“In-Between” faculty and student: Inclusive teaching perspectives from a graduate student mentor

Abstract

Scholarship on how diverse student populations succeed in college have demonstrated the importance of university conditions that “engage students’ cultural communities, backgrounds, and identities” (Museus, 2014; Museus et al., 2018). As a graduate student mentor who occupies a liminal social position “in-between” faculty and undergraduate student, I learned to create an inclusive learning environment within my two institutional positions to foster students’ active learning and sense of belonging. First, I serve as a Graduate Student Supervisor in my department’s Undergraduate Research Apprenticeship Program, in which I conduct my dissertation fieldwork collaboratively with my team of multidisciplinary research assistants. Second, I work as a Graduate Writing Consultant in my university’s writing center, where I co-founded our center’s partnership with a campus cultural community center to support graduate students’ academic, professional, and social/emotional wellbeing. As a peer mentor to graduate students and research supervisor to undergraduates, I discuss how I have learned to adapt assignments and materials in extracurricular learning programs and academic tutoring. These strategies are applicable to courses and campus academic services. The goal is to listen to individual student needs and act on those needs to adapt individual assignments and group lesson materials, such that students can practice writing about the intersections of their research interests, community engagement, and personal identities. I plan on continue adapting my research task assignments and writing workshops to ensure all students feel they belong in the research team and at the writing center. Furthermore, I am inspired to work in higher education after my PhD to consider policy and curricula changes that will scale up these learning opportunities for equal access to success.