Empowering Educators: Strategies for Creating Inclusive Environments and Student Success Across Diverse Populations (Community College of Denver)

Students perform best when they feel safe to be their full selves and to voice opinions, thoughts, or ideas in a collaborative atmosphere. An important part of providing an effective learning environment is valuing diversity, equity, and inclusion. Students who can be their whole selves can exhibit their race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, background, family status, and any other part of their identity without judgment. Intertwining psychological safety with diversity and inclusion allows students to feel safe being themselves since their diversity is welcomed. This workshop equips educators with communication tools and strategies that can create inclusive environments and psychological safety for a diverse population of students to support their success in the classroom.

By the end of this workshop, participants know or be able to:

• Help students be their whole selves so they can exhibit all parts of their identity without judgment.
• Celebrate, value, and respect others’ diversity to foster a more positive, open-minded, and better-performing learning environment.
• Have authentic, trust-building, and courageous conversations while facing some of the challenges that can arise when people with different backgrounds and life experiences interact with one another and attempt to connect across their differences.
• Make the learning atmosphere as humane and approachable as possible.

Plans for Audience Participation and Interaction:

Audience participation involves skill drills for each of the above learning outcome. Videos are used to support learning objectives, and roleplaying in dyads is also used so participants can practice their new skills.

All workshop participants can obtain, at no additional cost:

• A digital badge and certificate that provide a web-enabled, verifiable documentation of your professional learning experience.
• CEUs, which are awarded by passing the post-workshop learning assessment with a score of 80% or better.