Anti-Racist and Inclusive Online Teaching during the Racial Justice Uprisings and the Pandemic
Description
There are multiple crises unfolding as we prepare our fall courses. The COVID-19 pandemic forced us online in the spring semester and many of us will again be teaching fully online in the fall. Many students experienced loss from family financial crises to loss of their peer group to loss of jobs and more. LGBTQ+ students often found it difficult to go home to families unsupportive of their identities. Our Hmong students feared racist attacks related to COVID. Thus, as our students return this fall, we need to learn more about their experiences, support them in their time of crisis, and ensure their access to and success within our classes.
Another critical historic crisis unfolding daily is the killing of Black people by the police and attacks on Latinx, Black, Native, and Asian people. Black activists have made it clear that the time for action against racial injustice is now. Our own students this summer have been protesting on the streets and on social media for radical change to bring about racial justice. As instructors, we can be pro-active and make our make our classrooms more anti-racist, more inviting to our students whose communities have been under attack, and more responsive to the call for racial justice.
This workshop provides strategies for responding to these two national crises within the classroom. Presenters will share the experiences of students who have been hit hard by these two crises, and students who have felt called to activism in response racial injustice. They will provide their own best practices for getting students engaged and excited about their learning. And, they will give examples of creating assignments that are relevant and address the current crises. More than that though, they will discuss how to be an anti-racist educator as we move online. This workshop is about creating a brave space for your students and incorporating inclusive and equitable practices within an anti-racist framework.
Presenters:
- Byron Adams, Office for the Academic Support of Inclusive Excellence
- Heidi Nicholls, Department of Anthropology, Global Religions, and Cultures
- Adrienne Frie, Department of Anthropology, Global Religions, and Cultures
- Thomas Fischer, Department of Special and Early Childhood Education
Additional Resources
Resources Provided by Tom Fischer
Resources Provided by Adrienne Frie
- Wheaton College Becoming An Anti-Racist Educator
- Cite Black Women Collective
- Black in the Ivory resources:
- Racial Equity Tools Resource Lists
- UWO American Indian Student Services Land Acknowledgement (scroll down to highlighted section)
- Dr. Chris Jones’ Covid-19 statement on Twitter
Resources Provided by Heidi Nicholls
- The BIPOC Project, A Black Indigenous and People of Color Movement
- Yale’s Poorvu Center for Teaching and Learning provides an overview of the importance of providing an inclusion and diversity statement on the syllabus and models for doing so.
- Michigan State University’s College of Natural Science provides a quick reference guide to a range of issues including antiracism, syllabi statements, and strategies for diversifying the faculty.
- Brown University provides a guide to considering what you want to accomplish through the inclusion and diversity statement and provides model diversity statements as well.
- Stanford University has developed a model inclusion and diversity statement for STEM courses in particular and explores why a STEM-focused statement makes a difference.
- Appalachian State syllabus statements
https://cae.appstate.edu/inclusive-excellence/sample-syllabi-statements - And Vanderbilt’s Center for Teaching
https://cft.vanderbilt.edu/guides-sub-pages/developing-and-writing-a-diversity-statement/