Submission Title
Engaging Higher Education Students in Creating Curricular Content to Increase Equity
Abstract
This study aims to explore replicable strategies and principles for re-imagining higher education students as co-creators of course content through small-scale curricular experiments. The research takes place at a broad-access, minority and Hispanic-serving university that seeks to disrupt patterns of inequity in higher education. The university has established an undergraduate college and doctoral programs designed to support underserved students and working adults, respectively. To promote equitable teaching and learning practices, the university integrates scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) fellowships into its strategic plan. SoTL involves systematic inquiry into teaching and learning practices with intentional design, diverse methodologies, and public dissemination of findings. In the 2021-22 academic year, faculty SoTL fellowships were launched to support a University-wide research agenda on equity-promoting teaching practices. Selected fellows formed a team of three, supported by research and faculty co-facilitators. They began by developing a shared definition of equity, focusing on student identity and voice. They drew on the Culturally Responsive Teaching and Leading (CRTL) standards developed for K-12 settings to inform their vision of equity. Specifically, they emphasized the CRTL Standard D, which emphasizes student co-creation of learning experiences. The research questions for this study focus on the impact of increased student input into course content on student engagement, course content, students' experiences, and faculty members' experiences. Additionally, an emergent question pertains to how student input influences their work in the course. Overall, the great majority of students reported what can be considered positive impacts. Students reported that they did feel like they had more input into curriculum, that they enjoyed the learning, increased their interaction with peers, connected learning to lived experience, and were challenged by, and absorbed in, the learning. In addition, in comparison to other class activities and content, students showed more engagement, more personal connections and deeper analyses in the sections of the courses in which they co-created curriculum.
Recommended Citation
McDaniel-Hall, Gloria; Teahan, Elizabeth; Warsi, Sadia; Smith, Terry Jo; and Knauth, Shaunti. (2023). Engaging Higher Education Students in Creating Curricular Content to Increase Equity. i.e.: inquiry in education: Vol. 15: Iss. 2, Article 6.Retrieved from: https://digitalcommons.nl.edu/ie/vol15/iss2/6