UWM has the most diverse campus in the UW System, and its guiding values include the “stewardship of resources that promote sustainability, prosperity, and equity for all in the local and global communities.” All graduate assistants can reflect those values by cultivating cultural awareness and learning more about unconscious bias.
UWM’s Equity/Diversity Services provides links to information and resources on implicit or unconscious bias that may be useful to assistants and their supervisors.
Cultural awareness is especially important for Teaching Assistants, who work so closely with members of UWM’s diverse undergraduate body. Culturally responsive pedagogy incorporates students’ cultural identities and lived experiences into the classroom in order to improve the quality of instruction. Likewise, inclusive and equity-minded teaching aims to ensure that all students, with varied social identities and differing backgrounds, are able to connect meaningfully to course content, fully participate in classes, effectively learn and demonstrate what they’re learning.
Teaching Assistants are encouraged to consult resources to ensure that cultural inclusion, responsivity, equity, and diversity are reflected in teaching materials, course structure and policies. Supervisors are also encouraged to discuss culturally sensitive teaching with their assistants before the start of the semester.
UWM’s Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning promotes inclusive and equity-minded teaching through many of its services and resources.
Additional resources at UWM include:
- Culturally relevant teaching resources for educators from the School of Education
- Resource database for antiracism research and education, including teaching materials, from the Multicultural Scholars Collaborative
- Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) statement on syllabus: Suggestions from CETL
Additional online resources include:
- “Inclusive, Culturally Relevant, and Culturally Responsive Teaching: Glossary of Key Terms” (University of Arizona Libraries)
- “Culturally Responsive & Inclusive Curriculum Resources” (Portland State University Library)
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