1st Edition
Creating Culturally Affirming and Meaningful Assignments A Practical Resource for Higher Education Faculty
Creating Culturally Affirming and Meaningful Assignments offers principles, strategies, and examples to aid in the development of inclusive college coursework in which all students feel seen and valued.
This resource prepares instructors to proactively consider ways to honor and engage with students’ varied identities and lived experiences through assignments. Chapters cover the course design process, methods on getting to know your students, assignment options beyond the exam, and more. Reflection questions at the end of each chapter serve as a springboard for faculty and leadership conversations on equitable and inclusive teaching practices, while the appendix features 20 example assignments sourced from various higher education disciplines.
An accessible, practical read, this guidebook is for any higher education instructor who wants to reimagine their assignments to center and celebrate students’ varied cultural backgrounds and experiences.
Introduction
Christine Harrington
Chapter 1. Why Culturally Affirming and Meaningful Assignments Matter and the Course Design Process
Carlos Morales and Mayra Olivares-Urueta
Chapter 2. What Makes Assignments Culturally Affirming?
Adrian D. Martin
Chapter 3. What Makes Assignments Meaningful?
Bridget Arend and Erika R. Carlson
Chapter 4. Getting to Know Your Students: A First Step in Creating Culturally Affirming and Meaningful Assignments
Shantell Strickland-Davis and Jairo McMican
Chapter 5. Exploring Assignment Options Beyond the Exam
James K. Winfield
Chapter 6. Giving Choice in Assignments
Myra J. George and Jennifer Thompson
Chapter 7. Being Transparent about Assignment Expectations
Ellen Wasserman and Tadé Ayeni
Chapter 8. Providing Assignment Support and Feedback
M. Geneva Murray and Robert Scafe
Appendix: Assignment Examples from the Field
Biography
Christine Harrington is a professor in the Department of Advanced Studies, Leadership, and Policy at Morgan State University. As an expert in teaching and learning and student success, she has authored numerous acclaimed books and is frequently invited to present at colleges and universities.
This book helps instructors get down to business, truly operationalizing inclusive teaching. Building on foundational pedagogical pillars, chapters infuse cultural sensitivity into tried-and-true methods while pushing educators to consider novel equitable alternatives. A bounty of pragmatic solutions to meet a long-standing need.
Regan A. R. Gurung, Associate Vice Provost and Executive Director, Center for Teaching and Learning, Oregon State University
This edited volume is highly practical, focused, and valuable for today’s equity-minded educators. Establishing a definition and the importance of culturally affirming and meaningful assignments, this collection provides specific guidelines for creating these tasks with discipline-specific and discipline-agnostic examples.
Flower Darby, Associate Director of the Teaching for Learning Center, University of Missouri
From beginning to end, this book centers students and their lived experiences as a necessary component for student success. The authors do an excellent job of providing readers with research, resources, and guidance to incorporate their students’ experiences into the classroom through culturally affirming assignments.
Paul Hernandez, Senior Advisor to the President at Achieving the Dream
This book is an excellent teaching resource for new and seasoned faculty who want to engage their students through inclusive assignments. Faculty will find the numerous practical strategies and assignment examples helpful in this must-have resource as they develop their assignments.
Linda Garcia, Executive Director of the Center for Community College Student Engagement (CCSSE) at the University of Texas at Austin
This book focuses on what students want—and deserve: meaningful assignments that are inclusive of the range of experiences and backgrounds they bring to a course. Instructors are eager for guidance on examining and creating such assignments. This is the book we need for engaging in this important work.
Ellen Hernandez, Retired English Professor, Camden County College
