“It’s Pedagogical and It’s Selfish”: How Classroom Policies Promote Inclusive Pedagogy, Student Success, and Faculty Legitimacy

Abstract

Course policies around attendance and submission deadlines have documented impacts on student outcomes within college courses, yet our understanding remains limited of instructors' own motivations behind the policies they adopt. Drawing on in-depth interviews with 43 college instructors, we find that faculty emphasize both student-centered and instructor-focused considerations. Pedagogically, they create policies they believe will enhance student success, promote equity and inclusion, and enable students to account for the realities of life. But they also design policies they believe will make their job easier, positively impact students' perceptions of them, and align with gender role and tenure expectations. These findings have implications for faculty development and university efforts to support student success.