Chapter 6: Inclusive Curriculum Pedagogy: Addressing Educational Inequalities for Racially and Ethnically Minoritised Students Using Phenomenon-Based Learning Principles

Historically, higher education (HE) has been attended only by a tiny proportion of the population, as few as 3.4% of the population in 1950 (Bolton, 2010). Driven by a recognition of the value of HE for social mobility, the late 1900s in the United Kingdom saw a rapid increase in the proportion of young people attending university. By 2021, this reached 38.2% of the population (Bolton, 2010). This expansion saw a huge diversification of the demographic of students attending university. In the 1950s, the traditional student was white, affluent, and with family and friends who had also attended university (McFadden, 2011). Since the expansion of the sector, the student body is much more diverse, with more disabled students, more students from deprived and/or low participation backgrounds, and a student body that is ethnically and culturally diverse (GOV.UK, 2023). These students may also enter university with different qualifications. On the surface, this diversification is a brilliant thing, enabling more and different ideas to permeate the creation and curation of knowledge and facilitating this diversification of knowledge into society, the workforce, and the economy.