We found 31 results that contain "race"

Topic Area: DEI
Presented by: Caitlin Cornell
Abstract:
In Spring 2020, I designed a 5-week mini-course: Race, Language, and Disability. I taught this course as an honors option for the Immigrants, Minorities, and American Pluralism course in James Madison College in fulfillment of the mentored teaching project for the Interdisciplinary Inquiry and Teaching Fellowship Program. I had designed the course (prior to Spring 2020 remote transition) to be maximally accessible and minimally anxiety-inducing, placing a strong emphasis on student choice in assessment. A purposeful design choice that started as a teaching and learning curiosity became a saving grace during a tumultuous time (we transitioned to remote learning mid-course). The course assessment comprised 4 critical reflections based on course readings and discussion. Not only did students have the choice to complete any 4 reflections from 5 weeks of topics, but they were also able to choose how to complete their reflections. I developed a rubric to assess learning outcomes within the reflections, but left the medium and design of the reflections completely up to students. While most students chose to write traditional essays, some embraced the freedom to choose a medium that spoke to them. I received illustrative videos of poignant art installations, poetry, and interviews that students conducted with their families while they were learning from home. This carefully devised flexibility led to extreme creativity and high engagement with course topics. Based on the perceived and reported effects on active student learning, I will continue offering as much choice in students’ assessment as possible.
Session Resources:
Choice in Assessment (PowerPoint)
Rubric

One of this month's Featured Educators is Grace Pregent, Associate Director, The MSU Writing Center. Grace is completing a Ph.D. in English from Loyola University Chicago. According to the College of Arts and Letters (which houses The Writing Center), Grace's dissertation, Interpreting Minorness, investigates minor character systems and peripheral voices across narratives. She has a background in leading study abroad programs and has taught composition, literature, and education courses in the United States and Europe. She holds an M.S. in Higher Education Administration from the University of Dayton and an M.A. in English from the University of Dallas. Her recent work has been published in Evenlyn Waugh Studies and The Hardy Society Review.
 
Grace is not only making an impact in her field but in the MSU community as well! Here's what a fellow Spartan had to say about Grace: "Despite being new to MSU, Grace has already made a big difference at MSU. One of my advisees, a first-semester graduate student, worked under her supervision. Not only did he enjoy his work, but he got so much more than just a job and a paycheck: he was welcomed into a positive, supportive, and encouraging community led by Grace and was mentored on much more than just how to do his job. Grace nudged him to present his work at a conference and gave him the confidence that he could actually do it. The student was experiencing a challenging phase of his life this semester, which could have easily sent him down into negativity land. But as he explained to me, it was Grace's ubiquitous and endless positivity, that became a bright light in his daily life at MSU, contributing to him successfully and confidently completing a difficult first semester."
 

Photo by Jason Leung on Unsplash
 
Background
After watching Kimberle Crenshaw’s Ted Talk “The Urgency of Intersectionality”  and reading Crenshaw’s “Mapping the Margins”, this is a fun activity to explore the concept ‘intersectionality’ as a framework. This activity may feel similar to Twister given the color-based instructions.
 
For a class size of ~30 students, split the class into small groups where each do the following:
Use the different colors of yarn, various intersections of yarn, starting position of each volunteer, and the larger web to discuss limitations of a single frame and additive frames (i.e. you just have to look at race + gender or red + blue), then ultimately a need for a complex web or framework like intersectionality. Connect the activity of navigating the web to navigating various systems of oppression, noting the problem of simplifying such complicated systems to pieces of yarn one steps across. 
 

Ask students to form a circle, then ask for five volunteers to be in the middle of the circle. 
Using (3-4) different colored pieces of yarn, students who form the circle will form a complex web of yarn by tossing large balls of yarn to each other randomly for 3 minutes. 
Once the 3 minutes end, ask the circle students to drop the yarn on the ground. The five volunteers should then find a place in the web along one edge of the circle. They can share a space as they feel comfortable, though ideally the five volunteers will select different gaps in the yarn web.
The race is on! First group to help all five volunteers cross the yarn circle/web and return to the edge wins. Each group should select one color to help the five volunteers exit the web during the following rounds:

Three Rounds
 

Each volunteer can only move one space at a time based on the one color the group selected, i.e. everyone step forward, if you have a red strand before you. Some students may not be able to exit the web based on the color selected. This is a teachable limitation.
The group may select a different color to repeat the steps in round one. 
The group should put the 3-4 colors in order, i.e. red first, blue second, green third, yellow last. Volunteers may move forward as before, but may now also move across the additional colors in order, i.e. everyone may move forward with red until they face a different color, and may only move if the next color is blue, otherwise they must wait until the other volunteers cross all the blue before them.

