Cecelia, an instructor in biology, is interested in reimagining her anatomy and physiology curriculum to be more engaging and relevant for students of color. She is aware of instructors in liberal arts who integrate social and political issues into their curriculum to improve engagement and participation – but she is unclear of what a similar practice for biology would be.
Cecelia consults with her colleagues, both in and out of the biology department, to explore places in the curriculum where social and political issues may have explicit and direct connection to the core content and established learning objectives for the course.
Cecilia finds a connection in her unit on the brain and memory. She identifies the Harvard Implicit Bias Test as an opportunity to connect anatomy with an exploration of how race, class and gender socialization gets soft-wired into conscious and unconscious, which results in flash reactions and dispositions towards different social groups. When facilitating the unit, Cecilia asks students to complete the bias test. In addition to clarifying their understanding of core concepts, she facilitates connection between the content and her students’ future work in care professions or medical and human services industries.
- The Issue: Cecelia is looking to reimagine her curriculum, to integrate her core content with social and political issues to create a more engaging learning experience but is unclear of what such an integration could look like.
- The Deliberation: Cecelia looks for support inside and outside of her discipline and finds a social science perspective on bias and stereotypes to connect to her unit on memory.
- The Growth: Cecelia confirms that integration of social and political issues in the core curriculum are possible, and that biology learning outcomes can co-occur with learning related to socialization.