Journal of Diversity and Equity in Educational Development

Conceptual Frameworks

Initially conceived to engage instructors in critical reflection on their teaching across the four lenses described by Brookfield (1995) (instructors, students, colleagues, and scholarly research on teaching), the conceptual framework undergirding the community read was modified to focus on the reading group participants’ reflections on their pedagogy based on students’ perspectives presented in the book (Larrivee, 2000, 2008). Larrivee describes three distinct stages of being a critically reflective teacher and shifting from current practice to transformation: examination, struggle, and perceptual shift (Larrivee, 2000). These stages align with the goals of the community read to interrogate one’s beliefs and assumptions about inclusive teaching practices. The community read also had elements of a faculty learning community given that it was comprised of a small group of participants who regularly met to discuss a common interest, namely student perspectives on inclusive teaching practices (Cox, 2004).

Institutional Context

The initiative was implemented at a large, public research-intensive university in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States in fall 2024. The center for teaching and learning (CTL) director facilitated the community read to support instruction focused on inclusive teaching practices as aligned with the center’s and institution’s strategic goals and priorities at the time. The CTL encouraged the integration of student voices in co-creating learning environments with instructors participating in the reading group. This type of reading group can be facilitated at any institution where there is a commitment to supporting student success through inclusive teaching practices and by CTL staff members beyond the director.

Participant Outreach

To solicit interest in the community read, the CTL distributed a university-wide call to all instructors at the university through their newsletter, social media, and website. This call included a description of the book and community read, the proposed frequency of gatherings, and a link to a sign-up form.

Participant Backgrounds

Eleven instructors, including the CTL director, participated in the community read. Of the eleven participants, a subset was interested in publishing their final reflections beyond the reading group discussions and are the co-authors of this article. The co-authors are from diverse backgrounds and include international faculty members, staff and faculty of color, faculty members within disciplinary fields where aspects of our identity have been historically excluded, as well as faculty members from majority backgrounds. They teach within the disciplines of education, engineering, life sciences, political science, mathematics, and world languages.

Expertise and Resources Needed

To facilitate this community read, an educational developer or instructor who is experienced and comfortable with facilitating conversations around equity and inclusion is critical. The facilitator should be equity-minded and familiar with various inclusive teaching practices. Optimally, they will have experience implementing such practices in educational settings, whether in formal classroom settings or other environments. The facilitator should also be comfortable addressing and coaching instructors who may espouse a variety of viewpoints on inclusive teaching practices and may be at differing levels of awareness of such practices. Furthermore, if there is funding, the organizers may consider purchasing a physical copy of the book for members of the group. At the institution where the community read was implemented, a digital version of the book with unlimited access was available to read through the library. Any participants who preferred to read the hard copy were gifted the book by the CTL to support their engagement. Discussion on the assigned readings was conducted virtually, using institutional conference call software.

Program Logistics

At the beginning of the semester, the CTL sent out an initial call for instructors to participate in the program. After this call was made, participants were contacted by the facilitator to schedule the one-hour virtual sessions based on schedules submitted. Because of widely differing schedules, participants were divided into three subgroups of between three to five participants that met virtually once a month over the course of one semester. While slightly larger groups were preferred for interaction and CTL staffing resource considerations, the smaller group sizes supported positive participant engagement. The sessions were designed to encourage reflection on teaching practices and sharing with colleagues, within the context of critically applying students’ perspectives to our instruction. The book was divided into four major sections; one section was the focus of discussion in each virtual session. The first session was led by the educational developer to set the stage for the community read and to model the facilitation process. For this session, the pre-reading was the introduction of the book, roughly 15 pages. Members of the community who volunteered on the interest form were scheduled to facilitate the remaining 3 of the 4 sessions, which included discussing Parts I, II, and III of the book containing approximately 40–70 pages each. The CTL director also attended and supported discussions in subsequent sessions. To support their facilitation, session leaders were given instructions to:

• Read their assigned portion of the text prior to their session.

