Equity in Curriculum and Content

This page offers approaches for inclusion and representation in the classroom which will help transform students' learning experiences. Being included and recognizing representations of oneself will help students gain confidence and a strengthened sense of possibility.

The article “Equity through Curricula” by Steven Mintz. Links to an external site. lays out steps for advancing equity at our campuses. Read the full article when you can. Here, we focus on the aspects that pertain to our programs and curricula as well as our pedagogy and classrooms, the aspects wherein faculty directly shape a great deal of the student experience.

Starting with Equitable and Inclusive Curricula

Even after barriers to admission have been eliminated and opportunities are made available to all, there is a lot of work to be done to make higher education equitable. Enrolling students from previously excluded and otherwise marginalized locations can cause more harm if the students are forced to learn histories and master methods devised by the elites who excluded them. And, the privileged get their privilege reinforced, undermining the work toward equity and inclusion that began at admissions.

Being equity-minded and well-informed matters for prison educators because there is so much inequity in incarcerated populations. Despite the imprisonment rate of Black people falling since 2006, Hispanic and Black people make up larger shares of people who are incarcerated than of the U.S. population. According to the Pew Research Center Links to an external site. in 2018 while Black people made up 12% of US population, they made up 33% of the prison population, and where Hispanic people made up 16% of the population, they were 23% of the prison population. At the same time White people made up 63% of the total US population but only 30% of the prison population. When we consider the percent of people serving life, life without parole, or “virtual life” the percentage of Black people in prison rises to 48% Links to an external site.. There’s good reason to believe that Indigenous persons are also over-represented in prisons (particularly in some states), and increasingly so; however, data on Indigenous persons is scant and poorly collected Links to an external site.. And while AAPI persons are likely under-represented in prisons, they too are left out of the data and out of conversations about criminal justice overall, likely to everyone’s detriment Links to an external site.. The pre-incarceration income-gap also shows remarkable inequity in our student populations Links to an external site., inequities we need to bear in mind in our classes.

Programs could offer courses in diversity, equity, and inclusion. But a much more effective approach requires that each instructor create a curriculum that is socially relevant. Mintz highlights that curriculum should acknowledge:

The exclusion of voices, histories, achievements, traditions and perspectives from existing curricula.
The need to reimagine individual courses not only to make them more inclusive of new topics and texts, but to reconsider canonical and non-canonical texts and interpretations in light of the growth of knowledge about colonialism; slavery; the construction of race, gender, disability, class and age classifications; and earlier misuses of the social and natural sciences.
The need to go beyond revising syllabi to laying bare the implicit and unexamined ideological presumptions and ideas that inform the selection of topics, the choice of readings and the theoretical and interpretative lenses that the courses have adopted.

Equity-minded faculty are not just looking forward in their design. Inclusion comes by recognizing how course design itself, as well as the academic discipline and breakdown of topics, and the course readings have histories that might be informed by or aimed to benefit only some people while using the labor or ideas of others without credit or recognition. Faculty need to be willing to question our own master narratives and the canons we were taught while also encouraging students to question as well.

While some think it is much easier to amend and expand topics in some disciplines – such as history, art, and literature – achieving equity through curricula is important across all disciplines. Some fields need to be made more attractive to underrepresented students, rather than only doing the work to recruit them. We need to prepare students better and make sure the curriculum welcomes students from all backgrounds into all fields.

Some actions Mintz recommends include: Eliminate weed-out courses and unnecessary requirements; place a greater emphasis on active and applied; make greater use of data and primary sources to empower students to devise interpretations of their own; link the emerging fields with those that attract a more diverse enrollments, for example, in health care, statistics and business; and establish certificate programs, boot camps and data-, AI- and machine learning-oriented minors, and joint majors to reach underserved student population.

Making Pedagogy and Assessment More Equitable

It’s not enough to have well-designed programs and courses, we need to execute them in equity-minded ways. This requires conscious effort and awareness in classroom pedagogy, in assessment, and in academic support. Faculty should stay equity-minded in our everyday practices as we read the classroom, respond to confusions and misunderstandings, and bring all students into a discussion.

All students succeed better with equity-minded pedagogy, but this is especially true for marginalized students, and especially incarcerated students, who might not have equivalent experiences with positive, effective, and welcoming educational spaces. Faculty should make sure the organization of the course is clear to students; show content to be relevant, including making clear some practical application of abstract concepts; engage students in activities, getting hands-on or involved as much as reasonably possible, while de-emphasizing rote memorization (which often rewards students who can already best teach themselves); and emphasize problem solving and skill-building.

Assessment, too, needs to be equity-oriented. Students are less likely and less positioned to engage in practices of academic dishonesty, inadvertently or otherwise. Some things faculty can do are to: make expectations clear; divide assignments into steps and stages; give prompt and individual feedback; rely on more frequent lower-stakes formative assignments rather than fewer high-stakes exams that bring up anxiety and stereotype threat; prioritize higher-order thinking and skills application over memorization; and assess skills and knowledge through inquiry-, challenge- and project-based assignments more than standard exams.

Making the Student Experience More Equitable

Designing for equity is always important, but teaching our students in incarcerated environments requires us to be aware that they may be reminded daily of differences between incarcerated and non-incarcerated living. Accordingly, our goal is to create as close to a typical college experience for our students as possible. Though there is not one right way for every student and instructor to teach and learn, the following practices have proven especially effective:

Encourage questions, alternate viewpoints, and critical thinking, as in any other college setting.
Encourage students to work with others – not just their “friends” – and be open to learning about perspectives from cultures other than their own.
Normalize challenges that all students face (life/work balance, fatigue, frustration with difficult processes or rules, professors, assignments or classes they don’t like etc).
Encourage mentoring opportunities – students helping other students.
Scaffold content. Remember that examples in textbooks and “common knowledge” may be unfamiliar to a student who has been incarcerated for many years. Ask questions to assess knowledge and fill in gaps as needed. For example, if a textbook discusses social media, open the conversation by asking, “What do you know about social media?” You should not assume they do not know information just because they don’t have internet access. Provide real-life examples as needed to fill in the gaps.
Partner with students to ensure program success. Remind them that following the rules, maintaining professionalism, etc. is one way to ensure we avoid giving the wrong impression and always display the highest standards so as to never put our program in jeopardy. The program is a shared responsibility between instructors, students, and administration.

Universal Design(s) for Learning

Universal Design for Learning, or UDL for short, encourages instructors to think about the presentation of class content and apply methods that accommodate the diverse needs of students. UDL is an educational framework based on research in the learning sciences, including cognitive neuroscience, that guides the development of flexible learning environments and spaces that can accommodate individual learning preferences. As such, UDL can be a promising practice to make course curriculum and content more equitable.

UDL is an extension of Universal Design (UD), which Ron Mace (1998) defined as the “design of products and environments to be usable to the greatest extent possible by people of all ages and abilities” (p. 11). It is a concept premised on the belief that humans are diverse, with differing abilities that vary for a variety of reasons.

At its core, UDL endeavors to make learning as universally available as possible. A such, UDL suggests that that instructors provide:

Multiple means of representation to give learners various ways of acquiring information and knowledge.
Multiple means of expression to provide learners alternatives for demonstrating what they know or have learned.
Multiple means of engagement to tap into learners' interests, challenge them appropriately, and motivate them to learn.

Rose & Meyer (2002) Teaching Every Student in the Digital Age: Universal Design for Learning& CAST (2008) Universal Design for Learning Guidelines

The application of even the most basic UDL practices during the development of your course creates a learning experience that is not only beneficial for those who need it the most, but for everyone else as well.

Further Resources on UDL: