Facilitators

Dr. Raquel Robvias, Louisiana State University (Thursday, September 9, 1:30 – 2:30 pm CST)

Dr. Ann Etta Green St. Joseph’s University (Thursday, September 9, 3:00 – 4:00 pm CST)

Notetakers 

Justiss Burry, University of South Florida

Madison Krall, University of Utah

Hub Description

As we contemplate this year’s theme —  “(Re-)Invention” — as an invitation for RHM to deeply reflect and deliberately act toward redressing social injustices, one space where we can have a significant and lasting impact is in our classrooms. Particularly after living through a global pandemic, which catalyzed substantial changes in our courses and pedagogies, we wanted to ensure we devoted space at this year’s symposium for us to unite as teachers to discuss pressing issues, share innovative ideas, and raise questions about the future of RHM courses, pedagogies, and curriculums.

Generative questions

• What innovative, exciting, or experimental approaches are you currently using in your teaching related to RHM? 
• How can we ensure diverse, anti-racist, accessible, and socially just curricula in RHM courses? 
• How can we build support networks for our community as teachers and pedagogues? How might we become a more welcoming and safe, and brave community for diverse teacher-scholars? 
• How might we best support our students as they learn about RHM, engage in RHM research, and/or work toward being health and medical-related careers as RHM researchers or teachers, industry leaders, healthcare providers, etc.?
• What might/should the primary outcomes for RHM course(s) and program(s) be? How might/should RHM courses advance our social justice, anti-racist, and inclusive commitments as a field? 
• How might/should we frame the importance of our courses for various stakeholders — students, departmental colleagues/leaders, community partners, etc.? 

Discussion Hub Synthesis

Keywords: pedagogy, critical race theory, diversity, social justice, anti-racism, in flux, flexibility, hybridity, inclusivity

Main Takeaways

• Acknowledge explicitly the contributions that students are making in our courses. 
• Enacting social justice in our teaching can happen on multiple levels. A few key levels: direct interactions with students,  in our individual courses / pedagogies, within and across programs. 
•  Work to connect the good work happening in our classrooms back to programmatic levels. How can we translate our work as individual teachers/activists/advocates into broader programmatic commitments and goals? 

Developing Courses & Managing Classrooms 

• Remember the contexts in which we are teaching and engaging students — racial contexts, COVID-19, local contexts. Acknowledge and discuss these contexts with students because they inform how students (and we) are showing up in our classes. 
• May be helpful to draw from institutional and organizational resources when crafting syllabus language about DEI commitments and practices. E.g. Offices of Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion, Disability Resource Centers, RHM, ARSTM, ATTW, and NCTE are good starting places. 
• Consider including Land Acknowledgements in your syllabus and learn about the land history at your institution so you can meaningfully, respectfully, and responsibly discuss with students 
• Include diverse perspectives and voices in course readings, examples, case studies, and even the images you use in your course. 
  • As teacher-scholars, we should be reading, citing, and amplifying published scholarship in the field about anti-racism and work published by BIPOC and minoritized scholars. 
• Pay attention to silence in the classroom; it can be a defense mechanism. We should be working to encourage a classroom that is open to all perspectives.

Supporting Students 

• Key is to care about students and issues they also face – whether it’s required in a particular department or not. 
• Ask students about what knowledge they bring to our courses and be responsive to their prior knowledge, experience, language practices/skills, and cultural backgrounds that they bring to the class, which may include being collaborative and flexible/letting students guide us as teachers 
  • A pre-class survey can be one tool to get to know students better and adapt to your students
  • Acknowledging student contributions is one way to destabilize the power structures in our classes and value our students’ knowledge, interests, and goals 
• Sometimes the content we explore in RHM-related classes can be triggering for students; we should do our best to anticipate and warn students when we can so they can take care of themselves
• Invite student feedback and work to be responsive to it throughout the semester 
• Advocate and amplify students in our classes and in our programs more broadly (e.g. are diverse students being acknowledged in departmental awards? How is your program supporting diverse students in pursuing internships?) 
• Help students make connections from classroom knowledge to beyond the academy — case studies, internships, collaborate with local organizations for learning opportunities in our classes

Designing & Overseeing Programs 

• Review what theories and “core” teachings are in our undergraduate and graduate programs — what kinds of knowledge is being centered as most valuable? What kinds of voices are deemed the most important? 
  • Invite students to consider what makes a respectable scholar or respectable scholarship? 
• We should continue to review the anti-racist and DEI-related policies and practices we are putting into place.

Key Resources 

• Molloy, C., Scott, J. B., & Melonçon, L. (2021). Ruminations on the long haul: Harnessing RHM’s hybridity. Rhetoric of Health & Medicine, 4(1), iii-ix.
• An Anti-Racist Agenda in Medicine
• Kenzie, D., & McCall, M. (2018). Teaching writing for the health professions: Disciplinary intersections and pedagogical practice. Technical Communication Quarterly, 27(1), 64-79.
• Theresa Brown, Critical Care: A nurse faces death, life, and everything in between
• Anne Fadiman, The spirit catches you and you fall down.
•  AAUP professional liability program 
• Resource for real-world case studies/examples: https://www.askamanager.org/2018/04/intervening-with-a-bullying-coworker-my-colleague-runs-a-snack-shop-from-her-desk-and-more.html
• Eli review — essentially a sophisticated peer review software system. 
  • It claims to be ABA certified to help with accommodations.
  • It is a paid subscription though, but you can convince your department folks/higher administration to get the program if you use your rhetoric.

Future Directions

• Are you drawing from different wells of knowledge? Are you citing new sources?
• What publics are you engaging?
• Are you an activist or are you a sideliner?
• How in your work and your classroom are you emulating what the article invites us to do?
• How are you resisting this academic stodginess (whatever that looks like in your part of the country/your lives)?
• How are you creating/welcoming hybridity?
• What is the hardest stumbling block when discussing race in our particular situations (considering COVID is still rampant)?