{"id":6534,"date":"2023-01-23T08:00:32","date_gmt":"2023-01-23T14:00:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ele.local\/?p=6534"},"modified":"2024-06-24T12:59:23","modified_gmt":"2024-06-24T17:59:23","slug":"beyond-inclusion-how-this-biology-professor-motivates-students-through-civic-engagement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.everylearnereverywhere.org\/es\/blog\/beyond-inclusion-how-this-biology-professor-motivates-students-through-civic-engagement\/","title":{"rendered":"Beyond Inclusion: How This Biology Professor Motivates Students Through Civic Engagement"},"content":{"rendered":"

Like many college faculty, Dr. Bryan Dewsbury, the first featured speaker in Every Learner Everywhere\u00ae\u2019s Strategies for Success Through Equitable Teaching and Learning<\/a> webinar series, discovered his commitment to teaching late in his preparation for it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI avoided teaching initially,\u201d says Dewsbury, Associate Professor of Biology, Associate Director of STEM Transformation Institute at Florida International University. \u201cIn science grad school, you are advised to spend your time in your research lab collecting data. When I had to teach, it was a \u2018road to Damascus\u2019 moment. I learned education wasn\u2019t just about talking about what\u2019s in the textbook and doing lab experiments. It\u2019s about personal transformation.\u201d<\/p>\n

In particular, Dewsbury began to see teaching the sciences as grounded in building civic engagement, which he defines as \u201cself-interrogation, learning what it means to live with others; to be kind, to vote, to make informed decisions, to be part of a society that is trying to thrive. Once I internalized that that is what we really are supposed to be doing, I couldn’t imagine doing anything else.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dewsbury started to treat teaching and learning as its own scholarly field, drawing on support from his institution’s center for teaching excellence to inform his work as a teaching assistant. Now as faculty, Dewsbury runs a lab with his graduate students that incorporates the study of education practice.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur core philosophy is that there is a difference between readiness and potential,\u201d he says. \u201cWe assume potential. Everybody can do biology. Our job is to figure out your level of readiness so we can get you to a place where you see how your potential can unfold. My job is not really to teach you biology. My job is to take you from a place where you might have some questions about your potential to where you see it as clear as day.\u201d<\/p>\n

That perspective informs Dewsbury\u2019s presentation Beyond Inclusion: Teaching for Civic Engagement and Participation<\/a>. The talk explores ways college faculty can connect classroom practice with the values, behaviors, and mindsets needed for a socially just society.<\/p>\n

Dewsbury makes the case for an explicit pedagogy, with examples from his introductory STEM courses, demonstrating how these practices prepare students for social participation. He outlines foundational principles \u2014 that relationships must precede pedagogy, for example \u2014 along with specific practices he uses, such as reflective essays, alternative assessments, and ongoing feedback for continuous improvement.<\/p>\n

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