I Just treat everyone the same: Moving from Equality to equity in teaching

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I Just treat everyone the same Moving from
Equality to equity in teaching

• Dr. David S. Owen
• Associate Professor of Philosophy and Director of
  Diversity Programs for the College of Arts and
  Sciences
• dsowen04_at_louisville.edu

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Introductions

• Introductions
• What do you hope to learn today?

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Agenda

• 1. The meaning of inclusive teaching
• 2. Three principles of inclusive teaching
• 3. Practicing inclusive teaching
• 4. Closing questions

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What we are talking about

• 1. INCLUSIVE TEACHING is about
• valuing the fact that our students are truly
  different in many ways

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What we are talking about

• 1. INCLUSIVE TEACHING is about
• valuing the fact that our students are truly
  different in many ways
• and (more importantly)
• taking into account the meanings those
  differences have for our students lives.

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Basic principles of inclusive teaching

• Principle 1 We need to move from equality to
  equity.

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Basic principles of inclusive teaching

• Principle 1 We need to move from equality to
  equity
• Equality treating everyone the same

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Basic principles of inclusive teaching

• Principle 1 We need to move from equality to
  equity
• Equality treating everyone the same
• Equity treating everyone fairly in light of
  background conditions that generate differing
  sets of advantages and obstacles for individuals
• This requires
• being able to identify the structures of
  advantage and disadvantage that are generated by
  the sociocultural background.
• adjusting my pedagogy to correct for these
  imbalances of advantage and disadvantage.

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Basic principles of inclusive teaching

• Principle 2
• Our intersecting social identities locates each
  of us, as teachers, within that background
  sociocultural landscape

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Basic principles of inclusive teaching

• Principle 2
• Our intersecting social identities locates each
  of us in the social landscape
• with the consequence that we have different
  advantages or disadvantages based upon our social
  identities

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Basic principles of inclusive teaching

• Principle 2
• Our intersecting social identities locates each
  of us in the social landscape
• with the consequence that we each possess a
  different set of advantages or disadvantages.
• Thus, instructors need to be aware of how social
  identities--and their associated advantages and
  disadvantages--shape our classrooms and our
  teaching.

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Basic principles of inclusive teaching
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Basic principles of inclusive teaching

• Principle 3 Understand how stereotyping
  inevitably shapes the learning environment.
• Implicit Bias research
• Banaji and Greenwald, Blindspot (2013)

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Basic principles of inclusive teaching

• Principle 3 Understand how stereotyping
  inevitably shapes the learning environment.
• Implicit Bias research
• Banaji and Greenwald, Blindspot (2013)
• Stereotype Threat
• Steele, Whistling Vivaldi (2011)

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How does this apply in practice?

• Teaching Practice
• Do you vary instructional modes? (lecture,
  discussion, group work, etc.)
• Do you pay attention to how power flows in the
  classroom?
• Do you consciously seek to disrupt the
  reproduction of what counts as normal or
  different?
• Do you teach only from the dominant perspective
  (the canon)?
• Do you avoid tokenism that marginalizes social
  identities that are outside of the dominant
  identities?
• Do you actively challenge stereotypes in both the
  curricular content and in your teaching practice?

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How does this apply in practice?

• Course Design
• Do you use a variety of instructional materials
  (texts, films, popular culture)?
• Is your course content representative of diverse
  perspectives, especially those that have been
  systematically marginalized?
• Do you utilize a variety of assessment tools to
  allow students with different strengths to excel?

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How does this apply in practice?

• Instructional Materials
• Do you vary the types of materials?
• Do you use materials that challenge the bias and
  privilege found in many curricula?

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Further questions

• What questions do you have?

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Resources

• www.crlt.umich.edu -- The Center for Research on
  Learning and Teaching at the University of
  Michigan.
• ProjectImplicit.org
• ReducingStereotypeThreat.org
• Blindspot
• Whistling Vivaldi

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