Self-Awareness of Teaching Practices
One of the principles provided by the Guide for Inclusive Teaching at Columbia Links to an external site. (principle 5) discussed the need for faculty to reflect on their own beliefs about teaching in order to become more self-aware of their own internal biases and commitment to inclusion in the learning process/environment. In order to start addressing equity and inclusion in a course, a good first step to take is to address your OWN beliefs about teaching and whether or not you are encouraging equity and inclusion in your course (i.e., becoming more self-aware of your own teaching practices).
Take a moment to reflect on the individual and combined social advantages and disadvantages you have or may have experienced due to the impact of social inequality, and what it means for your teaching. You can ask yourself questions such as:
- How do students who are similar to me perceive me?
- How do students who are different from me perceive me?
- What ways might I commit microaggressions/biases towards the groups that are like me? For the groups that are not like me?
- Given the work I am engaging in with online learning, what microaggressions/biases might I need to pay particular attention to?
- How might online teaching diminish or exacerbate known microaggressive environments?
These are questions you may also choose to offer to your faculty mentees as well. How might you support them in responding to these questions? If you would like to get more detailed on your reflection, you can complete something like this Social Identity Profile Links to an external site. to help yourself become more self-aware of your teaching practices.