One of the stark lessons of teaching during the pandemic via remote learning was the instructors’ exposure to the large heterogeneity of life circumstances among our students. Some of our students were connecting to zoom classes at the summer home of their parents, with strong internet, quiet, and privacy. Some of their classmates were taking the same zoom class inside a closet of their parent’s small apartment, crowded with siblings and other relatives. Still others sought “time off” from their work in the family business, grabbing a few minutes away to follow their zoom classes.
Of course, the large variation in household situations of our students were always present, but they became more salient to us during remote learning. Further, the racial reckoning so widespread in 2020 is an independent reminder of the need to meet our students where they are, with all the heterogeneity that entails.
Life intrudes in the academic engagement of our students. They come to Georgetown from widely different educational backgrounds, some with similar classroom protocols as we offer; others from schools with under-resourced facilities and little support for academic achievement of those with extraordinary talent. Cultural nurturance spanning race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender and other attributes is deficient in some of their environments. The research now seems clear that a sense of belonging in a student is a key correlate of their academic success.
Following discussions in faculty governance bodies, Georgetown is mounting a university-wide program to improve its ability to effectively address the heterogeneity among our students so that all students will feel respected, welcomed, understood, and invited to engage in their classes. In preparation for this initiative, the Provost, other Executive Vice Presidents, School deans, and other administrators are themselves experiencing the program that will be rolled out more generally. Our first session was yesterday afternoon.
One of the goals of the program is to celebrate some of the work already ongoing in many academic units. Some of our colleagues are rethinking how the content of their fields is presented in classrooms. They are redesigning the curriculum to be more inclusive of alternative perspectives on the material and to include more diversity in the scholarship presented. Others are re-examining how to create classroom environments that increase the participation of those students most reticent to engage. Some are exploring new design of group projects that help display the increased creativity that arises in diverse groups. The challenge of the new initiative is to disperse the successes of these efforts across other academic units, while giving those other units the opportunity to design what works best for their curriculum.
Indeed, much of the wisdom of the program rests on academic units themselves (i.e., departments, degree programs, areas) designing their own approach to inclusive pedagogy. The aim is the design of teaching and learning environments that are meaningful, relevant, and accessible to all, deeply attentive to the ways that social identities and lived experiences impact how we teach and learn. The units will be asked to attend to content of courses, the cultural climate inside a class, power dynamics, pedagogical techniques, and assessment designs. All of this will be informed by reflection among students and faculty in the units, aided by a set of faculty peer mentors.
Research discoveries have identified effective pedagogical protocols with students from diverse backgrounds. Georgetown seeks to use this research, customized to individual needs of academic units to create a welcoming and effective learning environment. It is clear from the work of other universities that a whole-community effort catalyzes real change in these efforts. The achievement of strong academic engagement of all our students, regardless of their backgrounds and identities, is an inherent goal in Georgetown’s commitment to cura personalis. That commitment, shared by all of us, greatly increases the likelihood of the success of this initiative on inclusive and responsive pedagogy.
For an excellent example of how to feature varied professionals in a field, watch the NOVA program on black holes. The commentators were very diverse, male and female, and relatively young. This would have made it easy for young people to see themselves doing this work because there was someone who looked like them talking to them.
Good discussion. Good goals and way to think about adapting .