Standard 7: Content Selections in All Curricula

Glossary

Academia: The educational environment in its entirety, tasked with the pursuit of education

Consciousness: A developmental process that makes people aware of systems of oppression.

Curriculum: The aggregate of courses of study, including all components of material and resources used to construct and facilitate student learning.

Counternarrative: Story going against that of the majority culture as expressed in educational text, print or digital form

Digital Literacy: An ability to use information and communication technologies to find, evaluate, create, and communicate information. This ability requires both cognitive and technical skills

Dominant Culture: Majority culture represented within a group setting

Marginalized: Person or group treated as inferior or lacking adequate representation

Representation: Students see themselves and hear the voices of all cultures and all identities in their learning, materials, and all aspects of the curriculum

Guest speakers - seek out marginalized voices

Essential Questions: intentionally embrace student identities and prioritize representation in the curriculum.

Consider student identities - ensure they are an essential part of our conversation and global perspective

Guiding Professor/Educator thinking

Read from diverse scholars - readings are not just from 'white scholar voices' but integrate a VARIETY of voices, authors, speakers

Alignment and review of current practices to ensure representation:

• program-level objectives

• class activities

• class discussions

• materials

• assessments

• syllabus

• Full alignment - standards to objectives to activities to assessment

  • Alignment Matrix

Practice, clinical, observation of students in classroom settings:

• "look-fors"

• evidence of principles reflecting CRTL standards practice

Internship Indicators

Student Interventions

• one size does not fit all

• norms - who and what - does this match student population

• home-school connections

Assessments reflect standards

• equitable grading: https://gradingforequity.org/

• Practices

• norms utilized for the assessment

Audit

• School climate audits: https://safesupportivelearning.ed.gov/topic-research/school-climate-measurement/school-climate-survey-compendium

• mental framework to review the balance of speakers, materials, voices, environment, and all related aspects of the classroom.

• 4.2 - Evaluates a school to ensure the use of a wide range of printed, visual, or auditory materials and online resources appropriate to the content areas and the reading needs and levels of each student including ELLs, students with disabilities, and struggling as well as advanced readers.

• Alignment Matrix - establish 'look-fors" "expectations"

Suggested Resources to Explore:

Antiracist Pedagogy Reading List (A resource list intended for college professors.)

Braun, Gina and Kristin Ravel. “Toward an Anti-Racist Curriculum.” (Powerpoint presented as part of RU’s Courageous Conversations series. The slides provide an overview of strategies for designing an anti-racist curriculum.)

Brown University Center for Teaching and Learning. Effective Teaching in Anti-Racist Teaching. (A webpage from Brown University that offers a process for working toward anti-racist teaching. Focuses on course goals, content, classroom discussions, and assessment.)

Colorado College. Our Work Toward Becoming an Antiracist Institution. (An open letter from Colorado College’s president that outlines steps being taken by the college to work toward becoming an anti-racist institution.)

Eliminate Racism 815. (Website for a growing group of community members in Rockford that aims to end racism and validate the importance of every individual.)

Imazeki, Jennifer Anti-Racism and Allyship in the Classroom (An extensive list that includes general and discipline-specific resources.)

Kendi, Ibram (2020). “Making Higher Education Anti-Racist.” Harvard Gazette. (A short article about potential reforms in higher education.)

Kernahan, C. (2019). Teaching About Race and Racism in the College Classroom: Notes from a White Professor. West Virginia University Press. (A university professor’s reflections on teaching about race.)

Louis, Errol (2020). ”Ibram X. Kendi: Building an Anti-Racist Society.” (An interview with Kendi on dismantling racist systems and building an anti-racist society.)

Metivier, Krishni (2020). “Envisioning Higher Education as Anti-Racist.” Inside Higher Education. (A checklist of key actions that colleges and universities should take in working toward an anti-racist campus culture.)

Taylor, S.D., Veri, M.J., Eliason, M., Hermoso, J.C.R., Bolter, N.D., & Van Olphen, J.E. (2019). The Social Justice Syllabus Design Tool: A First Step in Doing Social Justice Pedagogy. Journal Committed to Social Change on Race and Ethnicity (JCSCORE), 5(2), 133-66. (An article that suggests ways to design a syllabus that “signals belongingness, growth mindset, communal goals, clear and positive expectations, and success-orientation.”)

University of Dayton. (2020). Explore UD’s Steps Toward Becoming an Anti-Racist University. (An Open Letter to the University of Dayton Community from Members of the President’s Council Regarding Steps Toward Becoming an Anti-Racist University.)

Dee, T. and Pinner, E. (2017). The causal effects of cultural relevance: Evidence from an ethnic studies curriculum. American Education Research Journal, 54(1), 127-166.