Faculty Participant Group

Course Design for Racial Equity Reflection

CORA (Center for Organizational Responsibility and Advancement)

Introduction

We will share how our courses, and we ourselves, have changed as a result of implementing effective equity-minded practices.

Background and Need

Equity-centered design can help faculty and administrators review teaching and learning practices to close equity gaps.

Why talk about race?

• Racism, White Supremacy and Anti-Blackness are embedded into the founding of the United States and were built into structures and systems of operation.

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• Race is correlated with outcomes across many othe social variables.
• The culture of schooling is culturally inherited and thus our practices our multiply determined and reproduced.
• History of colonialism and industrial model shapes our practices today.
• Looking to suppressed Pre-Colonial and indigenous models leads to many of these practices / divergent from traditional models:
• Ubuntu: “I am because WE are”

For further inquiry…

Cañada Student Composition

Source: https://datausa.io/profile/university/canada-college

Course Core Components

Syllabus

Relationship Building Communication

Assessment

Curriculum

Andragogy

Classroom Environment

Course Navigation

Efficiency

Line of Inquiry

How did our participation in the Course Design for Racial Equity change us and ultimately our praxis?

Jamboard POST IT: Conversation

Interact with the panel and each other using our Jamboard POST-IT Forum

Syllabus

• Description, title, outcomes & theoretical perspectives intentionally infused with racial equity.

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• Delete punitive language

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• Policies do not disadvantage disproportionately impacted students.

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• High expectations; trust, mutual respect, authentic care

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• Course rooted in ethos of community & collaboration.

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• Resources critical to success are made available at the beginning. 

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• Clear and flexible

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Andragogy

• Students have opportunities to be both learners and teachers
• Content is contextualized in a way that facilitates problem-solving & real-world applications.
• Distill content
• High expectations, trust, mutual respect, authentic care
• Normalizing failure (“try again”), asset based feedback.

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Relationship/ Community Building

• Intrusive

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• Validating

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• Initiate more contact with students

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• Feedforward

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• High expectations: trust, mutual respect, authentic care

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• EAN - escalate as needed

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Classroom Environment/ Course Navigation

• KISS (keep it short & simple); reduce number of clicks

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• Course rooted in an ethos of community & collaboration (not competitiveness)

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• Students have opportunities to be both learners and teachers

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• High expectations; trust, mutual respect, authentic care

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Assessment

• Feedforward.

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• Reducing number of assignments.

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• Earned Points So Far - giving students unlimited opportunities to revise.

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• Range of strategies used for assessment.

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• Clear and flexible.

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• Normalize failure with unlimited attempts. 

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• Validate student progress.

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Assessment II

• Assessment is used as a tool to review and learn information for both students and professor.

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• Flexibility.

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• Multiple opportunities to take a quiz or test.

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• Empower students to practice what they are learning in the classroom.

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• Students feel less stressed.

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• Provide an opportunity to relax, review material, and get good grades. 

Efficiency

• Text replacement

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• How long does it actually take students to complete readings, activities, etc.?

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• Course design: don’t try & do it all at once.

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• Give Grace - Choose one thing.

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Curriculum

• Course description, title, learning outcomes & theoretical perspectives intentionally infused with racial equity

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• Course foregrounds identities & lived experiences of racially minoritized students

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Curriculum - Catalog Description Example

The catalog description should consist of brief, direct statements of course purpose and content, preferably no more than 50 words. It should be written in concise language that is intelligible to the reader and should describe the course in terms of its primary objectives.

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Descriptive phrases rather than sentences are acceptable, the course title should not be repeated, and the description should employ the present verb tense

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Curriculum Description Example

This is an advanced course in non-fiction writing. Students are taught to read and think critically and to write nuanced arguments.

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This is an advanced course in non-fiction writing, students analyze texts from writers of diverse ethnic, cultural and socio-economic backgrounds and gender/sexual orientations. Students are taught to read and think critically as they apply their analytical skills to the writing of nuanced text-based arguments.

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Facilitated Question & Response

Resources

• CORA Courses https://coralearning.org

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• SMCCCD Anti Racism Council https://smccd.edu/antiracismcouncil/

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• Canada College Umoja Community https://canadacollege.edu/umoja/

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• Umoja Practices https://umojacommunity.org/umoja-practices

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• Cañada Anti Racism Resources https://canadacollege.edu/antiracism/

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• ACES - Academic Committee for Equity & Success https://canadacollege.edu/aces/index.php

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THANK YOU

CORA Faculty Group:

Natalie Alizaga, Nick DeMello, Alison Field, Michael Hoffman, Althea Kippes, Bridget Love, Gerardo Pacheco, Lisa Palmer, Rebekah Taveau, Elizabeth Terzakis, and Lezlee Ware.