• Identify any ideas that resonate with them and their teaching contexts. Prepare to share these ideas for the first 15 minutes of the gathering.

• Create 2–3 discussion prompts that would be used to encourage participants to reflect on how the principles and practices discussed in the book could apply, if at all, to their teaching contexts.

At the conclusion of the initiative, participants individually reflected on what they learned through the reading and group discussions. Instructor reflections were synthesized into themes by the facilitator and included in the Appendix.

Outcomes of the Initiative

The community read had a variety of positive outcomes related to the initial goals of encouraging pedagogical reflection (Larrivee, 2008). Participants deeply reflected on the student voices in meaningful ways to support their inclusive teaching practices, and the major themes from these reflections are included below and expounded upon in the Appendix.

• Demonstrating authentic care for students as well as for self and colleagues is critical to being an effective, inclusive instructor.

• Inclusive instructors are clear and transparent with students about their expectations.

• Being inclusive requires embracing flexibility and adaptability to modify instruction according to what helps students learn.

• Inclusive instructors reframe student participation as engagement that encompasses a broader array of possibilities.

• When adopting inclusive teaching approaches, starting small is more feasible than focusing on implementing every approach at once.

• Inclusive instructors are always learning about their students and how to grow in their teaching.

• Inclusive instructors benefit from growing in a community with colleagues.

The positive outcomes of the community read extended beyond deep reflection on teaching practice. For example, some members of the community read applied what they learned to facilitate initiatives for onboarding and ongoing instructional development, as well as student leadership workshops to serve underrepresented student populations.

As an example, an instructor who participated in the community read and also works as an administrator in online pedagogy, was inspired by her small group’s ability to foster quick connection among members. Through the community read’s structure of shared facilitation, she explained that everyone felt themselves on equal ground, participating actively, with the book as the anchor. Dialogue flowed immediately at each session, and with ease, whether asking questions or offering rich and varied experiences, personal perspectives, and evolving approaches that meet change with newly developed practice. The participant’s takeaway from her positive experience was proposing to launch a community read modeled after this initiative. To her, building community is an ongoing effort, especially at large universities with instructors who teach full-time and part-time across the span of teaching career, subject matter, and modality. They saw how a community read can foster connectedness that has a high impact on promoting a shared culture of continuous improvement, and the instructor’s reflections included in this article are evidence in support of critical professional development.

As another positive outcome, a participant joined a subsequent CTL community read because of the impacts of this initiative, and several members shared their experiences with implementing the practices in the book during a panel discussion led by the CTL which was positively received by attendees.

Additional positive outcomes beyond the classroom were evident in the transfer of what was learned in the community read to leadership workshops for world language students that a community read participant facilitates where being an inclusive leader has been an area of focus. She also facilitates a summer institute and leads a multilingual leadership workshop for a group of 200 K-12 students from underprivileged backgrounds who will be able to attend the university tuition-free. She has been able to apply what she learned during the community read to these other initiatives. In summary, while the primary goal of the community read was to engage instructors in reflecting on inclusive teaching through student voice, this initiative also:

• facilitated interdisciplinary community building at a large public university spread across multiple campuses.

• shared nuances of inclusive teaching in different disciplines that in turn inspired faculty to adopt approaches that may not be common in their department or discipline.

• modeled mentoring programs based on the principles discussed.

• gave the instructors both confidence and purpose to lead and join other reading groups in the following semesters.

Conclusions and Implications for Other Contexts

This initiative, offered by the CTL, centered the perspectives of students through a reading of the book Enhancing Inclusive Instruction. Participants built community around a commonly held value of inclusive teaching, engaged in meaningful reflection, and came away with both new viewpoints and actionable strategies. Several participants later engaged in leadership activities where they mentored their colleagues on inclusive teaching practices and facilitated similar types of initiatives. For institutions seeking to raise awareness for inclusive teaching practices through student voice, this type of initiative holds much promise at a time when many in the field of educational development consider initiatives focused on designing learning environments that promote the success of students from all backgrounds as top priorities (Wright et al., forthcoming).

