Teaching.IU

Context

To ensure that students of Color, particularly those with histories of oppression, are provided with multiple opportunities to access curricular content in alignment with their lived experiences, it is imperative to choose course material representative of these students’ backgrounds, cultures, nationalities, language, and heritages. UDL’s multiple means of representation provides entry points for students with different learning needs and/or with diverse language and cultural experiences to approach learning by making tangible connections to learning content and concepts. 

Step-by-Step Implementation

Before using the Equity Tool, instructors should take into consideration the ways in which they design their courses around course outcomes or standards. See Figure 1 from the IRIS Center Website: The Basic Principles of UDL. These steps reflect an intentional process of choosing course materials that are pre-assessed for bias and are specifically geared to meet the needs of students of color.  

1. When thinking about learning goals, instructors should automatically take into consideration that the instructional materials used to teach content should be reflective of their student population’s lived experiences and backgrounds.  
2. Before choosing materials, however, it is beneficial to screen for inherent biases or agendas embedded in textbooks, instructional videos, podcasts, and other learning tools.  
3. The instructor can focus on assessing biases through the Equity Tool’s Standards Rubric and through the Curricular Materials Rubric. The Standards Rubric focuses on three domains including: a) Build Consciousness, b) Reflect Students’ Cultural Repertoires and View Them as Worthy of Sustaining, and c) Social Improvement. The Curricular Materials Rubric centers on seven domains and is highly beneficial to ensure that the ways that students of Color are portrayed and represented in course materials is inclusive, equitable and historically accurate. The domains include (p. 1):  
   • Invisibility 
   • Stereotyping 
   • Imbalance and Selectivity 
   • Historical Whitewashing 
   • Fragmentation and Isolation 
   • Linguistic Bias 
   • Cosmetic Bias 
4. Once instructors screen for these biases, they can choose materials that will not cause further damage to students of Color by reproducing inaccurate or biased portrayals of their histories and lived experiences.

Effectiveness

Students taking a course, can be provided with the Equity Tool to assess bias in materials they gather to write a paper, generate a presentation, or provide information about through a cumulative assignment. Part of how their work is assessed is through specific rubrics supplied in the Equity Tool document. For example, if students are presenting in a Science course perhaps a part of their deliberate critique could be examining, per the Tool’s rubrics, if people of Color are represented in the materials [e.g., Science Textbook: Who wrote the book?; Whose view of the world (e.g., Western, Eastern, Global North, Global South) is represented and how?;  Do any pictures depict people of Color and how are they depicted?]. The Curricular Materials Rubric presents seven domains that can assist instructors and students in critically analyzing whether or not different knowledges, experiences, and ways of knowing are being represented (p. 1). Further, students of Color, who do not feel represented by the materials can be encouraged to present their other ways of knowing as important understandings to enhance the overall course content.

Adaptability

Although my example is with creative writing, this could be adapted for composition, speech, fine arts and other disciplines—any area where students need to develop drafting and revising skills.