For Faculty

Teaching Theology and Religion 17, no. 1 (January 1, 2014): 46.

Abstract: The authors respond here to each other's essays published in this issue of the journal. In "Holding Us Accountable," Anna Floerke Scheid and Elisabeth T. Vasko respond to Karen Teel's essay, "Getting Out of the Left Lane." In "Challenges and Convergences," Karen Teel responds to the essay "Teaching Race" by Anna Floerke Scheid and Elisabeth T. Vasko.

Teaching Theology and Religion 17, no. 1 (January 1, 2014): 27.

Abstract: While a number of scholars in the field of Christian theology have argued for the importance of teaching diversity and social justice in theology and religious studies classrooms, little has been done to document and assess formally the implementation of such pedagogy. In this article, the authors discuss the findings of a yearlong Scholarship of Multicultural Teaching and Learning (SoMTL) study, which examined student learning and faculty teaching regarding race and white privilege in two theology classrooms. After a brief overview of the study's design and execution, we reflect upon our findings and draw out implications for pedagogical practices. In particular we discuss students' emotional responses to the material and the role of cognitive dissonance in student learning with respect to racial inequality via social structures

Teaching Theology and Religion 17, no. 1 (January 1, 2014): 3.

Abstract: This article maintains that knowledge of the literature on multicultural education and social justice pedagogy is indispensable for white college professors who desire to teach effectively about racial justice concerns. In exploring this literature, I have noticed that many publications either articulate theory or reflect on concrete classroom strategies, while relatively few deploy theory to evaluate specific attempts at teaching for justice. This seems to me a gap worth filling. Speaking as a white, conventionally trained, Catholic theologian, I begin by explaining why I deem it appropriate to employ antiracist pedagogy. I then demonstrate that the literature on multicultural education and social justice pedagogy is essential to this effort by utilizing both types of literature, theoretical and practical, to analyze my own strategies and goals to date. Throughout, I discuss white antiracist theological pedagogy not as an accomplished fact, but as an emerging endeavor.

Working Paper (47). International Inequalities Institute, London School of Economics and Political Science, London, UK. (2020)

Abstract:
The Office for Students is now holding UK universities to account for their failures to address racial inequalities, and the Teaching Excellence Framework is bringing the student experience to the fore in assessing higher education institutions. As the twin crises of Covid- 19 and the murder of George Floyd have highlighted in an unprecedented way, racial inequalities and injustices persist in spite of decades of legislation aiming to promote equality and end discrimination. The paper considers two main areas of ‘racial equalities’ work, namely anti-racist initiatives and decolonial initiatives. It suggests that the rise of managerialism and in particular, audit cultures, have allowed racism to flourish in spite, or rather because of, the need to account for equality, diversity and inclusion in global markets for higher education. Auditing requires a focus on identities, and cannot take into account the complex ways in which race, race thinking and racism are maintained in knowledge production. The lack of consensus around what decolonial education should be undermines attempts to produce educational social justice. From a feminist postcolonial perspective, the paper suggests that recentralising racism and reengaging difference as a way to negotiate more just educational futures.

Social Work Education 22, no. 3 (June 2003): 271–82. doi:10.1080/0261547032000083469.

Abstract:
In this paper we reflect on the work in progress to maintain an active focus on the impact of racism in society, its implications for social work practice, and the development of anti-racist strategies within the whole spectrum of anti-oppressive practice in social work education. We look at some of the ways in which this is being tackled in social work training programmes nationally, and share some of the dilemmas and difficulties encountered in the South West, as well as the achievements so far. We wish to invite debate through a discussion of the processes, principles and context of four years’ work to set minimum standards for anti-racist practice. Our aim is to move forward from identifying the problem [S. Collins, P. Gutridge, A. James, E. Lynn & C. Williams (2000) Social Work Education, 19(1), pp. 29–43] to implementing positive change in both content and method of integrating anti-racist strategies in social work and assessing student practice. At all stages of the development work care has been taken to avoid the separation of racism from other forms of oppression and to acknowledge the ways it reconstitutes the experience of service users from minority and majority ethnic groups [F. Williams (1989) Social Policy: A Critical Introduction (Cam- bridge, Polity)]. It is in this context that agreed standards for anti-racism within anti-oppressive practice are being articulated and adopted or considered by DipSW and Post Qualifying programmes within the Far South West of England. Local DipSW programme personnel in the region have worked consistently to achieve a positive, inclusive and dynamic approach to integrate anti-racist practice in social work education programmes. The authors write from the perspective of being White. We are members of a Forum for Anti-Racist Practice Development and are involved in the development work in different ways. This paper is our perspective of the work for which many individuals and institutions are responsible. We do not represent all those involved, and seek to celebrate rather than claim credit for the work.

