ISU Holds Workshop for Equitable and Inclusive Classroom Culture

NORMAL, Ill. – The Illinois State University Center for Integrated Professional Development held a session regarding equitable and inclusive classroom culture earlier today. 

 This workshop was held for graduate students seeking to improve their classroom environment by tweaking the way they teach; the goal of this workshop was to educate about equitable teaching instead of equal teaching. Assistant Director of Communications at ISU Jim Gee demonstrated why equitable teaching is desirable in a classroom environment. 

“We need to realize there is a difference between equality and equity. Equity is the goal in a diverse classroom,” said Gee. “Think of it this way, if you have three people of different heights trying to look over a fence and you all give them the same sized step, their heads will all still be at different heights. That is an example of teaching for equality. Teaching for equity would be if we have everyone a different sized step so they could all see over the fence and their heads are level.” 

 This session was the second of two workshop sessions being this semester held about equitable teaching, but there are more to come next semester.  

“Our university has always talked about individualized attention, it has always been one of our core values,” said Gee. “EDI started several years ago, and the school has made great progress.  The pandemic showed how important that true equity is.  There will never be one lone workshop that can make you perfect, but taking many can help make you aware of your classroom environment.”