Planning Your Implementation

Representation is a lens that can be applied to any social identity (race, gender, sexual orientation, ability, etc.)  Most URC users choose one identity on which to focus, and we have found that choosing a focus that matches your context is important. Depending on what aspect(s) of social identity and injustice you want to address in your implementation, you might look at different demographic data. 

Does the demographic makeup of your class or school make one identity or another more relevant? Are there topics in the news or your community that feel timely or necessary to address in your classroom? Are there social identities that you feel particularly motivated or able to facilitate discussions around? If you are not sure where to start, you might want to check out our articulation of Why This Is Important.

The number of lessons that you bring into your implementation depends strongly on your timeline.  Instructors will often shorten other topics slightly to make room for these lessons. We as instructors seldom have time to cover all of the nuances of a particular topic during a course. Fitting these lessons into the course can affect a larger cultural change – and students can always learn about a particular topic (e.g. circular motion or fluids) in more depth later as needed. Once you’ve chosen your timeframe (one day to several weeks!), take a look at the estimating times on each of the lesson plans. The lesson plans are  organized around ideas and not precisely whole class periods, so some instructors find that they can combine multiple lesson plans in a single period. 

Teaching the URC requires establishing a good rapport with and between your students.  Many instructors wait until they have established a classroom community (towards the end of first semester or in the second quarter) that allows students to be honest and vulnerable.

One of the organizational pieces to consider prior to teaching the URC is how much agency you give to your students during both the planning phase and within the conversations themselves. Can students choose the topics to discuss or will you choose them? Will you want your students to facilitate and/or lead the discussion in class? Would you like to use student-led or instructor-led action plans?

Social justice belongs in STEM classes, but because it’s not (yet) common some pre-work may be necessary. What your community – your students, your families, your administration, etc. – needs varies widely from context to context, but we encourage instructors to consider this question before jumping in. Who do you need to get support from ahead of time? How can you help them see the value in what you’re planning to do? Negative responses to the URC have been rare, but this preparation can not only mute that but amplify positive ones. You may find some of the resources below useful at this stage, including Why This Work Is Important and Working with Skeptics.

What steps can you take to encourage students to listen to one another? To engage in difficult conversations? To respond bravely and respectfully? (And what steps have you already taken in your class that you can build on?). To help you in this effort, we’ve developed a Thinking about Facilitating Page devoted to thinking about facilitating conversation around equity and social justice. Like any skill, facilitating these conversations takes practice. With time however, you will get better, and you’ve got a dedicated community of fellow instructors with which to collaborate. 

You should now have access to the online community of instructors doing this work. Don’t be shy – post your questions and thoughts to the Slack group!