Date:
Location:
Friday, February 8, 2019 11:00am-1:00pm
Friday, March 1, 2019 11:00am-1:00pm
This seminar explores ways in which faculty can make their courses welcoming to low-income and first-generation students. Rather than thinking about how to “acclimatize” students to the specific culture of Harvard, this two-part seminar asks how Harvard can remake its own pedagogical culture to foster a better learning environment for all students, in keeping with the recommendations set forth in the Spring 2018 report from the Presidential Task Force on Inclusion and Belonging. We will discuss issues such as syllabus design, scheduling, cost of textbooks and course materials, out-of-classroom assignments and expectations, and Harvard culture more generally.
The seminar will meet twice for two hours over lunch. During these meetings we will review personal reflections from Harvard undergraduates about their experiences at the college and discuss relevant strategies employed by peer institutions to address the concerns they raise. Our goal is to produce an “effective practices” document for faculty college-wide, to ensure that Harvard classrooms are a space for low-income and first-generation students to thrive.
Led By:
Linda Schlossberg (Bok Center Faculty Fellow; Assistant Director of Undergraduate Studies, WGS; Lecturer on Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality)