Team Reflection: Exploring EDIA at the School of the Environment

This year, a design research team at the Innovation Hub worked with the School of the Environment to explore how equity, diversity, inclusion, and access (EDIA) is embedded in curriculum, programming, communications, hiring, events, spaces, processes, and culture, and to understand where gaps exist. In this blog, the team reflects on this work and how design thinking helped them to identify tangible steps for how the School can champion EDIA and enhance student experiences.

Written by the EDIA at the School of the Environment Team

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Equity, diversity, inclusion, and access (EDIA) are the foundations of safe and engaging learning environments. Over the past year, our Design Research Team at the Innovation Hub worked to understand how EDIA can be further championed at the School of the Environment (the School). We aimed to understand where gaps in EDIA exist, and explore tangible, actionable ideas to impart change.

Small Actions Matter

Often, small actions, comments, and behaviors can shape our experience or set the tone for the day. We realized that small actions can have the power to make people feel included. Spending a few extra minutes speaking with students or empowering them to learn in their own ways can go a long way. It was meaningful for our team to learn about times when small actions made a direct difference in the journeys of students. Through the stories we listened to, we gained a deeper appreciation for the small gestures and acts of kindness that shape students’ experiences at school. Sunnie offered reflections on the impact of small gestures. 

Sunnie: It’s really cool to see how much impact people really have on each other. When you hear the stories that people share about, say, one incident from around seven years ago about how this one person – this one professor – noticed something about the student that stuck with them forever and changed the trajectory of my academic career, you can really get a sense of the impact a small action like this can make. Just simple stories like that where you don’t necessarily realize how one small interaction can leave such a lasting impact on another person. 

We noticed that students felt strongly impacted by the caring actions of their professors when they made efforts to make the students feel welcome, both inside and outside the classroom. We realized that professors and staff have an opportunity to be role models who can act as beacons of change and inspire students to achieve their academic goals. Yi-Hsiu shared an observation about how professors impact students. 

Yi-Hsiu: The one thing that stood out from the data collection session was that some participants mentioned how passionate professors can create a long-lasting impact on their life. When professors are passionate about the subject – and also show that they care about students’ mental health and well-being – students were more encouraged to pursue a master’s. So I think this was really also meaningful and stood out to me.   

Every unique story we listened to taught us that small actions can play a powerful role in challenging existing systemic barriers. As we champion EDIA, it’s the everyday actions that can ensure that we create environments where people feel included and safe to show up as themselves.

Challenging Our Assumptions

Another important aspect to consider in discussions of EDIA is how bias can manifest in our interactions with others. As we heard students share their experiences at the School of the Environment, we found that a key principle of EDIA is to avoid making assumptions and to make sure that we listen to stories from an open-minded perspective. Being aware of our biases prevented us from making assumptions or predicting what others might think or feel based on our own experiences.  

Throughout the process, it was necessary for us to place our own experiences at the University aside, since every student interacts with the campus differently and holds their own unique experiences. Yi-Hsiu recalled how implementing a bias check at the beginning the work reminded us that we cannot presume to understand what people are going through and that what we hear is not the same as what people feel. 

Yi-Hsiu: A memorable moment for me was learning how to deal with my bias. I remember that in one of our first meetings we imagined different scenarios and thought about how to avoid making assumptions of how students think. This helped me think from others’ shoes, not just using my personal experience to expect what others think or assume what they experience.   

Similarly, when we avoid making assumptions, we can learn something new about others that we may have not noticed before. For example, we realized that some challenges students experience may not be visible. Camila shared how important it was to step outside of our own perspectives to recognize how many barriers exist for students with different needs. 

Camila: I feel that this experience was very educational in terms of accommodations. I didn’t have much experience with accommodations beyond physical accommodations but knowing that people may need accommodations for things that are not visible was very insightful for me. 

When our own personal experiences break through, data can become heavily biased as we make unwarranted predictions about what others might think or feel. When we were able to put our biases aside, and embrace different perspectives we hadn’t considered before, we were able to learn and deeply reflect on what students told us – and this is what sparked innovation and change.

Exploring EDIA as a “Moving Target”

After hearing tons of rich stories from students, we realized that we needed to reflect on the meaning of EDIA. We realized that EDIA isn’t a single entity, but a fluid system where each component interacts with each other, constantly evolving. Antik and Aastha discussed how the individual words within the acronym – equity, diversity, inclusion, and access – are all important components of the system that interact with and can influence each other.  

Antik: We always just say EDIA, as if it’s a single unit, together. But it’s important to think deeply about the relationships between each letter in the acronym and how they interact with each other. In addition, we also reflected on how the definition of EDIA is not static – it is constantly evolving over time and has the power to be shaped by those who are directly affected by it. Our vision became that EDIA is fluid and ever-changing, acting as a moving target for all of us.  

Aastha: We realized that, from all the data that we collected, EDIA is not a one-person thing. It’s not something that the school or the staff members can simply implement. It’s something that needs to be cultivated over time, and is going to keep changing as people change and people grow. Realizing that EDIA is constantly evolving, and then realizing that everybody needs to learn more about EDIA and have that knowledge to be able to practice it in their daily lives, is how the entire school community will have better EDIA programming initiatives.   

With people playing a key role in shaping EDIA into something that is both meaningful and impactful for them, EDIA can adapt to the times and specifically address the needs of each student cohort. Over time, it is up to students, staff, and people to reflect on what EDIA means to them and define it for themselves.

Champions of Change

One of our biggest learnings was realizing that there are many ways we can all be champions of EDIA. Taking small actions, challenging assumptions, and thinking about how we each understand the definition of EDIA ourselves can ensure that we will make a lasting impact that can inspire future change. As a team, we’re so proud of the work we have done on this exciting project since May 2024. We encourage you to explore the Innovation Hub’s Design Research Reports to learn more about our equity-centered research at U of T.

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