Advancing Equity Through Participation in Faculty Learning Communities

McNair et al. (2020) define equity-mindedness as a mode of thinking exhibited by practitioners who are willing to:

• assess their own racialized assumptions
• acknowledge their lack of knowledge in the history of race and racism
• take responsibility for the success of historically underserved and minoritized groups
• critically assess racialization in their own practices as educators and/or administrators

As a theoretical perspective, equity-mindedness has been utilized by higher education researchers to highlight the challenges faculty encounter engaging in equity-minded teaching (Castillo-Montoya, 2020) and the critical role faculty leaders play in creating environments that support equity (Collins & Olesik, 2021). This lens undergirds our thinking and approach as stakeholders striving to advance equity at American University.

Shari and Samantha co-led a Faculty Learning Community (FLC) in 2022, in which Beverly was a participant. The FLC aimed to support faculty in their efforts to foster and realize equity-mindedness across AU. The goal of such communities is to convene a group of people to discuss their goals and plans to achieve them. Facilitators mentored participants, providing guidance as faculty collaborated to reach their individual goals. In our case, the FLC convened a group of Department Chairs and Program Directors that were committed to learning more about equity-mindedness. The FLC provided participants with a forum to set goals and action plans with both mentorship of facilitators and participants’ peer support.

In practice, such learning communities create an open space through small group discussions, where members set their own goals and support each other as they work towards achieving them. More importantly, FLCs create a space where people can be vulnerable with each other as they are reflexive on their biases and positionalities and work to support equity. In the first session, Shari and Samantha intentionally included “Who are We” slides as part of our roles as facilitators to show the ways personal and professional identities inform our roles as scholars centering equity. Within this particular FLC, we expressed the need to create a brave space where participants could be reflexive of their roles and positionality. This urged participants to consider and address their biases, privileges, and challenges in an open forum with member support and feedback.

Lessons Learned from Equity-Mindedness FLC

Our collective experiences as FLC mentors and participants presents lessons learned for those engaged in faculty collaborative efforts supporting and realizing equity-mindedness:

• Intentionally design curriculum to support dialogue around antiracism, equity, and inclusive excellence, which creates space for faculty leaders to engage in activities supporting equity-mindedness. Employing course concepts and working towards individual goals allows us to center racial equity in our work. Examples of these activities include reflections around prompts such as, “how do you promote equity in your classroom, curriculum, and research agenda?”
• Be reflexive of your biases and positionality. Accountability partners help to provide honest and open assessments as we engage in reflexive activities.
• Employ thought partners, including other faculty, to advance efforts towards projects that center antiracism and equity.
• Shared learning provides opportunities to establish rapport and results in forming trusting and meaningful relationships with colleagues that go beyond the FLC.
• Supervisor commitment was crucial to achieving the goals faculty set during the FLC. Many faculty created a list of action items to discuss and prioritize in partnership with their departments, programs, and supervisors.

The reality is that not everyone will have the advantage and privilege of being a part of an official FLC. Still, faculty who are committed to equity and have actionable plans, as well as those who are uncertain of why or how they can employ equity in their work, can learn from our FLC lessons. Since we are all on different paths to growth, we offer some ideas that faculty might find helpful:

Identifying Accountability Partners and Convening Support Groups

Find peers across AU, across your school and department, and begin to read, explore your practices, and further sharpen your enactment to equity. Identify accountability partners with whom you can discuss your efforts. We do not need formal authority or positional power to enact change and foster dialogue. And there are many former FLC participants across campus that are open to engagement as well.

Talk to your Dean, Department chair, or Program Director about your commitment to equity, starting a dialogue of unit priorities and action items. Attend CTRL events on equity and apply the lessons learned therein to your teaching, mentorship, service, and research. Seek out resources on self-reflection and bias and journal as you apply what you have learned.  

This is an important commitment that we must all take together as we work to advance equity at our institution.  There is no time more critical than now that we create space for each other; for learning; for staying engaged; and for working to deepen our awareness of ourselves and the agency we have within our own leadership—in our classrooms, with our colleagues, across our campus, and beyond.