Center Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in Teaching

Post-secondary instructors are facing more challenges nowadays because the student population is increasingly diverse. This page is to provide best practices and resources for instructors and staff to apply inclusive pedagogy into their instruction so that the course design and delivery are welcome and effective to all students. Interactive worksheet and self-reflection questions are provided to stimulate deeper comprehension and further application within our learning community. Major topics will be included in this page:

Universal Design for Learning (UDL)
Culturally Responsive Teaching (CRT)
Inclusive Teaching
Anti-racist Pedagogy
Mitigate Bias, Stereotypes, and Microaggressions
Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in Online Learning

Note: You can click each subtitle below to see definition and resources of each topic.

Universal Design for Learning: offering multiple paths to deliver learning outcomes

Universal Design for Learning (UDL) seeks to include the maximum number of learners in instruction by offering multiple paths to get to the same learning outcomes, including

• Multiple means of engagement: the why of learning

• Multiple means of representation: the what of learning

• Multiple means of action and expression: the how of learning

More Resources:

Practice: complete the Interactive Worksheet below to develop a plan for applying UDL framework in your courses.

Culturally Responsive Teaching: integrating cultural content and awareness to enhance achievement for all students

Culturally Responsive Teaching (CRT) is a framework for teaching that integrates cultural content and awareness to enhance achievement for all students. Although it was first developed in K-12 circles, CRT can be applied to college teaching and benefits all students (Ginsberg & Wlodkowski, 2009). CRT recognizes that intrinsic motivation matters for student learning. Motivation can be enhanced or reduced by classroom conditions. Motivation is connected to cultural backgrounds and forms of learning, which means that faculty have a responsibility to promote a culturally responsive teaching environment in their classrooms.

Watch the video (7 min) below to understand the concept of CRT.

More Resources:

Framework for Diversity and Inclusion (webinar, 30 min)
Nine Ways to Implement Culturally Responsive Teaching During Distance Learning (article, 15 min)
Zaretta Hammond "Culturally Responsive Teaching" at the San Francisco Public Library (video, 30 min)

Best practices to implement CRT:

Establish inclusion by creating a learning environment in which learners and teachers feel respected and connected to one another.
Develop a positive attitude towards learning through personal relevance and volition.
Enhance meaning by creating challenging and engaging learning experiences that include learners’ perspectives and values.
Engender competence to help learners see how they are effectively learning something they value and that is of authentic value to their community.

Self-reflection: what's my student demographic look like? Who are marginalized students in my classroom/school/district?

Inclusive Teaching: promoting feelings of inclusion

In an inclusive classroom, the instructor and students move away from assumptions that some students are lacking and move toward the idea that learning environments and course designs lacking structure are a problem.

Unstructured learning environments can lead to unfairness, feelings of exclusion, and collisions of students’ cultural backgrounds with the learning environment.
Adding structure to learning environments can mitigate unfairness, promote feelings of inclusion, and promote student success.

More Resources:

Hogan and Sathy (2021) shared some practical tips on creating inclusive classroom:

Prompt students to interact socially by introducing themselves and providing basic info about their gender identities and names.
Use colored boxes in PowerPoint to provide clear instructions on structured activities. Giving expectations about timing adds structure.
Use “wait time” of 5-7 seconds before calling on students
Allow students anonymous ways to participate (note card shuffle)

Self-reflection: Have I done any practices in my instruction to promote inclusion? Who inspired me to do this and why did I do it?

Anti-racist Pedagogy: dismantling whiteness and racism

Conceptualize antiracist pedagogy as an entangled cluster of human bodies (such as those of pedagogues and students), and non-human bodies (such as curricular texts) in the context of teaching and learning that is aimed at dismantling Whiteness and racism (Ohito, 2020).

More Resources:

Anti-racist Pedagogy Webinar (1 hour)
Equity scorecard
ORID model
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Matters: solutions, actions, resources

Dr. Melissa Crum is an artist, education consultant and diversity practitioner who works with many educators in urban schools. She noticed that many teachers had challenges teaching and relating to students who did not share their same cultural background. So, she worked with a museum educator to create an arts-based professional development series that helps educators think about how they are thinking about their diverse students. Her personal story and professional practice work together to tell a creative, inspiring, and eye-opening message that everyone must hear.

Self-reflection: The picture above showed four reflections around the curriculum design triangle: Reflections on identity, assessments, pedagogy, and resources (Crocker, 2021). Who am I as the instructor? What choices have I made to include other voices/ ways of knowing? How have I asked learners to show their knowledge? How have I de-centered whiteness?

Mitigate Bias, Stereotypes and Microaggressions

Bias: A predisposition to see events, people or items in a positive or negative way. Bias is an attitude or belief.
Stereotypes: An oversimplified image or statement applied to a whole group of people, without regard for the individual.
Microaggressions: Brief and commonplace daily verbal, behavioral and environmental indignities, whether intentional or unintentional, that communicate hostile, derogatory, or negative racial slights and insults to the target person or group.

There ARE ways to speak up without blaming or shaming the other person. Anyone can speak up in the face of demeaning or stereotypical comments. You don’t have to be the boss. A simple phrase or question on your part can turn a conversation from destructive to productive. One voice – your voice – can make a difference. So, go ahead, speak up on behalf of respect:

Assume Good Intent and Explain Impact
Ask a Question
Interrupt and Redirect
Broaden to Universal Human Behavior
Make It Individual
Say Ouch (Aguilar, 2006)!

Self-reflection: Do I ever hear stereotypes or other demeaning comments/microaggressions? What was my reaction and how will I do differently in the future?

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in Online Learning

Ensuring equity in our classrooms as educators would require an integrated understanding and awareness of the unique challenges and barriers faced by our students, and then providing additional supports to overcome these barriers.

More Resources:

When we asked students about the most effective uses of technology that they experienced in their courses during the fall 2020 term, some common themes emerged. Perhaps the most frequently cited technology critical to the student experience during the pandemic was the learning management system (LMS).

Self-reflection: What kind of technology challenges are my students facing during global pandemic? What can I do to support them overcome these barriers?

References:

Aguilar, L. C., Leskowitz, J., & Aguilar, L. (2006). Ouch! that stereotype hurts: Communicating respectfully in a diverse world. Sunshower Learning.

Esther O. Ohito (2020) Fleshing out enactments of Whiteness in antiracistpedagogy: snapshot of a White teacher educator’s practice, Pedagogy, Culture & Society, 28(1)1,17-36, DOI: 10.1080/14681366.2019.1585934

Hogan and Sathy. (2021). Structuring the Classroom for Inclusive Teaching. https://docs.google.com/document/d/13QfA2l2pHQinC5ljfNe67XpgYHlQO9BosEIf9d6sz4Q/edit

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