Featuring: Inclusive Instructors Academy -Fall 2023 Participants

This semester CITLS facilitated two versions of the Inclusive Instructors Academy, an intensive initiative designed for those taking their teaching efforts to the next level. One version was available to individual faculty or staff members and a second to a department or program team. The following members of the Lafayette community participated in the general academy:

• Alana Klass, Senior Associate Director, Gateway Career Center; Coordinator for Access, Equity, and Inclusion Initiatives
• Christa Kelleher, Assistant Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering 
• Manuel Ospina-Giraldo, Associate Professor, Biology
• Caroline Sequin, Assistant Professor, History

The focal areas of the participants included using gender-inclusive language, encouraging equitable participation, empowering learners towards effective teamwork, incorporating active learning strategies to increase participation and engagement in the classroom, as well as mitigating academic ableism. During the Academy they engaged in goal-setting, explorations of the literature, utilizing new approaches in their classrooms and workshops, and obtaining real-time feedback from a student pedagogical partner. Each participant also read and presented relevant literature related to their area of focus as they reflected on their instructional efforts. 

A team from Mechanical Engineering participated in the departmental version of the academy. Their focus was implementing inclusive, equitable teamwork across their curriculum. Participating professors included:

• Rohan Prabhu, Assistant Professor
• Ryan Rosario, Assistant Professor
• Jenn Rossmann, Professor, Team Mentor, Past Participant 
• Dan Sabatino, Associate Professor and Department Head
• Brent Utter, Associate Professor
• Amy Van Asselt, Assistant Professor

The Mechanical Engineering team spent the summer working with CITLS and the Hanson Center for Inclusive STEM Education as well as a student partner to plan for their courses. They focused on four courses within their curriculum. Each of the participants implemented differing approaches to support effective teaming such as encouraging students to establish psychological safety within their teams as well as to identify team roles and responsibilities, and craft team agreements. Some instructors also held 1:1 informal debriefings with students as they engaged in their team projects.

Student partners trained by CITLS worked within the Inclusive Instructors Academies as well as with new faculty. They included: Mahdia Azizi ‘23, Angela Busheska ‘25, Julia Greeley ‘25, Samantha Greenberg ’24, Ariel Haber-Fawcett ‘24, Grace Herchenroder ‘24, Matthew Moise ‘24,  Samantha Montague ‘26, Eliso Morazara ‘25. They made a variety of contributions through classroom and workshop observations, debriefings, focus groups, and course material review. 

Concurrent with their work in the Academies and the new faculty, the student partners contributed to a sustainable student resource on effective teaming that will be launched this semester for all colleagues at Lafayette to empower students towards effective teamwork. This resource, a collaboration between CITLS and the Hanson Center integrates student advice and comments integrated throughout, discusses what makes effective teaming, and provides guidance for students to set their teams up for success and navigate challenging group behaviors. If you incorporate group work, please be sure to join us for the virtual launch of this student guide on Wednesday, December 13, from 10 – 11 am. More information and registration 

The Inclusive Instructors Academy models were shared beyond Lafayette. The Center for the Integration of Teaching, Learning, and Scholarship’s director Dr. Tracie Addy presented them recently at the 48th annual Professional and Organizational Development Network in Higher Education annual conference held in Pittsburgh. This conference brings together the educational development community to share resources and initiatives to strengthen teaching and learning at their home institutions. The theme of the meeting was Envision the Future: Developing Equitable Opportunities for Success. The presentations involved collaborations with colleagues from other institutions including Bryn Mawr College, University of Iowa, University of Notre Dame, University of California – San Diego, as well as Florida International University, and were well-received. 

Many thanks to all who engaged in these efforts this fall.