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- Diversifying Your Syllabus
Why DEI?
Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) are core to AAP's instructional design principles. But we don't diversify our work just to check boxes. So, why do we? According to Stanford's Inclusive Teaching Guide, a syllabus is a really important starting place to set the tone for your students' education:
The syllabus is the first opportunity you will have to give students an impression of your course. In addition to providing an overview of course policies and goals, a well-designed syllabus can demonstrate your teaching style, values, and commitment to helping each student in your course. Centering your syllabus around equity and inclusivity in this way can contribute to overall student success in your courses.
Inclusive teaching is about including relevant material that is both diverse in terms of authorship and in terms of content. CUNY Graduate Center's Diversifying Syllabi guide has really helpful information about making sure your course includes both types diverse content:
Diversity-of-authors and diversity-of-topics are each important, and they also complement each other
Below you will find some resources that will help you diversify your syllabus, no matter what field you're teaching in!
Resource for Diversifying Your Syllabus
- Diversifying Course Content, Carleton UniversityThis Research Guide provides a simple overview of how to diversify your course material. The guide also offers helpful tips on how to search for diverse source material both in library catalogs and on the open web.
- Building an Inclusive Syllabus, Stanford UniversityStanford University's Teaching Commons provides an excellent guide - with examples - on how to build an inclusive syllabus.
- Diversifying Syllabi, Willamette UniversityThis guide provides some helpful links to other college and universities' Research Guides and disciplinary professional associations' guides on diversifying course content.
- CUNY Graduate Center's Diversifying Syllabi ProjectThis project provides helpful links to some cross-disciplinary resources you can use to diversify your syllabus.
- Diversify Your Syllabus: Resources and Readings for Your Syllabus, University of MinnesotaThis guide provides helpful links to different disciplinary projects around diversifying syllabi, as well as to social media hashtags that might be helpful in finding relevant content.