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On Inclusive Scholarship,
Curriculum, and Teaching
Director: Paula Rothenberg
Suggestions/Guidelines For Creating
And Sustaining State/Regional/Campus
Curriculum Transformation Initiatives
1. Establish Personal Relationships
with Key Individuals.
- Name and face recognition are important
for getting the proverbial "foot in
the door" of administrators and faculty
alike. Greet them, talk with them,
listen to them, thank them, explain
to them, work with them. It takes
time, but their ongoing involvement
in and commitment to transformation
initiatives generally will increase
proportionately.
2. From the Start, Have an
Attention-Getting Logo, and Use it on
Everything.
- Keep the transformation initiative's
"presence" in people's sight and mind:
use the logo on publicity fliers,
stationery, posters, newsletters,
tee-shirts, etc.
3. Follow Up, and Follow Up
Again.
- Assume that all mailings and other
indirect communications to any persons
in government, business, and/or academia
go unread. It's not necessarily because
of their lack of interest: more likely,
it's a matter of their busy schedules.
It's always a good idea, regardless
of many tries it takes, to follow
up with a "live" in-person or telephone
conversation.
- Begin a telephone directory that
allows continual updating of names,
current titles, school or business's,
department or division secretary's,
voicemail's, fax's, E-mail addresses,
school or business addresses, home
addresses and telephone's (where appropriate),
etc.
- Keep a record of every conversation
so it can be referred to after leaving/hanging
up and upon the next conversation.
When dealing with many different people,
it's all to easy to forget what was
said, what plans or whatever were
agreed to, and so on.
4. Model the Vision.
- If the goal is curriculum and pedagogy
transformation leading to more inclusive
teaching and learning, whenever and
wherever possible, model the vision
by having a diverse group of initiative
initiators and staff (crossing as
many as possible of the many differences
[sex, sexuality, race/ethnicity, age,
academic discipline, etc.]) and by
modeling inclusive teaching/learning
techniques at meetings, presentations,
conferences, etc.
5. Elicit, Listen to, and
Respect Feedback.
- Those with the vision need to keep
the vision clearly in mind and need
to remind themselves continually of
the their reasons for being. At the
same time, it's easy to get too "lost"
in the cause, so it's important to
do regular reality checks. Let people
know that feedback is valued. Ask
for their input and listen carefully.
Make appropriate shifts, about-faces,
spurts, etc. in direction to avoid
losing touch with those intended for
inclusion.
Mia Anderson
June 1996
The New Jersey Project, Matelson Hall,
William Patterson University, 300 Pompton
Road, Wayne, New Jersey 07470. (201)
595-2296 (tel), (201) 595-2974 (fax).
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