Discover Social and Cultural Identities of Learners

<aside> 💡 Through opportunities to contemplate, express, and share their social and cultural identities and cultural pluralism, learners will feel encouraged to share and feel a connectedness with each other through celebrating the diversity of identities represented in the class.

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Specific Techniques

• Create a safe space for sharing by setting expectations, acknowledging differences, and modeling respectful responses.
• Ask learners to share values in the co-creation of class norms.
• Provide an opening survey, questionnaire, or introduction discussion board that asks learners about career and academic aspirations, their majors, other courses they are currently taking, or interests in music, TV shows, movies, or sports.
• Create community discussion boards for learners to informally share about themselves and get to know one another.
• Ask learners to complete a project or activity, such as a Cajita project, that lets them share their culture, background, and traditions through thoughtfully selected artifacts of value to them.
• Include long-term group projects where learners can get to know their peers at a deeper level.
• Write instructions in a way that welcomes learners to share their experiences and culture.
• Demonstrate sharing through class announcements and communications and/or by posting personal examples in discussion posts or assignment instructions.
• Select icebreakers or getting-to-know-you activities that promote sharing in a safe space and in small groups.
• Select activities that provide choice, so that if desired, learners can show evidence of learning in a way that aligns with and expresses their social and cultural identities.

Overview

Discover Social and Cultural Identities of Learners is a DEI practice that affirms learners’ selves and provides a basis for social-emotional learning in an online course. Discovering learners’ social and cultural identities and incorporating what you learn from them into your instruction and assignments may help build cohesiveness, social presence, and good relationships across groups and individuals in the course.

Both learners and instructors benefit when they share experiences, values, and cultures with one another. Learners are helped by reflecting on their social and cultural identity and by hearing others’ perspectives. Recognizing and discussing backgrounds supports belonging and trust, thus increasing student motivation and participation (Eleuterio, 1997; Hoelscher, 1999, as cited in Altugana, 2015). Additionally, cultural identities can influence students' learning characteristics, such as their understanding of classroom norms or expected engagement (Hammond, 2007). Thus, instructors are helped by learning about their students’ backgrounds and identities, understanding their perspective, and incorporating that information into their instruction to help all students thrive in a course.

How to Implement the Practice

Course Modality Considerations

Asynchronous

Synchronous