Cultivating an Inclusive & Equitable Climate

Cultivating an inclusive classroom climate requires a growth mindset, openness to student feedback about their experiences, and eagerness to experiment and make changes in the classroom. These minor adjustments may help all of your students feel safe to explore, fail, grow, and learn.

Transparency & Accountability

Set the Tone with Introductions

  • Use non-binary, inclusive language (Say “Welcome Class or Folx or Everyone or Students or Y’all” rather than “Hey guys”)
    • Here is a post with more forms of address: https://crystalhuff.com/2017/02/16/gender-inclusive-forms-of-address/
  • Acknowledge your social identities (that you feel comfortable sharing), implicit biases & knowing ignorance, and your understanding of how that informs your teaching

State your Intentions with Syllabi Statements

  • State your goals about inclusive classroom climate for students to keep you accountable and to provide transparent messaging about your chosen course design (explain why you’ve designed the class that way)

  • Examples: One of my Syllabi, Williams College, University of Michigan

Solicit feedback

  • Acknowledge you will make mistakes and have areas of ignorance

  • Make students feel safe to provide constructive feedback without fear of retribution

  • Possibilities: Anonymous real-time survey (Poll Everywhere), midterm course evaluations, weekly student reflections, classroom observations

Develop Rapport with Students

  • Use students’ preferred name & ask for a pronunciation guide

    • Model: tell students what you prefer to be called

  • Invite (but do not require) students to provide pronouns and use them

    • Model: normalize pronoun disclosures by providing pronouns (she/her, he/him, they/them, etc.)

  • Share a bit of who you are (humanize yourself; you choose your level of disclosure)

  • Check-in with students, individually and as a group

    • Send a quick note to struggling students or those who miss class
    • Anonymous survey (Poll Everywhere): “One word that describes your weekend,” “How are you feeling? Click on the emotion wheel.”

Trauma-Informed Teaching

  • Learning Brain vs. Survival Brain
    • This short video provides a valuable framework for students to reflect on their learning
  • Address Context before Content (source: Dr. Jaime Washington)
    • Learning does not occur in a vacuum; acknowledge personal & collective struggles and trauma
    • In extreme circumstances of great turmoil, focus on basic student needs and be flexible with content & assignments
  • Other Recommendations (Source: Inside Higher Ed)
    • Work to ensure emotional, cognitive, physical, and interpersonal safety
    • Foster trust by being precise, transparent, reliable
    • Facilitate peer support and mutual self-help in classes (check in with each other)
    • Share power and decision making
    • Empower voice and choice by building on student strengths
    • Pay attention to cultural, historical, and gender issues (with an intersectional lens)
    • Impart importance of a sense of purpose

Cultivate Belonging

  • Tell students that you believe in them and they are capable
  • Encourage participation by asking open-ended questions to promote dialogue
    • Reflect on your goals for asking questions
    • If you are looking for only one correct answer, reconsider what you hope to gain by asking the question & the impact on students
  • Normalize struggle and failure as an essential step in learning (growth mindset)
    • Share your own stories of academic struggle

Build Learning Community

  • Emphasize student responsibility for contributing to a positive learning environment
  • Co-create learning community agreements
  • Build collaborative structure into course design
    • Examples: in-class group activities, study groups, paired partners to provide peer support