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2.2: Inclusivity Session

  • Page ID
    144582
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    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:

    • Articulate factors that contribute to systemic inequities in education;
    • Self-reflect on beliefs and behaviors to better understand how we can change to remove barriers to our students success;
    • Incorporate strategies to remove, mitigate or offset barriers that contribute to system inequities.

    Key Terms

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

    Active Learning/Formative Assessment Strategies

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

    Pre-Workshop

    Background

    The goal of the following pre-workshop homework is to introduce all participants to five factors that make our classrooms exclusive: a) unconscious bias, b) stereotype threat, c) microaggressions, d) lack of cultural competency and exclusive language and policies in our syllabi. 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. 

    5. An inclusive syllabus: A Google doc with Six Principles of an Inclusive Design syllabus


    During Workshop

    Activities

    1. Cultivating Brave Spaces: visit the  Inclusivity Workshop Google Folder and go to the folder for your institution.
      1. Activity 1: Setting community guidelines for engagement.  In the Cultivating Brave Spaces Google doc, read the opening information add your groups list of brainstormed guidelines to the first table. We will adopt these as the guidelines for engagement during this workshop.
      2. Activity 2: In the same Google doc, record your group's answers to the prompts at the top of the second Table
    2. Deeper Dive on Invisible Barriers to Inclusion:

    Post-Workshop

    Selected Resources


    References


    Session Slides

    The slide deck from today's presentation is available here and the file is titled "MoSI Inclusivity 2022 - Final.pptx".  Each slide has associated with it a set of talking points and many have additional resources that you can utilize to take a deeper dive into the concepts that are presented. 

    These materials can be reused by MoSI participants so long as they are properly attributed to the MoSI.

     

     

     


    2.2: Inclusivity Session is shared under a CC BY-NC-SA license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by LibreTexts.