1.7: Guides and Tools

Center for Teaching and Learning. (2020, January). Guide for Inclusive Teaching at Columbia. Office of the Provost of Columbia University.

The Guide for Inclusive Teaching at Columbia helps instructors answer that question by offering five inclusive teaching principles derived from research and evidence-based practices. In addition, the guide contains practical, accessible, and usable strategies that instructors can use immediately.

Center for Innovative Teaching and Learning. (n.d.). Increasing Sense of Belonging. Indiana University Bloomington.

A recent report from IU, exploring students’ experiences with moving to online teaching during the pandemic, lists four recommendations for faculty who are planning their online courses. Along with judiciously assigning classwork and collaborating with instructors across the institution, two recommendations highlight the importance of community and sense of belonging for students. The report recommends that instructors 1) “create opportunities for student-instructor communication, especially for first- and second-year students”; and 2) “facilitate student success and foster a sense of virtual community through student-to-student communication.” IU students want more opportunities to communicate with their instructors and their peers. They want instructors who foster a sense of community, which becomes even more important in the online learning environment, and the sense of belonging it promotes.

Center for Innovative Teaching and Learning. (n.d.). Managing Difficult Classroom Discussions. Indiana University Bloomington.

Teaching controversial subjects is an inherent part of some courses and disciplines. Topics like race, culture, gender, and/or sexual orientation can come up in many fields, and any course dealing with current events presents an opportunity for socially-challenging or politically-charged topics to arise spontaneously in class discussions. How we manage those discussions, however, can greatly impact how useful the conversations are to our instructional goals, and what sort of impact they have on the dynamics of the class. Many of the suggestions (here) focus on pre-planned discussions, but many of the techniques can also be applied to discussions that pop up unexpectedly.

Cohen, A. (n.d.). How to have a difficult conversation. Psyche.

Avoidance will only foster more conflict. Aim for a shared understanding with these techniques from an expert mediator.

Fievre, M. J. (2021, October 26). Cultivating the Classroom as a Safe Space. Edutopia.

Middle and high school teachers can create an environment that supports inclusion and gives students space to make mistakes as they learn.

Gonchar, M. (2021, May 11). Teach About Inequality With These 28 New York Times Graphs. The New York Times.

Inequalities, by definition, involve a comparison between two or more things. In math, we can easily express inequalities with simple mathematical sentences, such as x

Human Rights Campaign. (n.d.) Resources: Tools for Equality and Inclusion. Human Rights Campaign. https://www.hrc.org/resources

Our goal at the Human Rights Campaign is to ensure that every LGBTQ+ person is free to live their life openly, with their equal rights ensured. We know that goal requires that we keep educating, supporting and inspiring ourselves and each other. In the spirit of that continual growth, we’ve compiled information and advice on a range of topics, including resources from the HRC Foundation.

Lamont, A. (2023). Guide to Allyship. guidetoallyship.com.

The Guide to Allyship is an open-source starter guide to help you become a more thoughtful and effective ally.

The Learning Network. (2020, October 23). Over 60 New York Times Graphs for Students to Analyze. The New York Times.

Inequalities, by definition, involve a comparison between two or more things. In math, we can easily express inequalities with simple mathematical sentences, such as x<y. But how can we illustrate complicated inequalities deeply entrenched in our society that are often hidden from plain sight behind segregated neighborhoods, schools of varying quality and different health care systems? Graphs are one powerful tool.

In this teaching resource, we have gathered 28 New York Times graphs that relate to social inequalities in income, education and health care, many of which are exacerbated by issues of race and gender. We have also gathered examples that show how the coronavirus pandemic both laid bare and widened these disparities. We hope teachers across the curriculum will be able to use this collection to help students think critically about American society.

To support teachers, we have created a lesson plan to guide individual students or whole classes — as well as a glossary of terms (PDF) — as they explore this collection.

National Equity Project. (n.d.). Responding to Microaggressions and Unconscious Bias.

There is not a single “best way” to respond when we witness a microaggression in an interaction between two people, or when we observe actions or hear comments that seem to demonstrate unconscious bias. To help shift thinking and behavior in the long term, we must take a few things into consideration, such as the strategies and responses suggested in this handout.

NEA Center for Social Justice. (2021, January). Toolkit: Implicit Bias, Microaggressions, and Stereotypes Resources.

Resources to sharpen our racial analysis and to deepen our understanding of implicit bias, microaggressions, and stereotypes.

Souto-Manning, M. (2010). Chapter 1: Culture Circles and Critical Pedagogy in Freire, Teaching, and Learning: Culture Circles Across Contexts. Counterpoints, 350, 7–28.

"No one constructs a serious democracy... without... radically changing the societal structures, reorienting the politics of production and development, reinventing power, doing justice to everyone, and abolishing the unjust and immoral gains of the all-powerful... The exercise of this democratic disposition in a truly open school... must first approach the authoritarian tendency, racist or machista... such as the denial of democracy, or freedoms, and of the rights of those who are different, as the denial of a necessary humanism." Freire (1998, pp. 66-67)

Stanford SPARQ. (n.d.). Higher Ed Diversity and Inclusion Collection. Stanford University.

Science-powered activities for promoting equity in colleges and universities.

Supiano, B. (2019, July 19). Grades Can Hinder Learning. What Should Professors Use Instead? The Chronicle of Higher Education.

Grades Can Hinder Learning. What Should Professors Use Instead?, including 4 approaches to ungrading.

Yale University Poorvu Center for Teaching and Learning. (n.d.). Diversity and Inclusion. Yale University.

Effective approaches to teaching and classroom climate are founded on the same principles that drive diversity and inclusion: equal access and opportunity for all students to thrive, honest dialogue about important issues, and protocols for managing difficult, sudden, and emotional moments. Instructors can consider racial and socioeconomic awareness, checking for implicit bias, and developing inclusive classrooms, teaching strategies, and diversity statements.