‘Move from Theory, to Understanding, to Action’.

On June 4, 9, and 17, the School of Public Health convened experts and students in health academia for a three-part symposium on teaching public health. As the world responds to two crises—one novel, and the other deep-rooted in centuries of structural racism—the timely 2020 symposium Teaching Pubic Health: Diversity, Inclusion, Equity, and Justice emphasized public health’s need for inclusive pedagogy that acknowledges, supports, and prepares all students to tackle current and future public health challenges.

“Kofi Annan said, ‘Education is the greatest equalizer of our time. It gives hope to the hopeless and creates chances for those without,’” said Lisa Sullivan, associate dean for education and professor of biostatistics, at the start of the first session on June 4. “Unfortunately, that’s not always true. So, what we want to focus on over the next few sessions is how we can create good learning spaces for all students, provide each student equal access to learning, promote mutual respect, appreciate differences, combat implicit bias, engage in difficult conversations, welcome support, and value all students as they learn.”

Each session focused on a specific aspect of public health academia, with Q&A panel sessions led by Yvette Cozier, assistant dean of diversity & inclusion and associate professor of epidemiology; Candice Belanoff, clinical associate professor of community health sciences; and Sophie Godley, clinical assistant professor of community health sciences. Attendees on Zoom numbered 300-400 for each session, with around 1,000 more watching each session on Facebook.

During the June 4 event, deans and professors from schools of public health discussed ways to incorporate inclusivity into course design and educational policies. Creating inclusive institutions requires an adaptive approach, said Raygine DiAquoi, assistant dean in the Office of Diversity & Inclusion at Columbia Mailman School of Public Health.

“Practices that have marginalized certain groups for generations require transforming our culture and our world view, starting from the inside out—transforming ourselves and the beliefs, values, and assumptions that we hold as our actions flow from our beliefs,” said DiAquoi.

Working from the inside out, she said, “means that we move from awareness to commitment. We must be working from social justice, anti-racist frameworks that will help us analyze and interrupt systems of oppression.”

One of the main challenges with achieving diversity in public health academia is that “so many voices are unheard, silenced, disregarded, dismissed, isolated, or marginalized, and other voices are amplified,” said Erin Driver-Linn, dean of education at Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health. “Anonymity is at odds with social engagement and social accountability.”

Structural issues within academia are also at play, said Driver-Linn, noting that “even the language we use to try to address inequality in education is ‘othering.’” Some of the solutions to these issues are simple, she said. Professors should know the names of each student, even in large classes. They should also conduct pre-course surveys to understand their students’ backgrounds, and develop ground rules for discussion and engagement in class to ensure that every student’s voice is heard.

In the second session on June 9, panelists explored additional strategies that professors can implement to encourage students to participate in classroom discussions.

Viji Sathy, teaching associate professor of psychology and neuroscience at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, said that more students would be encouraged to speak in class if they have more time to think about their responses to questions in class.

“There’s a lot of reasons why wait time [after a question] is important, and we often rush that because of the discomfort we feel with silence,” said Sathy. “There are a lot of people who like to formulate their thoughts before they say them out loud, so this wait time allows for a broad variety of people to think about what they would say and practice it before they say it.”

Sinead Younge, Danforth Endowed Professor of psychology at Morehouse College, said she makes it a point to ask her students at the historically black college to describe their multiple identities.

“When we ask people about their identity, they usually tell you about demographic characteristics,” said Younge. “I draw circles on the board and ask them about all of these identities they may have.”

Younge also asks her students, particularly her students of color, to describe what diversity looks like to them “if it is not anchored in whiteness. This stumps them quite a bit,” she said. “For a moment, they have to think about this, because we are in such a color-conscious society.”

In the final session on June 17, SPH students shared their first-hand and often difficult experiences in the classroom, turning the times when their teachers failed them into teachable moments. These experiences included having professors who made the effort to respectfully learn to pronounce students’ names—or singled out students for their names by performatively and repeatedly asking for help with pronunciation. Students also described some of the ways that professors and fellow students expressed shallow assumptions about populations.

Recent graduate Jori Fortson (SPH’20) described the experience of being part of a population that was being discussed in class. After pushing back on other students’ assumptions and trying to get them to expand their thinking, “I became fatigued,” Fortson said, “because I was in the class to learn, not to be a TA.”

This fact, that a class topic may be lived experience for some students, was also the focus of the symposium’s keynote, delivered by Raul Fernandez, lecturer and associate dean for equity, diversity & inclusion at BU’s Wheelock College. “’Stakes is high,’” he said, after sharing part of the De La Soul 1996 title track of the same name, a song about how “for folks who hold certain identities, like being black, the consequences of everyday living are higher,” he said.

Understanding this is vital for public health education, Fernandez said. “Teach, yes, but these issues have very real consequences for students of color, queer and trans students, survivors of sexual assault or gun violence in your classroom.”

Pointing to the dual crises of COVID-19 and anti-black violence, as well as other public health crises, Fernandez said, “Do not over-academicize this moment… because overemphasizing or mislayering theories is the quickest way to piss them off, or worse, to get them to give up on you and be silent.”

Instead, he called on public health educators to move “from a one-size-fits-all model of education to one that considers the impact of individual experiences and perspectives in crafting productive and still-challenging dialogue in your classroom, and which understands there’s a sense of urgency among some class members that should drive your collective efforts to move from theory, to understanding, to action.”

Concluding his keynote, Fernandez said, “I need each and every one of you to teach with the urgency of someone whose freedom is under threat, because there are those for whom there is no other choice. Failing to do so is squandering the privilege we all have in being part of the academy. ‘Stakes is high,’ y’all. Please teach, learn, and act accordingly.”
View video of the full event in 3 parts or highlights.

—Jillian McKoy & Michelle Samuels