A case study in teaching inclusive teaching

Abstract

As the college student population grows increasingly diverse, there is a need for instructors—including graduate student instructors (GSIs)—to have a set of pedagogical tools that enables them to create inclusive classroom environments, those that consider their students’ identity and provide equal opportunities for learning. However, the literature on how to support GSIs develop these skills is still nascent. In this article, we report on two strategies—one diffuse and one direct—we used while training GSIs and the ways in which they changed GSIs’ understanding of what inclusive teaching entails. We find that our direct model might have increased GSIs’ awareness of how students’ identities shape their learning experiences and include some reflections and contextual information for this finding.