Coffee and Crucial Conversations will provide an opportunity for faculty and staff to dialogue about teaching inclusively at Iowa State University. The intent of these conversations will be to help build a stronger teaching community, create collaborative partnerships, and develop effective teaching practices for meeting the diverse needs of our students. Each month we will choose a topic based on input from our teaching community. Register via Learn@ISU website. This discussion group will be held on the following Fridays:
- September 23 (7:30 – 9:00 a.m., 2030 Morrill Hall)
- October 28 (7:30 – 9:00 a.m., 2030 Morrill Hall)
- November 11 (7:30 – 9:00 a.m., 2030 Morrill Hall)
- December 2 (7:30 – 9:00 a.m., 2030 Morrill Hall)
Upcoming professional development opportunities about inclusion:
Inclusive Classroom Faculty Development Workshop
Prerequisite: Faculty may choose to attend one of the following fall semester offerings by registering via Learn@ISU website at least one week prior to the event :
- Monday, October 10, 2:10 – 5:00 p.m., 2030 Morrill Hall
- Wednesday, November 9, 1:10 – 4:00 p.m., 2030 Morrill Hall
- Thursday, December 1, 9:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m., 2030 Morrill Hall
Today’s university classrooms are more diverse than in the past. With this diversity of students comes the need to ensure the learning environments associated with courses are inclusive and designed to support all students. This faculty workshop includes pre-workshop online learning modules and an interactive face-to-face workshop focused on creating an inclusive classroom environment. By participating in this workshop faculty will:
- Learn about teaching inclusively and why it is important at Iowa State University
- Identify their own attitudes towards inclusion, acknowledge how it impacts teaching, and develop strategies to be more inclusive
- Enhance self-awareness and instructional skills that may contribute to our inclusive campus environment
- Become familiar with student support resources at Iowa State University
How to Foster Safe Spaces for Diversity and Inclusion
Thursday, October 20, 12:10 – 1:00 p.m.
2030 Morrill Hall
What do we mean by inclusion? What do we mean by diversity? As teachers, our answers to these questions are vital not only for our own teaching philosophy but also for the culture we are creating in our classrooms, which can perpetuate into workplaces after graduation. Dr. Kristen Constant, Morrill Professor, Wilkinson Professor of Interdisciplinary Engineering and Chair, Materials Science & Engineering, will help you create a classroom experience that supports diversity and inclusion. Her humorous, data-driven examples can help students in your classroom gain a language with which to discuss diversity and inclusion, help you create a safe space to train future professionals to recognize what inclusion looks like, and help both you and your students not just make room for diversity, but invite and value diverse ideas and experiences into critical thinking processes in both formal and informal settings. Register via Learn@ISU website.