Skip to main content

The Case for Embracing Linguistic and Cultural Diversity in Teaching and Learning

Category
Student Experience
TIPS Blog
Date

Our University commonly describes itself as ‘international’. While internationalisation can be reflected in research endeavours and staffing demographics, recognition of diversity should move beyond surface-level considerations toward how students’ diverse backgrounds interact with and emerge in learning spaces. We therefore launched the project ‘Embracing Linguistic and Cultural Diversity in Teaching’. 

What did you do? Why did you do it?   

The University of Leeds aims for the campus to be ‘a place where all students belong’ (Access and Student Success Strategy 2025 Inclusive Teaching and Development Project, Decolonising the Curriculum). At the same time, as confirmed in School and University-wide initiatives, a significant proportion of University of Leeds students report that their linguistic and cultural diversity are more often than not seen as a “deficit” rather than “an asset” in the classroom. Their prior diverse educational experiences are seen as a barrier to learning, and they are often expected to accommodate to dominant language varieties (Airemionikhale, 2024), cognitive frameworks or academic traditions (Blake-Gravesande and Okome, 2021).  

In order to address this tension, we wanted to investigate how and what we teach at Leeds reflects, engages with and promotes the linguistic and cultural diversity of the students in our classrooms, regardless of their social, linguistic and cultural backgrounds. In 2022, we launched a staff survey, completed by colleagues in 20 schools, which gave us insight into existing understanding and practices around linguistic / cultural diversity, but also revealed some challenges. Keen to adopt a bottom-up approach to this work, we facilitated a series of staff workshops in 2023; they focused on fleshing out the importance of linguistic /cultural diversity in HE today, what diversity might mean for different disciplines and teaching contexts at Leeds, and practical suggestions on integrating linguistic / cultural diversity in activities, resources, assessment and syllabi.  

In addition, we have developed principles for integrating linguistic / cultural diversity in teaching practice and curriculum development, and a set of resources to guide professional development and student education practice. These can be found in this Sway. The principles and corresponding resources are divided into 3 sections – Engage, Learn and Practice: 

Engage – these principles invite colleagues to see diversity as an asset rather than a barrier, to develop understanding and awareness of identities and how these interact with meaning-making (a social practice) in the learning space, to reflect on assumptions and how the wider environment around language and culture might position our students, and on how our pedagogies might marginalise or embrace students’ linguistic and/or cultural diversity. 

Learn – these principles and resources invite colleagues to develop their pedagogic knowledge base and consider relevant research into how the backgrounds of students can impact how they interact with higher education, how biases can affect students’ transition to university and their voice. They encourage us to question how some knowledge and approaches to teaching and learning may privilege some students over others, consider how to create an open, welcoming learning space that encourages openness and understanding, develop knowledge of how to design teaching and learning tasks that take linguistic and cultural diversity into consideration. 

Practice – these principles and resources prompt colleagues to consider the practicalities of how to design teaching that recognises diversity. In this section of the principles, we’ve also shared practical examples that recognise that learning and knowledge building are social practices, are mindful that students’ linguistic and cultural diversity influences relationships with peers and feelings of belonging and allow for the questioning of dominant norms. 

What was the impact of your practice and how have you evaluated it?

The 2023 linguistic/cultural diversity workshops were received extremely well by participants. We are keen to build on this success and reach colleagues who have previously not engaged with these conversations. Our aim is to continue working with contacts and allies in Schools and encourage wider and sustained engagement by running school- and discipline-specific design workshops in 2024/25. 

How could others benefit from this example?  

Through these principles and resources, we invite colleagues to consider where they are now, what they might need to learn in order to develop their awareness of linguistic and cultural diversity, and how this might impact the student educational experience. We are keen for colleagues from a range of disciplines and settings to get in touch with us if they’re interested in collaborating on this project. 

Authors

Niamh Mullen, N.Mullen@leeds.ac.uk, LCS / Language Centre 

Milena Marinkova, M.D.Marinkova@leeds.ac.uk, LCS / Language Centre 

 

Do you have an example of your practice to share?

If you are interested in submitting an article to the TIPS Blog find out how to submit here, or contact the TIPS Editors at academicdev@leeds.ac.uk