What do We Mean by an Inclusive Pharmacology Education?

An inclusive education is one that meets the needs of all students, is welcoming to people from different cultures and socioeconomic backgrounds, and accessible for those who are neurodiverse or with disabilities. It means recognizing students come from many different backgrounds and have a range of experiences and motivations. This is critically important for students transitioning from school to university and for students moving from one country to another, especially where there are different cultural and pedagogical norms. Developing and delivering supportive courses that promote academic and professional aspects (e.g., citing and referencing, use of artificial intelligence, practical laboratory skills) can provide invaluable induction for students as they adapt to a new social and educational culture. It is important to involve all students in an inclusive approach so that all students benefit from the outset of their learner journey. Neurodiversity includes Specific Learning Differences (SpLD), a term used to encompass a range of learning and processing differences such as dyslexia, dyspraxia and ADHD and differences in social communication as in autism. For example, dyslexia affects between 5% and 20% of the population [3] and is commonly thought of as a difficulty with phonological processing, slow retrieval of information from long-term memory and impaired working memory. Understanding of these differences has evolved from the deficit model of the past to recognize some of the advantages of neurodiverse teams including aspects of creativity, divergent thinking and conceptual expansion [4]. In the last 15 years or so, significant work has been undertaken and published around the validity of experimental design, specifically related to representation of both sexes in experimental and clinical data (reviewed in [18]). This has resulted in changes in requirements across prominent funding bodies [19] and journals [20] around the use and reporting of sex-specific details of experimental design and reporting, extending from pre-clinical to clinical research. By emphasizing the importance of this in aspects of pharmacology teaching and research, a shift in the mindset of faculty and students is created to address such pitfalls and potential data gaps into the future. Pharmacology education is evolving and creating a more inclusive educational environment is a high priority [21]. There are several support sources which help teachers identify areas on which to focus. The UK's QAA Inclusive Education Framework [22] provides an auditing tool which helps teachers to assess their current practice and identify potential areas for change. The Universal Design for Learning [23] approach is also a framework with the goal of making learning inclusive. These tools are based on significant educational research literature about how students learn and on the recognition that, as educators, we need to change the design of the environment rather than assume the problem is a deficit with the learner. Furthermore, designing learning this way improves education for all learners. Both authors contributed to the writing of the manuscript. The authors have nothing to report. The authors have nothing to report. The authors declare no conflicts of interest. The authors have nothing to report.