Positionality and Identity

One of the most important aspects of creating an inclusive classroom is reflecting on your positionality and identity, which will inform how and what you teach. This process can feel very personal as you explore your thoughts and beliefs, your worldview, and your taken-for-granted assumptions through a critical lens. It can almost feel like your very identity is coming into question.

In this section, we invite you to notice any resistance you may be feeling and try to approach this reflection with curiosity and openness. The intention is to learn more about your positionality and identity so you can better support the diverse students who are entering your classroom.

Inclusive Pedagogy Framework: Who You Are (Self-Reflection/Knowing)

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Pause for Reflection

We invite you to use the following prompts to reflect on your positionality and identity. Consider how your and your students' identities impact learning. Document your reflections in your Course Design Foundations Workbook docx.

How do my positionality and identity help or hinder me at U of T?
How do students' positionality and identity help or hinder them at U of T?
What is my "learning edge" related to inclusive teaching?
What gaps do I have in my learning?
What issues about positionality and identity am I most comfortable discussing, and which do I find challenging and why?

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Unlearning and Leaning into Discomfort

In addition to reflecting on your positionality and identity, consider the context of the current education system. Examine and understand the historical legacy and continuing impacts of colonization and racism on the education system. Become critically aware of the dominance of Eurocentric ideology in higher education (and likely in your discipline).

Unlearning racism is a challenging process. Lean into the discomfort that arises, notice if you are withdrawing or resisting, and reflect on what you can learn from it. Unlearning is emotional work. Identify and access community support to help you navigate the complexity of this unlearning process.

"To learn that things and life are more complex than we think is more difficult than staying in the comfort and security of the idea that there is a good or bad, a right or wrong, anti-oppression and oppression, and that we simply need to decide which side we are on. To create a dialogic communicative space, however, it is crucial that we are not preoccupied with categorizing people into good or bad, right or wrong—"us" or "them"—but rather we learn to appreciate the fluidity of being and engage with each other in the openness of "listening silence." Yuk-Lin Renita Wong (2004)

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Building Inclusion: Culturally Responsive Teaching

Watch Zaretta Hammond's discussion of culturally responsive teaching video (10:34). Select "CC" for closed captions. As Hammond notes in the video: "All instruction is culturally responsive teaching. The question is, whose culture is it responding to?"

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University of Toronto, Centre for Teaching Support & Innovation