A double tip this week from Eddie Newall and Derek Hughes offering guidance on how to show and ensure diversity in the training room.

Derek Hughes responds: This happens in three parts: before the session, at beginning of the session and during it.

Before session: make sure you get information about any access needs people may have (eg. mobility, visual/hearing impairments) and what adjustments they would like you to make.

Beginning of session: agree ground rules/acceptable behaviour and encourage people to let you know if there is anything you can do to make workshop fully accessible.

During session: monitor & maintain this taking the initiative to challenge behaviour or respond to learner's needs.

You may also want to monitor who attends training sessions (age/gender/disability/race) and see how this matches the workforce.

Eddie Newall responds: I don’t know of any resources specifically from a training perspective but a there are a lot of resources for exclusion and inclusion in teaching adults in higher education, which probably overlaps with employee training and development.

For example, see the Diversity Toolkit at http://www1.umn.edu/ohr/teachlearn/resources/diversity/.

From there, click on Resources for Multicultural Teaching and Learning which takes you to http://www1.umn.edu/ohr/teachlearn/resources/diversity/resources.html. From there you can access individual sites that address inclusion and exclusion in teaching, e.g., http://depts.washington.edu/cidrweb/inclusive/.

Regarding questioning a trainer on "What things do you do to show and ensure diversity within your classroom", possible answers can be found at http://depts.washington.edu/cidrweb/inclusive/strategies.html.

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Diversity in the training room
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