The WAC Clearinghouse, Fort Collins, CO, 2017.

Abstract:
In Performing Antiracist Pedagogy, Frankie Condon and Vershawn Ashanti Young seek to help create openings to address race and racism not only in course readings and class discussion in writing, rhetoric, and communication courses but also in wider public settings. The contributors to this collection, drawn from a wide range of disciplines, urge readers to renew their commitment to intelligently and publicly deliberate race and to counteract the effects of racism. The book is both theoretically rigorous and practical, providing readers with insightful analyses of race and racism and useful classroom suggestions and examples.

Diversity & Democracy 19, No. 1 (Winter 2016).

Abstract:
In America’s Unmet Promise: The Imperative for Equity in Higher Education (Witham et al. 2015b), we affirmed that effective higher education reform efforts must be infused with an awareness of the ways in which many groups within US society have been historically excluded from educational opportunities, or marginalized within the structures and institutions that house those opportunities. We have characterized this awareness as equity-mindedness—a way of approaching educational reform that foregrounds the policies and practices contributing to disparities in educational achievement and abstains from blaming students for those accumulated disparities (Bensimon 2007; Dowd and Bensimon 2015). In this article, we elaborate on the five principles for achieving equity by design that we first introduced in America’s Unmet Promise, with examples drawn from campuses that have used the Center for Urban Education’s Equity Scorecard.

Stylus Publishing, 2012.

Description:
How can it be that 50 years after the passage of the Civil Rights Act, our institutions of higher education have still not found ways of reducing the higher education gaps for racial and ethnic groups? That is the question that informs and animates the Equity Scorecard model of organizational change. It shifts institutions' focus from what students do (or fail to do) to what institutions can do--through their practices and structures, as well as the actions of their leaders and faculty--to produce equity in outcomes for racially marginalized populations. Drawing on the theory of action research, it creates a structure for practitioners to become investigators of their own institutional culture, to become aware of racial disparities, confront their own practices and learn how things are done on their own turf to ask: In what ways am I contributing to equity/inequity? The Equity Scorecard model differs significantly from traditional approaches to effecting change by creating institutional teams to examine and discuss internal data about student outcomes, disaggregated by race and ethnicity. The premise of the project is that institutional data acts as a powerful trigger for group learning about inequities in educational outcomes, and that the likelihood of improving those outcomes increases if the focus is on those things within the immediate control of the participating leaders and practitioners. Numerous institutions have successfully used The Equity Scorecard's data tools and processes of self-reflection to uncover and document the behaviors and structures that lead to failure to retain and graduate students from diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds with a history of unequal opportunity; and to create the climate for faculty and staff to take ownership of the issues and develop sustainable practices to eliminate racial disparities in academic performance. The Scorecard can be used at a small-scale to analyze individual courses or programs, as well as broader institutional issues. This book presents the underlying concept of funds of knowledge for race-conscious expertise that informs this process, describes its underlying theories; defines the attributes needed to achieve equity-minded practice; demonstrates, through examples of implementation, what different institutions have learned, and what they have achieved; and provides a blueprint for action for higher education as a whole. For college leaders, instructors and support staff who feel the pressure--moral or otherwise--to close the racial equity gap that their institutions produce year after year, this book provides the structure, knowledge and tools to do so. It is also of value to scholars and students of higher education who have an interest in the study of organizational change.

Change: The Magazine of Higher Learning, 52 no. 2 (2020): 69-73.

John Wiley & Sons, 2020.

Description:
A practical guide for achieving equitable outcomes From Equity Talk to Equity Walk offers practical guidance on the design and application of campus change strategies for achieving equitable outcomes. Drawing from campus-based research projects sponsored by the Association of American Colleges and Universities and the Center for Urban Education at the University of Southern California, this invaluable resource provides real-world steps that reinforce primary elements for examining equity in student achievement, while challenging educators to specifically focus on racial equity as a critical lens for institutional and systemic change. Colleges and universities have placed greater emphasis on education equity in recent years. Acknowledging the changing realities and increasing demands placed on contemporary postsecondary education, this book meets educators where they are and offers an effective design framework for what it means to move beyond equity being a buzzword in higher education. Central concepts and key points are illustrated through campus examples. This indispensable guide presents academic administrators and staff with advice on building an equity-minded campus culture, aligning strategic priorities and institutional missions to advance equity, understanding equity-minded data analysis, developing campus strategies for making excellence inclusive, and moving from a first-generation equity educator to an equity-minded practitioner. From Equity Talk to Equity Walk: A Guide for Campus-Based Leadership and Practice is a vital wealth of information for college and university presidents and provosts, academic and student affairs professionals, faculty, and practitioners who seek to dismantle institutional barriers that stand in the way of achieving equity, specifically racial equity to achieve equitable outcomes in higher education.