MSU's Office of Faculty and Academic Staff Development has a great collection, "Resources for Difficult Dialogues in the Classroom" including but not limited to internal [to MSU] and external links on confrontation, bias, policies, and more. Here are a few of the resources:
The Art of Confrontation – COVID version

Prepared by Rick Shafer, Dean of Students Officehttps://remote.msu.edu/_assets/docs/The_Art_of_Confrontation_faculty_COVID_version.pdf

Bias Busters: Guides to Cultural Competence

Website Project of the MSU School of Journalism, College of Communication Arts and Scienceshttp://news.jrn.msu.edu/culturalcompetence/

IDI Education and Training Opportunities

Office for Institutional Diversity and Inclusionhttp://inclusion.msu.edu/education/index.html

Ideas for Disciplinary Content

Compiled by the MSU Librarieshttps://www.lib.msu.edu/inclusiveteaching/

Office of Institutional Equity Policies

http://oie.msu.edu/

To My Professor: Student Voices for Great College Teaching

Book by MSU School of Journalism students and editor Joe Grimm, College of Communication Arts and Scienceshttps://www.insidehighered.com/news/2016/09/12/new-book-advice-college-instructors-based-thousands-student-comments

Difficult Dialogues Guide

Annotated resources produced by Vanderbilt Universityhttps://cft.vanderbilt.edu/guides-sub-pages/difficult-dialogues/

Difficult Dialogues Handbook, Strategies and Resources

Resources produced by the University of Alaska Difficult Dialogues Project and the Ford Foundation

http://www.difficultdialoguesuaa.org/handbook
http://www.difficultdialoguesuaa.org/strategies_and_resources



Handbook for Facilitating Difficult Conversations

Resources produced by Queens College, City University of New York (pdf)Link to PDF document

Inclusive Practices for Managing Controversial Issues

Online document produced by Flinders University of Australiahttps://ofasd.msu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/TIPS_controversial.pdf

Inviting Dialogue

Resource produced by Clark University (pdf)https://ofasd.msu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/ClarkUnivInvitingDialogue.pdf

Mindfulness and Discussing “Thorny” Issues in the Classroom (article)

Alexakos, K., Pride, L. D., Amat, A., Tsetsakos, P., Lee, K. J., Paylor-Smith, C., … & Smith, T. (2016). Mindfulness and discussing “thorny” issues in the classroom. Cultural Studies of Science Education, 1-29. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11422-015-9718-0 

Toolkit for Inclusive Learning Environments

Project by the Sheridan Libraries of Johns Hopkins Universityhttp://guides.library.jhu.edu/TILE

Books Available from oFASD
To borrow any of the following titles, stop by 2W of the Main Library (across from the Digital Scholarship Lab). Some titles are available electronically on stable links through MSU Libraries.

Brookfield, Stephen D. The Discussion Book: 50 Great Ways to Get People Talking.    

Book via electronic access, courtesy of MSU Libraries


Chickering, Art (Foreword)   Encountering Faith in the Classroom: Turning Difficult Discussions into Constructive Engagement

Book via electronic access, courtesy of MSU Libraries


Landis, Kay (ed.) Start Talking: A Handbook for Engaging Difficult Dialogues in Higher Education.  

Book via electronic access


Nash, Robert J. How to Talk About Hot Topics on Campus: From Polarization to Moral Conversation.
Roderick, Libby. Stop Talking: Indigenous Ways of Teaching and Learning and Difficult Dialogues in Higher Education.
Wheatley, Margaret J.  Turning to One Another: Simple Conversations to Restore Hope to the Future

Book via electronic access



BIAS AND RACE
#Charlestonsyllabus

Resource produced by the African American Intellectual History Societyhttp://www.aaihs.org/resources/charlestonsyllabus/

#FergusonSyllabus

Resources produced by Sociologists for Justicehttps://sociologistsforjustice.org/ferguson-syllabus

Eight Actions to Reduce Racism in College Classrooms

Article by Shaun R. Harper and Charles H. F. Davis III from Academe  (pdf)https://ofasd.msu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/HarperDavis-EightActionsToReduceRacismInCollegeClassrooms.pdf

Learning to Talk about Race in the Classroom

Resource from Inside Higher Ed.’s Gradhacker (blog article)https://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/gradhacker/learning-talkrace-classroom

Project Implicit (Implicit Bias)

Project by Harvard Universityhttps://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/

Promoting Racial Literacy in Schools: Differences That Make a Difference

Book by Stevenson, H. C. (2013). Teachers College Press.

