Quinnipiac University
Khalilah Brown-Dean sitting and speaking into a microphone

Inclusive Excellence Teaching Lab

The Inclusive Excellence Teaching Lab provides and cultivates an intellectual community for scholars from across the university who have demonstrated their commitment to, and interest in, issues of equity, diversity and inclusion within their curricular and co-curricular approaches.

Through the Lab, we aim to transform teaching, learning, and scholarship by developing an inclusive learning environment that stretches across our campus and through the greater educational community.

Overview

2 students of color sitting at a table laughing together

Structure and Methods to Achieve Inclusive Excellence

Established as part of our 10-Point Plan to Advance Racial Justice, the Inclusive Excellence Teaching Lab fosters meaningful collaborations that affirm faculty and staff expertise, amplify student voices, strengthen curricular innovations and promote peer-to-peer mentoring across disciplines. Led by the Senior Director for Inclusive Excellence, and based in the Department of Cultural and Global Engagement, the IETL provides enhanced training opportunities for faculty and staff to promote inclusive assessment across the university and the broader Quinnipiac community.

The Lab will identify core faculty scholars, known as Inclusive Excellence Teaching Fellows, to serve as liaisons to other professors committed to pursuing a more inclusive approach to their courses and co-curricular offerings. To open up possibilities of inclusion and rethink educational practices, each of our activities, trainings and workshops centers around our six core goals.

Goal:

  • To build intrapersonal and interpersonal awareness among faculty and staff.

Activities:

  • Hold workshops to critically examine the ideas, assumptions and values that impact pedagogical choices and practices leading to a redesign of courses that emphasize co-constructive dialogue with culturally diverse students.

Goal:

  • To establish an inclusive pedagogy by transforming curricular and co-curricular offerings guided in part by selected Inclusive Excellence Teaching Fellows.

Activities:

  • Review existing courses; propose new designs; serve as a resource to various schools; conduct curriculum audits; suggest professional development sessions for faculty, staff & students.

Goal:

  • To incentivize curricular change

Activities:

  • Inclusive Excellence Transformation Grants will be offered to faculty & staff partners who would like to develop courses and/or co-curricular opportunities with preference given to collaborative efforts.

Goal:

  • To develop a holistic learning environment that inculcates a culture of inclusive excellence.

Activities:

  • Identify & execute university-wide lectures, thematic offerings and community partnerships that enhance pedagogy and practice.

Goal:

  • To provide professional development that enhances understanding of how issues of identity and bias shape the experiences and intellectual explorations of students, faculty and staff.

Activity:

  • Host meetings, conventions, seminars and roundtables including but not limited to: Annual Inclusive Excellence Summer Assembly; professional development seminars based on needs identified through faculty, staff and students; transdisciplinary Communities of Practice.

Goal:

  • To assess learning outcomes.

Activity:

  • Assessments will include surveys of faculty experiences as they develop a culture of inclusive excellence and student portfolios of co-curricular work. Pedagogical innovations will be evaluated to produce peer-reviewed scholarship that promotes best practices for our university and higher education more broadly.

Inclusive Excellence Summer Assembly

The IESA is a two-day convening designed to affirm the role of community members as collective stewards of institutional change and development. The goal for the Summer Assembly is to encourage dialogue about belonging and create learning opportunities for everyone.

 

Join us at the 2023 IESA

The Inclusive Excellence Teaching Lab will host the third Inclusive Excellence Summer Assembly on May 16 - 17, 2023. This year's assembly encourages faculty, students and staff from across the university to join our neighbors in the community as we explore issues of agency.

Agency can be defined as the capacity of individuals to have the power and resources to fulfill their potential. With a sense of agency, all members of our community can express their authentic selves and feel completely welcome, secure and supported to teach and learn. Join us as we discuss how service to the community affects the possibility of agency and how learning and teaching are affected by this same sense of agency.

Learn more about the Inclusive Excellence Summer Assembly

Become a Fellow

IETL Fellows will meet biweekly to review existing courses, propose new designs and conduct curriculum audits for their schools. Fellows will also support the development of on-campus events, programs and workshops that connect diversity, equity and inclusivity with their schools and departments.

Apply to become a fellow

Communities of Practice

Communities of practice address the ways diversity, equity and inclusion impact teaching and learning. Community members will produce and share resources, reflections and experiences engaging all students in various learning experiences. At the end of the semester, each community of practice will provide recommendations to address their particular problems of practice.

Join a community of practice

Our Growing Community of Inclusive Educators

The Inclusive Excellence Teaching Lab and the Inclusive Excellence Summer Assembly are championed by a growing community of educators who share the same commitment and dedication to developing inclusive learning environments at Quinnipiac and beyond. Fellows and Co-Chairs are appointed to one-year terms aligned with the academic calendar.

Contact Our Co-Chairs

Meet Our Faculty Fellows