Bringing the edges to the core

Abstract

When a course is designed, it is common to do it for a typical group of students, considered to represent “the majority”, the “norm” or the “average”. The concept of “edges” challenges this view: given the multiple dimensions that teaching and learning encompass, there will always be students who do not belong to a norm and will end up on an edge if they are not included in the course design. In this paper, we propose to adopt “design to the edges” as a useful teaching tool for making our teaching more inclusive, higher quality, and appropriate for more of our students. We draw on some examples from ours, and our colleagues, pedagogy, to illustrate some practical ways in which “edge” thinking can be incorporated into our teaching.