A New Road for Diversity: Broadening the Future of Education

Diversity comes in all shapes and sizes. Gender, ethnic, and cultural diversity, to name but three. One of the most important diversity-facing topics for educators is neurodiversity - the large, and often misunderstood, differences in how students process information in the brain. Put simply, the differences in how students are hardwired to think.
Structure: This two-hour workshop will be divided into three key sections: important issues and challenges; information, solutions, and ideas regarding those issues; and independent, guided, action plans. In the first section, we will examine such questions as: ‘what does neurodiversity mean?’ and ‘what does neurodiversity mean to you?’ Other important topics include international and intercultural differences in how neurodiversity is understood, and in how it might manifest itself in a culturally pluralistic environment. We will also explore why understanding neurodiversity in education is important, from both a student- and education-centred perspective.
In the second section, we will help participants understand neurodiversity from an experiential perspective, providing interactive, goal-directed activities aimed at guiding participants towards discovering what challenges neurodivergent students face in non-aware learning environments.
Finally, through providing a framework for how to produce course content and activities for neurodivergent students, we will facilitate self-directed workshopping of participant-produced ideas for inclusive education.
Outcome: Participants will leave with an understanding of the importance of neurodiversity awareness; a knowledge of key issues in neurodiversity; an insight into what neurodiverse-friendly course content can be; and self-produced ideas for best practice going forwards.