UPbeat

News for and about University of Portland faculty and staff.

Inclusive Teaching Working Group

Inclusive Teaching Community

Curious about inclusive teaching and the positive effects it can have on your students and classroom environment? Consider joining the Inclusive Teaching Community book group, where we will delve into the enriching strategies for promoting equity in the classroom outlined in Inclusive Teaching, by Kelly Hogan and Viji Sathy.

Faculty members who try out and document one of several inclusive practices will be supported by a $500 stipend courtesy of the HHMI Inclusive Teaching Grant program. Weekly discussions will be led by Gordon Williamson (SONHI) and Tamar More (PHY).

Visit the link below for detailed information and applications (Click Here)

Contact Gordon Williamson at williamg@up.edu for questions.

UP’s New Public-Facing Inclusive Teaching Database Dashboard is Live!

Interested in one stop shopping to research inclusive teaching practices? Then, Google “up.edu inclutch” to access UP’s searchable new dashboard of inclusive and equitable teaching resources. UP’s public-facing new Inclusive Teaching Database dashboard (https://libguides.up.edu/inclutch) exists to help colleagues easily find and immediately access resources tailored to your own inclusive teaching or pedagogic research. Use keywords to search its 120+ indexed Web, journal, book/chapter, conference, and video resources, or narrow your resource search by its targeted discipline, academic division, particular teaching subject, or resource type.  

This project was sponsored by the UP Center for Teaching and Learning’s, HHMI funded, Inclusive Teaching Scholars program and designed by a faculty/Library team working with UP’s Office of Institutional Research, these “inclutch” resources (an 8-character ‘inclusive teaching’ mashup) help you pause and re/consider your next moves.  

Reach the tool’s faculty curators at inclutch@up.edu or CT&L Director Terry Favero (favero@up.edu) with resources to add or for more information. 

2023 Inclusive Teaching Working Group 

We are happy to be able to offer a professional development opportunity to all of our UP colleagues: the 2023 Inclusive Teaching Working Group.  

Starting the week of March 13, we will be facilitating two professional learning communities with faculty who wish to broaden their understanding of inclusive teaching practices and adopt and skillfully implement these practices in their classrooms. We are leveraging funds from two NSF-funded projects to be able to pay faculty participants $500 for engaging with the Inclusive Teaching Working Group, which involves a free, six-week online course and concurrent in-person professional learning community discussions with colleagues from across campus. 

While the online course—a MOOC using the edX platform—has a STEM focus, we note that the course content is valuable for educators in any department. We very much hope that faculty from all disciplines and ranks will consider joining us.  

If the times we’ve selected for this semester don’t work, please consider clicking to the application and letting us know that you’d like to participate in a later cohort. 

SUMMARY 

Participants will enroll in the free, asynchronous online course (via edX) designed by the NSF-funded Inclusive STEM Teaching Project team. The course focuses on inclusive teaching in a STEM context but is relevant and accessible to all disciplines. The online course is open March 6–April 28. Each week’s module takes 2–3 hours to complete. See inclusivestemteaching.org for more info. 

Participants will also join an in-person Professional Learning Community open to ALL FACULTY who enroll in the online course, with meetings on: 

  •  Tuesdays from 12:45 p.m.–2 p.m.: 3/14, 3/21, 3/28 and 4/11, 4/18, 4/25,  

OR 

  •  Fridays 9 a.m.–10:15 a.m.: 3/17, 3/24, 3/31 and 4/14, 4/21, 4/28 

We will not meet the week of 4/3 due to Founders’ Day and Easter Break. 

A $500 stipend will be paid to faculty* who complete the online course, attend at least 4 of 6 PLC meetings, and complete a deliverable** on inclusive teaching 

We can support up to 19 faculty members in the course and PLC this Spring, and will be balancing participation across disciplines, levels of current adoption of inclusive practices, and faculty positions. 

  • Application Deadline: 10 a.m. on Friday, February 17, 2023 
  • Application Link 

If you have questions or concerns, reach out to the UP project coordinators, Stephanie Salomone (salomone@up.edu) and Valerie Peterson (petersov@up.edu). 

*We welcome applications from adjunct faculty. Stipend eligibility for adjuncts is contingent on their current contract. We will reach out to discuss this with you.  

**In order to model inclusive assessment practices, facilitators will provide options for final “projects” from which participants can select. Options will include the following: 

  • Completing a syllabus makeover applying the lessons of Universal Design for Learning creating an inclusive classroom climate. 
  • Completing an instructor identity reflection, including a consideration of the impacts of their identity on student inclusion. 
  • Completing student social identity interviews (either individually or as a focus group) and create a plan for welcoming and including students with similar identities in future courses. 
  • Aligning course learning objectives to Bloom’s Taxonomy and reflecting on the levels of the taxonomy at which students achieve the objectives and whether or not objectives are balanced across the Bloom’s levels.