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Three Important Takeaways
Module 4: Guiding Inclusive Classroom Conversations*
From Ways to Incorporate DEI into Your Courses By David Luke, Chief Diversity Officer, University of Michigan, Flint
Three Important Takeaways
Be Real. Enter into these spaces authentically and model the behavior you’d like to see from your students. If you’re engaging in conversations about racism, sexism, homophobia, and transphobia, and you want the students to participate, you need to cultivate an environment where they will feel safe doing so. Part of this is modeling the behavior, being vulnerable and human with them. This is not how many professors have been taught to engage in the classroom and we can often feel ill-prepared to engage in conversations around these issues. In being real, you are more able to own it, focus on the impact, and move forward if/when you mess up. This requires a level of humility that may not have been exhibited in our courses to date, but we must humbly do the work if we’re going to make progress.
Utilize Ground Rules. Collectively agreed-upon ground rules can do wonders to establish a productive learning environment. When the class agrees on the ground rules, much like a contract, instructors have something to point back to when tensions arise. Ground rules are one important method for ensuring that the class agrees to working toward an enriching learning experience.
Focus on Impact. Our words matter, and what we allow to be said and what goes unaddressed in the classroom also matter. As course instructors, when students have a negative experience by virtue of their identity, it is our responsibility to address this impact. This can pose a challenge for the defensive person whose words caused harm, but working through these difficult situations as a class can help reorient our students to focus on the impacts of their words and actions, and will prove to have benefits that stretch beyond the classroom.
*Published 07/22. © 2022 Sage Publishing. All rights reserved. All other brand and product names are the property of their respective owners.