Inclusive Teaching Learning Community
We facilitate a year-long faculty learning community to redesign courses for inclusion and equity.
Join CETL's Inclusive Teaching Learning Community
Each year, the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning facilitates a learning community for a small cohort of instructors interested in developing more inclusive teaching practices. The program, in support of the Pathways to Equity Strategic Plan, offers a limited number of grants for the design, implementation, and reporting of course revisions to enhance teaching and learning for all students, with particular emphasis on those who have been historically marginalized in higher education. Each participant receives a grant of $3,000 to support their course revisions.
Frequently Asked Questions
All University of Mississippi faculty and instructors, regardless of status, are eligible to apply for the learning community, and this includes staff who serve as instructors of record. We also designate up to two spots per cohort for graduate students who serve as instructors of record.
Faculty and/or graduate students may also apply as a team of instructors who co-teach or teach multiple sections of a coordinated course.
While we welcome any UM instructor or group of instructors to apply, we are most likely to prioritize proposed course revisions likely to impact the largest number of students over the longest period of time.
During the first semester of the learning community, instructors attend four meetings with each other and with CETL staff. These meetings, which are coupled with brief preparatory readings and assignments, are designed to help participants ground themselves in the principles of inclusive teaching and examine their chosen course in light of these principles. Instructors also draw on their own records and the resources of IREP to gather course or institutional data that might help them understand the impact of their course on historically marginalized students.
Participants then use this data, along with the insights they gleaned from group discussions about inclusive teaching, to (re)design their chosen course (or design a substantial course intervention) prioritizing inclusion and equity. In addition to facilitating group meetings, CETL staff will also be available to consult with individual instructors on their proposed course revisions.
In the second semester of the learning community, instructors teach the (re)designed version of their course and attend monthly meetings to discuss the progress of the course. They also gather any qualitative or quantitative data they need to assess the effectiveness of their teaching revisions. In the final weeks of the semester, instructors develop a plan to share what they have learned with peers in their department and submit a final reflection on their time in the program to CETL.
Participants receive half of their grant after the first meeting of the learning community in January and the remainder of the grant after its conclusion in December.
- Participate in the monthly meetings and activities of the learning community and individual consultations as appropriate.
- (Re)design a course or design a substantial course intervention using the principles of inclusive teaching and any course or institutional data you have collected.
- Implement your (re)designed course or course interventions during the second semester of the learning community.
- Discuss course progress and challenges and support learning community members as they work toward their own inclusive teaching goals.
- Share what you have learned with your department.
- Submit a final reflection to CETL on your time in the program and progress toward the goals articulated in your initial proposal.
Learn more
Our blog features resources and recaps from CETL programs and events on inclusive teaching.
Questions about the ITLC?
Emily facilitates the Inclusive Teaching Learning community and coordinates other inclusive teaching initiatives at UM. Reach out to her any time with questions about the program.
Emily Donahoe
Associate Director of Instructional Support in the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning and Lecturer of Writing and Rhetoric