Educators can connect and engage students to learning by incorporating student diversity, equity and identity into their curriculum and learning strategies. Culturally relevant pedagogy can enhance students’ engagement and help students make connections. It is not only important to implement these practices into the classroom, but also to model these practices so that pre-service teachers, mentors, advisors, and leaders can experience culturally relevant pedagogy. Additionally, research has shown that critically reflective practices in the classroom are fundamental to students’ preparation as educators and leaders. This interactive workshop will discuss five approaches we use to create culturally inclusive learning environments that promote challenging, yet positive and challenging educational experiences: student choice, community building, inclusive feedback, syllabi review, and critical reflection. These practices require intentionality in classroom activities, care in implementation, and a solid classroom community built on trust and open communication. The goals of the workshop are: (1) identify strategies that promote inclusivity and (2) create an action plan to address inclusivity in attendees’ own teaching environment.

We will share how we implement inclusive practices in the classroom and work in community with attendees to help them determine how they can use the practices in their own class. Specifically, we will give a brief presentation on the strategies mentioned, have stations set up for attendees to learn more in-depth about each strategy, discuss and review what others are currently doing in the classroom, and then come back together to share how attendees will use the strategies in their own learning environments. We will also provide attendees with a digital folder of resources.

We encourage educators to “keep doing the hard things” because our students and society will greatly benefit from these efforts.