Utilizing Inclusive and Affirming Language

A culturally competent community member will recognize and understand the impact and influence of language in community interactions. This includes engaging others with responsiveness and sensitivity.

Terence - Confronting with Vulnerability

Terence is having a cup of coffee and reading a book at a local cafe when he overhears two fellow patrons at another table using anti-Semitic remarks in conversation with one another. Terence immediately recognizes their language as offensive and marginalizing. He is uncomfortable and anxious about their conversation and ambivalent about whether he should say or do anything to interrupt it.

Amanda and Christine – Broaching Difficult Dialogue

Amanda and Christine are volunteer coordinators for a youth mentorship program focused on community engagement and academic success. Amanda and Christine are responsible for supervising more than 20 mentors and providing on-site support during the weekly “study tables” event. During study tables, Christine becomes visibly irritated as she watches one of her mentors engage in conversation with their mentee. The mentor, who identifies as Saudi Arabian, is speaking in Arabic to their mentee who is from the same region of the world. At first, Christine winces and huffs.

Lola and the Student Health Services Information Technology Team – Anticipating Faults

Lola, an undergraduate intern working with the information technology unit of Student Health Services, is granted time at a team-wide staff meeting to share her proposal for changes to the group’s operating procedures. Lola contends that a long-running auto-population function for their client ticketing system, which automatically imports names and gender pronouns from Banner into the client response emails and team communication, is problematic and potentially marginalizing to users.

Claudio and the College of Forestry Lab Directors – Initiating Culture Change

Claudio is new to his role as Dean of the College of Forestry. Early in his service, Claudio was inundated with emails, personal testimonies, and reports about the adverse conditions for women in the college’s research labs. Women’s participation in the college at all levels – undergraduates, graduates, staff and faculty – is below the institutional average, and the results of their climate surveys corroborate adverse conditions for women in teaching, service and research. The research labs, which are the cornerstone of the college, are uniquely inhospitable.

Hui and Lane – Leveraging Resources

Hui is a full professor in physics currently teaching the first-year introductory course for physics majors. Hui’s course takes place in a moderate-size lecture hall and enrolls 75 students. Hui knows many students by name, but not all. He is familiar enough with his students to recognize their faces and is comfortable asking for their names when he does not recall.

Ron – Setting Expectations, Together

Ron is an associate professor of art history preparing to teach a new course on the imagery and aesthetic of the Arab Spring. As the course approaches, he is mindful about sustaining an affirming an inclusive learning environment while exploring content that may invoke politicized and controversial conversation. Ron consults with a colleague about setting norms and tone for the class, and his peer advises that he have a robust conversation with his class early in the course about appropriate use of language.

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