DEIA Opportunities (Alternate Appendix F)

This year, I completed participation in the Culturally Responsive Pedagogy and Practices Grant co-organized by Professors Tiffany Lanoix and Jennifer Ortiz. As part of this grant, I supplemented the race and ethnicity module of my Introduction to Sociology (SOC 001) course with excerpts from Patricia Hill Collins’s Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness, and the Politics of Empowerment. The aim was to expose students to the building blocks of theories that addressed the oppression, struggles, and liberation of Black women. The module featured a corresponding discussion board in which students were asked to discuss what controlling images are and then provide three examples of what Collins meant by this concept.

The previous success rate for Black students in my SOC 001 courses was reported at 67%, while the Spring 2025 one was 71%, a change that reflected a very slight increase in their course success. While encouraging, it is important to take into account other variables that may have contributed to this increase, including stochastic ones. The fact that I did not make the module mandatory led to fewer students participating than I would have liked to see. I addressed this problem by making the assignment required as of fall 2025. Aside from this mistake on my part, the fact that my success rate increased meant that I could generally state that the implementation of my culturally responsive practice was successful.

I am also active with AFT Local 1521's Latine/a/o Caucus. I was happy to serve as Zoom chat moderator for the Caucus's inaugural Latine Heritage Month event, "Latina Teachers: Creating Careers and Guarding Culture," featuring Professor Glenda M. Flores from UC Irvine. Sixty attendees joined us for an animated discussion on Latine teachers' pedagogical strategies.