Date of Submission

8-29-2023

Document Type

OIP

Degree

Doctor of Education

Department

Education

Keywords

EDI, transformative leadership, shared leadership, bias, HEI

Abstract

Higher education leaders face challenging times amidst persistent calls for actions to address discrimination and bias on their campuses. Critics point to the imbalance of women and racialized persons in faculty positions as evidence of structured inequalities. Increased scrutiny and research into this disparity reveals that there are institutional barriers and structured norms that maintain a status quo, which centralizes some experiences and disregards others. This disparity extends to students and affects their experiences, participation and performance in classrooms. Evidence of inequality on higher education campuses contradicts the established goals and values of these organizations and presents a challenge for how to align current practices with stated intentions. My organizational improvement plan focuses on introducing more equitable, inclusive and diverse practices into classrooms and centering such practices into the curriculum. It draws on transformative and shared leadership models to navigate a process to address issues identified, and implement solutions that are long lasting and effective. In this document, I adopt a critical theory, social justice lens in pursuing and finding answers for how to motivate and assist faculty members to adopt practices that reflect institutional leaders’ preference for more equitable, diverse and inclusive practices, into their teaching. This work uses the ADKAR, awareness, desire, knowledge, ability and reinforcement, and Appreciative Inquiry frameworks to outline a structured change process. While the scope of this plan focuses on the local, higher education (HE) program level, it is applicable to other institutions whose leaders hope to consciously center equitable pursuits and embrace diverse practices.

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