How to belong: Inclusive pedagogical practices for beginning instructors of economics

Abstract

The authors of this article demonstrate best practices for creating belonging in economics, which allows diverse students to feel respected and accepted within the discipline. Opportunities to connect with economics allow students to understand and be empowered by the value they add to the classroom. The suggested practices thus include providing students with ample opportunities to apply their economics knowledge to their own personal experiences and giving them the support that sustains interest in and a connection with economics. Introductory classroom practices that are most useful for new instructors of economics (Level I activities) are presented, followed by a discussion of the various ways that new instructors can build out these practices in future iterations of their courses (Level II activities).

Keywords:

• Belonging
• best practices
• marginalized students

JEL CODES:

• A2
• A22

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 See the 2020 Report of the Committee on the Status of Women in the Economics Profession found at https://www.aeaweb.org/content/file?id=13749.

2 See Appendix Table 4 in the 2020 Report of the Committee on the Status of Minority Groups in the Economics Profession found at https://www.aeaweb.org/content/file?id=13728.

3 Ibid.

4 For example, the UWE (https://scholar.harvard.edu/goldin/UWE), the EDUCATE workshop (https://www.aeaweb.org/about-aea/committees/economic-education/educate-workshop) organized by the Committee on Economic Education, the University of Chicago’s Expanding Diversity in Economics (https://bfi.uchicago.edu/ede/) undergraduate summer program, the American Economic Association’s (AEA) department seed grants (https://www.aeaweb.org/about-aea/committees/csmgep/diversity-initiatives/dept-seed-grants) for innovation in diversity and inclusion, the AEA’s best practices (https://www.aeaweb.org/resources/best-practices) for creating a more diverse and inclusive profession (Bayer et al. 2019), Research In Color (https://www.researchincolor.org/), the Sadie Collective (https://www.sadiecollective.org/), the AEA’s Committee on Equity, Diversity and Professional Conduct (https://www.aeaweb.org/about-aea/committees/equity-diversity-professional-conduct), and the Committee on the Status of the LGBTQ + Individuals in the Economics Profession (https://www.aeaweb.org/about-aea/committees/aealgbtq).

5 The ASSETS (Aspiring Scholars Studying Economics to Succeed) program was designed as a first-year learning community, where a cohort of students were concurrently enrolled in the Economics Department’s yearlong introductory sequence and the College’s yearlong first-year writing sequence. See Lopez, Ma, and Wandschneider (2023) for details on the program and its effect on student outcomes.

6 The American Economic Association compiles an extensive list of resources and best practices at Diversifying Economics Quality (https://diversifyingecon.org/).

7 The authors state that even though more women and students from underrepresented racial/ethnic groups may major in economics, in the long run, marginalized groups will continue to remain underrepresented because all students are now more likely to major in economics.

8 When evidence-based research supports our recommendations, we include references. Otherwise, our recommendations are designed based on our experience teaching at a liberal arts college or in line with the profession’s standards for best practices.

9 See links for CORE Econ capstones on the Economics of the Environment (https://www.core-econ.org/the-economy/book/text/20.html) and Economic Inequality (https://www.core-econ.org/the-economy/book/text/19.html), and Opportunity Insights course materials (https://opportunityinsights.org/course/).

10 Resources that faculty can use to introduce students to the work of economists are linked here. Diversifying Economic Quality (https://diversifyingecon.org/about/) provides videos (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/u/1/d/e/2PACX-1vRpjrg8Fzh8yeEi72asUNZbvk5Hz4I0vDKPpo6bNAk16-T6Uen0Sr-Do8f-tkorqeVYGw3CuWM7DxOo/pubhtml) in which economists discuss their research and the American Economic Association highlights (https://www.aeaweb.org/research) the work of research economists. The Washington Center for Equitable Growth’s summary of economic research on the economic impact of racial violence and exclusion in the United States can be found here (https://equitablegrowth.org/elevating-economic-research-on-racist-violence-and-exclusion-in-the-united-states/) and the list of Journal of Economic Perspectives articles can be found on the AEA Web site here (https://www.aeaweb.org/journals/jep/classroom). The Research Seminar Speaker Database (https://econspeakerdiversity.shinyapps.io/EconSpeakerDiversity/) for Marginalized Economists is an excellent tool for instructors looking to locate diverse speakers.

11 To introduce students to Stratification Economics, this short video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2fN-2rElsVo) provides a general overview of the subfield. Faculty can also rely on articles from the Journal of Economic Literature’s symposium on Race and Economic Literature (https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/jel.20211685), which includes several articles that outline the theoretical framework and predictions of SE, or a short summary of SE (https://equitablegrowth.org/stratification-economics-what-it-is-and-how-it-advances-our-understanding-of-inequality/) from the Washington Center for Equitable Growth.

12 See our discussion of long-range goals in the Level II Best Practices section for additional suggestions.

13 See https://blog.ctl.gatech.edu/2022/09/09/power-and-privilege-in-the-classroom/ for a discussion of the difference between power and privilege held by the instructor in the classroom. Power refers to the influence or authority we have over our students, while privilege is the advantage bestowed upon dominant groups by other individuals or institutions at the expense of individuals in nondominant groups. The privilege and power we hold as instructors might result in awarding students from certain groups with high grades because we assume those students are from groups most likely to succeed.

14 An introduction to, and examples for, context-rich problems can be found on Carleton’s SERC Web site: SERC: context-rich problems (https://serc.carleton.edu/sp/library/context_rich/‌what.html).

15 Resources for data-based projects can be found at CORE Econ (data-based projects) [https://www.core-econ.org/doing-economics/book/text/0-3-contents.html] and at Opportunity Insights (data assignments) [https://opportunityinsights.org/course/].

16 Resources on specifications grading (https://www.insidehighered.com/views/2016/01/19/new-ways-grade-more-effectively-essay) are linked here.

17 See the discussion “ground rules“(https://diversifyingecon.org/discussion-guidelines/).

18 See here for the SERC checklist (https://serc.carleton.edu/sp/library/service/‌econ_checklist.html) on integrating service learning.