Welcome to season two of the Poggle Podcast.
I'm Matt Tarca, producer of the Poggle Podcast for the Poggle Project.
Poggle stands for Process-Oriented Guided Inquiry Learning, a student-centered approach
that guides students in constructing their own understanding of content and helps them
develop important skills such as teamwork, communication, critical thinking, and problem
solving.
The Poggle Podcast is an ongoing conversation from the Poggle Project that celebrates innovative
educators both in and out of the classroom.
For our fifth episode this season, we will focus on the third of five strategic goals
in the Poggle Project's strategic plan, which is diversity and inclusivity, guiding principles,
and learning communities program.
Today, co-host Alex Grouchal, who is a professor of chemistry at Rider University and sheriff
of the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, interviews Poggle practitioners Dr. Teresa
Bixby and Dr. Michael Bruno.
Alex, Michael, and Teresa, thank you for being here today to discuss the importance of the
strategic goal.
And Alex, I will now pass the baton over to you.
This season, we will explore the inner workings of the Poggle Project.
The project, it turns out, is not just about creating materials and disseminating them
to the broader educational community.
There are many other activities that people in the organization undertake to promote the
mission of the project.
We'll talk to educators around the country who have worked to steer and shape various
aspects of the Poggle Project.
Through different episodes this season, listeners will learn about many opportunities to participate
in the workings of the project.
In this episode, we will discuss the work related to one area of our strategic plan,
and that is focused on diversity, equity, and inclusivity.
With me today is Michael Bruno and Teresa Bixby.
Michael teaches at the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics, and Teresa teaches
at Lewis University in Illinois.
Welcome to you both.
Thank you, Alex.
Hi, Alex.
So in earlier episodes, we've discussed the working groups and how they stem from the
strategic plan, and these working groups to get together at the PNM and continue working
throughout the year.
And so I want to start with the description of this particular working group.
As one might expect, activities related to diversity and equity can be quite involved.
Could you both explain your role in the project in this area?
Teresa, let's start with you.
Well, when you go to a PNM, you're invited to select which working groups you might want
to work on.
And diversity, equity, and inclusion was appealing to me as a thrust.
So you check that box, and I was put on the working group.
So you show up, and it's really about where do you think you can support the mission of
Poggle, Poggle Project, in this area?
And I think we, as a larger group, we had a lot of people the last time I was there,
and we came up with a few goals, and then we decided to break into three pieces.
So our piece is focused on really providing equitable pathways to leadership opportunities
within the project.
So we want to try to diversify what PNM looks like and how do we help practitioners or new
practitioners or practitioners of underrepresented ethnicities become involved at that level.
Okay, thank you.
Michael, can you tell us a little bit more about what you've been involved with?
Yeah, so I, in my third year on the steering committee, but I've been involved in the diversity,
equity, and inclusion work that the project has been doing probably for the last five
years in different iterations.
And so I serve as the liaison to Theresa's working group, which is these professional
learning communities.
And my role there is really, I support the group and I support the work of that group,
but I also liaise with the rest of the steering committee and the other working groups that
are working on diversity, equity, and inclusion.
And we have other areas that the project is focused on.
As Theresa said, this group is, her group is really working on bringing, diversifying
the leadership of the Poggle community, but we're also working on reaching communities
that we haven't really been able to reach before through targeted workshops and getting
other faculty interested in Poggle at universities that are serving minoritized students or universities
that are primarily urban or first generation students trying to get the project to be more
than sort of a typical liberal arts college experience that you might have.
So we're working really hard on that, as well as working to network other practitioners
together.
And so it all, it all is a gigantic web.
And one of the things, as Theresa said, the participants of the PNM who were interested
in working on this was vast.
And the scope of the project, diversity, equity, and inclusion is vast.
And so it was vital that we broke into multiple working groups and that could interact with
each other because this work is really systemic.
The third area of programming for Poggle practitioners is to explore these ideas of diversity, equity,
and inclusion.
We've had some book clubs over the last several years to get practitioners thinking about
how to look at an equity lens in their own classrooms in the context of being a Poggle
practitioner.
Sounds like a lot of work.
I mean, we do, as you both said, we have a number of people who have participated in
this work.
You know, again, the work stems from the strategic plan, and that is a statement that this work
is of value to the community.
The fact that a number of people who get invited to the PNM want to participate in this work
says that a lot of people have value this work.
