What We Owe

The What We Owe Initiative reframes the so-called “achievement gap” in urban education as the educational debt owed by all of us. According to Gloria Ladson-Billings, the term “racial achievement gap” unfairly constructs students as “defective and lacking” and “admonishes them that they need to catch up.” Listen to Ladson-Billings’ speech on educational debt here.

As part of the What We Owe Initiative, we have created The Inclusive Teaching Resource Network. As part of the College of Arts and Letters initiative to make classrooms more inclusive and to increase retention for  historically under-represented students, CAITLAH – the College’s Center for Applied Inclusive Teaching and Learning in Arts & Humanities – has created a resource site for teachers.

Here you’ll find a comprehensive annotated bibliography with resources for teaching across difference.

You’ll also find a set of effective practices that fall into several major categories: Culturally Responsive Pedagogy, Dialogic Teaching, Reflective Practice, Assessment, and Multimodality/Multiple Learning Styles. Each entry contains background information, multimedia resources, and additional reading.

Also, because there are exemplary and helpful programs at MSU and elsewhere, we’ve provided a list of other inclusive spaces and places.