Office of the Provost

Butler Faculty Development
Summer Workshop 2011

Teaching Multiculturally logoTeaching Multiculturally

"Education...should cultivate the factual and imaginative prerequisites for recognizing humanity in the stranger and the other...(I)gnorance and distance cramp the consciousness."
Martha C. Nussbaum, For Love of Country: Debating the Limits of Patriotism

Students and faculty enter the classroom with backgrounds and experiences that are influenced by their social identities, including race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, religion, socioeconomic class, and ability.  But just how do faculty and student identities affect learning in the classroom?  And how can these various backgrounds and experiences help enhance the learning process?  This summer workshop offers faculty an opportunity to engage in substantive conversation with colleagues about teaching, with a specific focus on teaching multiculturally.  As we welcome students from Shortridge Magnet High School for Law and Public Policy into our academic community in Fall 2011, this workshop invites all tenure-line and full-time continuing appointment faculty to come together to consider how we can best teach and learn in our increasingly global and diverse world.

  • What do our students need to know in order to succeed in a culturally diverse world?
  • What do we need to do to be and continue to be culturally competent teachers?
  • What are we already doing well to prepare our students for living in a culturally diverse world?
  • What can we do better to enhance our own pedagogy?
  • What do we believe it means to "teach well" in diverse classrooms?
  • What do we need to do individually and institutionally to teach multi-culturally?
  • What can we contribute to resources on multicultural teaching?

Schedule: May 16 and 17 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. and May 18 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.

The first day will allow faculty to participate in a full-day workshop led by Dr. Tim Wise and Dr. David Stovall, exploring what it means to be teachers who are multi-culturally competent and attuned to students' diversity of backgrounds and experiences.  The second day will include focused discussion among participants about their own teaching at Butler, with time to work on specific courses, assignments, projects, or in-class exercises that reflect multicultural competence.  The workshop concludes with continuing conversations and presentations of individual work on courses, assignments, projects, or in-class exercises.

To Apply:

The application form can be found by clicking here.

Participants will receive $250 as a stipend OR as course development funds to enable you to implement multicultural teaching ideas in your courses, assignments, projects, or in-class exercises*.  Readings and resources to enhance your teaching, and lunch and refreshments will be provided.

Application deadline: March 31, 2011.