Solution description

My solution involves building a netwrok of faculty committed to asset-based approaches to building learning communities in the classroom. We would develop an open access platform for asset inventory exercises and forms of assessment that would benefit all students and faculty but would be geared toward advancing the inclusion and success of marginalized identity students and faculty.  The program would leverage the digital/online environment to support faculty in honing an ethical classroom practice.  

The program could be assessed at the classroom level, at the disciplinary, and geographic/regional levels by gathering qualitative data, stories, experiences from participating faculty and students.  

This benefits Globethics by building bridges among global faculty; advancing culture change in higher education; and contributing to a teaching toolkit that can be contextualized to suit different inclusion needs.

Solution context

The problem I am facing is that as my college works toward greater diversity among our students body and faculty by devoting resoucres to equitable access, many students and faculty still do not feel included in our campus communities, including the intellectual life of the college.  Students are merely surviving our institutions (Bettina Love).  I want students to thrive and I suspect that traditional, Eurocentric, hierarchal, patriarchal models of education combined with the competition framework of neo-liberal capitalism, is exacerbating that experience for marginalized students and faculty, who are in fact among our richest resources for building a more just future.

Solution target group

My solution aims to improve the experience and educational growth of marginalized students and faculty, especially BIPOC, First Gen,  LGBTQIA+, and people with disabilities.  I am targeting a cultural and practical shift among faculty.

Solution impact

The success of this program would take some time to assess but might be reflected in retention rates for marginalized/minoritized students and faculty over time; and the success of students that is measured in traditional ways (GPA etc.).  I am most interested though in the qualitative experience of students on our campuses and in our classrooms.  I'd like to gather "success" stories and growing edges.  The solution does, in a sense, resist some of the traditional and corporatized measures of success that are common in the academy.

Solution tweet text

Do you want to develop asset-based approaches to teaching and learning in the inclusive classroom. How are you empowering minoritized students and faculty for transformative educational experiences? Join the Network for Inclusive Education!

Solution innovativeness

This solution builds on the work of scholars like Bettina Love and Asao Inoue in the United States.  It to advance and expand the wisdom of these pedagogies in a global context.  Open Access to resources is crucial.

Solution transferability

Yes - I think that asset inventory exeercises can be applied to different institutional and geographic contexts to respond to various situations of exclusion.  It can be applied across disciplines as well.  It joins faculty across difference in a common endeavor of ethical teaching.

Solution sustainability

The program relies on the willingness of faculty to submit materials and ideas in an online forum but would be sustainable with some funding support for a website (perhaps funded by a consortium of institutions).  Faculty would need access to the internet but could adapt asset inventory exercises to be either high, low, or no tech.

Solution team work

I worked with Globethics colleagues on Buidling Bridges and would welcome the opportunity to explore this idea with them.