Stephanie Malmberg explores practical strategies for educators to make their teaching more inclusive of all students.
Inclusive Teaching Strategies and Practical Tools
📚 Inclusive teaching strategies can be implemented immediately, providing educators with practical tools to create a more inclusive learning environment.
🌍 The classroom environment, regardless of modality, has a significant impact on learning and requires preparation, agility, and confidence from teachers to create an inclusive space.
📚 Providing accessible course materials, such as captioned lectures and multiple formats, eliminates the need for students to ask for extra accommodations and ensures inclusivity for all learners.
🤝 Connecting with students personally and using their interests and aspirations to inform group work can enhance the learning experience and engagement in the course.
🗣️ Assigning tasks based on students’ strengths allows for equitable participation and engagement, giving quieter students the opportunity to volunteer and contribute in their own way.
💡 Inclusive teaching strategies prioritize the learning of all students and aim to address harm immediately in the classroom.
😬 It’s uncomfortable but necessary for teachers to address misconceptions and challenge students’ beliefs in order to ensure they leave the course with accurate knowledge.
Addressing Race and Whiteness in the Classroom
📖 The speaker’s approach to inclusive teaching is informed by critical race theory and critical whiteness studies, indicating a focus on addressing issues of race and whiteness in the classroom.
💡 Whiteness in educational spaces can limit learning opportunities for students of color, reinforcing sameness and predictable behavior as the norm.
📚 “Matthew K’s book ‘Not Light, But Fire‘ provides valuable insights on how to lead meaningful race conversations in the classroom, but it also offers inclusive pedagogy strategies that can be applied in higher education.”
🔎 Creating curriculum that interrogates power structures and their impact, even in disciplines like math, can help illuminate issues such as voter disenfranchisement and gerrymandering, fostering a deeper understanding of social issues.
🎵 Teaching a course on the rich history of black and African-American music, including discussions on the appropriation of black music, can provide valuable insights into cultural realities and promote inclusivity in the classroom.
💡 By deconstructing our own intersectional identities and identifying sites of privilege and loss, we can create impactful assignments that allow students to question the structural nature of power and oppression.