Appendix. Major Themes from Instructor Community Read Reflections & Sample Quotes

Demonstrating authentic care for students as well as for self and colleagues is critical to being an effective, inclusive instructor.

A student explicitly and fearlessly stated that “these approaches were not effective simply because the professor didn’t care.” This underpins that no matter what evidence-based teaching approach an instructor attempts to implement in their teaching, without a genuine care in what they do, students will be able to identify that these approaches are not authentic. – Sheila Tabanli, Mathematics

Inclusive instructors are clear and transparent with students about their expectations.

[W]hen instructors fail to provide clear instructions or expectations; it can create a sense of confusion and exclusion…Transparency and the “why” we work on certain assignments is ever more important. For the spring, I will be adding a short explanation on how each assignment fits into the course and what students should take away from those assignments. – Ines Rauschenbach, Biochemistry & Microbiology

I teach a mixed class with students from various disciplines and years of study. Students who were either in their first year of undergraduate study or were majoring in disciplines outside biology said that they had struggled in the beginning of the course. However, when I asked how they overcame the challenges and excelled in the course, they said that they had to figure out how to learn! They studied, asked questions, discussed with their peers, and connected their prior knowledge to what was being discussed in class… I now realize that instead of letting students organically figure out how to learn, it may be helpful to set the expectations more clearly and be more supportive as students…engage with the course materials. – Shuchismita Dutta, Biomedical Sciences

Being inclusive requires embracing flexibility and adaptability to modify instruction according to what helps students learn.

One big takeaway for me was the voices of students emphasizing the importance of flexible, personalized, and diverse course structures (materials, assignments, resources) in making them feel included. This stood out because I teach tightly coordinated, multi-section, gateway courses that tend to have very rigid structures and policies. I did not properly gauge the impact that this rigidity could have on students until I read their testimonials. On the one hand, some rigidity is necessary to ensure that students across sections get a uniform experience in the course and are adequately prepared for subsequent courses. On the other hand, many student voices in the book provided simple ways of tweaking my current course design and policies to add flexibility and teach more inclusively without compromising the goals of the course. – Laurent Vera, Mathematics

Inclusive instructors reframe student participation as engagement that encompasses a broader array of possibilities.

A few student voices spoke to me. A student talked about the instructor relying on outspoken students. In in-person classes, I avoid cold calling, finding ways to allow students to participate comfortably. One way that allows for processing time is using a collaborative whiteboard to start discussions. I ask students to respond anonymously to a prompt on a whiteboard. Then, I ask students to comment on something posted on the whiteboard, either theirs or one that caught their attention. – Mary Jane Murphy-Bowne, Instructional Design

When adopting inclusive teaching approaches, starting small is more feasible than focusing on implementing every approach at once.

[O]ne small piece of advice I would offer is to aim for incremental changes rather than monumental transformations. Change takes time and iterations. – Jenny Yang, Asian Languages

Inclusive instructors are always learning about their students and how to grow in their teaching.

What struck me most [about the students’ perspectives] was realizing that, despite years of striving to employ compassionate pedagogy, there remains significant room for growth. Some issues raised by the students in the book had not occurred to me, despite my efforts to create an inclusive and supportive classroom environment. – Selin Bengi Gumrukcu, Political Science

Inclusive instructors benefit from growing in a community with colleagues.

Faculty interactions, especially those facilitated by experts or those designed with the goal of embarking on SoTL (scholarship of teaching and learning), support ongoing professional development, promote valuable interdisciplinary sharing, and enhance overall motivation. – Karen Harris, Instructional Design

[C]onnect with other like-minded instructors for support. I have found that talking with colleagues to share advice and encouragement empowers me to improve my teaching. – Laurent Vera, Mathematics

I loved being able to discuss these topics with the reading group as I don’t have much opportunity to do so within my department. – Elin Wicks, Engineering