Reflections on a Teaching Commons Regarding Diversity and Inclusive Pedagogy

Abstract

Recently, twenty-one instructors at a Midwestern university participated in a faculty development seminar entitled, "Developing Pedagogies to Enhance Excellence and Diversity." They designed a pedagogical change for the following academic year based on the workshop. During the following year, we collected data on the workshop participants through surveys and interviews to discover if they had implemented the proposed changes and what they discovered in the process. Thirteen of the twenty-one participants responded to our request for information and nine implemented their proposed changes during our data collection. Reviewing the data, we found three areas where participants made changes: application of pedagogical innovations, equal access to learning and inclusive pedagogy, and assessment of power and position as teacher. Many continued to reflect on how to make these changes more effective and indicated a desire for collegiality to sustain them in their efforts to improve their teaching practices.