Inclusive Leadership

1. Evaluate your organization for potential locations of structural inequity: anti-racist or other equity-focused organizational assessment
2. Dedicate resources for DEI work
3. Critically assess the culture of your organization: inclusive cultures

Post Institutional and organizational data publicly (EDUCAUSE)

4. College Counseling and Advising (Erwin & Thomsen, 2021)

Questions to consider:

• Do schools meet the American School Counselor Association’s recommended ratio of 1 counselor for every 250 students?
• Does the state provide funding to increase availability of school counselors?
• Is there a strategy for ensuring that schools serving predominately students of color have an adequate number of counselors?
• Are school counselors supported in assessing student needs and barriers to better serve students equitably?
• Are there policies in place to ensure that school counselors are able to spend the majority of their time providing direct services to students?
• Are school counselor education programs effectively preparing counselor candidates to support students in their college goals?

4. Retention and Completion (Erwin & Thomsen, 2021)

Questions to consider:

• Do institutions evaluate and address campus climate?
• Are course offerings and instruction culturally relevant and responsive?
• Are institutions recruiting and retaining diverse faculty?
• Do institutions have supports in place specifically for students of color?
• Do students have access to consistent and meaningful academic advising?
• Are financial aid programs targeted to support retention?

5. Student Debt (Erwin & Thomsen, 2021)

Questions to consider:

• Do students have access to academic and financial advising?
• Does the state hold institutions with poor student outcomes accountable by establishing standards for participation or limiting their access to student loan programs?
• Are repayment mechanisms borrower-friendly?
• What loan oversight mechanisms are in place?
• Can students access loan forgiveness opportunities?

References:

Carlson, E. R. (2022). Fundamental components of personalized coaching models for faculty: Addressing inequities in learning outcomes data. Journal of Assessment in Higher Education, 3(1), 1-20.

Erwin, B., & Thomsen, J. (2021, July). Addressing inequities in higher education: Policy guide. Education Commission of the States.  

Parker-James, M. (2023). Leading change in the transition to flexwork beyond the Covid-19 pandemic. [Doctoral dissertation, Northeastern University].

Porter, S., Wang, J., & Dunn, S. (2023, April 19). Tackling systemic and structural inequities in higher ed IT: A Primer on beginnings. Educause Review. 

1. Review the statements, commitments, and priorities of your institution.
2. Establish priorities and define goals for your unit, organization, or institution.
3. Identify specific outcomes and priorities for leaders.
4. Use your agency and influence—including any privilege and/or access to decision-making—to prioritize accountability.
5. Leverage opportunities in governance programs. 
6. Establish DEI goals as central components in your strategic plan (educause.edu)

Examples:

EDUCAUSE. (2023). CIO's commitment on diversity, equity, and inclusion.

University of Washington Information Technology. (2023, September 6). Pronoun data definition & integration. 

Leadership must be ethical (Allen & Butler-Henderson, 2021):

Addressing the (im)balance of gender equality in academia through three complementary forms of ethics which underlie the ethical practice of an institution. These “ethics” are as follows.

1. The ethic of justice, according to which fairness and equal treatment are a key value in an institution that uniformly applies the same standards (of justice) to all working individuals.
2. The ethic of critique, which highlights barriers to fairness, acknowledging that it is inadequate to work for fairness within existing social and institutional arrangements if they themselves are unfair. Individuals must, therefore, critique the system and explore how policies, practices, and structures might be unfair and involve moral issues that benefit some groups while failing others.
3. The ethic of care, which highlights the importance of an absolute regard for the dignity and intrinsic value of each individual as a human being. In discussing the ethic of care, Starratt incorporates the foundational work of Gilligan (1982) and Noddings (1984), and in particular the premise that relationships are, ultimately, at the centre of human social life. It is, therefore, crucial to highlight the responsibility of individuals to be caring in their relationships with others, including in academia.

Developed by Starratt (1994, 2003)

Graphic credit: (Branson, 2010)

Graphic credit: (San Francisco State University, 2023)

National Science Foundation-funded ADVANCE organizational change interventions that target (a) recruiting diverse applicants (e.g., training search committees), (b) mentoring, networking, and professional development (e.g., promoting women faculty networks); and (c) improving academic climate (e.g., educating male faculty on gender bias). (Casad et al., 2021)

References:

Allen, K. A., Butler-Henderson, K., Reupert, A., Longmuir, F., Finefter-Rosenbluh, I., Berger, E., Grove, C., Heffernan, A., Freeman, N., Kewalramani, S., Krebs, S., Dsouza, L., Mackie, G., Chapman, D., & Fleer, M. (2021). Work like a girl: Redressing gender inequity in academia through systemic solutions. Journal of University Teaching & Learning Practice, 18(3).

Branson, C. (2010, March). Ethical decision making: Is personal moral integrity the missing link? Journal of Authentic Leadership in Education, 1(1): 1-8.  

Casad, B. J., Franks, J. E., Garasky, C. E., Kittleman, M. M., Roesler, A. C., Hall, D. Y., & Petzel, Z. W. (2021). Gender inequality in academia: Problems and solutions for women faculty in STEM. Journal of Neuroscience Research, 99(1), 13-23.

Gilligan, C. (1982). In a different voice: Psychological theory and women’s development. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Noddings, N. (1984). Caring: A feminine approach to ethics and moral education. Los Angeles: University of California Press.

San Francisco State University. (2023). NSF advance. SF State Transforms. 

Starratt, R.J. (1994). Building an ethical school: A practical response to the moral crisis in schools. London, England: The Falmer Press.

Starratt, R. J. (2003). Centering educational administration: Cultivating meaning, community, responsibility. L. Erlbaum Associates.