The Diverse Classroom

Links to resources on diversity, inclusive classrooms, and related pedagogical topics appear below from UMBC colleagues, teaching and learning centers across the country, and other resources..

UMBC Resources

• The Faculty Development Center’s Faculty Learning Community on Diversity in the Classroom: Enhancing the Curriculum and Environment explored diversity in the classroom in a year-long collaboration.
• The Office of Student Disability Services Information for Faculty offers resources and support to help you meet the needs of diverse learners.
• The Office of Instructional Technology discusses Universal Design for Learning (UDL), an approach to reducing barriers to education.
• Student Affairs Mosaic Center for Cultural Diversity links to student-centered inclusion programs.
• The DEIA Resources for Faculty page acknowledge and support the DEIA work that our faculty at UMBC are already doing.
• The Faculty Diversity website highlights UMBC’s faculty diversity initiative.
• The Provost’s Office Diversity page links to UMBC’s Diversity Plan and Progress Reports assessing UMBC diversity initiatives.
• Anti-Racist Teaching Practices Resource Guide created by members of the UMBC Seeing White FLC.

Teaching & Learning Center Resources

Teaching and learning centers across the country have assembled a rich and useful collection of resources designed to help faculty apply inclusive learning practices in the classroom.

• University of Michigan Center for Research on Learning and Teaching (CRLT) offers a rich array of resources on inclusive classroom strategies. Here are a few direct links to useful tools:
  • The Research Basis for Inclusive Teaching cites teaching and learning research that demonstrates how inclusive classrooms contribute to student learning.
  • Inclusive Teaching Strategies presents a checklist to help you think through your course climate.
  • Setting the Tone for an Inclusive Classroom suggests ideas for improving your classroom tone.
  • Creating an Identity-Safe Classroom offers evidence-based interventions you can use to build classroom inclusivity.
• University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Center for Teaching and Learning. (1998). Teaching for inclusion. Chapel Hill, NC: Center for Teaching and Learning, UNC Chapel Hill
• Vanderbilt University Center for Teaching offers resources and in-depth essays on diversity, for example:
  • Harbin, B. (2016). Teaching beyond the gender binary in the university classroom. Vanderbilt University Center for Teaching.
  • Greer, A. (n.d.). Increasing inclusivity in the classroom. Vanderbilt University Center for Teaching.
• The Faculty Teaching Excellence Program at University of Colorado Boulder has published a series of essays on diversity and inclusion.
• Tulane University curated a digital resource guide to Feminist Pedagogy for Teaching Online (2020).

Other Resources

• How learning works: seven research-based principles for smart teaching. Ambrose, S. A., M.W. Bridges, M. DiPietro, M.C. Lovett, & M.K. Norman. (2010). (pp. 153-187). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
• Faculty identities and the challenge of diversity: Reflections on teaching in higher education. Chesler, M.A., & A.A. Young (Eds). (2015). New York: Routledge.
• Structure matters: Twenty-one teaching strategies to promote student engagement and cultivate classroom equity. Tanner, K. D. (2013).CBE Life Sciences Education, 12(3), 322–331. http://doi.org/10.1187/cbe.13-06-0115
• Bandwidth Recovery: Helping Students Reclaim Cognitive Resources Lost to Poverty, Racism, and Social Marginalization. Verschelden, C. (2017). Sterling, VA: Stylus.