Activities

Reflection Exercise

• When did you first know you were raced, or when did you first know that you had a race? Take a moment and reflect on what that memory was for you. The first time where race became a marker of difference in your memory could be a story of direct experience or learning by omission (who or what you are in relation to what someone else is not).
• How did learning this shape your experience moving forward? OR What did you learn from this experience?

Reconstructing Your Class and Syllabus from a Decolonial and Anti-Racist Framework

(Adapted from Decolonizing Your Syllabus, an Anti-Racist Guide for Your College)

Introducing Yourself & Your Position

• Do students know who you are? Consider introducing yourself— race or ethnicity, gender pronouns, academic experience, cultural identity, etc.—as the instructor of the course and providing anti-racist and equity-minded messaging to welcome your students. This creates a sense of safety and belonging for Black, Indigenous, and racialized students who have likely experienced harm in their schooling histories.

Anti-Racist & Inclusive Messaging

• Does the syllabus include explicit language about the intolerance of microaggressions and racist remarks, actions, and behaviour in the course? Which students and faculty are protected while engaging in racist behaviours? Which students and faculty are harmed either because we stay silent when harm is committed, we omit their realities and existence in what we choose to teach/not teach, or we view their resistance as a threat to our power and control?
• Do your course syllabus and eClass site include positive messages and affirmations to validate and celebrate difference and provide a greater sense of belonging for BIPOC students in the course?
• Do the images and videos in the course showcase the diversity and representation of the students and a diversity of ways of knowing and being?

Accessibility

• How can your course be more accessible, clear, inclusive, welcoming, and supportive for all learners to follow despite the modality of asynchronous or synchronous teaching?
• How do you include messaging regarding your responsibility as a faculty member to alert learners early if participation, learning, and attendance are not met?
• Can students contact you through multiple methods and with flexibility in communication times?
• What books, articles, and readings have been selected in your course? Are your course resources inclusive of diverse student realities on the basis of race, ethnicity, social class, gender, sexuality, disability, immigration status, language, and first-generation status?
• How does your course syllabus provide information regarding housing and food insecurities, along with other on and off-campus resources that benefit economically disadvantaged students?

Towards Collective Care, Belonging, Safety and Integrity

• How might you challenge individualistic notions of learning and success and create opportunities for relational accountability, collective care, cooperation, and co-constructed learning?
• How might you encourage students to both learn about and engage in acts of collective resistance within and beyond your class?
• How do we work towards the safety and belonging of all students on the basis of protecting historically oppressed groups, recognizing that safety and belonging are not possible for all people in all places at all times? How, instead, do we develop the lens of who might not be included and continuously reconstruct our classrooms to increase safety and belonging?
• In what ways are you, as an instructor, continuously engaging in un/re/learning about how racism operates, how we might dismantle it, and who we need to be in this process? In this way, teaching and living are in greater alignment, and we operate with greater integrity.

 Co-Creating Learning Experiences with Students

• Do students contribute to the content and co-creating community norms and learning engagements outlined in the course syllabus?
• How are assessments and evaluations used to replicate logics of punishment? Allocating points can cause students to assume they need more room for growth and may drop out of the course (Rose, 2017). Instead, faculty may consider holistic modalities and progression steps—for example, beginning, emerging, and proficiency—to develop opportunities for the learner to grow (Feldman, 2019) before finalizing student grading in the class.

Pedagogical Responsibilities to Support Student Learning

• Are mistakes expected, respected, modelled, and used to elevate students’ understanding of the subject?
• Do you offer opportunities for resubmitting missed or late work?
• What opportunities do students have to catch up if they are behind due to personal circumstances, technological barriers, or other personal deterrents?
• Is language around policies and expectations of students supportive, or are they punitive? How might they promote deficit thinking that places the responsibility of success and failure on individual students, absolving faculty and the institution of their role in student learning (Valencia, 2010)?