PANEL/ROUNDTABLE: Compassion and Accountability for Inclusive Excellence (90 min)

Abstract

Over the past year, students and instructors have faced unprecedented challenges related to the global pandemic, political unrest, and natural disasters—many of which are rooted in long histories of injustice that will continue to raise challenges for the foreseeable future. Moreover, even in the best of times students and instructors regularly face personal challenges that are just as stressful as those that are publicly shared. Such circumstances call for pedagogical practices that are compassionate towards both instructors and students, yet still compatible with holding ourselves and our students accountable to high standards of inclusive excellence. In this panel discussion, we will share our own journeys towards compassion and accountability, solicit participants’ experiences, and brainstorm together how best to achieve both going forward. Participants will leave with a comprehensive list of compassionate practices to consider, in-depth understanding of accountability concerns and how they might be creatively addressed, a department-level model of instructor peer support, and individualized peer feedback on the specific practices they are considering integrating into their pedagogy.