Responding to Incidents of Hate Speech

Webpage produced by the Center for Research on Teaching and Learning at the University of Michiganhttp://crlt.umich.edu/node/93036

Teaching Tolerance

Program of the Southern Poverty Law Center. Resources for K-12, but many transferrable ideashttp://www.tolerance.org/lets-talk

Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash

As a member of the SEISMIC Collaboration, MSU employees have the opportunity join the conversation surrounding DEI in STEM. These conversations are open to all. Upcoming events include:
 
Using Religious Cultural Competence in Evolution Education (ReCCEE) to Create a More Inclusive and Effective Scientific Community
Wednesday, October 14, at 12 p.m.
Speaker: Elizabeth Barnes, Middle Tennessee State University
 
While the majority of people in the world are religious, the majority of scientists are not, and this difference can cause culturally based barriers to effective science education. For instance, despite decades of evolution education research in the United States, almost one-third of introductory college biology students still do not think life shares a common ancestor and this is often due to a perceived conflict with their religious beliefs. In my studies, I find that college science instructors report not knowing how to address religious beliefs when teaching evolution and religious students report that science instructors have negative attitudes towards religion which is a barrier for their learning of evolution. I will describe how we as science educators can use Religious Cultural Competence in Evolution Education (ReCCEE) to reduce students’ perceived conflict between religion and evolution and create more inclusive evolution education for religious students. Further, I will discuss how such efforts may disproportionately benefit students of color and women, who affiliate with religion at higher rates than white men.
Zoom Link: https://umich.zoom.us/j/93300696091
 
But is it really ‘just’ science? Engaging critical race theory to unpack racial oppression with implications for Black student science engagement
Wednesday, October 21, at 12 p.m.
Speakers: Terrell Morton, University of Missouri
 
Disseminated through the culture of science (i.e., norms, values, beliefs, and practices), is the underlying message that there is but one “universal truth” regarding what is or what counts as scientific knowledge, research, and general practice. This culture and subsequent message have implications for who is recognized as being a scientist, or a validated member of the scientific community, and the process by which one gains such recognition. In noting the distinct, racialized experiences of Black students in science, this seminar introduces Critical Race Theory as a framework for attending to the prevalence, permeance, and impact of structural racism embedded within and manifesting through the culture of science, while also detailing the implications of structural racism in and through science on Black student science engagement. 
Zoom Link: http://asu.zoom.us/j/92158713296
 
Are you interested in giving at talk related to DEI in STEM? If so, please reach out to Ryan Sweeder (sweeder@msu.edu) to be added to the potential speaker list.
 

Graduate school is hard. It can be even harder when there are very few people in your program that look like you or come from a similar background as you. Studies show that not only does the diversity of a program contribute to student experiences, but feelings of inclusion and belonging play an equally important role. In fact, a study of MSU graduate students showed that students who did not feel supported or included due to gender, race, sexual identity, culture, or religion were significantly less satisfied with their graduate school programs. This research and our personal experiences suggested that an important project for us as Fellows of the Graduate School would be to focus on improving the experience of underrepresented minority graduate students in our college. Together we built a framework of a multi-tier support system that would provide resources at different levels (student, faculty, and college level). However, in brainstorming possible resources, we discovered that we had very different ideas of what would benefit students.
 
The experts in change management would suggest that you should first conduct a needs assessment before attempting to provide a solution, particularly in a big system. After already establishing that satisfaction with one’s graduate program depends on underrepresented minority graduate students feeling included, we next should figure out what they need to feel included and like they belong. This article is a step by step description of our journey planning a needs assessment to discover how we might best serve underrepresented graduate students.
 
Step 1: Do your research
As PhD students, research comes second nature! We dug into the academic literature to find studies or theories that offered solutions for improving feelings of belonging, engagement, happiness, success, or retention of underrepresented students in graduate school. The literature also provided a bonus: tips for how to successfully implement the solutions. The list of possibilities was further narrowed when we considered what could be done within the bounds of our college with the resources and time we had.
 
Next, we did some benchmarking studies where we looked at what other campuses implemented to address the same issue. Many were far past our ability to implement (giving fellowships for example), but we were really inspired by the student led efforts we found. A few more solutions were added to our list.
 
