Inclusive Course Climate

VIDEO

Problems can stem from unacknowledged biases held by me or anyone in the classroom. 

inflamatory language, which is based on steryotypes or other offensive remarks.
Prvilieging of some persepctives over others.
Using eExamples that rely on other cultural frames of reference.

Use OUCH

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I value marignialized perspectives, and seek to integrate such perspectives in the course.
I value everyone's position and seek to include such views and beliefs.
I want to foster sensitivity while listening to student persepctives without tokenization. (For example, one person does not represent a group. We value individuality. Only share what you feel comfortable with,)

Include affirming diversity and inclusiveness.

Be transparent in what we stand for.

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Use encouraging tone. NOt punative tone.

Avoid Stereotype threat

Treat students as individuals and not members of a specific group


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• Can you think of a time when you were a student and felt the course climate was especially welcoming? How did that feel? What did the professor do to make it that way?

The poetry class I had here at Washburn with Amy Fleury was diverse AND welcoming. Her tone and demeanor of care and pleasantry truly set it, as well as asking us what we thought of a certain poem or how each of the poems we were writing really meant something.

• Have you ever experienced a course that was in the explicitly marginalizing quadrant? How did that feel? What happened?

A poetry professor at KU who was a womanizer--he no longer is there--truly made it unbearable. He truly led the conversation, would say things like, "This is like a poem Dennis or Robert would write," and he always talked with a young woman in class about things he had put her in charge over that had nothing to do with the class. I had to take the class, as my focus was on poetry, but even the first run-in with him was in a practicum I took even though I wasn't a GTA (I wanted to learn). There were five young women and me. He looked at me and said in a confronting tone, "What are you doing here?" He then dissuaded me from being in the class as I wouldn't "learn anything because I wasn't teaching."

• In one of the videos, research was cited that showed how most faculty feel they work within one quadrant, but students experience the course as another quadrant. Can you identify possible changes in your teaching that would help students feel closer to the explicitly centralizing quadrant?

I need to do more of this in online—what I do in person—which is to say my values. The videos are informative for giving me a better language than what I’ve had in my syllabus. Also, I love Muffy’s OUCH approach, as I know giving me the full power to stop students from inappropriate language shouldn’t be just my job—especially if I don’t hear or recognize it when it happens.