Culture & Environment

7) Students identify and disrupt forms of bias and behaviors that negatively impact the learning community. 

Students have opportunities to voice their discomfort with problematic behavior in a confidential way so the classroom community can respond and/or re-affirm/revise its norms for classroom interactions.

• Read If you aren’t White, Asian, or Indian, you aren’t an engineer: racial microaggressions in STEM Education, Lee et al (2020). Study of impacts of racial microaggressions on students of color in STEM courses.

• Read Language Matters: Considering Microaggressions in Science by Harrison and Tanner (2018) and implement strategies to combat microaggressions.

• 10 Ways Educators Can Take Action in Pursuit of Equity 2018 post from Jennifer Gonzalez on Cult of Pedagogy describing educator actions. 

• Assign readings such as Combating Microaggressions in Science (ASM) and discuss with your students. 

Course activities acknowledge and address implicit biases, stereotype threat, and microaggressions and identify ways to disrupt them.

• Stereotype threat lesson from Underrepresented Curriculum illustrates how stereotypes can unconsciously manifest in a person’s work. 

• Implicit bias lesson from Underrepresented Curriculum explores implicit bias and impacts on actions. - 

• Provide examples of implicit bias in your teaching curriculum content and design and how you tried to rectify it.

• If you hear/see something that isn’t appropriate, say something; call out bias and microaggressions.

Course is intentionally designed and enacted to demonstrate awareness that diverse people experience the world in varied ways and explores long standing social injustices along with possible ways to address them. 

• Read Facilitating Difficult Race Discussions Five ineffective strategies and five effective strategies.  Sue (2020)