Inclusion is Not a Microwavable Meal: Cooking Up Critical Embrace in Academic Communities

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Friday 8:00 am Four Seasons Ballroom 1
  In Roundtable Session: NourishRx: The Science of Food, Healing, and Renewal (Table 13)

Abstract

Too often, academic life is rife with perfunctory, quick-fix efforts at inclusion; institutional mission statements, frameworks, and policies, even with determined leadership and the noblest of intentions, often fall privy to larger, status quo ideologies, norms, cultures, policies, practices, and sociopolitical contexts. Such efforts may demand immediate results or focus on optics rather than investing in the deep, substantive work needed to foster authentic inclusion in what, how, and why we research, teach, and serve. Through a combination of theoretical insights and practical strategies, this chapter offers the concept of critical embrace to empower academics to foster, cultivate, and “cook up” more inclusive educational environments.

Author

• Dennis L. Rudnick, Metropolitan State University of Denver