Is this something new to the project or has this been around for a while?
Michael, you want to tackle that?
Yeah, so I don't think it's new to the project.
The project has been thinking about this, I think, since really the first strategic
plan, but only within the last iteration of the plan has the real need for operationalizing
this work has sort of come to the forefront.
So we see that as the working groups have evolved and as the project has thought more
deeply and more explicitly about how it can be more diverse, equitable, and inclusive,
this work has grown and become more structuralized within the project.
And that's why you see these learning communities.
We see more formalized areas of the book club and, you know, we see a more focused and intentional
work around this area.
Okay.
So a little while back, you worked with Gail Webster.
She's another person in the POGLE community who's worked on these issues to develop a
document called Guiding Principles for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in the POGLE Project.
The document is prominent on the POGLE website.
You can find it through the About POGLE Project page.
Can you tell our listeners about this document and why you think this was important for the
project?
Yeah, of course.
So the project really values inclusive learning environments for students and instructors.
And when we looked at the strategic plan, which was to increase diversity and inclusivity
of the POGLE community and the students it served, what we realized through these discussions
at the PNM and through other working groups was that the project couldn't really attain
these goals unless it took explicit steps, intentional, explicit, systemic, and ongoing
steps to make sure that we were achieving our goals.
Because we could talk about equity, diversity, and inclusion, but we really needed to do
something to institutionalize it.
And as we had these conversations and realized how important it was at every level of the
project to be focused on making a diverse and inclusive environment in all aspects within
the project leadership, within the project organization, within the activities, within
the workshops themselves, we needed a document that guided everything that the project did
so that we could look at what we were doing in all of these different areas and make sure
that we were effectively applying principles of DEI.
Okay.
And, I mean, I say that it was you and Gail did this, but it wasn't just the two of you.
I mean, this is part of like a working group sort of came and also did some work with this
and sort of, you know, it met with approval at some point.
It wasn't just the two of you just dropped this down and said, here, we're all good,
right?
No, absolutely not.
So that came out of a working group from probably two or maybe even three years ago where we
were discussing these ideas and coming up with ways to get down on paper what we needed
to be doing as an organization.
And so that came through many discussions.
And Gail and I hammered out the final draft, but that went through the steering committee,
that went through other parts of the Pogo community.
We shared it out with other parts of the community for input once it was written.
And so it was a real collaborative effort.
Yeah.
Okay.
And I think that that's important for people to realize that none of these things just
come from one or two people in the project.
That a lot of these, a lot of things that come out are really team efforts with a lot
of people thinking about many different aspects, you know, moving things forward.
So Teresa, I want to turn it over to you.
You're on the same working group, but you have a different focus, as you said earlier.
Can you tell me a little bit more about your working on for the project?
Yeah.
The our portion of the working group felt that supporting that once we recruit other
practitioners or new practitioners that might be underrepresented or serve underrepresented
students perhaps, there are a lot of other barriers to them just coming to a workshop
and there are barriers to them coming to workshops.
But once they have come to a workshop, there's a lot of barriers to them sustaining their
practice.
So one thing that we thought that would be a support mechanism, I suppose, would be to
create professional learning communities within Pogo for those new practitioners who maybe
in the last one or two years have gone to a workshop and they're perhaps struggling
because they're the only practitioner at their university or in their department.
And we wanted to provide some kind of support network for them.
So the learning communities pair one experienced practitioner as a leader of their community
with four or five participants who are newer practitioners.
And we're hoping to just give them an opportunity to talk with somebody and network with others
and create that community, but also address any specific issues that they have with facilitation
or connect them with other resources that we have, the optic, the activity clearinghouse,
get them into the culture, I suppose, of Pogo and but also to allow Pogo project to expand
its own culture to include more people.
And once we support new practitioners and we include them in our community, we're hoping
that they will come to PNM and really be sponsored into leadership positions throughout the steering
committee, the NCAP committee that runs NCAP, any working group.
We've just been talking about the impact that working groups have on the work of the project.
So just having them making sure that they're included, but also welcome and that they feel
comfortable when they come so that they're really a part of our community.
So it sounds like the learning community project is almost based on mentoring, like new people
who have been to a workshop or two, maybe, but want to do more.
So this is partly a mentoring activity.
So how did this sort of stem from diversity, equity and inclusion?
And why is this important for the project?
