Make or Break Inclusion Moments – An Improvisor’s Guide to Equity in Experiential Learning

Experiential learning programs can be a powerful way to learn essential skills, but they can also unintentionally perpetuate social narratives about race, gender, class, and ability that impact or diminish individuals. Activities that work for many can also carry troubling stereotypes about how folks participate, think, behave, and interact. While a great way to challenge learners and create an experience of belonging, experiential learning can also carry bias and leave some folks feeling left out.

Most organizations navigate this by simply removing activities that raise questions. They don’t know how to unpack the impact while still moving fast so they cut it, leaving the learner experience less engaging. How can you be inclusive without falling into the unbearable “beige zone” of learning design where no one is challenged? Can you have both a sense of surprise and playfulness and create an equitable space that gives everybody a fair shot at participating?

Short answer: Yes!

Longer answer: It takes work!

The good news: This session will give you a head start with great practices you can apply right now. Designed and facilitated by a DEI practitioner and an improv comedian, this session pushes the boundaries of learning design to give you new insight and unexpected techniques you can use in your next design process. The instructors draw from decades of experience (and a few key missteps) in cultivating equitable spaces to help you open your mind to other perspectives and get more creative in your approach. Along the way, you’ll practice the very techniques that are being discussed to build self-awareness and get inspired about ways you can push learning boundaries while understanding and respecting personal boundaries in the experiential learning you create.

In this session, you will learn how to:

• Build a multi-partial perspective to raise awareness of how activities may fall on different identities
• Use your pilot process to gather feedback and insight on how you can reduce barriers for participation
• Get more creative and thoughtful in how you design activities while still moving fast and staying experimental
• Employ small tweaks that make a big difference for making experiential learning more equitable
• Build self-awareness around identity and assumptions
• Gather feedback beyond your typical channels