Bias Incident Report

Guidelines for Diversity in Syllabi

SYLLABUS STRUCTURE

1) Integrate material on gender/race/ethnicity, class, sexuality, national/cultural identity, etc., throughout the course. Don't confine it to a single section of your syllabus.

2) Re-examine the overall structure of your syllabus. For chronological structures, consider what events, activities, etc., are valorized by the periodization of the syllabus. For thematic syllabi, consider whose experience the themes reflect and/or exclude. For developmental syllabi, consider what developmental model is being imposed on the knowledge, and whether or not that model is exclusive.

3) In engendering, diversifying, and internationalizing courses, thematic or topical organizations may work better than chronological ones. For international courses, consider focusing on a few carefully selected themes or issues across two-four regions. Don't try to cover the whole world. Include diversity within regions and countries.

ASSIGNMENTS

Create assignments which, ideally, encourage students to include materials on gender, race, ethnicity, class, sexuality, and/or region, country, rural-urban axis, etc., in their work, or at least work which can be completed equally well using such material and perspectives.
Make assignments methodologically and epistemologically diverse. They should push students to ask inclusive questions, to use different approaches, and to think in a variety of ways.
Consider assignments that teach students to explore nontraditional sources of information (e.g., their own and their families' experiences; the histories and experiences of other students; popular culture and mass media; etc.).

GRADING

Make evaluation criteria clear for each assignment and for the course as a whole. Write them out; students with learning disabilities will especially appreciate this, but all students will benefit from it.
Combine several kinds of evaluation (e.g., by the instructor, by peers, by the student himself or herself).
Give students some control over the evaluation process through elements of contract grading, revision processes, etc. Give early feedback.

CLASSROOM PROCESS

Consider a model in which instructor and students are co-inquirers. Such a model makes it easier to introduce material on which an instructor is not an "expert."
Make students significant sources of knowledge for each other, not only by drawing on their experience where appropriate but also by creating structures in which they share the knowledge gained from their research with their classmates.
Vary classroom processes so that a range of approaches, which may favor students with a range of learning styles, is used such as lectures, rotating chair, panels, discussions, share and pair, simulations, games; audio, visual and kinesthetic modalities etc.
Be aware of who speaks, whose ideas get valorized by other students (and the instructor), and who sits where in the classroom. Use various strategies: small groups, brief written exercises to open class, going around the circle, changing room arrangements to disrupt patterns that have developed and to create more ways to include more students.
Ask students to share responsibility for the inclusivity of the classroom process.
Use conferences with students to help them develop their interests. Do not advise students about what work to pursue on the basis of your assumptions about which group they belong to. Do not assume that the student with a Spanish accent will want to do a project on Mexican or Mexican American women, that women students won't want to do quantitative work, etc.
If "differences" in accent, race, nationality, ability, sexuality emerge as teaching issues in a class, try to avoid either shoving them under the rug or letting them lead to an explosion. Listen openly to special needs and to “sides”, encourage students to learn from one another, and decide judiciously when it is time to move on. If appropriate, seek advice or help from relevant campus offices (e.g. Center for Diversity, Disabled Student Services, Human Resources, English as a Second Language institutes, etc.).
Pay attention to your own and students' comments before and after class. Be aware of which students you interact with, and on which issues. Remember, that the informal curriculum matters too.

Sources: Based on a handout from Wendy Kolmar, Drew University, The New Jersey Project, and on comments by Janice Monk, Director, Southwest Institute for Research on women, in a syllabus revision workshop at the University of Maryland at College Park. Revised and expanded by Deborah Rosenfelt, Director, Curriculum Transformation Project, University of Maryland at College Park. Adapted from the original for internal use only at Dominican University of California – Office of Diversity of Diversity and Equity/spring 2005/updated spring 2017.

Image Sources: Quilt, Cusco Weaver, Thread, and Dominican Campus

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