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Module 4: Guiding Inclusive Classroom Conversations*
From Ways to Incorporate DEI into Your Courses By David Luke, Chief Diversity Officer, University of Michigan, Flint
Encourage Participation Without Tokenizing
As educators, many of us are well-aware of the academic benefits of diversity, and the benefits of diverse teams in decision-making are well-documented. As such, when we have a diverse classroom, we might be inclined to try to encourage students who are members of underrepresented communities in the academy to participate. This isn’t necessarily harmful, as we would hope that all of our students feel comfortable participating. It is, however, a problem if we are putting undue burden on students of color, LGBTQ+ students, or other marginalized students to contribute more than their peers. Even worse, when we are either implicitly or explicitly expecting those students to represent entire diverse identity groups that they are members of, this is tokenizing. Encourage your students to participate through being transparent and genuine, and cultivating a collaborative learning environment, but do not pressure students to participate because of (or on behalf of) their identities.
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Finally, it’s important in managing classroom discussions to get feedback from students about how you’re doing. Provide opportunities for anonymous feedback, for example, by asking students at the end of a class period to write what they think is going well and what could be going better in the class. This not only provides you with good information, but also shows them that you genuinely care about their learning and their experience in the course.
*Published 07/22. © 2022 Sage Publishing. All rights reserved. All other brand and product names are the property of their respective owners.