Our upbringing, personal experiences, and the things we have been taught inform our actions, values, beliefs, and assumptions.  As you map out your inclusion and equity learning opportunities for the year, we have provided questions to help you examine where you have competence and/or confidence, where you are curious and where there is room for growth.  We have also included a few tools that may be useful guides.

To begin, spend time thinking about your motivations for learning.  Answering the following questions may provide useful insights as you consider the GVSU I&E Institute learning opportunities.  

• What aspects of identity/lived experience are you the most comfortable with, when you look through the lenses of race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, gender expression, class, age/generational, religion/spirituality/worldview, ability (among other aspects of identity)?

• What aspects of identity/lived experience are you the least comfortable with?  Feelings of unease or discomfort are a part of recognizing that this may be an area of growth.  Do these feelings come out of fear of making a mistake?  A curiosity?  A past misstep?  A deep desire to simply do better?  

If these wide open questions are not specific enough, you may want to look below at these “levels of understanding” to gain greater insight. 

When you think of the terminology and meaning behind words like power, privilege, oppression and intersectionality, where do you feel like you have competency?  Or more to learn?

Click here for a printable PDF of Levels of Understanding

Below is an additional resource that may be useful as you assess your current knowledge and create your own learning map for the 2022/23 academic year.

Implicit Association Test (IAT): An Implicit Association Test (IAT) is a psychological test whose objective is to reveal unconscious attitudes, automatic preferences, and hidden biases.

In conclusion, you may want to be in some learning spaces because you have expertise or insights to share. In some cases you may be familiar, but want to learn more deeply.  Or, your learning may be motivated by a knowledge gap.  We welcome you as both teacher AND learner in all of the spaces we create through the I&E Institute!