Step 2: Construct tools to capture voices
A needs assessment suggests that you must ASSESS NEEDS! It is extremely important to not just use your own experiences or examples of what others did to “create a solution”. Instead, the crux of creating sustainable change is to find out what the recipients of the solution need and think through how you might address those needs.
 
We began by creating an open-ended survey that allows underrepresented minority students to freely tell us if they are satisfied with their experiences in graduate school and their suggestions on how to improve their experiences. The second part of the survey asks for feedback and opinions on the list of solutions that we came up with.
 
Next, we made a plan to conduct focus groups. We thought through recruitment, locations, the questions we would ask, and how to merge this information with our survey results. The two methods would allow us to capture the voices of underrepresented students and build our multi-tier support system from their needs and suggestions.
 
Step 3: Identify and engage with administrators
Institutional support is an essential part of creating sustainable change. Getting partners within administration to lead the change also increases the chance that you implement lasting change. To begin this process, we reached out to introduce ourselves and our role to the Dean and Assistant Dean of our college. After establishing a friendly connection, we identified the Assistant Dean as a person who could help champion this work and who had a personal interest in the topic.
 
We set up a meeting and prepared for it by outlining our project (including future steps), summarizing the benefits to the MSU community, and preparing a list of “asks”. The meeting went over successfully with the Assistant Dean agreeing to support and help with the project. She also recommended other administrators that we could consult with. We went about the same process for engaging those administrators.
 
Step 4: Execute Your Plan!
The next step in completing a needs assessment is to do it! Unfortunately, a global pandemic prevented us from being able to conduct our activities, but we can share our plan.
 
Our survey was to be administered from the Dean’s office directly to underrepresented minority students. We concurrently would begin to recruit and conduct focus groups.
 
The information would be consolidated, and we would make a decision about what type of changes, resources, solutions, etc. to provide in order to enhance the experience of underrepresented minority graduate students. Once we created a proposal, we would begin to engage the necessary stakeholders to make it come to life. For example, one of the solutions on our list was to create a page on the college website that featured all of the available resources for underrepresented students. We would have to compile a list of these resources, request permission to do so by administration, get assistance from the website owners, and establish an updating protocol so that the page stays current.
 
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The best advice that we can offer when conducting a needs assessment is to stay flexible and stay encouraged. You have to be flexible enough to realize that what you thought people needed may not be exactly what they think they need or what can be provided. You will need to be innovative so that your solution satisfies the needs of your audience. Change leadership projects can also be very involved and take a long time. You must bring your patience and enjoy the ride! Stay encouraged throughout the journey and persevere to you goal.

According to Brickman, Gormally, and Marchand Martella (2017), student evaluations at the end of each semester along with peer evaluations are the two sources through which faculty can receive feedback. That being said, faculty largely reported being dissatisfied with the information they received from student feedback. Specifically because student evaluations, “do not provide constructive information; have poor response rates; design do not align with instructors’ objectives; the evaluations only measure student satisfaction; and the process is not set up to truly engage students to attain useful and insightful feedback” (Brickman, Gormally & Marchand Martella, 2017, p4).These three authors advocate for structured, intentional, peer observations as one answer to the gap in feedback faced by faculty. “When peer evaluations are performed, they are more supportive of evidence-based teaching than student evaluations.”
So what is peer observation?
Peer observation “involves observers providing descriptive feedback to their peers on learning and teaching practice as a means to improve quality of teaching” (Sullivan et al. 2012). Basically, when educators observe each others’ practice with the goal of learning with and from one another. Benefits of peer observation for the practicing educator also include: sharing best practices, building awareness of your own teaching practice, identifying areas to improve or try something new, enhancing student learning by connecting the dots between learning design and student feedback, and engaging in a community of educators within your setting.
​Effective peer observation includes both feedback and reflection, and focuses on individual educators’ needs (Sullivan et al., 2012). Participating in peer observation provides opportunities to both get and give feedback. Benefits of peer observation for the observer include: seeing practice to emulate, gain student perspective, connect with and support colleagues within and beyond your unit, learn about different teaching technologies, and set aside time to reflect on teaching. All educators have strengths and opportunities for growth, peer observation can help you identify both! Seeking out peer feedback, and providing feedback through observations can contribute to the ongoing construction of a professional community of educators at Michigan State!
The study conducted by Sullivan et al. (2012) found the practice of peer observation of teaching to be a constructive way to improve courses and learning design, to support and encourage educators, and to reinforce good practice. All that said, participating in peer observation is highly encouraged as a part of your educator practice at MSU. And remember: “It is very important to note that peer observations are NOT evaluative and are NOT tied to your annual review process (regardless of role). They are a training and development tool to facilitate reflection and personal growth regarding teaching” (Baker, 2021). Peer observation of teaching is essentially confidential between you and your observer/the observed. It’s up to the observed educator if they want to share their takeaways and/or action plans with their administrators. 
 
