In the past decade, I have been an educator in a small, private liberal arts college; a large, public research university; a K-12 charter school; a public outreach role; and informal mentorship. Formally, I have taught physics, astronomy, and earth science. Informally,  my lessons included dealing with panic attacks, navigating difficult conversations, writing resumes and cover letters, and more. In each instance, the richest experiences came from making personal connections with my students and colleagues. Through those connections, I learned that, ultimately, learning is a highly individual process. I see heutagogy (Blaschke & Hase, 2016, 2021), with its focus on self-determined learning, as most supportive of individual variation in learning as well as being naturally inclusive of differences. Because the learner chooses the path, they can incorporate and benefit from those differences. Self-determined learning means that I am not telling my students what to think or how to think. Rather, I am helping them develop the tools they need to determine their own meaning and decide what topics are important to them. At its best, teaching from a self-determined mindset requires me to be the adaptable one, and my varied experience gives me a broad background for adapting. Guiding students as they lead their own learning allows them to harness that diversity rather than filtering all knowledge through my one, limited perspective. A white, English-speaking, middle-class woman can never effectively communicate the experiences of anyone else, but she can facilitate the voices of others to speak for themselves.

In trying to be inclusive, it’s important to focus on building a learning community – empowering learners and connecting them – such that students form relationships with and learn from each other. An instructor centering themselves as the knowledge authority can easily fall into an inclusion-as-exoticism approach, teaching about and speaking for marginalized groups rather than allowing those groups to speak with their own voice. Connecting community members, meanwhile, builds inclusion through a shared perception of social identity (Bai et al, 2020). My experiences have shown me that the day-to-day work matters far less than the overall goal of the organization and its community. Do I feel as though I am contributing to something meaningful, something that will actually make a positive impact in people's lives? Am I doing it with people who share this vision and support each other in achieving our individual and collective goals? In designing instructional content and course curriculum, I aim to leave space for learners to ask these questions for themselves and make decisions that align with their knowledge and values. 

References

Bai, X., Ramos, M.R., & Fiske, S.T. (2020). As diversity increases, people paradoxically perceive social groups as more similar. PNAS, 117(23), 12741-12749. https://www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.2000333117 

Blaschke, L. M., & Hase, S. (2016). Heutagogy: A holistic framework for creating twenty-first-century self-determined learners. In B. Gros, Kinshuk, & M. Maina, The future of ubiquitous learning (pp. 25-40). Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. 

Blaschke, L. M. & Hase, S. (2021). So, you want to do heutagogy: Principles and practice. In S. Hase & L. M. Blaschke (Eds.), Unleashing the power of learner agency [eBook]. EdTech Books. https://edtechbooks.org/up/pp 

In the presentation below, I explore how Latina/Hispanic women pursuing STEM experience college. I have been teaching for roughly 10 years now, and in every position, mentorship was one of the most fulfilling roles I could take in my students’ lives. Most often, these students were girls or women with an interest in STEM, and in order to be a good mentor to future students, I wanted to broaden my knowledge with regard to Hispanic women. I begin this presentation with background on how Hispanic students and Hispanic women experience higher education, focusing on the types of institutions these students attend, the role of Hispanic Serving Institutions, and the current state of Hispanic women in STEM fields. I then discuss the steps I, as a future college instructor, plan on taking to best support Hispanic women in my class.