Recent studies have shown that the opportunity gap persists for students of color in community colleges. Increasingly, students of color are making community colleges their first choice in higher education to seek certification, marketable job skills, or a degree; however, they are not completing their education at the same rate as their White counterparts. While any number of factors may contribute to this gap, we cannot rule out implicit bias as a factor. Biases not only have a negative impact on students’ self-esteem, they can reduce students’ will to try, resulting in inequitable outcomes. This webinar paints a picture of what implicit bias looks like in the classroom and provides strategies for reducing biases that inevitably impact students’ success.
Would you like to explore some strategies for fostering inclusiveness in online pedagogy? A growing body of literature highlights the need for faculty-student and student-student interaction in order to create an inclusive atmosphere and to establish a sense of belonging in the classroom. Differences in communication styles often pose some challenges in class participation, collaboration, and interpretation of information in an online environment. Cultural factors have a significant impact on students’ self-learning, group interaction, and communication styles. By creating an inclusive atmosphere, faculty can promote greater self-awareness, deepen intercultural sensitivity, and encourage meaningful interaction and collaboration among diverse groups. An understanding of diverse communication patterns is critical to the academic success of culturally and linguistically diverse student population.
