By Beth Petitjean, Ph.D., Digital Learning Specialist, Reinert Center
At the Winter Institute earlier this month, the morning workshop focused on creating culturally responsive introductory activities. The intent was to show participants how they could take content and repurpose it into an activity to promote engagement, to introduce ways of thinking within the course discipline, and to create meaning for their students. The workshop was well-received by those who attended, so I’d like to share with you, dear reader, some of what we covered.
We started off with a new activity that I titled, “Coffee Break(er).” In small groups, participants discussed three prompts:
- Was coffee or tea a part of your family’s daily life when you were growing up?
- What role does coffee or tea play in your daily life now?
- Does coffee or tea have any cultural or historical meaning to you? Have you observed or participated in coffee or tea drinking in another country, culture, or community?
A lively discussion followed as folks shared memories of growing up, observed how coffee is embedded within our work lives, and talked about their travel experiences to highlight how coffee and tea drinking are shared cultural customs across the globe. For the first time using this activity with these prompts and this repurposed topic, I was pleased that the outcome reflected my intentions.
In essence, the Coffee Break(er) is an introductory activity. We typically associate introductory activities with icebreakers—the introductions done on the first day of class to help everyone learn each other’s names. Indeed, introducing people is one of the main functions of an introduction—to establish commonalities, build community, and develop engagement among learners. The other function of an introduction is to introduce key topics, processes, skills, themes, or ways of thinking specific to the course or discipline. In this regard, we use content to introduce these aspects and, because we might have multiple units, chapters, or modules in our course, we can include introductory activities every time there is major transition to something new in the course.
Moreover, for the learning to be authentic and useful, students must find meaning in it. By including real-world applications and real-world examples within content and activities, students can find ways to connect and find meaning that is authentic to them. In order to introduce content, people, and meaning as effectively as possible for learning and belonging, we bring in culturally responsive and universal design lenses through our intentional choice to practice inclusivity in our courses.
Thinking inclusively is the common denominator of Universal Design for Learning (UDL) and Cultural Responsiveness. As research[1] shows, thinking inclusively, “creates an environment that fosters understanding and better appreciation for the students’ own experiences and their classmates” (90-91). This shows students that the course is accessible to everyone, that instructors value all student experiences and backgrounds, regardless of whether they are local to Richmond Heights or an international student far from home. It is this interaction among and between students that is essential. In fact, research[2] points out, “strong interpersonal connections, positive interactions with instructors, and collaborative engagement with peers all contributed to feelings of belonginess,” which in turn, “is a predictor of increased persistence and engagement, as well as better mental health” (3). It becomes crucial, then, for instructors to design courses with these approaches in mind.
However, it doesn’t happen overnight, or at least it didn’t for me. The Coffee Break(er) activity went through several versions during my time teaching history courses. Coffee and tea were both topics I always wanted to include because I knew each had interesting histories that highlighted many themes within my courses; however, it was always a struggle to include them when there was so much other content to cover. Version 1 listed coffee and tea as topics for students to select for an individual research assignment. The assignment asked students to research the topic, connect it to course themes, and then present their research with slides to the class. For the students who chose coffee or tea, they probably learned something, but for the rest of the class, it was just another person standing at the podium and showing slides. Few, if any, beyond the students doing the research found any meaning in the topic.
After taking one of the Reinert Center’s one-week Distance Teaching courses on Universal Design, I adapted the coffee topic into a Discussion Board for an online, intensive, asynchronous course. In this second version, I provided students with several sources about coffee in different formats (primary source text, scholarly articles, TedTalk videos, and a podcast) and asked them to select two sources then answer a series of prompts in a format they chose (text, video, or audio). As a low-stakes, graded discussion, every student participated, and they had the agency to choose the sources they wanted to use and to discuss the themes they thought important. The result was a lively discussion board in which students found meaning by comparing something they know today (coffeehouses) with something from the past. Students could see the relevance for their daily lives, as well as the complexity of coffee’s history and the nature of historical change over time.
The Coffee Break(er) is version 3 with the same topic of coffee but repurposed into an introductory activity. At the Winter Institute, it was used to introduce people and the content of the workshop. In a classroom setting, I would use the activity to introduce a module on the 17th century global world and themes of economic trade, everyday life, and public space. By applying a culturally responsive lens, the content was made more usable, accessible, and meaningful for more people. And, it did so with an activity that gave every person something to talk about, an activity that gave them an opportunity to share their own experiences and appreciate each other’s backgrounds. Combining the frameworks of authentic learning and culturally responsive teaching becomes the big “why” for students to care about what is happening in the course. It takes students beyond what they “have to do” to “why it matters.” And everyone is welcome and expected to be at the table.
[1] Addy, T.M., Dube, D., Mitchell, K.A., and SoRelle, M.E. What Inclusive Instructors Do: Principles and Practices for Excellence in College Teaching. Sterling, VA: Stylus, 2021.
[2] Berry, Sharla. Creating Inclusive Online Communities: Practices that Support and Engage Diverse Students. Sterling, VA: Stylus, 2022. The Reinert Center is hosting an online Inclusive Teaching Book Club discussion on this book on Friday, March 1, 2024. Please visit our Events page for more information and registration.
The Notebook 