We are all learners. From its beginning, CLTM has focused on our shared role as learners at the university – faculty, staff and students. This learning stance applies to the best of teaching and mentoring. Faculty and Staff learn from students. Students teach each other and mentor faculty. This stance begins to topple traditional hierarchies, replacing them with a more inclusive and equitable ecosystem of teaching and learning that incorporates more voices, more ways of knowing, and more belonging.
At the center of this work is the belief that our job is to – as Dr. Chrissy Davis Jones says – make room – at Arcadia for all kinds of people and learners. We need to meet students where they are in and out of the classroom and provide multiple pathways for engaging with each other and their mentors and professors and multiple ways to demonstrate what they know.
Our vision is constructivist – we believe we learn best through social interaction and engagement. Our work is shaped by the frameworks of Universal Design for Learning (UDL), Inclusive Excellence, and Anti-racist pedagogies. Some of the key tenets of this accessible, inclusive, antiracist work include:
- Good teaching involves paying attention to student-student, student-instructor, and student-content interactions, making each kind of engagement as relevant and active as possible. (Riggs, 2020)
- Instructors design multiple pathways for engagement, representation, and expression in their courses. (UDL)
- Active learning, creative problem-solving, and low-stakes formative assessments are embedded in the design of courses, with ample opportunities for revision.
- Syllabus language engages with students as human beings and aims not to be primarily punitive – syllabi invite students and faculty into a shared learning space.· Anti-racist pedagogies involve a flattening of traditional hierarchies – the creation of mutual learning communities focused on dismantling white supremacy culture and on applying new understandings to address real-world instances of inequity on and off-campus.
Let’s learn together!
Reach out to ctlm@arcadia.edu with any ideas for initiatives or adjustments to our current practices that you might have.
