[I may post again later. This will be a short post, or at least short for me, as I'm a bit crunched for time at the moment]
Quote:
What have you done to be more inclusive?
What worked and what didn't work?
How do you address problems on your team?
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I've found that being aware of ratios goes a long way towards inclusion with regards to minorities, personalities, and disabilities. I'm particularly adamant about my team's ratios with regards to instructors (how many students do we have per mentor at each meeting) and equipment (how many students need to share a particular set of equipment at each meeting) as those two metrics greatly effect the quality of instruction and experience. We try to run 4:1 or better on our students/mentor ratios and keep our equipment sufficient for each student to spend 80% or better of each meeting engaged in quality hands-on time (as opposed to watching or listening). We are lucky to have the right combination of resources to achieve this standard. I'm sure our particular goals with regards to ratios are unreasonable/unmanageable for some teams, but it still helps to be aware of the concept.
Additionally, planning ahead promotes an inclusive atmosphere as it gives leaders (student leaders or mentors) the opportunity to ensure that each individual is getting what they need from the team, and that the team is getting what it needs from each individual. Our current plan is found
here (disclaimer: this is a live draft, expect it to change).
I don't recall any personal experiences in which practice was purposely discriminatory, but last minute chaos at meetings and vastly overwhelmed leadership (once again, student or mentor) can easily lead to a situation in which students are thrown onto projects and students with disabilities and less assertive personalities end up on less desirable projects.