2: Inclusivity Session

Workshop Overview

The Inclusivity workshop uses facilitated discussion and reflection to increase awareness of the most common invisible factors that serve as barriers to success for students from underserved groups. Awareness is only useful when paired with action, so participants will use their awareness to develop and share teaching strategies to offset the impact of structural barriers.  Therefore participants will walk away with concrete examples of strategies they can use in their courses to reduce barriers and increase success for all students. 

Learning Outcomes

Participants will be able to:

• Determine the benefits and challenges of diverse populations in the classroom
• Describe the impact of privilege, stereotype threat, and unconscious bias on learners and strategies to offset their impact
• Incorporate inclusive teaching strategies into classroom activities that offset inequities and/or invisible barriers

Key Terms

• Inclusive teaching
• Implicit/explicit diversity
• Implicit assumptions/unconscious biases
• Privilege
• Equity
• Microaggression
• Cultural competency
• Stereotype threat

Active Learning/Formative Assessment Strategies

• Brainstorming
• Directed- and random-call report out
• Life walk
• Think-pair-share
• Back-channel discussion
• Front-channel report out
• Small group discussion/breakout rooms
• Reflection

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Pre-Workshop

Background

The goal of the following pre-workshop homework is to introduce all participants to four common factors that make our classrooms exclusive: a) unconscious bias, b) stereotype threat, c) microaggressions and d) cultural competency. During the workshop, each participant will choose one of these areas and as part of a group will do a deeper dive into that topic and then share resources and strategies with their cohort peers for offsetting that factor in the classroom.

Tasks

  Please complete the following tasks prior to the workshop for an introduction to four barriers to inclusive classrooms:

1. Unconscious bias:
   • Read this 2-page NYTimes Op-Ed "What? Me Biased?  What? Me Biased?.pdf
   • Visit Harvard Project Implicit and take at least two Implicit Assumption tests of your choice. (*Note: It can be uncomfortable to find out that you have unconscious biases. It's important to know that unconscious biases are a result of YOUR ENVIRONMENT and not what you consciously believe. The goal is to use awareness to make conscious efforts to offset unconscious biases. Knowledge is power.) 
2. Stereotype threat: Watch the following the 8-minute video of Dr. Claude Steele (Stanford) discussing stereotype threat, the focus of his book, Whistling Vivaldi. 

    

3. Microaggression: Watch this 4.5 minutes video on Microaggressions by Dr. Derald Wing Sue (Columbia). 

4. Cultural competency: Visit the National Education Association website and read through the information on cultural competency on the first page.  This can also serve as a resource later as there are links to resources for educators here as well. 

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During Workshop

Activities

1. Equality vs Equity - Visit the Inclusivity Workshop Google Folder and go to the folder for your institution.
   1. Record your group's answers in the Equality/Equity Google Doc. 
2. Deeper Dive on Invisible Barriers to Inclusion:
   • Visit the Inclusivity Workshop Google Folder and go to the folder for your institution to report your findings in the Deeper Dive on Invisible Barriers Google Doc.
   • Use the materials linked below for your topic to develop and share classroom strategies to offset one of the four invisible factors that contribute to classroom inequities. 
     • Unconscious Bias materials:
       • Visit the Aperian Global Website to learn about three steps to address unconscious bias. 
       • Take-home findings of students on unconscious bias - Intervention Studies for offsetting unconscious bias.pdf
       • Bibliography links for "Intervention Studies for offsetting unconscious bias.pdf" can be searched for on this site
     • Stereotype Threat materials:
       • A set of empirically validated interventions to offset stereotype threat: Interventions to help reduce stereotype threat.pdf
     • Microaggression materials: 
       • A 4-page document from Equity Solutions with definitions, examples, exercises/tools and links to further resources - Introduction to microaggressions.pdf
       • A 2-page tool for Recognizing Microaggressions and the Messages They Send adapted from Dr. Derald Wing Sue, Microaggressions in Everyday Life: Race, Gender and Sexual Orientation, Wiley & Sons, 2010: Microaggressions_Examples_Arial_2014_11_12.pdf
     • Cultural competence materials: 
       • A resource for Creating a Culture of Inclusion for Students based on a presentation by Lea Webb and Jahtayshia Davis of the Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at Binghamton University, 2020. Cultural competence.pdf
       • Cultural competency: Visit the National Education Association website
3. Reflection - Visit the Inclusivity Workshop Google Folder and go to the folder for your institution.
   • Record your reflections on the benefits of this session in this Inclusivity Reflection Google Doc.

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Post-Workshop

Selected Resources

• Table of evidence-based classroom activities that address specific inclusivity issues by E. Pietri:  evidence-based inclusivity interventions.pdf
• How to include a care note for people of color in your syllabus:
• TEDxUGA Talk by Dr. Ansley Booker, Unhidden Figures: Uncovering our cultural biases in STEM. 
• New classroom tool being developed at Harvard for inclusive teaching practices in large courses: http://teachly.me/
• Cultural competency website from Georgetown: https://nccc.georgetown.edu/curricula/culturalcompetence.html
• Preparing teachers for diverse classrooms from Edutopia: https://www.edutopia.org/blog/preparing-cultural-diversity-resources-teachers
• MCOD - Multicultural Organization Development, website with guidance/resources for organizational change around this issue.
• ASPIRE - The National Alliance for Inclusive and Diverse STEM Faculty - webpage with resources from APLU.
• Video on Cultural Humility:

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References

• Theobald, E., Hill, M. Tran, E., Agrawal, S., Arroyo, E., Behling, S., Chambwe, N., Cintrón, D., Cooper, J., Dunster, G., Grummer, J., Hennessey, K., Hsiao, J., Iranon, N., Jones, L., Jordt, H., Keller, M., Lacey, M., Littlefield, C., Lowe, A. Newman, A., Okolo, V. Olroyd, S., Peecook, B., Pickett, S., Slager, D., Caviedes-Solis, I., Stanchak, K., Sundaravardan, V., Valdebenito, D., Williams, C., Zinsli, K., Freeman, S.  (2020) Active learning narrows achievement gaps for underrepresented students in undergraduate science, technology, engineering, and math. PNAS 117(12) 6476-6483.
• Does STEM Stand Out? Examining Racial/Ethnic Gaps in Persistence Across Postsecondary Fields by Catherine Riegle-Crumb, Barbara King, and Yasmiyn Irizarry. Does STEM Stand Out_.pdf
• Structure Matters: Twenty-one teaching strategies to promote student engagement and cultivate classroom equity, K Tanner CBE-LSE:  Structure Matters 21 strategies inclusivity.pdf
• A special report from Magna Publications, You Belong Here: Making: Making Diversity, Equity and Inclusion a Mission in the Classroom - You-Belong-Here-Making-Diversity-Equity-and-Inclusion-a-Mission-in-the-Classroom.pdf

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Session Slides

Inclusivity Session Slides