Steps to Make Your Teaching Practice More Equitable

classroom

Research shows that many college instructors and practitioners can possess deficit-minded views about their students—meaning that signs of struggle are attributed to students’ lack of academic skills and preparedness. These deficit-minded views are often applied to historically-marginalized students (e.g., Black, Latina/o/x, low-income).

While it is important for educators to identify and address students’ lack of academic skills, a deficit-minded approach can position educators to mainly look at the students and their backgrounds as reasons for students’ academic shortcomings. In essence, deficit-mindedness blames the students for their struggles and can fail to provide educators the agency to do something about it.

In response, contemporary research indicates educators who shift to an equity mindset are able to identify teaching practices and institutional policies that contribute to inequities. This cognitive shift, enables educators to make changes to their own teaching practices and advocate for more equitable policies. In essence, equity-mindedness can build educators’ capabilities to address educational inequities.

Below, you’ll find a chart briefly describing the three cognitive frames that mainly focuses on students’ experiences (deficit- and diversity-mindedness) and the cognitive frame that places more emphasis on the agency of educators and administrators (equity-mindedness) (Center for Urban Education, 2020).

chart

Another important step for making your teaching more equitable relates to your curriculum. Historically-marginalized college students can feel disengaged in the classroom because the “traditional” curriculum does not reflect students’ personal or professional lives. When students do not see themselves in the curriculum, they may fail to gain the knowledge and skills to understand themselves, their community, and/or future profession.

To address this, college educators can include content highlighting how marginalized people have contributed to the knowledge of a given area of study. For example, communication instructors can include the story of Ida B. Wells—the prominent Black journalist who shed light on Black Americans post-Civil War.

Educators can also have students connect their lived experiences to the course content. This can be done with short written assignments in which students apply the terms and ideas from the course to their personal and/or professional lives. This high order of thinking can enable students to recognize their knowledge as valuable, and identify and ratify misconceptions. In this sense, students’ lives become part of the curriculum.

These are only two ways to add content that is relevant to students’ lived experiences.

More info on asset-based teaching (Culturally Relevant, Responsive, and Sustaining Pedagogies).

Along with the curriculum, instructors interested in being more equitable should consider how their instructional practices are impacting students. Research shows historically-marginalized students do exceptionally well when they are able to actively engage with the coursework.
Active learning is defined as a broad range of teaching strategies which engage students as active participants in their learning during class time with their instructor. According to the Center for Teaching & Learning at the University of Minnesota, there are several fundamental components of active learning strategies:

Talking & listening:

Students actively process information when they ask or answer questions, comment, present, and explain. Discussions and Interactive Lectures are useful strategies.

Writing:

Reflective writing can help students organize their thoughts and prepare them for discussion. Check out these suggestions for Informal Writing Activities .

Reading:

Transform reading into an active process by providing students with questions and summary exercises.

Active reading strategies

Perusall for active annotations

Guide for Using Perusall

Reflecting:

Reflecting on the applications and implications of new knowledge can help develop higher-order thinking skills.

View a reflective process that can produce meaningful learning outcomes

More information and examples of active learning strategies

Critically-reflective Educator

A critically-reflective educator means you examine how your teaching practices are impacting all your students—particularly those who come from marginalized communities. Then, you can make changes to your teaching practices to better ensure your teaching is accessible to all of your students.

Given that Albertus serves a relatively high percentage of Black, Latino/a/x, low-income and first-generation college students, it is crucial for the Albertus faculty to develop a routine in which they continuously reflect on their teaching and recognize when changes are needed in order to maximize the potential of our students. This reflective process can happen on your own, in workshops and/or through conversations with peers.

Regardless of your reflective approach, there are sets of questions you want to ask yourself in order to understand your teaching strengths and areas of improvement. Below, you’ll find two documents that provide some guidance on practicing critical reflection.

Guide with reflection questions you can answer

Tool to self assess your teaching and map out potential changes





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