Culture of Inclusion

Our Approach to Inclusiveness

Our department aims to provide a warm and welcoming culture wherein each person feels celebrated, valued, respected, believed in, and able to thrive within the GES community. We thus address inclusiveness within the curriculum, teaching methods, personal philosophies, and examination and addressing of implicit bias within our policies and practices.

Inclusive Classrooms

Our approach to inclusive classrooms embraces these principles:

• We value community in our classrooms and among our student scholars. We work hard to foster a sense of belonging for each classroom member such that everyone feels valued individually and as part of a community.
• We build that community through such practices as learning the spelling and pronunciation of each persons’ name, using preferred pronouns, encouraging interactions through group activities, and sharing of our own personal experiences and passions.
• We strive to achieve and maintain classroom climates that are welcoming and respectful of diverse backgrounds, sexual orientation, perspectives and life experiences.
• We use language and curriculum materials that acknowledge and support difference, and that dispel racist, imperialistic and colonial viewpoints expressed in traditional textbooks and teaching materials. We include course content that presents theories and examples from diverse scholars (by race, gender, culture, sexual identity, age, ability, socioeconomic status, religious beliefs, etc.) and that reflect historically underrepresented groups.
• We uphold the right of each student to respectfully (of all peoples) express their point of view while providing guidelines for what constitutes acceptable and respectful classroom behavior. Concurrently, we immediately address hostile, derogatory, disrespectful or otherwise harmful classroom behaviors and encourage critical reflection on stereotypes, personal bias, and assumptions.