Profs to spend summer in ‘inclusive learning’ workshops
Colleges across the country are offering summer workshops for their professors on how best to “foster inclusion in teaching and learning.”
Washington University in Saint Louis, for instance, will be sponsoring a two-day “Faculty Institute on Inclusive Teaching,” where participants will learn to understand “bias and its effects on teaching and learning” while practicing the design of “inclusive assignments.”
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According to an online description for the institute, the school’s Office of the Provost will support the combined 12-hour event.
Meanwhile, the University of North Carolina at Charlotte recently offered faculty members an opportunity to “engage” in a “6-hour exploration of inclusive classrooms” while discussing “concrete strategies to enhance the teaching-learning process in their own courses” as part of the school’s “Summer Mini-Institute on Inclusive Teaching and Learning.”
On the first day, participants discussed “how unconscious bias can impact teaching and learning” and developed “concrete strategies to create inclusive classroom climates,” while the second day of the institute allowed faculty to “apply learning to their own courses, specifically focusing on course, content, teaching styles, and assessment methods.”
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Notably, the ultimate goal of the mini-institute is to “institutionalize the widespread practice of inclusive teaching and learning,” as faculty who completed the summer workshops will “disseminate their work to other faculty.”
Similarly, Lawrence University plans to host Derald Wing Sue, the academic who coined and later disavowed the term “microaggression,” for a faculty diversity conference “focused on inclusive pedagogy.”
A press release for the August conference notes that it is “designed to help all educators strengthen their individual learning communities through effective and inclusive teaching methods.”
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The University at Buffalo will also offer a summer “Diversity and Inclusion Conference,” which is intended to help professors “increase awareness of how one’s multiple identities impact their work” while identifying “institutional policies and procedures that help create and build an inclusive campus community.”
One of the several workshops offered at the conference will discuss “breaking the bias bubble” where faculty will “step into the world of bias” to learn “where it comes from,” how they can “recognize its impact,” and “explore ways to become more prepared to push bias aside.”
Campus Reform reached out to all of the schools mentioned in this article, and will update this story if and when any responses are received.
Follow the author of this article on Twitter: @AGockowski
