Inclusivity: Creating and Sustaining ‘Learning Partnership’ Climate in an ELT Classroom (Published)
Inclusivity has often been associated with disability and our commitment to inclusivity and its pedagogy means we recognize and value the diversity of our students. As individuals, and as part of a learning community, students are expected to benefit from learning in an environment where they feel included in ways that recognize and support their needs. However, this study, in its attempt to redefine inclusivity beyond its established concept and practice, as stated earlier, concludes that inclusivity in an ELT classroom, is not merely a concept associated with disability; but this phenomenon should be exploited for creating and sustaining a safe, supported, and encouraged ‘learning partnership’ climate to attain students’ intellectual growth and skill development. A review has also been done to assess the ‘convention’ that students and faculty ‘engage’, in terms of a ‘learning and teaching experience’, to enjoy their privileges: from a student perspective, to ‘participate’, and from a faculty perspective, to ‘impart’. At the end, suggestions and recommendations are offered how we as teachers, through inclusive teaching-learning strategies, can create and sustain a ‘learning partnership’ environment in which students are ‘partnered’ meaningfully to facilitate deeper learning and the best educational and professional outcomes.
Keywords: ELT Classroom, Inclusive Teaching-Learning Strategies, Inclusivity, Learning Partnership Climate, Learning experience, Teaching