This resource offers examples of how many faculty have incorporated diversity into course content. Content can be diverse in many ways, including representation across business sectors (non-profit, international, or domestic) gender, race, ethnicity, LGBTQ+ orientation, personal or cultural identities, countries, industries, socio-economic background, religion, and more. The strategies listed below are ideas that might work well across a variety of GSB classrooms.
How might your students benefit from engaging with diverse course materials? Students say they:
- Find content more meaningful when they feel connected to guest speakers, examples, and case studies featured in your course.
- Gain experience applying their learning to a variety of contexts or environments.
- Develop skills to question stereotypes or biases that they may encounter in their future leadership roles.
Adding Diversity to Course Content
Incorporating diversity into course content can come in many different forms, depending on your subject area and the format of your course. Here are some examples and tips you may wish to consider when adding diversity to your course content:
- Supplement your course content with examples representing people of diverse backgrounds. Assistant Professor of Operations, Information & Technology Jann Spiess has approached this by highlighting the contributions of women and underrepresented minorities to the field of statistics. He also leverages the fact that he teaches in the winter quarter, a time he can highlight Black History Month in February and International Women’s Day on March 8. Jann explains:
I take a few minutes to tell my students about the impressive life stories [of contributors to the field] and what it shows about both the challenges and the accomplishments that in this case, specifically, African American research efforts have faced in the 20th century.
- Include course readings, cases, and examples that consider diverse perspectives, such as materials written or researched by authors from diverse backgrounds or case studies with diverse protagonists. Acknowledge upfront when certain perspectives are systematically underrepresented or absent and invite students to consider why this is the case.
- Read more: The Stereotypes in MBA Case Studies
- Find case studies with diverse protagonists or focusing on DEI-related issues: Stanford’s case study listing or the Case Compendium compiled by the Center for Equity, Gender, and Leadership at the Berkeley Haas School of Business. Reach out to us at the Teaching and Learning Hub for assistance.
- Evaluate the presentation of materials to avoid tokenizing marginalized experiences or reinforcing stereotypes. When choosing examples and texts for your course, consider questions such as: what gender or race is being represented in leadership roles, consumers of specific products, or those in disadvantaged situations such as poverty?
- Be transparent about problematic examples or stereotypes, if these appear in an assigned text or resource. Acknowledge such shortcomings to students and explain why the example is relevant to their learning. See Writing Content Notices for further guidance on alerting your students to potential problematic material in course content.
- Leverage diversity in the classroom by asking students to share their experiences related to your course topics. Associate Professor of Marketing Szu-chi Huang does so by inviting students to meetings outside of class and encourages students to share their insights on particular topics. Szu-chi explains:
It is very important to build one-on-one relationships with my students. Usually, those are the contexts where difficult topics come up… That helped me realize that there are many stories or experiences [that are important to] bring to the class and give them a voice, especially those underrepresented students.
- Be authentic and open, acknowledging you may not be an expert, and that you are willing to learn. Here is what Jann Spiess has said about this:
I struggled a bit with how I should even go about talking about these topics, especially as somebody who is white, who is a man, and whose native language isn’t English. I never quite know which terms to use and how to use them. In the beginning, I shied away from having any discussions, but I decided it is too important to not do it. I try to be authentic about it even if I don’t have the right words.
Watch Jann Spiess’s Faculty Showcase presentation about how he diversifies his statistics course content.
Bringing in Guest Speakers with Diverse Perspectives
Inviting guest speakers from many different backgrounds introduces diverse perspectives and demonstrates that success comes in all forms. Here are some suggestions to consider when seeking to bring diverse guests into your course:
- Bring in founders of diverse backgrounds as guest speakers. When guest speakers come from diverse backgrounds, students of underrepresented backgrounds are more likely to see themselves in those leaders. This also opens up opportunities for all students to see how success can be represented through diverse leaders.
Student Quote: It’s good to have the big CEOs be people who look like us a bit more. I think it’s kind of frustrating when we don’t see people from diverse backgrounds because it sends a message that maybe we don’t have the right look to be in one of these positions.
- Increase the pool of guests with diverse backgrounds by inviting both remote and in-person visitors. Students are open to connecting with guests in the classroom and virtually, so geography doesn’t need to limit inviting a remote guest speaker.
Student Quote: Instructors do a great job of facilitating, so I think we can still have really great discussions over Zoom.
- Bring in international perspectives. GSB students will go on to work in global contexts and hearing from international speakers can help set them up for success. Additionally, this may offer an opportunity for international students to identify with speakers and connect with guests in their home regions. If time zones aren’t well aligned with the class, students find value in small groups joining a Zoom call, then sharing the recording with the class later.
- Invite student feedback on guests’ content after each session to discover what’s working and what may still be missing from the student experience. Some available tools for collecting feedback with options for collecting submissions anonymously are Poll Everywhere, Google Forms, Qualtrics, and Canvas surveys.
Sharing Your Approach to DEI with Guest Speakers
Making sure experiences with guest speakers are inclusive and welcoming can help maximize the impact of including guests in your course. Here are some ideas that may help you make the most of your guest speaker’s visit:
- Share with guests the strategies you use to foster inclusive discussions. For example, you might offer to continue to have your CA/TA (if you have one) monitor questions to ensure everyone gets an opportunity, or suggest a strategy of waiting for 2-3 students to raise their hands and then beginning with the last person to raise their hand. It may also be helpful to simply state that it can be easy to miss calling on students who sit on the sides or toward the back. Also, share with guests why you care that they are inclusive when they call on students.
For example: “I’m very conscious of fostering an inclusive atmosphere in the room, and this year I’ve been explicitly asking guest speakers to please try to be consciously inclusive in choosing from whom they take questions, to make sure that students from different backgrounds (gender, race, program of study, etc.) are all called on equally.”
- Plan Q&A strategies ahead of time if your guest is joining remotely because it may be difficult for them to see individual students and students sitting on the sides of the room. For example, you or your CA/TA can call on students on behalf of the guest, or you may ask students to populate a Google sheet or a PollEverywhere channel that is shared with the speaker.
- Work with your guest speakers to create inclusive opportunities to connect with students. Students who don’t share the speaker’s personal or business background may not feel comfortable breaking the ice. You might suggest drop-in lunches open to all students in your class to attend.
- Invite guests to openly share with your students any unique challenges they may have faced on their professional journey. Students have expressed being inspired by hearing guests’ stories of overcoming challenges on the way to success, such as being a first-generation college student, a member of the LGBTQ+ community, a refugee, an expat, etc.
Additional Resources
- Stanford Teaching Commons: Inclusive and Equitable Discussions as part of the Inclusive Teaching Guide