Cultivating inclusivity in introductory undergraduate STEM course syllabi

Abstract

Syllabi are widely used at higher education institutions in the United States to present students with course-related information before or at the beginning of a new class. The timing and versatility of these documents allows instructors to set the tone of a course with (or without) an eye towards inclusivity. This can be important for all students but affects, in particular, students from marginalized groups as they navigate STEM courses. We report a study about inclusive practices in course syllabi at a STEM institution by addressing whether they: (a) list instructors’ pronouns, (b) utilize readings and materials authored by women and gender minority scholars, and (c) contain inclusivity statements. We report and compare perspectives on these three aspects from two datasets: 163 syllabi analyzed based on a rubric that we developed and results from an undergraduate student survey, both from Worcester Polytechnic Institute. The two complementary datasets provide a way to benchmark whether there is a link between student and faculty perceptions of syllabi use and desired content. We find sharp differences between students’ expectations and actual syllabi content for all three of our topics of interest with students wanting inclusive practices at the forefront of course development regardless of subject and faculty lagging behind. We provide suggestions on how to incorporate inclusive practices in syllabi design and propose further questions to explore.