In S. R. Harper & L. D. Patton (Eds.), New directions for student services: Responding to the Realities of Race on Campus. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass (2008).

Abstract:
The Equity Scorecard, a nationally recognized and widely used organizational learning process designed to foster institutional change through the identification and elimination of racial disparities among college students, is described in this chapter. The effectiveness of this process and its potential impact are also discussed.

Washington, DC: Association of American Colleges and Universities.

Abstract:
To truly address the needs of America’s future, we cannot address equity in higher education separately from core educational redesign. Rather, we must make equity a key framework for any reform—one that is explicitly and deliberately wedded to goals for educational excellence and student achievement.

In this publication, we provide both an empirical and a conceptual overview of equity as a framework for higher education reform. The terms equity and equality are often confounded or used interchangeably; however, they reflect different historical and political understandings of the roots of stratification. While equality is typically defined as treating everyone the same or giving everyone with similar attributes the same opportunities, we define equity as proportional representation—here, of racial and ethnic groups and those of different socioeconomic status—in terms of access, retention, completion, and participation in programs (e.g., honors programs), experiences (e.g., study abroad), and activities (e.g., undergraduate research) that build students’ academic and cultural capital. While we recognize that many groups have experienced and continue to experience marginalization in higher education—including women; lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender students; and those from religious minority groups—we focus in this report on inequities linked to socioeconomic status and race and ethnicity due to our country’s specific and entrenched history of affirming and enforcing these inequities even in the face of their direct contradiction with democratic ideals.

Austin Community College has assembled a list of assessment practices that contribute to equity-minded assessment and equitable outcomes for students. This website includes both that list of practices as well as a Microsoft Word printable version of their handout.

Presentation by Dr. Erik Montenegro to Austin Community College Faculty entitled "Meeting the Challenges of a New Decade through Equity-Minded Assessment." The presentation focused on culturally responsive approaches to assessing our students and using that information in ways that promote our students’ success rather than continue inequities.

(Occasional Paper No. 42). Urbana, IL: University of Illinois and Indiana University, National Institute for Learning Outcomes Assessment
(NILOA).

Abstract:
Entering into a new decade with an even more diversified college student population will not only require more assessment models involving students but also deeper professional development of institutional representatives key to student learning. Reflecting upon the conversations over the last three years around culturally responsive assessment and related equity and assessment discussions, this occasional paper highlights questions, insights, and future directions for the decade ahead by exploring what equitable assessment is and is not; the challenges and barriers to equitable assessment work; where the decade ahead may lead; and next steps in the conversation on equity and assessment.

National Institute for Learning Outcomes Assessment, January 2017.

Abstract:
As colleges educate a more diverse and global student population, there is increased need to ensure every student succeeds regardless of their differences. This paper explores the relationship between equity and assessment, addressing the question: how consequential can assessment be to learning when assessment approaches may not be
inclusive of diverse learners? The paper argues that for assessment to meet the goal of improving student learning and authentically document what students know and can do, a culturally responsive approach to assessment is needed. In describing what culturally responsive assessment entails, this paper offers a rationale as to why change is necessary, proposes a way to conceptualize the place of students and culture in assessment, and introduces three ways to help make assessment culturally responsive.

The WAC Clearinghouse; Parlor Press. https://doi.org/10.37514/PER-B.2015.0698

Description:
In Antiracist Writing Assessment Ecologies, Asao B. Inoue theorizes classroom writing assessment as a complex system that is "more than" its interconnected elements. To explain how and why antiracist work in the writing classroom is vital to literacy learning, Inoue incorporates ideas about the white racial habitus that informs dominant discourses in the academy and other contexts. Inoue helps teachers understand the unintended racism that often occurs when teachers do not have explicit antiracist agendas in their assessments. Drawing on his own teaching and classroom inquiry, Inoue offers a heuristic for developing and critiquing writing assessment ecologies that explores seven elements of any writing assessment ecology: power, parts, purposes, people, processes, products, and places.

Education for Information 34 (2018) 121–133. DOI 10.3233/EFI-180191

Abstract: Recently there have been calls to study and apply critical theory and tools around social justice, and intersectional approaches of race, anti-racism, gender, sexuality, disability and accessibility, and class in Library and Information Studies (LIS). But applying lasting techniques in the LIS classroom require pedagogies that are intersectional, assessable, and apply lasting change for the student. This article argues for impactful approaches to intersectionality – the inclusion of multiple identities and subjectivities such as race, gender, sexuality, and class – to LIS in three parts: (1) Teaching critical theories alongside traditional LIS texts, (2) using systems of assessment for cultural competencies and analysis, and (3) classroom activities that implement metacognitive change. These approaches in the LIS classroom can demonstrably move LIS students into a deeper critical analysis of power in libraries that will be applied throughout their careers.