for others and attentiveness to individuals’ needs is vital (alongside a flexible approach such as UDL).

Leigh-Anne