The goal of Advancing Equitable and Inclusive Experiential Learning Opportunities: A Five-Stage Framework for Change is to support experiential learning (EL) practitioners in designing and delivering EL opportunities that are accessible, inclusive and engage students in meaningful ways. It is focused on enhancing the student experience and intended to be used by practitioners who are developing new experiential learning programs and/or courses, as well as those evaluating existing EL programs and/or courses.
How to Use This Guide
This tool encourages you to reflect on the decisions that are made when developing an experiential learning opportunity, and how those decisions might be made differently to enable a more equitable and inclusive experience for students. As you review the various suggestions within this framework, you will find that there may be tweaks to your EL program or course that can be made easily, whereas others may take some time. This guide is therefore not meant to be a prescriptive list of actions; advancing equity and inclusion is an iterative and context-specific process.
Five-Stage Framework to Advancing Equitable and Inclusive Experiential Learning
This five-stage framework offers a series of reflective questions, actionable strategies and suggestions, as well as resources and/or services you can leverage to enhance your experiential learning opportunity. The five-stage framework, as shown in this illustration, includes a continuous process of Strategic Planning & Logistics, Design & Delivery, Promotion & Outreach, Student Preparation & Supports, and Evaluation.
We trust this guide will support you in assessing your experiential learning opportunities and acknowledging areas that can be enhanced — prioritizing the most critical areas for change, and progressively working towards advancing equity, inclusion and belonging in EL. We encourage you to ask critical questions about your EL programs, courses and initiatives as you engage in this process.
Contact
Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Access in experiential learning is an evolving field, and the authors welcome feedback and suggestions. To share your suggestions, please complete our feedback/resource suggestion form.
Citation
You are welcome to use the following citation to reference the content found within this guide:
MacKay, G., Goldman, A., Hameed, S., Moed, D., & Lowes, V. (2022). Advancing Equitable and Inclusive Experiential Learning Opportunities: A Five-Stage Framework for Change. Experiential Learning and Outreach Support Office, Faculty of Arts & Science, University of Toronto.