RECAST | Please report your equity and inclusion faculty development by October 15
From: Academic Deans <deans@evergreen.edu>
Sent: Monday, September 21, 2020 1:57 PM
To: All Faculty <allfaculty@evergreen.edu>
Dear Colleagues,
As we look forward to welcoming our fall quarter students, please take a moment to make sure you’ve reported your learning around equity and inclusion, particularly if you’ve recently participated in a summer institute or workshop. Please submit your report for 2019-20 by October 15.
Our students will be asking all of us some hard questions in the wake of the racial justice movements unfolding on the streets. One way you can respond is to design an action plan for improving the inclusiveness of your teaching (see below for some guidance on this).
We encourage you to seek support from other faculty in implementing your plan. As one faculty member observed: “It’s one thing to hear terms like institutional racism and read definitions. It’s quite another to gain the trust of colleagues who then share experiences that help you understand what those terms really mean–the pain, anguish, feelings of being less than that result from something over which you had no control.” This is the kind of deep listening and learning that will give us the resilience we need to face the challenges ahead.
The good news is that dozens of faculty participated in equity-focused summer institutes, but so far only 17 have reported their participation for summer 2020, and only 37 have reported ongoing professional development in this area since last October. As a reminder, the 2020 summer institute program includes information about which institutes meet the annual training requirement.
Thank you for taking some time to mark the work you’ve already done and to set goals for the upcoming year. Now, more than ever, we must recommit ourselves to the promise of providing truly accessible learning environments for all students.
Sincerely,
The Academic Deans
FAQ
Q: What if I am planning to do a professional development workshop in December?
A: Please document that learning on next year’s form; this deadline is for the 19-20 annual requirement.
Q: Where did this requirement come from?
A: The attached MOU (May 2017) requires the College to provide ongoing professional development for faculty around equity and inclusion and requires faculty to participate in these opportunities on an annual basis.
Q: What does a meaningful action plan look like?
A: A good place to start is with the “Inclusion by Design” syllabus analysis tool featured in the Learning and Teaching Commons summer newsletter. Our expectation is that faculty members will try out a new set of practices and reflect critically on how well those practices have worked, rather than learning more passively by, for example, listening to a lecture.
Q: Where can I get support?
A: Consider finding a group of colleagues who can keep you on track with your own learning goals. If you are interested in joining an existing group, or want to start your own, please contact learningandteaching@evergreen.edu. These kinds of sustained learning communities are the gold standard for professional development.
