We are getting to the summer here in Europe, although you would not know it from the weather we are having. A very wet winter and spring, which have been neither very hot nor very cold, leave most of us convinced that global warming is the cause – yet how many of us are doing anything about it? There are elections all over the world this year, but you rarely hear any radical strategies thought through to ensure the whole planet does not overheat. Like so many things, most of us feel that we cannot do very much alone – so we don’t do much at all. Conservation and sustainability are worthy concepts but more action is required.

Diversity, equity and inclusion are equally worthy and starting to be discussed openly, with most employers having a policy on them. The content of the articles on this topic in this issue show how far we have come since I started teaching but also how far we still have to go. On the cover of this magazine you will always see twelve contributors’ names – six male and six female. Is that enough of a balance? What about backgrounds, ethnicities, religions, sectors of work? If you really want balance, the list would be endless. Look around your staffroom – does the staff reflect a wide range? Who writes the coursebooks, local writers or UK-based ones? What about your management team? Does that show diversity? The point of this issue is not to change the world, merely to bring your attention to some important values we need to be aware of.

As a parent I can see that my childrens’ generation is automatically more tolerant and naturally less biased than my generation and, to be fair, my generation is more culturally aware than my parents’ one. Be that as it may, change is still needed and employers need to stop employing people based on passport and stereotypes and start choosing the best teachers available – irrespective of nationality, colour or race.

Diversity is clearly an important issue in our classrooms and we really have to be on our toes to ensure that everyone is made to feel welcome and included. I remember one of my students in New Zealand feeling that she was not taken seriously by all the male teachers in the institution. She felt she was given less time to develop her arguments and to offer her opinions than some of her male classmates. It is very easy to have favourites without realising it and to slightly ignore other people in the class. What can you do to make sure this doesn’t happen?

In April I attended the IATEFL conference and, after one talk on diversity, the woman next to me asked me how the talk had made me feel being white, male and of a certain age. I was quite surprised by her directness but understood her point. I am also quite tall which, apparently, is a real asset in interviews! The point is we make a lot of superficial judgements without really weighing people up properly. I think we do this a lot with our learners as well. We need to be careful we don’t judge too many books by the covers!

As I was putting this issue together I started to realise how many different areas of diversity there are in our society and, therefore, in our classrooms. Just towards the end of the process a colleague sent me an article about a group of learners who have been totally excluded from education – females in Afghanistan. A whole generation have been told they cannot study; schools and universities are closed to them. What are they supposed to do? They are the teachers, scientists, engineers and doctors of the future. Amazingly, a group of volunteer teachers has started to teach them online – it is a massive task but the fact that it has got off the ground is a huge achievement.

So wherever you are and whoever you teach, make sure your classrooms or Zoom sessions are friendly, welcoming and fair. Treat everyone as an individual with their own story to tell and reasons for being there. I really hope this issue opens your eyes to aspects of equality, diversity and inclusion you were not aware of before. Any thoughts you have on the topic could easily be turned into an article for future issues. Wishing you a good July and August.

Robert McLarty

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