Yeah, I think our working group felt that one pathway to getting people to come into
those leadership positions, right, if we want to diversify our leadership, was to make sure
that they are welcome and feel included in the community.
So if they're new practitioners and they don't have support at their institution because
of resources or because they're the only one who's there, they're less likely to participate
at PNM or go to NCAP or any of those things, or really to become a part of our tight-knit
community that we have.
We're very supportive.
I think the thing that I love the most about Poggle is the community of like-minded educators.
And there are a lot of other like-minded educators out there that just don't have the resources.
So I think finding those new practitioners who don't have those resources and trying
to help them, support them so that they see that we have resources to provide to them,
it's a benefit to them, but also we get the benefit of their perspective and we broaden
our community, our own community, and strengthen it in that way.
So I think the more we can reach out and support those new practitioners, the more diversified
and inclusive we will be in the future.
And if I can add, Teresa spoke eloquently about what we're doing and it really ties
back to our guiding principles that in order to support new practitioners and increase
the diversity of the project, we need to be intentional, explicit, systemic, and ongoing.
And this effort came out of that need to support that Teresa was talking about.
We can't cultivate new practitioners without making sure that the project is devoting the
time and effort to do that.
Right.
Yeah, that makes sense.
So Teresa, can you tell our audience about this learning community project?
What does it involve?
What does it entail?
Just in a minute or two there.
Yeah, we're in the inaugural, the pilot version of the program right now.
We had both leaders and participants apply over the summer and we sort of selected both
leaders and participants and paired them up.
So we have two learning communities that are based in higher ed and two learning communities
that are a K-12 focus.
And we're hoping that they meet on a semi-regular basis to support their practitioners, their
new practitioners in whatever ways that they need support.
So we have a loose set of programming so that the leaders have a little bit of support as
well in what to help with, anything from preparing a POGAL activity for class so that facilitators
know when to break out and how to report out and that sort of operational things, how to
deal with team formation or switching teams.
Anything from those things to getting observations to being paired with a content expert, right?
Perhaps their leader is not a content expert.
We can try to pair them up with somebody in their field to give them specific feedback.
And then in the summer, next summer, after a year of maybe 10 one-hour sessions as their
community to support each other, we're hoping that they come back.
So if they participated all summer or all year through the academic year, we're hoping
that they come back and participate in an advanced workshop, maybe a summer workshop
or a writing workshop.
And then if they stick around for maybe a second year, which we're trying to plan, then
maybe after the second year, they come to PNM and really start to engage in the work
of the project.
Okay.
So this is really a way for somebody who is new to the project, they've been to a workshop
or they've done one of the virtual workshops and they want to get connected.
And there's information about this sent out through the workshops, is that correct?
So we did do some advertising through the workshops.
The deadline for application was a bit early for all of them.
So we had the POGO office send out an email, like an advertisement email to anybody who
had taken a workshop in the last two years.
And so it really is targeted for new practitioners to get some support in their first few years
of implementation.
Next year, it looks like we're going to be trying to start a little earlier.
So we probably won't be advertising in the workshops as much, but we'll be advertising
in the throughout the spring semester.
Okay.
So people should look for that if this seems like something they might want to get involved
with.
So we've discussed in previous podcasts, you know, the working groups do work somewhat
independently.
That is, they all meet during PNM, but they also do share ideas.
And, you know, Michael, you alluded to the fact that your role is sort of to help be
a liaison between, you know, different working groups and then the steering committee.
Can either of you speak to the synergies of your work with other activities within the
project?
I'll let one of you jump in.
I can jump in.
The synergy happens not just with the sub working groups that are focused on equity, diversity
and inclusion, but sort of throughout the whole project itself.
We have a lot of discussion actually with the networks group.
So there's a whole group that is focused on getting practitioners to network with each
other in the form of social media and other groups.
You may, listeners may not be aware we have a Poggle practitioners Facebook group where
practitioners discuss everything from classroom management to new activity ideas.
And so getting our targeted practitioners involved in these learning communities to
get enrolled in those groups and learn more about what other working groups are doing.
You know, the goal of these learning communities is to help support the practitioners not just
through their first year or two of using this pedagogy, but also to help support them with
the resources that the project offers.
And so we have other working groups focused on activity writing.
So the pack, the Poggle activity clearing house.
And so we network with those groups to help support the learning communities to learn
all of the ways in which the project can support their pedagogy.
