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About the Center for Multicultural Education

The Center for Multicultural Education was established in 2005 and serves as the institutional Center for multicultural teaching, scholarship, and learning at Edgewood College. The Center for Multicultural Education was also the institutional home to the Ethnic Studies Program until 2018. The center is directed by a full-time director with support from a program coordinator and an advisory board. 

Mission

The mission of Edgewood College’s Center for Multicultural Education (CME) is to promote inclusive college teaching practices that create meaningful learning opportunities for students. By collectively and collaboratively engaging members of the Edgewood community toward becoming more effective teachers, the Center supports the educational mission of the college and enhances the learning experiences of its students.

The Center for Multicultural Education offers programs and services in four primary and overlapping areas that advance our mission:

  • Provide opportunities to develop and refine teaching skills through workshops, seminars, and individual/department level consultations;
  • Consult with educators as they adopt and evaluate new teaching practices as part of their continuing faculty development;
  • Foster campus conversations on equity, diversity, and inclusive teaching and learning that are informed by national and international higher education developments, as well as local issues and priorities; and
  • Identify, share, and advocate for research-based practices in college teaching and the resources that support them.

Our offerings are available to any members of the Edgewood community interested in developing their teaching practices.

Vision

The CME’s work is guided by the knowledge that teaching is a scholarly pursuit that can be developed over time. Educators of all experience levels can grow as teachers continue to refine their pedagogy.  Since each teaching situation is unique, there is no one right way to teach. The choices we make as teachers and the instructional approaches we use should be guided by our pedagogical goals, reflect our particular teaching contexts (content, students, environment), and be informed by the literature on teaching and learning.

The Center aims to promote effective teaching through a variety of complementary processes.  

  • We draw on and contribute to the body of scholarship on inclusive teaching and learning.  
  • We promote deep understanding of educational processes by helping others critically reflect on their own teaching and their students’ learning.  
  • We foster communities of teachers at Edgewood so that members of these communities can learn from and support each other’s teaching experiences.  
  • And, in collaboration with a network of partners across the campus, we foster institutional structures and resources that support effective teaching at Edgewood.

Inclusive Teaching

Grounded in educational research literature on diversity, equity, and inclusion—CME defines inclusive teaching as but not limited to the following: 

Inclusive teaching involves intentionally creating a learning environment where all students are treated equitably, have access to opportunities to learn, and feel a sense of value, support and belonging. Inclusive pedagogy means valuing the social identities and actively working to disrupt the ways in which system inequities shape what we teach, how we teach, and the ways in which we interact in teaching-learning spaces. CME defines inclusivity as including students of color, international students, first generation college students, undocumented students, students from low socioeconomic backgrounds, students with disabilities, LGBTQ+ students, transgender and gender nonconforming students, introverts, students experiencing emotional and mental health issues, students who practice a religious or spiritual tradition, students whose first language is something other than English—the center’s position on inclusivity is a recognition of the multiple ways in which students’ self-identify and the various ways in which such identities intersect to create lived experiences and realities. 

(Adapted from the University of Michigan)

Confidentiality Policy

The Center for Multicultural Education is a college-wide resource for the Edgewood teaching community. Our goals are to promote inclusive excellence in teaching through dialogue, inquiry, and scholarship, and to offer faculty formative feedback and an opportunity for reflection on their teaching practice. In order to fulfill these goals, the Center commits to offering a trustworthy environment to those it serves, and thus has established the following policies. These polices were created by the Center’s advisory board with representation from all of Edgewood, and are aligned with the Ethical Guidelines for Educational Developers developed by the national POD Network in Higher Education. Please address any questions or concerns to the Center’s director.

CME Advisory Board

The Faculty, Staff, Student Advisory Board of the Center of Multicultural Education (CRT) is responsible for advising the Director on policies and activities that enable CME to fulfill its mission. Important issues include, but are not limited to, program and research objectives and priorities, resource procurement and allocation, and inter-college relations. Members of the Advisory play key role as liaisons between the Center and the rest of the College community. The Advisory Board typical meets once a month during the academic year.