DISPROPORTIONATE IMPACT
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Disproportionate impact occurs when a subset of students based on student characteristics, such as age, race and gender, are unjustifiably experiencing lower outcomes compared to the total student population” (CCCCO, 2017). The current threshold for a group to be disproportionately impacted is 80%. This means that when a group of students performs at a level that is only 80% of the highest performing group, they are disproportionately impacted.
As you design your class, always keep equity and accessibility in mind. A class activity or resources is only effective if all students can access it and relate to it.
Make it Relevant and Inclusive
Remember that adult learners need to understand how the course content is relevant to their lives and their goals to engage with the material and the learning to be impactful. Be specific about how the course content is relevant to student goals and create opportunities for students to share how they will use the content/skills in the future. Include learning goals for all lectures and assignments. With each class session, guide and help students to see how the course content covered that day in lecture, discussions and from the day’s reading assignments, fit into the broad aims of the course. Avoid assuming the connection is “obvious.” It never is and always needs to be stated.
Representing Diversity and Multiple Viewpoints
Be culturally relevant and affirming—help students see themselves in the course content and its relevance in their lives and their goals
Be mindful of the cultural examples you use:
Do not communicate negativity or hostility towards people of marginalized backgrounds
Portray diverse cultures, ethnicities, histories and nationalities without stereotypes, generalizations and assumptions
Be mindful of the selection of course content you use, avoiding the dangers of a single narrative:
Provide multiple viewpoints and perspectives from cultural, ethnic, gender, age, sexuality, and physical abilities
Focus on the dignity and contribution of diverse race, classes, gender, abilities and sexual orientation, faiths and other belief systems
Include multigenerational viewpoints and perspectives that lead to greater understanding between age groups
Acknowledge and examine power and privilege from viewpoints of individuals who have been historically oppressed and silenced
Highlight non-dominant populations by showing their strengths and contributions as assets to our broader community and society
Be mindful of the images you use:
Use images that are culturally-affirming and reference different ethnic and cultural traditions, gender, sexuality, ages, and physical abilities
Remember that adult learners need to understand how the course content is relevant to their lives and their goals to engage with the material and the learning to be impactful
Examples and Best Practices:
Create an inclusivity statement
Include learning goals for all lectures and assignments
Help students to see how the course content, such as reading assignments, fit into the broad aims of the course
Have a social presence in your classroom—one way to achieve this is arrive at your class a few minutes early to greet students and ask how things are going
Be relational and demonstrate authentic investment
Humanizing yourself and the classroom environment
Create opportunities for students to build trusting relationships with one another
Create assignments that place value on a pluralistic, diverse, multicultural society
Encourage students to recognize the flaw of reducing peoples to stereotypes and generalizations
Encourage students to promote equity and combat inequity within their broader community and society
Mentor students on how to critically examine disinformation and misinformation in social media, in popular culture, and in online news and other websites
RESOURCES
Books:
Banks, J. A., and C. A. G. Banks. 2019. Multicultural education: Issues and perspectives. 10th ed. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.
Gay, Geneva. 2018. Culturally Responsive Teaching: Theory, Research, and Practice. 3rd Edition. Teachers College Press.
Hammond, Z. 2014. Culturally responsive teaching and the brain: Promoting authentic engagement and rigor among culturally and linguistically diverse students. 1st ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.
Tatum, B. D. 2017. Why are all the black kids sitting together in the cafeteria? 2d ed. New York: Basic Books.
Articles and Websites:
ASCCC OERI Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Anti-Racism (IDEA) Framework
California Community College Chancellor’s Office Call for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
Culturally Responsive Teaching Organization
Ladson-Billings, G. (1995). Toward a Theory of Culturally Relevant Pedagogy. American Educational Research Journal, 32(3), 465–491.
----. (2014). Culturally Relevant Pedagogy 2.0: a.k.a. the Remix. Harvard Educational Review, 84(1), 74–84.
----. (2018). But That’s Just Good Teaching! Thinking About Schools, 107–116.
Mayorga, E., and B. Picower. 2017. Active solidarity: Centering the demands and vision of the Black Lives Matter movement in teacher education. Urban Education 53.2: 212–230.
Morrison, K. A., Robbins, H. H., & Rose, D. G. (2008). Operationalizing Culturally Relevant Pedagogy: A Synthesis of Classroom-Based Research. Equity & Excellence in Education, 41(4), 433–452.
Navarro, O., C. L. Quince, B. Hsieh, and S. L. Deckman. 2019. Transforming teacher education by integrating the funds of knowledge of teachers of color. Review of Education, Pedagogy, and Cultural Studies 41.4–5: 282–316.
Paris, D. (2012). Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy. Educational Researcher, 41(3), 93–97
Toolkit for “Mathematics in Context: The Pedagogy of Liberation”
Why a Culturally Responsive Curriculum Works by Eugene Butler Jr. (2019)
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