by Gina Merys, Director, Reinert Center
The Reinert Center team was busier than ever this summer hosting our annual Course Design Institute in June, our annual Culturally Responsive Teaching Institute in early August, and welcoming three new full-time staff members and one new graduate assistant in between. Of course, we also continued working individually with multiple instructors and department groups, while also attending conferences, webinars, and so much more.
To curate our programming and resources, we have decided to continue our focus on culturally responsive teaching as our theme for this year. In the germinal text, Culturally Responsive Teaching: Theory, Research, and Practice1, author Geneva Gay writes, “Teaching is most effective when ecological factors, such as prior experiences, community settings, cultural backgrounds, and ethnic identities of teachers and students, are included in its implementation” (22). She goes on to say, “Thus, culturally responsive pedagogy validates, facilitates, liberates, and empowers ethnically diverse students by simultaneously cultivating their cultural integrity, individual abilities, and academic success” (46). For me, these ideas speak directly to our heritage of Jesuit education and the framework of Ignatian pedagogy. This history and practice set all our endeavors in learning into a context that informs the learning experiences of our courses and guides reflective actions into the world. This academic year, then, is focused on embracing and furthering the lessons of Ignatian pedagogy through the lens of cultural responsiveness in all aspects of teaching and learning.
Through workshops, discussions, Institutes, and resources, we will explore the ways that culturally responsive teaching informs our work inside and outside of a traditional classroom. Additionally, we will investigate the ways in which culturally responsive teaching benefits student learning and wellbeing, while discovering how it also brings strength and wholeness to us as instructors.
It is with great excitement that I can say after many years of being short-staffed, we at last have several new minds on our team to take this pedagogical journey with us. Joining the permanent staff are: Nicole States, Ph.D., Beth Petitjean, Ph.D., and Mitchell Lorenz, Ph.D. Additionally, Kenneth Kibii has joined us as a graduate assistant. Please take some time to read their brief biographies linked with their names and stop by to say hello to us all on your next visit to Pius library or as you see us in workshops and events throughout the year.
1 Gay, Geneva. Culturally Responsive Teaching: Theory, Research, and Practice, 2nd Ed. New York: Teachers College Press, 2010.
The Notebook 