BOF: Trauma-informed pedagogy and practice in the context of a global pandemic

November 16, 2020

Together, we will explore the COVID-19 global pandemic as a type of macro trauma, exploring how it impacts our day-to-day lived experiences, examining trauma-informed pedagogies that support the health and well-being of students and those who teach them. Throughout the conference, participants are encouraged to utilize a trauma-informed lens to understand the content of the sessions they attend. The final wrap-up session will provide the opportunity to debrief and share our learning with one another about how a trauma-informed lens is helpful - both in the current context of COVID-19 and more broadly in the context of higher ed teaching and learning.

IA: The Write Track: Virtual equity initiative to support writing and well-being

November 10, 2020

Finalist for POD Innovation Award: The Write Track virtual initiative offers an array of writing and scholarship workshops, programs, and events for faculty and graduate students. Both COVID-19 and the 2020 uprising for racial justice resulted in underrepresented faculty and students, including women and Black scholars, expressing concerns about their declining time for scholarship and writing. The Write Track was launched to support our scholars through virtual writing retreats, drop-in accountability groups, writing challenges, and workshops on scholarship and writing.

IA: Undergraduate Students Partnering with Faculty to Develop Trauma-informed, Anti-racist Pedagogical Approach

November 10, 2020

Finalist for POD Innovation Award: Prompted by the intersection of the pandemic and Black Lives Matter movement uprisings, the Teaching and Learning Institute at Bryn Mawr and Haverford Colleges developed a Summer Pedagogical Partnership program through which undergraduate student partners created a publicly accessible webpage featuring trauma-informed, anti-racist, and equitable approaches to teaching and learning presented from students' perspectives and drew on this resource to consult with faculty cohorts on their home campuses and facilitate conversations across a ten-college collaborative.

IA: Teaching & Learning in the Diverse Classroom Online Professional Development Course for Instructors

November 10, 2020

Finalist for POD Innovation Award: Cornell University Center for Teaching Innovation's Teaching & Learning in the Diverse Classroom course is a professional development opportunity to increase instructor confidence to engage diversity in any learning environment. The brief online, asynchronous course has two iterations: at Cornell in Canvas and for a global audience on edX.org as a Massive Open Online Course. To-date, the course has run six times, with 7291 participants. The course is free, with a low-cost certificate option

Diversity Committee

November 18, 2020

Charge: The Diversity Committee (DC) serves as an advocate to the POD Network by advising members of the Core Committee on ways to sustain and improve the organization's efforts toward valuing diversity. Formed in 1993, as a result of a strong call from individuals within the membership, the Committee's goals are focused on 1) recruitment and retention of members from underrepresented groups and institutions in POD and in the faculty/instructional development community more broadly and 2) the cultivation of greater critical attention to questions of diversity in our work. Underrepresented groups are defined as, but not limited to, members who identify as racial and/or ethnic minorities; lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgendered individuals, and individuals who are disabled. Underrepresented institutions are defined as, but not limited to, historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs), native American tribal colleges, Hispanic serving institutions (HSIs) or Hispanic area colleges and universities (HACUs), or Minority Serving Institutions (or those aspiring to become MSIs).

Strategies for Equitable Learning in High-Enrollment Remote and Online Courses

November 13, 2020

As institutions swiftly converted to remote learning in Spring 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the integration of equitable practices for student learning may have been overlooked. In this session, the presenters will share how they used course-level enrollment data, such as student access to technology, and the four dimensions of readiness for online learning to inform and align course design to create equitable student learning outcomes in a high-enrollment (450+ students) online course. The session will feature multiple, practical examples to foster equity and promote access for all learners in high-enrollment online courses at large, public, research-intensive universities.

Culturally Responsive Pedagogies: It’s More than Teaching

November 12, 2020

In culturally responsive classrooms, faculty regard students' cultural identity as an asset by making course material relevant to them, their identities and experiences. Culturally responsive pedagogies; however, are about more than teaching. These methods support students to maintain their cultural integrity and succeed academically as they work to understand and critique the existing social order. Geneva Gay's (2011) model of culturally responsive pedagogy informs this presentation. Her model focuses on genuine caring (accountability with support); relevant communication (language as social and cultural constructs), a culturally appropriate curriculum (non-biased, robust and critical), and teaching congruity (aligned procedures and methods for teaching).

Inclusive and Equitable Assessment Practices for a Flexible Learning Environment

November 13, 2020

Rapidly shifting to a remote teaching and learning environment brought questions about inclusive grading and assessment to the forefront: First, how did this transition reveal gaps and inequities in our current practices? Second, how did the shift encourage us to examine (and perhaps reset) our expectations about assessments? Third, after the immediate crisis has passed, how will we use this knowledge to inform our work to promote inclusive and equitable assessments and learning environments? This session will help participants examine ideas about assessment, discuss equitable grading practices, and plan for inclusive assessment practices in remote, hybrid, and face-to-face learning environments.

Plenary 3: Equity, decoloniality, and social justice: Learning in Dialogue with South African Colleagues

November 12, 2020

How do educational developers around the globe best support their institutions in becoming more equitable and just? What can we learn from the different ways we are enacting— or failing to enact—our commitments? Presenters from diverse institutional contexts— a large, South African historically white and now majority black institution; a US historically black university; and a US elite, predominantly white institution — reflect on their shared commitments to decoloniality, anti-racism, and social justice. Audience members will learn from engaging with theoretical frameworks that guide the work in South Africa and explore examples of novel approaches to fostering liberatory educational practices.

Teaching while Black: The Politics of Storytelling in Learning Communities

November 12, 2020

In higher education's endeavors to become more inclusive and equitable, it is critical for members of marginalized groups to share stories, build community, and co-create strategies for transformation. This interactive session will discuss the possibilities and challenges of such programs for instructors of color, with many lessons from a learning community of Black instructors entitled, "Teaching while Black," hosted jointly by Vanderbilt University's Center for Teaching and the Bishop Johnson Black Cultural Center. This session will ask participants to explore collaboratively different learning community models for inclusion and equity, and the potential of storytelling in negotiating trauma, critique, and change.