The CLT reached out to faculty and staff to learn about the resources that have helped you become a more DEI-conscious teacher. This includes things you’ve learned from that influence how you teach and things you include in your course. Here are just a few recommendations. Check out the Library’s DEI Community Bookshelf too!
The 1619 Project, Nikole Hannah-Jones, and Born on the Water, Nikole Hannah-Jones and Renee Watson – In the last few years I have been working on upping my knowledge/collecting resources to support my learning and that of my students in the area of social justice pedagogy and anti-racist teaching, especially related to literature (children’s and young adult). I think The 1619 Project is so comprehensive and accessible (my elderly mom is reading it now) and includes a great range of authors and perspectives. The children’s version, Born on the Water, is gorgeous and deep. We can’t underestimate the power of picture books for all readers! Check out the educators’ guide. (Recommended by Kathy Leo-Nyquist)
We Want to Do More than Survive: Abolitionist Teaching and the Pursuit of Educational Freedom, Bettina L. Love – Love, a professor of educational theory and practice at the University of Georgia, draws on her own experiences as a Black woman from a disadvantaged background and a teacher in an underfunded public school system to examine how American public education stifles youth of color. She critiques “grit”-based approaches and assimilationist systems that perpetuate educational and emotional harm to Black and Brown students. While it’s primarily about public elementary education, much of it is translatable to higher education. If you’ve benefited from the wisdom of bell hooks (Teaching to Transgress) and want a more recent take on similar ideas, this book is for you. (Recommended by Caroline Toy)
Nebi: Abenaki Ways of Knowing Water, Vince Franke/Peregrine Productions – In this video, Nulhegan Abenaki Chief Don Stevens and other Abenaki community members share the origin story of Lake Champlain and explain the significance of water in this region. I used this video as a teaching and learning resource for the faculty learning community Peda-GO-gy, which combined a weekly local walk, observation, discussion, and reflection on teaching and learning principles. (Recommended by Rebecca Mills)
“How Eugenics Shaped Statistics” by Aubrey Clayton and “Eugenics and the Ethics of Statistical Analysis” by Ido Levy – I use these articles to open up a conversation in my sections of Introduction to Statistics (MTH-180). There is an obvious connection between statistics and racism, and this history lesson brings up a number of interesting topics. Can a mathematical process be free of bias if it is used to make decisions about people? Can we just separate the art from the artist (so-to-speak) and enjoy the benefits of the processes? Do we need to question the methods that we (me included) teach our students? What results have been based on these early statistics that we may still hold on to today (and why)? These questions are not answered with the math that we learn in the class, but it gets students to think about the math in a different way. The more they know about how math is used, the more they want to understand it. (Recommended by Warren Sides)
