Teaching diversity: The impact of race and gender on our experiences as educators

Abstract

To date, little attention has been given to the ways in which college-level instructors' gender, class, race, and ethnicity impact their experiences as educators. While some authors have acknowledged the impact of their location within this matrix of identities, both upon the subjects they.choose to teach aswell as upon the ways in which students respond to them, this is still an aspect of tertiary education that is rarely explored in pedagogical training or when decisions regarding tenure and promotion are made. Drawing upon the experiences of two college professors who share different demographic characteristics and life experiences and who teach an array of courses at a large Midwestern university, this manuscript explores the ways in which an individual's identity impacts what they choose to teach, how they teach, and how students respond to them. Implications for instructors. as well as for administrators within institutions of higher learning are discussed.