Why Professors Resist Inclusive Teaching by Annie Murphy Paul: Especially important in CS

Annie Murphy Paul is talking about inclusive teaching here, but she could just as well be talking about active learning.  The stages are similar (recall the responses to my proposal to build active learning methods into hiring, promotion, and tenure packages). These are particularly critical for computing where we have so little diversity and CS teachers are typically poor at teaching for diverse audiences.

Stages of Inclusive Teaching Acceptance

Denial: “I treat all my students the same.  I don’t see race/ethnicity/gender/sexual orientation/nationality/disability. They are just people.”

Anger: “This is all just social science nonsense! Why won’t everyone just get over this PC stuff? When I went to grad school, we never worried about diversity.”

Bargaining: “If I make one change in my syllabus, will you leave me alone?”

Depression: “Maybe I’m not cut out to teach undergraduates. They’re so different now. Maybe I just don’t understand.”

Overwhelmed: “There is so much I didn’t know about teaching, learning, and diversity. How can I possibly accommodate for every kind of student?”

Acceptance: “I realize that who my students are and who I am influences how we interact with STEM. I can make changes that will help students learn better and make them want to be part of our community.”

Source: Why Professors Resist Inclusive Teaching « Annie Murphy Paul