diversity and inclusion Archives - Faculty Focus

December 3

Contemporary Classroom Advice from a Transgender Student

By: Ashton Black and Stephanie Almagno, PhD

In August, Ashton Black and I began a new school year at Piedmont College, he for the first time, and I for the Nth time. I have been teaching since I was 21, and now, as the French say, I am a woman of a certain age. This is only important because there’s no male equivalent in discussions of being middle aged. Identity is so firmly rooted in gender stereotypes that we can hardly free ourselves from invisible habits. That was until Generation Z made those of us simply going through the motions look up from our college-ruled notebooks and take note.

diversity and inclusion in the college classroom

September 18, 2017

Inclusion by Design: Tool Helps Faculty Examine Their Teaching Practices

By: Carl S. Moore, PhD, Edward Brantmeir, PhD, and Andreas Brocheild, PhD

Are there barriers to inclusion lurking in your courses?

After meeting at a diversity and inclusion session of the 2013 Professional and Organization Development Network (POD Network) Conference in Pittsburgh, the three of us set out to develop a tool to help faculty examine their courses through a diversity lens. We were driven by a lack of available resources that provide a practical approach to digging deep into the nuances of one’s course.

August 4, 2017

An Inclusive Classroom Framework: Resources, Onboarding Approach, and Ongoing Programs

By: Ann Marie VanDerZanden, PhD, and Laura Bestler, PhD

We all face the challenge of making our classrooms more inclusive. At Iowa State, a series of training opportunities helps guide faculty and academic leaders to the most effective methods for teaching inclusively and welcoming a diverse classroom, as Ann…

June 9, 2017

Activities for Building Cultural Competencies in Our Students and Ourselves

By: Melissa Gomez, EdD

“Who am I to speak about diversity and inclusion? I am a middle-aged white woman from an upper-middle-class family. I have been afforded numerous opportunities many of my students never have been, and possibly never will be, afforded. I am the picture of privilege.” This is what I told myself at times when the topics of diversity and inclusion came up. However, when you look at the racial/cultural makeup of most college campuses, if faculty “like me” do not broach the sensitive topics of diversity and inclusion, who will?

July 6, 2016

Brave Classrooms and Courageous Conversations

By: Nicki Monahan, MEd

There are empty chairs in classrooms in Florida this week, at Valencia College, University of Central Florida, and Ana G. Mendez University, spaces left by the youngest victims of the Pulse nightclub shootings in Orlando. Most of them young gay men, most of them Latino. In the academic world, June is a time of celebration, of convocation, of inspired addresses to graduates ready to take their hard-earned degrees and all that they have learned into the real world. In the LGBTQ communities, June is Pride month, a time to celebrate hard-earned rights, to look back on how far we have come, and how far we still have to go. This year, it is a time to mourn, and as we gather to stand in solidarity, there is that old, familiar feeling of looking over our shoulders for the next threat.

April 6, 2016

Diversity and Inclusion in the College Classroom

By: Mary Bart

Meaningful conversations about race, diversity, and inclusion can be surprisingly rare occurrences in higher education classrooms. Students and faculty alike, especially those in the majority, often fear saying the wrong thing, so they say nothing at all and hope the moment…

July 2, 2014

Creating a Respectful Classroom Environment

By: Maryellen Weimer, PhD

“In our class: 1) everyone is allowed to feel they can work and learn in a safe and caring environment; 2) everyone learns about, understands, appreciates, and respects varied races, classes, genders, physical and mental abilities, and sexualities; 3) everyone matters; 4) all individuals are to be respected and treated with dignity and civility; and 5) everyone shares the responsibility for making our class, and the Academy, a positive and better place to live, work, and learn.”

May 2, 2013

Each Academic Program Has a Part in Teaching Diversity

By: Rob Kelly

As the student body becomes increasingly diverse, it’s important to have faculty incorporate multicultural design into their courses regardless of discipline. Although it may not seem that all disciplines lend themselves to including multiculturalism as a learning goal, consider how Christine Stanley and Mathew Ouellett frame the issue.

April 23, 2012

Strategies for Creating a More Inclusive Classroom

By: Mary Bart

“I don’t really have any diversity issues in my class because all of my students are white.”

“I have a lot of content to cover, so there’s really no time to address multiculturalism.”

Diversity, once largely centered on race and ethnicity, has evolved over the years to include a broad range of personal attributes, experiences, and backgrounds, each interlocking to create one’s social identity.

September 22, 2010

How Much Multimedia Should You Add to PowerPoint Slides When Teaching Online?

By: Debra Ferdinand PhD

PowerPoint is versatile in allowing us to add multimedia (graphics, sound, audio, video, text, animation, etc.) to our presentations for keeping online students’ rapt attention. But how much multimedia should you add? In answering this question, I find that taking into consideration students’ learning styles and cultural/international backgrounds can help to lessen the risk of using too much or too little multimedia in your online PPTs.

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