INCLUSIVE LEARNING COMMUNITIES IN INTERNATIONAL FIELD EXPERIENCES (Invited Presentation)

As the geoscience community strives to attract and retain a more diverse workforce, inclusion must be standard practice in all aspects of teaching and learning, especially those activities that take place outside of the classroom. The development of virtual field trips, simulations, and similar technologically-enabled instructional strategies have provided access to field sites that are physically inaccessible or geographically remote. However, just as the asynchronous aspects of these alternative activities do not place students in the field, nor do they focus on the social engagement of collaboration across all students in the learning community.

This presentation will discuss three separate international field courses conducted in Belize, Ireland, and Wales, and how the full participation of every student across a spectrum of physical, sensory, and developmental abilities can be enabled through the design of inclusive learning communities. Key outcomes of these courses include purposeful site selection, activity design, and contingency planning; promotion and recruitment strategies that focus on the selection of a diverse learning community; open and transparent peer-to-peer and faculty-to-student communication and mentoring; and the integration of rigorous academic objectives with expectations for social engagement across each field-based activity.