In this workshop, we introduce the philosophy of Deep Teaching as a re-engagement of a Freirean approach to teaching, where an understanding of self and students are critical to the nature and structure of curriculum design. We will engage activities that elucidate the nature of diverse privileges, and guide participants through the thought process of inclusive approaches that are applicable for their circumstances.

Our expectation is not that participants leave our workshop exhibiting full cultural competency. Rather, our hope is that individuals engage in enough introspection, and are provided with enough specific tools that will support a post-workshop journey toward inclusive approaches in the classroom and beyond.

The workshop will be structured around a ‘Deep Teaching’ model, an approach that prioritizes the need to understand self and student. We use ‘deep’ in the sense that our teaching, much like the learning we expect of our students, should move beyond surface approaches, and be characterized by constant self-reflection and emphasis on relationships. We will spend the first half of the workshops unpacking the social context of the human and academic experience in the United States. We will then use that unpacking to generate a conversation and associated activity on specific ways in which the STEM classroom can respond to the socio-psychological moment in which we find ourselves.

Participants can expect to leave the workshop having considered their pedagogy in a different social light, and with some tools, and a pathway for future approaches to the classroom experience.