MaryMargaret Bowmer's Promoting Equity and Inclusion in the Classroom

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Promoting Equity and Inclusion in the Classroom

MaryMargaret Bowmer Equity Project: A Compilation of Works

Equity in the classroom means ensuring every student is given the same resources and support. In an equitable classroom, students are not held back from reaching their full potential based on factors including race, culture, gender, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation, immigration status, individual experiences or socio-economic status.

With the Black Lives Matter movement and the protests seen on the news, read in the papers, and experienced in cities across the U.S. and the world, racial injustices have finally taken a front seat. In alignment with what is happening in the world, we need to make sure we are part of the solution, not the problem. We need to challenge our own biases, experiences, and backgrounds and not let them affect our teaching and our students. In order to achieve this goal, I have compiled a list of ways we can improve our teaching and our classrooms. The following comes from many different sites and sources, too many to track, many taken from the internet and the TLC website.

This is a first step in ensuring that our programs in ultrasound our equitable and fair.

A. Improving Equity in the Classroom

1. Seven effective ways to promote equity in the classroom.

a. Reflect on your own beliefs, identify your own biases and blind spots. Understand your own positionality regarding race, gender, ability, and how that affects how you interact with marginalized communities.

b. Reduce race and gender barriers to learning. Avoid excluding marginalized students.

i. Do not ask students of color to be the “experts” of their race.

ii. Diversify your curriculum, exposing your students to a spectrum of multicultural and female experts, writer, and artists, aiding in accurately representing the different contributors in your classes subject.

iii. Hold every student to the same expectations. Students of color report being held to lower expectations than white students. Female students report hearing more about their appearance than their academic skills. Avoid assumptions about student's backgrounds. Do not assume your students share similar life experiences.

iv. Establish an inclusive environment on the first day of class and discuss with your class that you want to create an inclusive space for all students.

1. Set up your classroom “Bill of Rights” by setting ground rules with your students in the class and have everyone agree on them. Consider having all the students sign a finished document or verbally agree.

2. This allows the students a safe atmosphere where they can share, discuss, and express themselves free from fear of retribution.

c. Be dynamic with classroom space. Consider setting up your classroom that emphasizes interaction, discussion, and togetherness.

i. De-emphasize the teacher-student hierarchy.

ii. Vary classroom activities between group, paired or individual work increasing engagement with each other and the material.

d. Accommodate learning styles and disabilities. Learning styles vary among students, male/female, and marginalized groups.

i. To create equity, present information in diverse ways so that you reach the visual, kinesthetic, auditory, and verbal learners.

ii. Use a variety of media, provide supplemental materials, make technology accessible, read test instructions aloud.

e. Be mindful of how you use technology.

i. Record all class sections and make them available to all students.

ii. Prepare and email to students a brief orientation video that introduces them to classroom/program and any other technology they will need for the course.

iii. Encourage students to share their camera during synchronous class sessions while being mindful to challenges/limitations with access to technology.

f. Consider those students that may have disabilities.

g. Be aware of religious holidays. When planning your courses, remember to account for any holiday/observances.

i. Some students may need to miss class on certain days and make up assignments/quizzes etc. Let students know at the beginning of the quarter that you have included religious holidays on the schedule, but if anyone has any conflicts to let you know as soon as possible.

2. Equitable teaching strategies

a. Wait time.

i. Helps promotes student engagement and participation, the increase in time allows for critical neural processing time for students. Also allows more introverted students time to rally the courage to volunteer an answer.

ii. Instructors should wait a full 5 seconds before answering the question posed. Students need to have time to think of what is being asked and formulate their answers before verbalizing.

iii. By waiting, instructors allow those students that may not typically answer, answer.

b. Allow students time to write.

i. Instructors can pose a writing prompt for students to read, think, write, and then share.

ii. This act allows for students to think about their answers and gives them something to refer to when answering.

iii. This act of writing itself may even lead students to discover points of confusion or key insights.

c. Think-pair-share.

i. Cultivates classroom equity in multiple ways.

1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. provides individual students time to verbalize their thoughts about biological concepts.
               2. promotes comparison of ideas among classmates.
               3. transforms the nature of the classroom environment to be more participatory.
               4. promotes a collaborative, rather than competitive, culture.
               5. a think–pair–share activity takes no more than a few minutes of class time yet may allow students the neural processing time needed before being ready to take on added information offered by an instructor. It is also during these pair discussions that students may discover new confusions or points of disagreement about concepts with fellow students, which can drive questions to be asked of the instructor.
               6. Do not try to do too much, you do not want to overload/overwhelm students.

3. Providing an inclusive environment

a. Have access and learn all student names.

b. Integrate culturally diverse and relevant examples.

i. Be intentional about providing opportunities to engage racial and equity issues within the context of the course. 

ii. Gives students the tools they will need to productively engage in racial dialogue in the course.

iii. Embrace racial discourse and address microaggressions. 

iv. Do not judge responses.

v. Be culturally relevant and affirming.

c. Have students work at stations or small groups.

i. How instructors' structure small-group interactions have the potential to provide a feeling of inclusion, community, and collaboration for students who may otherwise feel isolated in the classroom.

d. Use varied active learning strategies.

i. Using varied active-learning strategies may be key for individual learners to see a concept from multiple perspectives, make multiple associations between the concept and other ideas, and practice a variety of approaches to exploring that concept. By using varied active-learning strategies for each topic explored, instructors can work toward building an inclusive and equitable learning environment for a wide range of students with different approaches to learning.

e. Be explicit about promoting access and equity for all

i. Demonstrate authenticity and humanize yourself.

ii. Facilitate engagement on academic and non-academic matters.

f. Ask open-ended questions.

g. Use praise with caution.

h. Establish classroom community and norms.

i. Be present in all aspects of the course and model the engagement you expect of students. 

ii. Learn at least one thing about each student that has nothing to do with them being a student. 

iii. Consider providing opportunities for students to engage outside of class and share perspectives.

iv. Develop collaborative learning. 

i. Teach them from the moment they arrive.

j. Collect assessment evidence from every student, every class.

i. Conduct an informal assessment of students' experiences in the classroom and online learning.

ii. Validate and verbalize positive messages to students, "you belong," "you can do the work."

iii. Use assessment strategies that focus on continuous improvement and progress toward demonstrating proficiency by the end of the course. 

iv. Make success in the course transparent.

v. Acknowledge and leverage cultural strengths and assets to facilitate learning for all students.