Resources for Teaching DEI: Higher Education general resources

Inclusive classrooms are classrooms in which instructors and students work together to create and sustain an environment in which everyone feels safe, supported, and encouraged to express her or his views and concerns. In these classrooms, the content is explicitly viewed from the multiple perspectives and varied experiences of a range of groups. Content is presented in a manner that reduces all students' experiences of marginalization and, wherever possible, helps students understand that individuals' experiences, values, and perspectives influence how they construct knowledge in any field or discipline. Instructors in inclusive classrooms use a variety of teaching methods in order to facilitate the academic achievement of all students.

Citation: Saunders, Shari, and Diana Kardia. Creating Inclusive College Classrooms. University of Michigan Center for Research on Learning and Teaching.

The article addresses how remnant or transformed colonialist structures continue to shape science and science education, and how that impact might be mitigated within a postcolonial environment in favor of the development of the particular community being addressed. Though cognizant of, and resistant to, the ongoing colonial impact globally and nationally (and any attempts at subjugation, imperialism, and marginalization), this article is not about anticolonial science. Indeed, it is realized that the postcolonial state of science and science education is not simply defined, and may exist as a mix of the scientific practices of the colonizer and the colonized.

Citation: Boisselle, L. N. (2016). Decolonizing Science and Science Education in a Postcolonial Space (Trinidad, a Developing Caribbean Nation, Illustrates). SAGE Open, 6(1).

The word “decolonize” has become inescapable. There are calls to decolonize the museum and the art worlds, fashion, diet, publishing, the internet, and the media. But it’s within education that calls for decolonization have echoed loudest. The phrases proliferate: decolonize the academy, the canon, the classroom, the syllabus and our pedagogy. Given the prevalence of the term, we should ask: What do the calls to decolonize the academy actually mean?

Citation: Mintz, Steven. Decolonizing the Academy. Inside Higher Ed Higher Ed Gamma Blog 22 June 2021.

Discussions on decolonizing the curriculum are common in Humanities and Social Science Faculties but still rare in the Physical Sciences. In this commentary, we describe the work we have conducted to begin decolonizing and diversifying our undergraduate chemistry curriculum. We also discuss what it means to decolonize chemistry and reflect on why it is an important thing to do. Finally, we discuss a number of different strategic approaches that could be followed to decolonize an undergraduate chemistry curriculum.

Citation: Dessent, Caroline E. H., et al. (2022). Decolonizing the Undergraduate Chemistry Curriculum: An Account of How to Start. Journal of Chemical Education 99 (1), 5-9.

Would you like to challenge the established curriculum in your subject discipline and reclaim it for those who have been historically marginalized? Knowing where to start is challenging. Much of the literature makes a great case for explaining why the curriculum must be decolonized, but says less about how. There is no blueprint for the liberation of learning in your subject discipline. Instead, deconstructing the content and approaches that have been used over the generations is a deeply personal – and at the same time, collective process.

Citation: Vandana Stone, Rachel. Decolonizing your Subject Discipline: Where to Begin. Social Science Space blog 21 Sept. 2021.

EDUCAUSE recently created a Guide to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. This resource includes action steps to put the principles of DEI into practice, as well as learning and engagement opportunities to deepen your community's understanding of DEI.

A guide to help professors foster equitable and inclusive teaching, from Harvard University's Derek Bok Center for Teaching and Learning. The guide looks at inclusive course design, classroom dynamics, teaching and mental health, and more.

From Higher Education Today, a blog sponsored by the American Council on Education (ACE), this post provides some of the lessons from the ACE DEI and Covid-19 Community of Practice.