Instructor Perceptions of How Axes of Difference Meaningfully Impact Equitable Team Functioning in Higher Education

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Wednesday 4:20 pm Four Seasons Ballroom 1
  In Roundtable Session: From Access to Engagement: Designing Inclusive Learning Environments for Diverse Student Populations (Table 10)

Abstract

Collaborative team-based projects are a pedagogical cornerstone in higher education but, at the same time, can be sites of dysfunction and inequity. While the literature describes gender and race/ethnicity as salient identity characteristics in teamwork outcomes, here we sought to examine instructors’ perceptions about if and how they observed these (and potentially other) axes of difference as impacting equitable teamwork in their courses, if at all. We draw theoretical framing of equitable team behavior from a recent scoping review of how equity is conceptualized in teamwork. Based on interviews with 31 instructors, we present the results of our analysis according to the three key axes of difference discussed by instructors: gender, race/ethnicity, and national origin.

Authors

• Rebecca L. Matz, University of Michigan

• Andrew Moffat, University of Michigan

• Trevion S. Henderson, Tufts University

• Robin Fowler, University of Michigan