Rigor as Inclusive Practice

Do you worry that you need to forfeit rigor to create an inclusive learning environment? Evidence suggests that true inclusion necessitates rigor to empower all of our students to grow, build on their strengths, and learn.

Incorrect assumptions that rigor and inclusion are in opposition lead to teaching practices that are neither inclusive nor equitable and further contribute to unnecessary stress.

This interactive workshop will illuminate the ways that the term "rigor" is often misused or misunderstood, and will guide participants to a more inclusive, substantive, (and dare we say, more rigorous!) enactment of rigor in their teaching.

All are welcome to attend!

This event is hosted by the MIT Teaching + Learning Lab

About the Speakers

Jamiella Brooks, Ph.D. brings over 10 years of professional experience at the intersection of higher education and advancing diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice through training, outreach, scholarship programs, and affinity groups. Currently, she is the Director of Student Equity & Inclusion Initiatives at the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School. Jamiella earned her Ph.D. in French Literature at University of California, Davis and has served as a Fulbright Teaching Assistant in France, and was a scholar in both McNair and Mellon Fellows programs.

She is the author of several articles, including "Dissertating While Parenting: Not a Contradiction" “Academia as Violence,” in the 2020 second edition of Presumed Incompetent: Race, Class, Power, and Resistance of Women in Academia and an article in Faculty Focus, "A Call to Interrogate Educational Development for Racism and Colonization."

Julie McGurk, Ph.D. is currently the Director of Faculty Teaching Initiatives at Yale Universitywhere she consults with faculty and runs various teaching workshops in collaboration with the rest of the Faculty Teaching Initiatives team. She is a Neuroscientist by training, with a B.S. from the University of Pittsburgh and a Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University. As a postdoc at the University of Pennsylvania, Julie taught at Rutgers-Camden through the PennPORT program, a program dedicated to promoting diversity and inclusion in STEM through teaching. Julie then worked at the University of Pennsylvania’s Center for Teaching and Learning for 9 years, where she taught large lecture, small active learning, and online courses.