Educational Justice Resources

Students cited emotional stress, health concerns, and financial worries as some of the biggest barriers to staying in college during the pandemic, according to a new report on a survey by the Lumina Foundation and Gallup. Even among students who persisted, more than one-third of those seeking bachelor’s degrees and 40 percent of those seeking associate degrees reported that it was difficult to stay enrolled in the 2021-22 academic year.

Professors are reporting record numbers of students checked out, stressed out, and unsure of their future.

Describes how one professor designed an assignment for students to share ideas on helping deal with disengagement in class, and learn
about another instructor’s prompt to get students talking about their own experiences with disconnection.

Six ways that faculty members can better support students without exhausting ourselves in the effort.

Pronouncing a student’s name correctly is the first of many steps in creating an inclusive classroom. Getting a student’s name wrong, or not attempting to pronounce it correctly, can be a microaggression. Here’s a primer on saying names right the first time. ---
--- Many people have begun to use technology to proactively help people learn their names. Apps like "Namedrop" and "NameCoach" let them embed recordings of their name into their email signatures and even share a bit of background about their name.

Evans disagrees with the interpretation that students’ ability to remember and meet deadlines demonstrates organizational aptitude. Instead, he thinks, “a lot of the students meeting the deadlines without assistance aren’t especially organized, either — they just have fewer concerns in their life” like family and work responsibilities. It’s not about whether students are organized, in other words. It’s about how much they have to organize. If that’s the real difference between meeting and missing deadlines, then sending reminders is a step toward improving equity.

Hodge says her work will have to extend beyond the walls of the library to have a real impact. The systemic exclusion of students of color, LGBTQ students, and students with disabilities is ingrained in higher education, she says. Librarians aren’t necessarily trying to exclude a certain group, but some practices — like library fines — can sometimes have a disproportionate impact on less-advantaged groups.