Month: March 2018

The article “How Diversity Makes US Smarter” was a real eye opener. Having never studied diversity per se, it was great to read through many of the previous case studies and experiments.

When people are brought together to solve problems in groups, they bring different information, which is why it’s important that the groups aren’t homogenous, otherwise they would only be rehashing ideas from common comfort zones. I don’t question that comfort is part  of why homogenous groups exist, because humans tend to flock with those we identify with most.

The case study regarding democrats and republicans was fascinating.   When told they would have to prepare an argument for a) someone from the same political affiliation, or b) someone from the opposing political affiliation; the results were similar in that those preparing for scenario b worked much harder at the defense!   Having to prepare something for a diverse group, rather someone not like ourselves, compels us to think of creative ways to get the message across.

Thanks!

Cheers, Lehi

 

 

Georgetown university defines inclusive pedagogy as the following, “Inclusive pedagogy is a method of teaching in which instructors and classmates work together to create a supportive environment that gives each student equal access to learning.”

I have been reflecting this week on what inclusive pedagogy could look like in the classroom I am assisting in now and the potential classroom I may have in the future. In the context of an entomology course, issues of diversity and inclusion aren’t topics that you find in the syllabus, but just becuase it isn’t in the ciriculum doesn’t mean it isn’t seen or felt by the students in the course. It’s also not always a topic that is planned to be discussed.

During the GTA workshop this spring, a speaker from the office of diversity and inclusion talked about how important it is to be an advocate for diversity in the classroom and when working one-on-one with students. He talked about the level of influence you have as a TA and future professor, and how students will look to you to provide guidance and be an advocate. During the conversation, some of the TAs pushed back saying that the course they were teaching didn’t have anything to do with diversity and inclusion, so why did they need to talk about it at all? He responded with the notion that as educators we should consider this part of our role even if the context of the course doesn’t directly relate.

I think some of this boils down to what we view as the role of a instructor. Is the instructor simply someone who conveys a set list of information, or is she someone who helps shape the way students think? For our students sake, I hope we chose the later.

“A lot of different flowers make a bouquet.”- Muslim Origin

 

 

Every person is different naturally. While some of those differences are visible, others are not that obvious. For example, our race/ethnicity (most of the time), sex, and approximate age can be guessed, but our biases and family cultures or genders cannot. In other words, every single person is different somehow in a society, but how much we aware of that? or how much we aware of ourselves and other people’ differences?

The book ‘Hidden Brain’ explains conscious and unconscious minds very well in my understanding from the article called “How ‘The Hidden Brain’ Does The Thinking For Us“. As he said, all of us have some sorts of biases about certain issues, and some of those are conscious while the rest are unconscious. For example, when we raise children, our unconscious biases are much more influential, and these affect children sometimes together with our own culture which we live in.

My thoughts on this week’s topic of inclusive pedagogy are somewhat all over the map.  I read several resources for this week and found several quotes that have got me thinking.  I’ll show the quotes first, and then make some comments to tie them together:

“Members of a homogeneous group rest somewhat assured that they will agree with one another; that they will understand one another’s perspectives and beliefs; that they will be able to easily come to a consensus. But when members of a group notice that they are socially different from one another, they change their expectations. They anticipate differences of opinion and perspective. They assume they will need to work harder to come to a consensus. This logic helps to explain both the upside and the downside of social diversity: people work harder in diverse environments both cognitively and socially. They might not like it, but the hard work can lead to better outcomes.” How Diversity Makes us Smarter, Katherine Phillips

 

“…we all have bias of one form or another (or, likely, multiple forms). The appropriate question isn’t Who’s biased? but What are my biases, and what am I going to do about them?” Georgetown’s Center for New Designs in Learning and Scholarship

 

“…racism isn’t something that was created by people of color. It isn’t something that is perpetuated by people of color. It isn’t something that people of color benefit from. When I think about solutions to racism, people of color can’t be the only folks doing the work.” Dismantling Racism in Education

At first, these quotes may seem unrelated (other than the obvious thread of diversity).  One focuses on the importance of diversity in teams, one reminds us of how we must deal with our own biases, and one places the responsibility on each of us to recognize how to help others around us.  But what I think connects these three quotes is at the heart of inclusive pedagogy: empathy.  Recognizing the social diversity of a team as a strength leads to a certain level of empathy where we think more carefully about how we act so that we can help others feel comfortable and welcome in our team.  Taking a moment of self-reflection to identify our own biases and make plans to deal with them appropriately requires some empathy to anticipate how our actions might be received by those who we may have biases toward.  Finally, empathy is at work when we take individual responsibility to recognize the inequalities that groups around us may face and use our own social advantages to work toward a better environment for them.

All of this requires stepping outside of ourselves to understand how someone else may feel.  I recognize that this may not be enough to alleviate some of the social injustices in our world today, but I believe that it is a good start for educators.  In a classroom setting, if we can do our best to empathize with our students, show that we care, we can start to help the diverse students in our classrooms to reach their full potential.  One final thought from Daniel Goleman to drive home the theme of empathy:

“Self-absorption in all its forms kills empathy, let alone compassion. When we focus on ourselves, our world contracts as our problems and preoccupations loom large. But when we focus on others, our world expands. Our own problems drift to the periphery of the mind and so seem smaller, and we increase our capacity for connection – or compassionate action.”