Thanks to colleagues at The University of Queensland Institute for Teaching and Learning Innovation, Leeds Metropolitan University, Cambridge Assessment International Education Teaching and Learning Team, University of Toronto Center for Teaching Support & Innovation, University of Texas at Austin Faculty Innovation Center, University of South Carolina Center for Teaching Excellence, and the Northeastern Center for Advancing Teaching and Learning Through Research.  
ADDITIONAL SOURCES:Brickman, P., Gormally, C. & Marchand Martella, A. (2016) Making the grade: Using instructional feedback and evaluation to inspire evidence-based teaching, CBE—Life Sciences Education, 15,4.https://doi.org/10.1187/cbe.15-12-0249Sullivan, P.B., Buckle, A., Nicky, G. & Atkinson, S.H. (2012) Peer observation of teaching as a faculty development tool. BMC Medical Education, 12, 26. https://doi.org/10.1186/1472-6920-12-26 Baker, A. (2021) Peer Observations, #iteachmsu Commons. https://iteach.msu.edu/iteachmsu/groups/iteachmsu/stories/2106 Race, P. et al. (2009) Using peer observation to enhance teaching. Leeds Met Press. ISBN 978-0-9560099-7-5 Photo by Sincerely Media on Unsplash

This post provides an overview of problematic language as part of the Inclusive Pedagogy playlist.
Our language use is influenced by social and cultural factors. Those factors sometimes can make us unaware of the impact of our words. One way to prevent unintentional harm is to be more aware of inclusive language practices. However, inclusive language can be more than just avoiding offense or being “politically correct”; instead, it is a “communication style that is genuinely curious about how to talk to and about our fellow humans respectfully” (Acrolinx). Inclusive language use works to “honor the diverse identities of every person in the room and invites them to be part of the conversation” (Relias). 
When we prioritize an inclusive language environment, everyone feels more welcome and learning is more able to take place. Within this, we do not want to shame people when they make a mistake, as that would also not be welcoming. Rather, we try to gently reframe their language use, such as through the P.A.L.S. method.
Many inclusive language guides exist to learn more about certain problematic terms and legacies: 

MSU Brand Studio
MSU’s Gender and Sexuality Campus Center
MSU’s College of Natural Science Guide
University of Washington’s Information Technology
Pratt Institute Libraries’ article 
Writer’s Inclusive language in the workplace guide

Language is a living entity that changes for building common and shared understandings. Boston University curates a Living Language Guide. As a note of caveat, sometimes people claim that certain phrases and words were more socially acceptable in the past, but it is important to note that, generally, language use that is problematic usually has a longer legacy of harm that was problematic—even in the past. It is up to us now to make ourselves and others more aware of the impact of that language. Similarly, sometimes people find it difficult to “keep up” with understanding language, and that can feel really difficult. To counteract that, educators can build in time to practice more inclusive phrases with trusted people. In addition, it’s important to remember that the more one can learn and better understand harmful legacies of terms, then the more belonging learners will feel.
Some reflection questions for educators to reflect on their language and intentionality, include: 

How do I define and practice inclusive language in my classroom? How do I foster a classroom culture where inclusive language is encouraged among students?
What steps do I take to ensure my language includes all students, considering gender, race, ability, and additional identities? How intentional am I in using gender-neutral terms, pronouns, and respectful language? How do I incorporate diverse identities into my communication?
How do I ensure my language is respectful and accurate when discussing sensitive or identity-related topics?
How do I educate myself on terms related to various identities and groups? How can I stay informed and continuously adapt my language to reflect evolving societal and student needs?
How do I respond when non-inclusive language is pointed out, and how open am I to making changes?
What processes do I use to reflect on and improve intentional and inclusive language? How do I check for unintentional bias in my language and course materials?

Continue to read more about inclusive pedagogy in the next article on Inclusive Syllabi or return to the Inclusive Pedagogy playlist.