Inclusive tutoring cheat sheet

Get some tips on being an inclusive tutor.

Being inclusive is about how you listen, respond to, and enable everyone in the room to have a voice and feel heard. This cheat sheet has two key skills:

1. One- to-one peer support conversations
2. Facilitating inclusive group sessions.

Want to know more about what mental distress is like for young people? Watch videos on The Lowdown or Depression.org. Information about mental illness and distress is available Like Minds, Like Mine and Mental Health Foundation of New Zealand.

Esmé Franklin on inclusive tutoring tactics

Captions are available by selecting 'CC'.

One-to-one peer support conversations

The core foundation for good listening is being non-judgemental (non-blaming), empathetic, and showing unconditional positive regard (a positive, caring attitude).

Brene Brown has a set of videos on YouTube that explain what being non-blaming and empathetic is and what it looks like in practice.

Active listening skills are useful tools to develop for dealing with distress and diffusing conflict. This set of tools is useful in a peer support situation where you are talking in a one-to-one situation with a student who has disclosed a problem they are seeking help for and thinks a conversation would help to identify the core problem.

Ask the student what the current situation is while they are experiencing it:

• Ask open ended questions (who, what, when, where, why, how) to understand the context and difficulties the student is experiencing
• Remain silent while the student is talking
• Reflect back both the content (what was said) and the feelings (what was described).
• Summarise–a brief summary of the context, issues and how the student is feeling.

Ask the student what their ideal outcome is:

• Ask for clarifcation–“Tell me more about... What do you mean by...”
• Prioritising–if there is more than one issue, then which one is the priority to focus on right now
• Focussing—if the person is feeling overwhelmed—what would make a difference now? What is manageable?

Action solutions i.e. brainstorm together strategies to move towards an action goal that solves or manages a problem:

• What tasks does the student need to do to achieve their goal?
• Who can you facilitate the student to ie, which student service, school or faculty staff could help the student achieve their goal tasks?
• Message of hope–positive encouragement to complete the task
• Follow up–tell me how you got on next time.

Mental Health Services

When helping a student in distress, walk the student to Mauri Ora for a warm handover (referral in person), with the student’s consent. Phone ahead 04 463 5308 to let the service know you are coming andleave your contact details for follow-up.

Tell the student about 1737–a national 24 hour helpline they can ring anytime for help and support.

If urgent help is needed outside work hours, contact Te Haika 0800 745 477. Te Haika is the telepone triage for the Crisis Resolution Service. Te Haika provides 24 hour, 7 days a week assessment and short term services for people experiencing a serious mental health crisis for whom there are urgent safety issues.

Core group skills

A useful set inclusion skills is establishing a tutorial using the Power of Contact principles. These principles are used in anti-discrimination work and were developed by people with lived experience of mental distress. Inclusion is where everyone has:

• Equal status – colleagues not competitors
• The opportunity to get to know each other–connecting
• Information that challenges negative sterotypes/talk about negative representations of mental health/disability/LGBTQI+ in course readings/assignments
• Active co-operation–working on an assignements/class discussions
• Pursuit of a mutual goal–completing a paper/assignment

You can facilitate inclusion through restorative practice ie, establishing a structured format for hosting tutorials that enables each person to feel part of the group and actively participate in discussions and feedback.

As a facilitator key things you can do are:

• Use a talking piece to establish equal voice and sharing – only talk when you have the talking piece.
• Establish co-designed group rules for the tutorial
• Develop levels of questions to ask students in advance–conversational, thought provoking and high trust. Ask students questions as a warm up to get them engaged with the material and talking–What did you notice about the readings? Which reading did you find the hardest and why? What was the most challenging concept to understand?

Sometimes the material we engage with in our study can be triggering, bringing back memories and feelings of a traumatic experiences like the death of a loved one, sexual assault, or bullying etc. You might notice this if a student(s) becomes distressed, tearful, withdrawn or angry.

Make use of the structure and trust you have already established in the group by asking questions about:

• What has happened?
• What has been the hardest thing?
• What helped you to feel better?
• What strengths have you seen in yourself and others as you get through this?

The group sharing and normalising conversation will be helpful to each student who may feel reassured they are not alone in their feelings and that there are positive strategies for coping.

Finish tutorials with a debrief and check in using the group process:

• What has the highlight of the tutorial today?
• What have you learned that you didn’t know before?
• How will you take care of your wellbeing this week?

End your tutorials on a positive note that motivates students to attend next time and builds connections with their peers.