UDL: Universal Design for Learning can be applied in many adult learning contexts, including formal education, informal learning and workplace learning. Examine the principles of UDL and consider how these a) counter systems of privilege and power, and b) how you might integrate UDL into your practice.

I am planning on designing a hybrid course for online and in-class learners.  I have not been introduced to the Universal Design for Learners (UDL) framework until now, but it is clear UDL can be integrated into all phases of my online and in-class sessions. As the creators of UDL posit in (CAST 2018), the goal of education should not be just the mastery of knowledge but the mastery of learning. Education should help turn novice learners into expert learners – individuals who know how to learn, who want to learn, and who, in their own highly individual ways, are well prepared for a lifetime of learning. To me, that is a statement I will be adding to my philosophy of teaching.

            UDL strategies can help me meet the needs and challenges of learner diversity. UDL creates alternative approaches to creating flexible instructional materials, techniques, and options that empower educators to meet the varied needs of online and in-class learners. UDL is designed to give all learners an equal opportunity to use various teaching methods to remove any barriers to learning and helps make learning inclusive and transformative for everyone.

            However, it is still the teacher who has the power to make this happen or not. As stated by Johnson (2018, p. 47), “people are the ones who make it happen through what they do and don’t do in relation to others.” Teachers have the power to involve some form of discrimination – whether done consciously or not, including microaggression or implicit bias by treating learners unequally because they belong to different categories. This discrimination maintains systems of privilege and unearned advantage. Let me give inclusion as an example.

            Some parents of children with disabilities are among the opponents of inclusive education because they fear a loss of accommodations and the benefits of special education classrooms, including individual educational programming, smaller student-teacher ratios, and teachers who have special training in working with children with disabilities. These parents rightly point out that too often, inclusive education means the mere physical presence of children with disabilities in the regular classroom. As Sapon-Shevin (2003) argues, inclusion without resources, without support, without teacher preparation time, without commitment, without a vision statement, without restructuring, without staff development, won’t work. Some children are dumped into classrooms in the name of inclusion, when in fact, nothing is in place to make that an inclusive classroom except that they’ve put a child with significant disabilities into it. That’s not a problem about inclusion; it’s irresponsible planning, irresponsible fiscal management, irresponsible teaching. But to call that inclusion is a mistake.

            I have not thoroughly researched inclusion in the educational system, but I can see where UDL could help learners with physical, sensory, or learning disabilities.  But it is still the teacher who has the power.

References

CAST (2018). Universal Design for Learning Guidelines version 2.2.

https://udlguidelines.cast.org/

Johnson, A. G. (2018). Power, privilege and difference (3rd ed.). McGraw Hill Inc.

Sapon-Shevin, Mara. “Inclusion: A Matter of Social Justice.” Educational Leadership 61:2 (October 2003): 25-28.