Teaching Inclusively: An Interactive Workshop

Abstract

No pre-registration required  

Recent studies conclude that the ways college-level faculty teach introductory-level history courses may unintentionally perpetuate economic and social inequalities in the United States. In this interactive workshop, participants will hear, discuss, and apply findings from the scholarship of teaching and learning about how to teach inclusively, thereby increasing the chances that all students have a chance to succeed. 


This ninety-minute, collaborative and interactive workshop is intended for college-level history instructors who are interested in considering ways to empower students of all identities to learn effectively while simultaneously challenging them and maintaining our profession’s standards for historical work. Graduate students are especially welcome.

The workshop will focus on the following topics:
• What we mean by an “inclusive classroom”
• Inclusive content (topics, readings, goals, and assignments)
• How we can build an inclusive classroom climate
• What we communicate to students (explicitly and subtly) about fairness, inclusion, and challenge.

The workshop will include a blend of methods, including the sharing of relevant research, discussion, collaborative brainstorming, and reflection about how one might apply inclusive principles to one’s own courses.

Chair and Presenter: Mary Jo Festle, Elon University Department of History and Center for Advancement of Teaching and Learning
Mary Jo Festle is Maude Sharpe Powell Professor of History at Elon University, where she also serves as Associate Director of the Center for the Advancement of Teaching and Learning. Her forthcoming book, Teaching History in Higher Education: How to be an Effective, Inclusive, Scholarly, and Sane Professor, will be published by the University of Wisconsin Press in 2020. Earlier books include Playing Nice: Politics and Apologies in Women’s Sports (Columbia University Press, 1996) and Second Wind: Oral Histories of Lung Transplant Survivors (Palgrave Macmillan, 2012).