“Or is that just your opinion?“: Incorporating faculty of color into the foundational literature on learner-centered classrooms—A review

Abstract

Learner-centered classrooms are cooperative learning spaces in which instructors intentionally incorporate the needs, experiences, and feedback of students in order to design course objectives, materials, and assessments. This paper is concerned with the question: To what extent does the literature on learner-centered classrooms address the unique teaching challenges of faculty of color in higher education? Through a review of the foundational literature on learner-centered classrooms and scholarship on faculty of color's teaching experiences, as well as the incorporation of personal vignettes, the author argues that scholarship on learner-centered classrooms in higher education excludes faculty of color epistemologically, or as sources of knowledge about learner-centered classrooms, and experientially, as practitioners enacting learner-centered pedagogical practice. In fact, many recommendations in the literature on learner-centered classrooms directly contradict scholarship on the experiences, challenges, and best practices of faculty of color. This paper ends with directions for future research and practice.