Leading Conversations about Microaggressions, Bias, and Other Difficult Topics

Many SIGCSE attendees are committed to inclusive teaching practices and creating an inclusive culture within their classrooms; yet, advocating for and sustaining these initiatives may require having difficult conversations with our colleagues and students. Understandably, many faculty are unsure about how to talk about sensitive topics such as race and gender with their colleagues and students. Research suggests that practicing some of these difficult conversations is essential to achieve the goals of inclusive teaching and culture. In our well attended session at SIGCSE in 2018, attendees learned strategies for responding to bias in academic settings. This was facilitated by playing two rounds of a research-based game developed by the NSF project CSTeachingTips.org (#1339404). This session will extend the work begun last year by helping attendees to replicate this activity with their colleagues. In this special session, attendees will first play the game to practice those strategies in small groups and will then receive facilitation tips and guidance for conducting this activity on their own. All attendees will receive a printed copy of the game and a link to download and print more copies.