Considine, et al. focuses on how to incorporate inclusive excellence into college classrooms. They define and explain diversity and inclusion as well as the history, theories, and strategies that shape culturally-relevant pedagogy. The approaches to inclusive teaching include 1) Non-verbal immediacy, 2) Active-learning, 3) Trusting the community of learners, and 4) Peer teachers. They address impediments to inclusive excellence, such as low incentives to incorporate changes, pragmatism, and threats to self-concept. However, the greatest barrier other than time is that these principles are being advocated by instructors, who lack the political power and pull to change institutions systematically. Thus, instructor agency will be needed to incorporate these theories and practices into their classroom in tandem with the creation of coalitions of practitioners who will work toward inclusive excellence.
This article has many implications for library instruction: it requires forethought in instruction design, it requires that instructors reflect on their mindset and familiarity with inclusive pedagogy, and the approaches mentioned within the article can be interpreted and embedded into library instruction sessions. However, this article has limited coverage of the intersectional barriers that come into play with student and professor interactions.
Tags: Theoretical; Practical; Foundational Work; Stereotype Threat
This book chapter offers a comprehensive and accessible introduction of the social-psychological science behind threatening environments. The authors describe what contributes to threatening environments, and how the stress of these environments impact student learning. This is an excellent text for anyone who wants to learn the mechanisms of certain phenomenon, like stereotype threat, and how they might affect the classroom. While the chapter provides essential information about threatening environment, it does not go into much depth about how to minimize a threatening environment. The chapter ends by discussing one strategy—how framing intelligence as something that can change over time (as opposed to something that is fixed at birth)—can foster an inclusive environment, but beyond that does not outline many practical tips. However, by reading the chapter closely, librarian educators can glean their own ideas for how to improve the tone of their classroom environments.
Tags: Theoretical; Stereotype Threat
The phenomenon of stereotype threat is a vital theme to inclusive pedagogy because it underscores the impact of stressors that might emerge in a non-inclusive environment. While there is a wealth of literature on stereotype threat, this particular article stands out because it is the foundational study on the topic. The authors focus specifically on how negative stereotypes related to race and intelligence can cause members of the stereotyped group to self-conform to the stereotype and underperform academically. The article does not go into much detail about how to prevent stereotype threat--although much of the literature borne from this study test interventions to diminish the effects of stereotype threat. Taken in a larger context, the findings from the study suggest that the mere existence of a stereotype can be harmful to a student. Librarian instructors might consider whether there are any stereotypes related to libraries or research (i.e. help-seeking, ability to cite information) that could form a stereotype threat.
Tags: Theoretical; Foundational Work; Stereotype Threat
This web page features a collection of links to online resources that define inclusive teaching and provide specific strategies for practicing it. Although some are specific to the University of Michigan, most are applicable to anyone in higher education who is seeking information on inclusive teaching. The links range from the theoretical to the practical. There is some redundancy.
While nothing is specific to the library or information fluency, there is much to be gleaned for librarians. Links that were especially helpful were:
Overview of Inclusive Teaching at the University of Michigan: Contains an excellent definition of inclusive teaching and has 5 questions the instructor in any academic discipline can ask themselves to examine their teaching. Includes four educational insights from recent research about bias and systemic inequities in teaching and learning. The brevity of this introduction is helpful.
Framework and Strategies for Inclusive Teaching: This is a checklist of 56 practical strategies for inclusive teaching in content, instructional practices, instructor-student interactions and student-student interactions. Running through these is a way to reflect on your practice and your class, and remind yourself of what you’d like to include in the future.
The Research Basis for Inclusive Teaching: This webpage provides an overview of the kinds of evidence that demonstrate inclusive teaching practices can benefit all students' learning. This is more theoretical than practical, but good to have a short, curated list, with links to full text.
Tags: Practical; Stereotype Threat
|
|
|
|
|
|