The term “empower” is everywhere these days. It’s the tag line of this website. It’s in social media, in education spaces, ad campaigns. The term “empower” could easily become a buzzword in the educational landscape.
There is a group of highly passionate educators and several organizations who are on a mission to make sure that doesn’t happen. Their tool? Universal Design for Learning, or UDL.
Earlier this month, I had the privilege of attending and co-leading a session with the brilliantly talented Audrey O’Clair and Nancy Kawaja at the 4th annual CAST UDL Symposium that was held at Harvard Law School. Our session was around designing accessible literacy spaces through UDL as a way to empower learners. We set out to guide attendees to think differently about what accessible literacy means and how they have the power to make meaningful changes in their spaces leveraging UDL that positively benefit all learners.
While presenting is always fun, what is truly empowering is being around an amazing group of educators and agencies that are passionate about Universal Design for Learning and changing outdated educational systems. If you don’t believe me, hop on Twitter and follow the hashtag #UDLPower. You’ll see it firsthand from the tweets.
This three day symposium was more than “just a conference”. It felt like coming home. Instant friendships were forged. Common threads emerged. Common purposes were discovered. Attendees at the symposium are friendly. Inquisitive. Inclusive. Powerful. Engaging. Thought Provoking. Going to change the world.
As the conference unfolded, questions emerged. What does it mean to empower learners? What does it look like? How does one know that their learners are empowered? How do we empower teachers to design and implement meaningful learning experiences that meets the needs of ALL learners?
The answer always came back UDL (It was a UDL conference after all)! However, concepts of agency, opportunity, equity, variability, flexibility, and personalized learning were also strongly interwoven throughout the symposium. In the symposium, there was quite a buffet of options to choose from!
Hearing other’s stories and experiences around teaching and learning was also empowering. Have we ever wondered why someone doesn’t like school? What it feels like for an individual with a disability or a person of color who wants to simply be accepted for who they are but instead their disability or race is perceived as a limitation? Or worse? In the words of Norman Kunc “You can’t teach people to live in the community apart from the community.”
As the symposium unfolded, and the buffet of learning continued to engage, represent, and express, it became abundantly clear how important it is to design meaningful learning experiences for ALL learners. Involving learners in this process is vital. They have a voice and a say in how they should be educated. We should hear it. Honor it. Share it. Do it.
We are in a transformative time in education. It may be overwhelming, it may feel disempowering. It may feel stale. It may feel scary. Whatever is happening, there is this framework called UDL that changes everything. UDL isn’t “just one more thing”. It’s THE thing – the foundational practice from which everything else grows from.
