Module Overview: Start Here!

Welcome!

Thank you for joining this online professional development course! I share your commitment to equity, and I hope that you find useful the resources included here.

I wanted to start this conversation with a few notes. First, all the material here prioritizes interactions with students that support success. Whether you work with students in a classroom or an office, my hope is simple: learn something that inspires you to make a change, even a small change. This goal builds on the approach of Maya Angelou: “Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better.” The module provides information that increases your knowledge and understanding of diversity, equity, and inclusion, making it possible to do better. 

I have collected a few thoughts - a sort of guiding principles list - that ground the information that follows. 

  • First, the concept of equity is embedded in many different scholarly disciplines, and it affects all areas of higher education. There is no one text or one discipline that will explain all that we need to know on the topic, so you should embrace the interdisciplinary nature of equity and its complicated applications. 
  • Also, it takes a lot of work to educate yourself on these topics as well as to shift ingrained mental models and teaching practices. There are many resources available - books and articles, online and in-person training - and I sincerely hope that you will look at continual education as a necessity. No one ever “completes” their knowledge on equity; commit to being a life-long learner. 
  • Similar to adopting a “growth” or “fixed” mindset on certain topics, you can adopt an inclusive teaching mindset - a lens that you use to view your work. This lens reminds you to ask the questions, “Who is being left out as a result of approaching the assignment/activity/interaction this way?” and “How does this decision impact different groups of students?” every time that you make a decision. 
  • It is our own personal responsibility to educate ourselves on these topics - not the responsibility of others. It is especially not the responsibility of historically non-dominant and/or marginalized groups - people of color, members of the LGBTQ+ community, people with disabilities, and others - to teach us.
  • Because I take personal responsibility for my own learning, I know that I make mistakes. I approach this topic with humility, aware that my own biases and positionality limits my understanding. Because I want to learn more, I sincerely invite you to teach me. If something in these materials concerns you, I hope that you will reach out and share your experience. I endeavour to practice intellectual and cultural humility.
  • Finally, your individual journey is different from others’ journeys. Because we come from such different backgrounds and have such different experiences, you are going to gain insights from and be challenged by different materials than others. Do your best to avoid comparison and learn what you need at this time. 

Asao B. Inoue - author of books and articles on antiracist writing and reading strategies - does a great job of summing up the purpose of changing our strategies and reminding us that guilt and blame are not the reasons:

"Taking responsibility is an ethical imperative, something we do because we wish to act compassionately, not because we are guilty. Guilt is a universal condition of us all, which makes it meaningless when trying to make structural change, as we are trying to do with antiracist reading practices. Being to blame
for perpetrating some injustice upon others is a judgment that is often understood as a moral failing. Taking responsibility, on the other hand, for our world is what we do because it is our world, and the vast majority of us want to make it better for ourselves, for others, and for those who come after us." (Inoue, Asao B. "Teaching Antiracist Reading" 151)

As you work though some or all of the following modules, I hope that you will keep these principles in mind. 

 

Module Purpose, Task, and Criteria 

Finally, in the spirit of transparency, here’s the purpose, task and criteria for the overall module:

  • Purpose: The module aims to increase your knowledge and understanding of diversity, equity, and inclusion in the higher education context. 
  • Task: You will review various articles, videos, and examples on diversity, equity, and inclusion topics, and you will have opportunities to reflect and apply the ideas to your interactions with students. 
  • Criteria: The module will be successful if you leave with ideas that you can use to improve your interactions with students right away. 

 

Overview of this Module

Here’s the outlines of the topics that the module covers, and each section stands alone. 

  • The Case for Inclusive Teaching 
  • Key Terms and Definitions
  • Awareness of Our Implicit Biases and Personal Positionality
  • Faculty and Institutional Mindsets
  • Equity-Mindedness Classroom Practices Overview 
    • #1: Managing Class Climate 
    • #2: Using Universal Design for Learning (UDL)
    • #3: Designing Culturally-Responsive Curriculum  
    • #4: Increasing Transparency
    • #5: Creating Anti-Racist Assessments
    • #6: Strengthening Equity in Online Courses
    • #7: Supporting First-Generation Students
    • #8: Supporting LGBTQIA+ Students
  • What Next?
  • Additional Resources

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