'Toward a just classroom': Cal State LA offers 'Inclusive Teaching Program'
The training also educated faculty about 'how your cultural context and identity affects your perception of self-care.'
Course enrollees learned about 'hidden automatic biases' and methods to 'reduce prejudice in your teaching.'
California State University, Los Angeles (Cal State LA) recently provided an “Inclusive Teaching Program” for faculty members this past semester, which included training on how to identify one’s “hidden automatic biases” and “reduce prejudice in your teaching.”
Concluding earlier this month, the program featured seven online modules spread out over the course of 13 weeks, with each training dedicated to advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI).
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The program consisted of reflective writing, group discussions, knowledge surveys, and strategies to implement DEI practices in teaching.
The second module prepared instructors for how to teach first-generation students, especially “LatinX first-generation students.”
After two weeks devoted to “Leading Difficult Discussions,” course enrollees were instructed to “reflect on our biases and assumptions in the classroom.”
Contributing to “achievement gaps,” an instructor’s implicit bias allegedly includes things like having “more eye contact with certain groups of students than others” and “[assuming] that our students share our worldview.”
“You will learn about the current ways to measure implicit prejudice, reflect on how we develop prejudice, and identify and implement ways to reduce prejudice in your teaching,” stated the training description.
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In the final module concerning chronic stress, course enrollees were taught about “burnout, effective stress coping mechanisms, and how your cultural context and identity affects [sic] your perception of self-care”
The program was administered through Cal State LA’s Center for Effective Teaching and Learning. The Center plans to offer a fall version of the training program with the application becoming available in August.
Campus Reform contacted all relevant parties for comment. This story will be updated accordingly.
