Summary and Scope of the Resource

“Equity-in-curriculum” refers not only to the importance of designing, building, and implementing more equitable (increasingly inclusive) classes and curricula, but also emphasizes the importance of equity as a subject of learning. Many courses and programs, especially within (but not limited to) the Humanities, discuss and analyze stark realities relating to experiences of equity and inequity across human and global contexts.

Accordingly, our role as educators and administrators — supporting an authentic and complete college experience for those who are incarcerated — is also to introduce and guide learning around equity as a subject which potentially addresses any given range of serious topics, from colonialism and post-colonialism, to cultural appropriation and conflict, institutionalized and systemized racism, all forms of destructive discrimination and prejudice, formation and dissolution of interpersonal bonds and relationships, and far beyond.

Supporting Instructional Independence and Versatility

We aim to support instructors invested in educational service, supporting holistic student learning and success through the advancement of academic freedom as applied to both instructors and students teaching and learning in carceral spaces. As in every college setting, all persons participating in each class are responsible for working mutually towards student success/learning. Reviewing this collection of modules, and the experiences and perspectives presented throughout, can help prepare generally for the task of adapting one’s curriculum, teaching style, and course content to a prison or jail setting.

The recommendations, practices, and guidelines throughout the training provide general support so that each instructor’s discipline-specific rigors and responsibilities remain appropriately applied and supported. Our goal as educators, and as advocates for higher and all levels of education within incarceration, is to help facilitate for both students and teachers better environments in which the academic freedom to explore and self-reflexively learn can flourish, and wherein students' and teachers' creative and intellectual strengths are mutually and collaboratively exemplified, to the betterment of everyone's learning.

This very much includes us as instructors. That is to say: If we are willing, and in some cases even actively eager, to move selectively through the restrictively trauma-dense, often socially overlooked, rejected, and resource-deprived environments of prisons and jails (especially in the U.S. wherein mass incarceration is not only virtually unparalleled in terms of scale but also distinctly linked to this country's histories of enslavement and structural racism), especially for those who do not share our carceral-impacted students' experiences, then we ought to be willing to enter as students as well; that is, we ought to be actively and continually prepared to learn, and to demonstrate to our students the value and impact of applying/adapting to what we learn.

Outline of Resource Content

Aims and Scope Module
- Introduction to the Resource Guide
  - Navigating Expectations
  - Foundation Principles and Practices in Curricular Equity
  - Contributing Communities
- Summary and Scope of the Training
  - Supporting Instructional Independence and Versatility
  - Outline of Module Content
Understanding Trauma Module
- Introduction: Understanding Trauma
  - What Can Trauma Look Like?
  - Key Terms For Understanding Trauma
    - Additional Concepts From Sustaining Futures
  - Trauma-Informed Communication
    - Contextualizing Communication: Breaking Down Exchange
    - Trauma-Informed Communication and Transactional Analysis
- Trauma in Incarcerated Environments: Student Voices
  - "Retelling Life Experience to Make Sense of Trauma," by the late Terry Don Evans
  - "On the Evolution of a Trauma-Informed Approach," by Robert Mosely
- Trauma-Informed Course Development
  - Recommended and Promising Practices
  - Lesson Design
  - Managing Academic Anxiety
- Reflections and Resources for Understanding Trauma
  - Key Insights Learned From Faculty "Share Out" Sessions
  - Reflection: One Faculty's Experience/Perspective
  - Additional Resources
    - Sustaining Futures
    - Communication Studies Prison B.A. Journal
  - Further Reading
Power and Identity Module
- Introduction: Power and Identity
  - Key Terms for Understanding Power and Identity
  - Understanding Intersectionality
  - Power Dynamics: Teachers and Students
  - Microaggressions With Macro Effect
  - Recommended and Promising Practices
    - Critical Reflection
    - Celebrating Resistance and Joy
- Race in the Prison Classroom
  - Race and Racism in the History of Policing in the United States
  - Dynamics of Race and Education
- Gender and Sexuality in the Prison Classroom
  - Discourses on Gender and Sexuality in Incarcerated Settings
  - Thoughtful Teaching on Sex, Gender, and Sexuality
- Ability and Disability in the Prison Classroom
  - Instructional Approaches to Disciplinary Inclusion
  - The Imperative of Accessibility
- Reflections and Resources for Understanding Power and Identity
  - Additional Resources
  - Further Reading
Building the Course Module
- Introduction: Building the Course for Equity
- Preparing for the First Day of Class
- Equity in Curricula and Instruction
- Reflections and Resources for Building the Course
Counseling and Advisement Module
- Introduction: Counseling and Advisement
- Academia and Accessibility Across Contexts
- Transcripts and Matriculation
- Advising and Counseling Students
- Reflections and Resources for Counseling and Advisement