Inclusive Pedagogy Academy hosts fall 2021 workshops
Ohio University’s Inclusive Pedagogy Academy will host four fall workshops that all faculty, instructors and teaching assistants are invited to attend to expand on their teaching practices.
Each workshop will be held from noon to 1 p.m. Registration is required for all workshops.
Monday, Sept. 13: Identify as an Instructor: How Our Identity and Culture Shapes Our Teaching
Presented by Dr. Sarah Wyatt, professor of environmental and plant biology, and Dr. Purba Das, associate professor of communication studies, this will be an interactive workshop to encourage reflection on oneself. Identity is a dynamic and ever-changing process, and one way to process is to understand how intercultural dialects function in communication contexts and how identity is co-constructed by the self and others.
This session is currently scheduled as an in-person workshop in Baker University Center 230, and no recording will be available afterwards. However, should registration exceed the capacity of the space with social distancing guidelines, the session will be moved to Teams.
Tuesday, Oct. 5: Designing Your Syllabi: Laying an Inclusive Foundation
Presented by Christina Wright, assistant professor of instruction in sports administration, this session will focus on creating an inclusive classroom environment by looking at syllabi language, classroom policies, building rapport with students and questions to frame as faculty frame course content. This session will be held via Teams.
Monday, Nov. 1: Identifying and Responding to Microaggressions in the Classroom
Presented by Dr. M. Geneva Murray, director of the Women’s Center, this session will highlight definitions of microaggressions and implicit bias, as well as discuss the importance of interrupting microaggressions, and why people may be hesitant to respond in the moment and how to respond. This session will be held via Teams.
Monday, Dec. 6: Trauma-Informed Teaching
Presented by Murray and Dr. Kristyn Neckles, psychologist/D&I embedded clinician in Counseling and Psychological Services, this session will provide guidance on trauma-informed teaching and how faculty can improve communication strategies with students, especially within the virtual environment. This session will be held via Teams.
Announced in fall 2019, OHIO’s Office of Instructional Innovation (OII) and Division of Diversity and Inclusion collaborated to create the IPA program. IPA’s mission is to empower faculty to maximize student learning and achievement by working with faculty to enact inclusive teaching approaches across all disciplines.
OII provides financial support as well as staffing support resources through the Center for Teaching and Learning, according to Candi Morris, associate vice provost for instructional innovation.
“The Office of Instructional Innovation is proud to support and promote the Inclusive Pedagogy Academy,” Morris said. “The University has a strong commitment to support equity and inclusion, and OII has worked to embed these principles in our instructional design services and programming through our Center for Teaching and Learning. The work of Geneva and the IPA faculty over the last 18 months has been essential in helping to develop awareness around and support for inclusive pedagogy at OHIO.”
Recently, IPA supported the Ohio College Teaching Consortium Inclusive Teaching Endorsement by hosting a panel that counted towards the endorsement, and five OHIO employees and one graduate student completed the inclusive teaching credential.
“Inclusive pedagogy is at the heart of what we do as teachers. It is designed to promote student academic success, as well as social, cultural and physical well-being,” Wright, presenter of the Oct. 5 workshop, said. “Students, in an inclusive, safe learning environment, can then explore multiple identities, increase their own self-awareness of themselves and others, and quite frankly, thrive. It becomes less about what is right and wrong, and more about understanding multiple perspectives to move forward.”
IPA provides resources for faculty members in wanting to expand inclusive practices, including checklists and recommended syllabi. An online learning module is also coming soon.
More details about the fall 2021 workshops can be found on the Center for Teaching and Learning website.