We also, Michael did a great job of sort of explaining how we connect to the other disparate
working groups that sort of address the other goals of the strategic plan.
And as you said, Alex, there are multiple sub working groups, I suppose, for the diversity,
equity and inclusion.
And one of the ones that we're the most tightly bound to is the targeted recruitment group
that Joanne Roke is the chair of.
So she is working to provide workshops for historically underrepresented practitioners
and they're targeting that recruitment.
And we've agreed to keep in contact with her team to make sure that we hold spots.
So if she has participants in her workshops that would like to participate in the learning
communities, they'll still have to apply.
But we have spots specifically sort of held for those practitioners.
Yeah.
And actually we will be doing a podcast about the strategic collaborations a little bit
later on, talking with Joan Roke and also Joyce Easter.
So that was a little foreshadowing there.
So I said at the beginning that much of the initial work of the working groups is done
at the PNM.
The PNM is just the starting place though.
It's sort of where we operationalize the strategic plan and we focus the activities of the working
groups.
Can you tell me a little bit about what gets done throughout the year?
I mean like with the learning communities, clearly you've sort of gotten those groups
up and running and now it's up to the learning community leaders to sort of keep that rolling.
But what other things do people in your working group do throughout the year?
Right now our working group is focused on trying to figure out how successful the program
is sort of as it's going.
So we're collecting feedback from the leaders and the participants.
We did that a few weeks ago and then we'll do it again midterm and we'll do it at the
end of the year, at the academic year.
And how to improve that.
So we have already a lot of improvements.
You try something, you learn something.
But also looking ahead to if those participants want to stick around for a second year, what
does that program look like in the second year of the learning community and are they
going to participate with new practitioners or are they going to have their own team and
how do we integrate those so that we really are strengthening those connections.
So we're talking a lot about programming moving forward, making the current program even better.
How do we get the word out there?
How do we make sure we're supporting as many practitioners as possible?
If someone's new to our POGLE community and maybe they're not connected yet to one of
these learning communities or they've been using POGLE for a while but they haven't had
a chance to go to a PNM but they're interested in issues of diversity and inclusivity, what
can they bring to the table?
Anything that you guys might be able to say about other opportunities?
So there are many ways that practitioners can get involved in diversity and inclusion
aspects of the project.
We have currently we have a book club running where the practitioners are reading Zaretta
Hammond's culturally responsive teaching in the brain.
Having discussions on that.
We have a series of E-Series.
I believe that Theresa is involved in one of those E-Series so I'll let her talk about
the E-Series that we're doing.
Yeah, our next E-Series is about grading for equity and that's based on Joe Feldman's
book Rating for Equity and Tina Hanson Lewis and myself are going to sort of approach formative
feedback versus summative feedback and how do we incorporate grades in an equitable way
in our classroom.
So that's coming up in November.
Okay, and the E-Series workshops, those are visible on the POGAL website so people can
find out about those if they didn't get one of the emails from the POGAL project.
So again, many of these activities are advertised in multiple venues.
Again, so the regular email is saying what's coming up next in the POGAL project but then
also you can find out about these things from the POGAL website.
I think this has been really interesting because I think the work of the POGAL project in this
area of diversity, equity, and inclusion, it mirrors things that are going on across
the country, across higher education in particular, and the fact that we are paying particular
attention to it just goes to show what the community values.
And I really appreciate the time that both of you have taken discussing your experiences
and your activity on behalf of the POGAL project.
Thank you very much.
Great to talk to you, Alex.
Thank you, Alex.
It was a pleasure.
Please tune in to more POGAL podcasts later this season for more details on the activities
of the POGAL project and how you can become involved in this community of practitioners.
Thanks to all of you for listening to today's conversation on the POGAL podcast.
For additional details on how you can engage with the POGAL project or its working groups,
contact associate director Marcy Dubroff at marcy.dubroff at POGAL.org.
That's marcy.dubroff at POGAL.org.
The POGAL project is a 501c3 nonprofit organization.
If you would like to make a donation so we can keep providing podcasts, low-cost workshops,
and classroom materials, please visit www.pogal.org backslash donate.
Intro and outro music of our podcast is produced by POGAL practitioner Wayne Pearson.
Please join us next time where we discuss the fourth goal of POGAL strategic plan, assessment
of POGAL learning environment via the Optic app.
Until then, enjoy your week.