Equity-Minded Pedagogy Spring 2025 supported by Center for Teaching & Learning at Sacramento & the Chancellor's Office.

Equity-Minded Pedagogy | Liz Vukelich

Ceramics, Active Learning, Student Group Contracts

Reflection on Instructional Change:

Asking students the right questions can make such a huge difference in how they navigate the course. We know what it looks like to teach a course, but to take a course is a totally different experience. For example, when my students were having trouble remembering to do their sketchbook assignments I asked them why. They told me that it would help them out tremendously to have them on Canvas with a due date so that it showed up in their lists of tasks. This is something I never would have thought of on my own. Going forward, I want to ask them even more questions, and collaborate with my students on policies of the classroom. Or even instead of policies, have agreements. For example, the first semester I taught I had a very lenient attendance policy and this semester I have a more strict attendance policy. Attendance has been similar both semesters and now, if I follow my own syllabus I have to take off a bunch of points for people being absent or late. Instead, the next semester that I teach, I want to ask my students what they think and come up with a policy together.

I think I was on the wrong dashboard for the original assignment but was able to access helpful data later from https://csusuccess.dashboards.calstate.edu. I would like to speak to a data point that I found later on at https://www.csus.edu/president/institutional-research-effectiveness-planning/dashboards/faculty-staff-hr.html. In the art department specifically, the demographics of the professors do not match the demographics of the students. Out of thirty-three faculty members, twenty-four are white, including me (72.7%). The rest of the breakdown is three Pacific Islander faculty (9.1%), two other/unreported (6.1%), two multiracial (6.1%), and two Latino professors (6.1%). The student demographics are 36% Hispanic, 25% White, 19% Asian American, 6% African American, 6% other/multiracial, 1% Pacific Islander and >1% First Nations. This math does not add up to reflecting our students’ identities very well or making them feel welcome and safe. Representation really does matter! Something else I’ve noticed in the data here is how much work goes to “part-time” instructors who are lecturers. Over half the faculty members are part-time, and I wonder if that has an impact on student success. I know that lecturers care (a lot! I am one and I put way more time than I am paid for into teaching) but the financial reality of needing to have multiple streams of income sometimes to make teaching work may contribute to some students who need more resources from faculty missing an opportunity to be connected with those resources. Interestingly, our campus is a little different than the broader demographics of the Sacramento area. According to the census, white people make up 40.9% of people, Black people are 10.8% of the population, 1.6% are First Nations, and Hispanic people make up 24.5% of the population.

I originally wrote about D/F/W rates in my department (art) and found that art history courses have a much higher DFW rate than studio classes. I wondered if it was partly because of class size. In a lecture-style classroom it can be hard to catch someone failing before they do because class sizes are so large. In contrast, a studio class usually caps at twenty people. This feels like a lot for a studio class, but it’s easier to get to know and keep track of 60-70 students than it is in a lecture hall where you could have hundreds. I would be curious about the DFW rate with schools like small liberal arts colleges that have smaller class sizes for more types of instruction and see if their DFW rate is smaller because of that fact. Smaller class sizes being linked to better learning outcomes isn’t exactly rocket science but it certainly sounds helpful. Having personalized instruction and building a sense of community in the classroom also helps lower DFW rates too. People who feel a sense of belonging in their classrooms do better academically, so anything we can do to improve that sense of belonging should help lower DFW rates.
I did the alternate assignments on each of these because of time constraints but my students do talk to me about their struggles. I haven’t had a formal interview with them but can still speak to what I have learned this semester. This sounds really obvious, and is, but it is really hard to make it to class (let alone do the work expected/required outside of class) when students have to work a job. My students are often working twenty to forty hours a week on top of going to school full-time and they just do not have as much capacity for learning and work as people who do not have to work. I see more financially privileged students finish assignments early sometimes and go on to make extra things, and students that work forty hours struggle to make it to class at all. I do not know how to fix this except with a complete overhaul of our country’s financial system, a higher minimum wage/higher wages overall, more affordable tuition, and more affordable student housing. There are some things I can do, like have flexible assignment dates and not penalize people for turning in late work and offering a lot of guided in-class work time.
I had a difficult time keeping up with this class because it was on Zoom and there are so many of us! What helped me learn the most was when the material felt like it connected to my campus, so the breakout rooms were extremely helpful as far as connecting me to the course material and I wish we had had more small group activities and perhaps even small group meet ups! As far as the learning activities go, I really learned a lot from the syllabus rubric and will keep that in my pocket for the next class I teach. Each time I rewrite my syllabus, I want to tackle another section to make the language more human, more reflective of who I am as an insructor, more inclusive, and more kind. The syllabus rubric and the module where we learned about the purpose of a syllabus being an extension of us as faculty members in the classroom instead of a protective document for the faculty member or contract was really transformative. Currently, the syllabus I have doesn’t reflect how I teach at all! I loved all the suggestions in both the rubric itself and the Zoom where William discussed how to improve our syllabi. I am excited to introduce my class more accurately with a syllabus that has personality, quotes from students, and collaborative agreements instead of punitive policies.

**Faculty Bio**
Faculty Picture	About Me
Liz Vukelich	Liz Vukelich received an MFA from Alfred University and a BA from Mary Baldwin College. She makes work for ritual, performance, and interaction. These participatory works explore our connections with each other as well as give us ceremonial ways to process grief. She currently teaches ceramics at Sacramento State University.

**This work was supported by:**
Projects	Logos
National Science Foundation Hispanic Serving Institution Project STEM Zone DUE 1832335 US Department of Education Hispanic Serving Institution Project Degree with a Purpose P031S210061 US Department of Education Hispanic Serving Institution Project STEM4Equity P031C210012 *Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation or the US Department of Education.