Creating Equitable Learning Environments: Valuing Diversity and Building Trust in Education

1. I • Equity Practices Within the Classroom • Creating Equitable Learning Environments • through Valuing Diversity and Building Trust • FTLA 2015

2. The Little Things People Say http://youtu.be/ScOA-_tsi-Y

3. TRUST • Creating quality and trusting relationships between students and educators who are culturally different is a necessary step to increasing student engagement and success, within a cross-cultural population.

4. Origins Dr. Chester M. Pierce • Dr. Chester M. Pierce, Emeritus Professor of Education and Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, coined the phrase “Microaggression" in 1970. • Microagression usually involves “demeaning implications and other subtle insults against minorities.”  • Dr. Pierce described these subtle nonverbal exchanges as ‘put-downs’ of blacks by offenders.

5. Concept Expansion Dr. Derald Wing Sue • Dr. Derald Wing Sue, a Professor of Psychology and Education at Columbia University, expanded Dr. Pierce’s concept in 2007 to include: • ethnicity • gender • sexual orientation • disability • poverty • and any other “socially marginalized” group

6. Microaggressions in Everyday Life • http://youtu.be/BJL2P0JsAS4 • “Brief and commonplace daily verbal, behavioral, or environmental indignities, whether intentional or unintentional, that communicate hostile, derogatory, or negative racial slights and insults toward people of color.” • – Racial Microaggressions in Everyday Life • Dr. Derald Wing Sue

7. Due to changing demographics and more people of color speaking up about the issue, categories were extended in 2007 to include: • Microassaults • Microinsults • Microinvalidations

8. Microaggressions are present in everyday settings • Never meant to hurt • Not about the speaker’s intention • Focus on how comments feel to the person on the receiving end of the comment

9. UNCONSCIOUS BIAS • Blindspots: Hidden Biases of Good People • Mahzarin R. Banaji (Harvard) and Anthony G. Greenwald (Univ. Washington) • IMPLICIT ASSOCIATION TEST (IAT) • https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/ • - Designed to detect the hidden contents of the mind.   • Explores the group-based preferences, stereotype, and identities that may not be accessible to conscious awareness.   • Used to study preferences, beliefs, and identity in various areas, including health, education, business, government, law, and law enforcement.   • IAT is currently available at 39 country sites, in 25 languages.

10. UNCONSCIOUS BIAS AT WORK • Google Ventures • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nLjFTHTgEVU • IMPLICIT ASSOCIATION TEST • https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/

11. ASCCC Infusing Cultural Competence Equity and Diversity Action Committee Cultural Competence is a skill set that makes faculty effective in working in diverse environments and teaching diverse students, thereby increasing student success; ASCCC is developing a plan for infusing cultural competence best practices into professional development, work, goals, and other aspects of the work of the Senate - resolves to engage in cultural competency and equity training at its annual Executive Committee orientation, - use the information from that training to develop its cultural competency plan as a model for local senates; - report its cultural competency plan to the body by Spring 2015; and - include in that plan a component that will encourage greater diversity in local senates, including adjunct faculty in professional development activities.

12. CONSIDER… • an experience • whether the interaction was based upon what someone thought about you • whether the interaction was based upon what someone actually knew about you • how you felt in the moment • your response • whether the moment had a lasting impact…did it linger

13. CONSIDER… • our students • whether or how often our interactions may be driven by unconscious biases • the impact on our students • how a student may feel in the moment • whether the moment could have a lasting impact • how we can hold ourselves and others accountable • what can be done to eliminate biases

14. Cultural competence is NOT • • Good intentions • • Cultural celebrations at designated times of the year, in designated ways • • Kumbaya diversity • • A list of stereotypes about what people from a particular cultural group do • • Assumptions that all students from one culture operate in similar ways and have had similar experiences • • The responsibility of children, their parents or the community • • Color-blindness (treating everybody the same) • • Simple tolerance

15. Cultural competence IS: • • Knowing the community where the school is located • • Understanding all people have a unique world view • • Using curriculum that is respectful of and relevant to the cultures represented in its student body • • Being alert to the ways that culture affects who we are • • Placing the focus of responsibility on the professional and the institution • • Examining systems, structures, policies and practices for their impact on all students and families

16. Best Practices • Create awareness and improve cultural competency in the classroom and on campus • Increase sensitivity around problems faced by marginalized students • Create quality relationships and build trust • Focus on increasing student engagement, promoting student retention, and creating experiences that foster student success • Create a transformative educational experience for our students

17. Be mindful… • THANK YOU

18. Lancaster University • http://youtu.be/aWVU3BCXcYk