Inclusive Practices in Accountancy: Managing the Impact of Biases

Reflection on Instructional Change:

I selected "use surveys, discussions, and meetings to get to know your students as individuals." With large classes, I often don't get to know many of my students, especially in large online courses. I think this is very unfortunate because only by getting to know the students can I fully appreciate who each student is and what they individually bring to the course. When we don't see people as individuals, it is easier to be impacted by implicit bias. Getting to know students individually also helps with building connections with students, and connection is so important to student success.

This past summer, I implemented a beginning of semester survey that offered students the opportunity to share various items with me, both professional/school related and personal. Students shared a lot, and this allowed me to begin to know the students each as individuals and see some of their individual strengths, needs, interest, challenges and goals. It also helped me identify things I had in common with students and build connections. Ultimately, I was able to help one student secure a job because of a connection we made through information shared in the survey. I had another student reach out and thank me for the survey and making the effort to get to know the students as people. I also had a lot of "small talk" items that I could use for conversation with various students during the down time on Zoom before class/on breaks, which helped me to get to know students better and build stronger connections. I once again implemented the survey this Fall, and once again I find that it is helping me get to know students in a way I might not have otherwise done. Our students are such diverse and interesting people (not just little boxes on a Zoom screen), and I think an additional benefit of implementing the surveys has been to remind me of that at the beginning of each course.

The ACUE implementation resources most influenced my changes as they provided a lot of very concrete resources in an efficient format. I found that many of the implementation resources were very manageable changes to implement in my courses, but I also thought that overall they were likely to be very beneficial changes.

My take away about my teaching and learning that I got from this session is that I am fortunate to have such a great community at Sac State that is dedicated to improving instruction and learning for our students. There are so many resources, so many individuals willing to help and provide feedback/suggestions for improvement, and so many safe opportunities to continuously improve my teaching (through CTL and otherwise). I really appreciate that faculty are so supported in their efforts to improve, and the presentations I watched during the observe and analyze session show the great benefit this provides to our students.

Evidence
Like fingerprints, each student is unique. It is important to get to know them as individuals.	This is a sample question from the student introduction survey.	I earned the "Managing the Impact of Biases" ACUE badge.

Final Reflection

My biggest take-away from the ACUE Inclusive Teaching for Equitable Learning Microcredential Course was that there are a lot of small, easy to implement actions that faculty can take that can have a large impact on creating inclusive classrooms and fostering learning environments where all students can thrive.

Faculty Biography

Evidence
	Elizabeth Lyon is an assistant Professor of Accountancy in the College of Business. Prior to joining Sac State in 2016, she taught at Washington State University and worked as general counsel for an international consumer electronics accessories company, where she handled a variety of legal and tax-related matters. She holds a B.A. from UC Davis, a J.D. from UC Hastings and and LL.M. in Taxation from University of San Francisco.

Sponsors
	This work was supported by the Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund and the National Science Foundation (grant #DUE-1832335).