inclusive philosophy done publicly
inclusive design
what, why, when, where, and how
what
What is inclusive design? That is an excellent question. With many, many, many answers.
inclusion
design
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active, ongoing engagement with marginalised groups
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processes of and for research, teaching, and communicating
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ongoing, iterative, evolving relationship
At its core, inclusive design is a relationship: inclusion and design working together to make things better.
I use "inclusive design" to emphasise the deliberate act of including people from marginalised groups and the iterative process of designing for those people.
For my purposes, "inclusive design" means:
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prioritising active and continuing engagement with marginalised groups in philosophy
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emphasising the process of design when researching, producing, teaching and communicating philosophy
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highlighting the ongoing, iterative nature of philosophical evolution
Design is a methodology, an endeavour, a process. Inclusion is a perspective, it is a set of principles, and it is a process.
You can imagine inclusive design intersections, as dimensions that relate to each other. You can look at it as families. You can look at it as an ecosystem. You can see it as processes. You can see it as cycles.
I don’t really care if you imagine, look or see, or how envision inclusive design - just that you try.
why
There is strength in diversity. And creativity. And sustainability. And opportunity and all the other good -itys.
There’s a rule in copywriting: you can’t proofread your own work. This is because when you proofread something you have written, you read what you think you wrote, not what is actually on the page. Our brains are really good at correcting perceived errors, so good that we don’t consciously notice the error. You need somebody else to proofread your work because they don’t know what you meant to write, they only know what’s on the page.
it is so valuable to have someone new come in, look at the way things are with fresh eyes and different challenges and really question how we got to now?
We all have our blindspots - literal and figurative. No single person can see everything and know everything. Even when we make an effort to see a problem or issue or idea from multiple perspectives, there are always perspectives we can’t see from. If we really want to explore all the facets of a problem or perspectives on an issue, we need people who have different perspectives from our own.
designing for people with different needs... has inherent moral value. Meeting people where they are and serving them is enough of a virtue in and of itself.
Inclusive design is just the right thing to do. I could talk about epistemic injustice and our moral obligations to one another, but it all comes down to this: exclusion is harmful. Inclusion is beneficial. So include.
when and where
Always! Everywhere! You should always practise inclusive design! To be less pithy about it:
we should practise inclusive design across the philosophical lifecycle.
The “philosophical lifecycle” is something I made up when working on the presentation. There are three broad stages: research, education, engagement. These stages overlap and intertwine and each influences the others. For example, what we do in education informs our research, what we learn in engagement influences how we teach.
If that all sounds really hard, that’s because it is. Inclusive design is hard. If it were easy then we wouldn’t have to argue for it, would we? In reality, we do inclusive design when we can, where we can, the best that we can.
research
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interrogate unconscious biases
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diversify personal library & resources
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create participatory research frameworks
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attend conferences, seminars, workshops for non-philosophical disciplines
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promote inclusion & diversity professional development programs
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mentor early career researchers & advanced students from under-represented groups
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develop culturally & linguistically diverse translation & interpretation partnerships
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seek out interdisciplinary collaboration
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establish cross-institutional relationships
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be less WEIRD: Wealthy, Educated, Industrialised, Rich, Democratic
education
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prioritise philosophical diversity
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teach social, political, historical context of past philosophy/ers
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encourage student autonomy
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promote discussion & conversation
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get out of the classroom - field trips, internships, outdoor spaces
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offer alternative assessments - creative writing, multi or mixed media projects, group projects, multidisciplinary tasks
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explicitly invite marginalised students
engagement
Public philosophy:
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promote phil comms - digital & social media, culturally & linguistically diverse translation & interpretation
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organise events - philosophy cafes, listening booths, reading circles, discussion forums
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support outreach programs - philosophy in prisons, summer schools for non-students, philosophy in schools
Philosophy in public:
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engage in social advocacy
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join community projects
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host online & virtual events
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invite cross-institutional collaboration
Choose one thing - something small and practical - and apply inclusive design. Instead of overhauling an entire syllabus in one go, start with a single reading list. Rather than redesigning a whole research project, work on a section.
One small thing doesn't seem like a lot
One small thing, work with the time you've got
Soon, one small thing becomes two
After two, perhaps another few
Then one small thing is not so small
One small thing can be the biggest thing of all
Collaboration is intrinsic to both inclusion and design and inclusive design is done best when shared with a team. Just as many hands make light work, so do many minds. With 8 billion people on the planet, there's no need to go it alone.
how
Collectively. Creatively. Carefully.
Inclusive philosophy by design begins with 4 questions:
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Whose philosophy?
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Which epistemologies?
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Who gains and who loses?
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What means are adopted to achieve these ends?
Poorly-informed inclusive design can be useless at best, and escalate harm at worst. This is why it’s so important to practise inclusive design with the people you are trying to include. Once you've asked yourself these questions, then you go out and you ask other people. And you listen.
It starts with talking, asking questions and living around the people they're designing for. The key is to listen.
In her 2018 show Nanette, Hannah Gadsby proclaimed, “Picasso’s mistake was his arrogance. He assumed he could represent all the perspectives. Philosophy frequently embodies this arrogance – it holds by refusing to acknowledge alternative constructions of a thing as it is presented by philosophy. Thus, philosophy makes a far graver mistake: it assumes there is only one perspective – its own.
These questions were initially posed by Paul Ernest in The Philosophy of Mathematics Education. He wrote:
At least four sets of problems and issues for the philosophy of mathematics education can be distinguished .
1. The Philosophy of Mathematics
What is mathematics, and how can we account for its nature? What philosophies of mathematics have been developed? Whose?
2. The Nature of Learning
What philosophical assumptions, possibly implicit, underpin the learning of mathematics? Are these assumptions valid? Which epistemologies and learning theories are assumed?
3. The Aims of Education
What are the aims of mathematics education? Are these aims valid? Whose aims are they? For whom? Based on which values? Who gains and who loses?
4. The Nature of Teaching
What philosophical assumptions, possibly implicit, does mathematics teaching rest on? Are these assumptions valid? What means are adopted to achieve the aims of mathematics education? Are the ends and means consistent?
Inclusive design is the explicit and deliberate rejection of that arrogance. It is the adoption of humility and openness to alternative modes of thinking and perceiving. Inclusive design embraces the multitudes of personal experience and respects the inner worlds of the people who live those experiences. This respect is not the passive endorsement of every worldview or ideology a person may subscribe to; it does not entail blind acceptance of every thought or belief a person holds. Instead, when practicing inclusive design, we reserve judgement of the person. The goal of inclusive design is the encompass the totally of human experience, to minimise harm, to give voice to the oppressed and powerless in a meaningful and sustainable way.