Inclusive Pedagogy for Collegiate Mathematics
Abstract
As diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts become increasingly central to higher education initiatives across the country, it is crucial that members of academia from all disciplines gain a better understanding of inclusive practices in their research and teaching. In particular, many universities and fund‐granting entities such as the NSF are focused on the recruitment and retention of underrepresented and marginalized students in STEM fields. While these goals are valid and important, it is also helpful to remember that not all faculty who have contact with students are prepared to create the necessary classroom environment for underrepresented and marginalized students. The teaching of mathematics at the collegiate level is not trained, but it is modeled. Current instructors have only their predecessors’ behavior from which to draw, and these models have barely evolved over the millennia. The traditional “chalk‐and‐talk” or “sage‐on‐a‐stage” presentation of mathematics curriculum is not best suited for most populations of students. Those instructors who have reached out for insight have found themselves in a miasma of “active learning” and “specifications grading” which often overburden the instructor and disenfranchise the very students that we wish to include.
Presentation Description
Unavailable
Location
Stream C
Publication Type and Release Option
Presentation (Open Access)
Recommended Citation
Holliday, Sarah and May, Catrina, "Inclusive Pedagogy for Collegiate Mathematics" (2021). Curriculum Studies Summer Collaborative. 71.
https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/cssc/2021/2021/71
Inclusive Pedagogy for Collegiate Mathematics
Stream C
As diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts become increasingly central to higher education initiatives across the country, it is crucial that members of academia from all disciplines gain a better understanding of inclusive practices in their research and teaching. In particular, many universities and fund‐granting entities such as the NSF are focused on the recruitment and retention of underrepresented and marginalized students in STEM fields. While these goals are valid and important, it is also helpful to remember that not all faculty who have contact with students are prepared to create the necessary classroom environment for underrepresented and marginalized students. The teaching of mathematics at the collegiate level is not trained, but it is modeled. Current instructors have only their predecessors’ behavior from which to draw, and these models have barely evolved over the millennia. The traditional “chalk‐and‐talk” or “sage‐on‐a‐stage” presentation of mathematics curriculum is not best suited for most populations of students. Those instructors who have reached out for insight have found themselves in a miasma of “active learning” and “specifications grading” which often overburden the instructor and disenfranchise the very students that we wish to include.
