Is rigor necessary to teach more inclusively? What is a deficit ideology and how does it affect students? In this episode, Jamiella Brooks, director of student equity and inclusion initiatives at the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School, and Julie McGurk, director of faculty teaching initiatives at Yale University’s Poorvu Center for Teaching and Learning, answer these questions, and discuss three principles that instructors can use to reframe their thinking about rigor.

This discussion stems from a session hosted by Drs. Brooks and McGurk, “Rigor as Inclusive Practice: Beyond Deficit Models,” presented at the Fall 2021 POD Network conference. This session was also written about in the Chronicle of Higher Education article, “The Redefinition of Rigor” (March 2022). 

Note: at the time of recording, Jamiella Brooks served as an Associate Director of the Center for Teaching and Learning at the University of Pennsylvania.

Resources:

• “10 Dysfunctional Illusions of Rigor.” To Improve the Academy (2010). Craig E. Nelson. Volume 28, 2010. 
• “Readers Respond on Rigor” (February 2022). Matt Reed in “Confessions of a Community College Dean,” Inside Higher Ed. 
• The work of Uri Treisman, executive director of the Charles A. Dana Center, The University of Texas at Austin 
• Transparency in Learning and Teaching in Higher Education (TILT)