PRESIDENT LETTER BLOG
This blog contains an archive of "Greetings from the President" that appeared since January 2020 on the STP home page and in STP News. To view letters from STP Presidents from 2016 through 2019, click here.
Apologize until you get it right!
I am the eldest of seven children. As expected, we often had disagreements, scuffles, and sometimes knock-down-drag-out fights. As the oldest, I learned early on that you must always apologize when at fault and do so until you get the apology right.
Therefore, on behalf of the STP Executive Committee, I humbly apologize for the scheduling of the 2024 ACT conference during the religious holiday of Yom Kippur. In my previous statement, I attempted to explain the complexities of conference planning and the added difficulties caused by forced rescheduling amid the pandemic. But I am now aware that my apology profoundly missed the mark.
Religious holidays and celebrations are a time for worship, ceremony, family, and tradition. I understand that many of our STP members are now faced with the choice between being in their community with loved ones to observe the High Holy Days or attending ACT. I realize that many will miss the professional development and networking opportunities they annually look forward to during ACT. Some may even sacrifice time with loved ones because this is the only conference they can attend this year. I deeply empathize with the difficult decision you are being forced to make, and I regret we have put you in this position. We will endeavor to be more mindful of our actions and intentional about the dates we select for future conferences.
As president, I am responsible for ensuring that our organization lives up to our mission statement, revised during the Executive Committee’s meeting in April 2024. Our proposed revised mission statement reads:
The Society for the Teaching of Psychology promotes excellence in the teaching and learning of psychology. The Society provides resources and services, access to a global collaborative community, and opportunities for professional development. It endeavors to promote equity and social justice for teachers and students of psychology with marginalized, racially minoritized, and intersecting identities. The Society also strives to advance the scholarship of teaching and learning; advocate for the needs of teachers of psychology; promote diversity, equity, and inclusion, and belonging initiatives within the teaching and learning of psychology; foster partnerships across academic settings; and increase recognition of the value of the teaching profession [emphasis added].
I still have work to do to ensure that our organization embodies diversity, equity, inclusion, and belongingness. I want to reassure you that our commitment to these values is unwavering. Though we stumbled, we will continue to review, revise, and develop our practices to ensure a more inclusive and equitable organization.
Dear STP Family,
This month’s announcements come from our Executive Director, Dr. Thomas Pusateri and me. We have collaborated to bring you an update on actions taken during the Executive Committee’s mid-year meeting and to provide a rationale for several recent decisions by STP’s Executive Committee that are designed to maintain our Society's financial and operational health.
As you are aware, inflation has increased the prices of many goods and services, and the annual cost for STP to continue supporting its programming and services for teachers of psychology has also increased. For example, STP provides grants and awards that include travel support for STP members to attend conferences, and many STP leaders receive travel support to coordinate STP programming at ACT, APA, and other national and regional conferences. Because travel costs have increased, the Executive Committee will need to increase the maximum dollar amount for those who receive travel support from STP. In addition, the costs of hosting our Annual Conference on Teaching (ACT) have increased yearly; those who attend ACT pay only a fraction of the total cost to host this annual conference.
Therefore, the Executive Committee has recently voted to increase membership dues from $25 to $35 for non-student members and from $15 to $20 for students, post-docs, and retirees. This adjustment in dues will commence on July 1, 2024, the date when we begin to process new members and renewals for the 2025 calendar year. Those who join or renew in STP on or after July 1, 2024, will receive complimentary membership for the rest of 2024 and through December 31, 2025. This increase in dues will enable us to continue providing high-quality programming and services for our members.
The Executive Committee also voted to increase the registration fees for members to attend the Annual Conference on Teaching. The increase is modest and will not cover the full costs of those who attend ACT, but it will help reduce STP's overall costs of hosting this conference.
This year's Annual Conference on Teaching: On Location in Louisville is a rescheduling of the 2021 conference, which was canceled within a month of its intended start date due to rising COVID numbers. STP was originally penalized over $100,000 for this cancellation, but we were able to negotiate that penalty down to $10,000, plus a signed conference contract for October 10-12, 2024. Unfortunately, those dates fall on Yom Kippur. The STP Executive Committee, along with the ACT Committee members, offer our sincerest apology for this conflict and promise to select future dates for the conference that do not overlap with dates of religious and/or cultural significance.
The Executive Committee has also made a significant decision to divide the responsibilities of the current Executive Director into two budget-neutral positions: Executive Director and Operations Manager. This strategic move is aimed at enhancing the efficiency and effectiveness of our operations. The future Executive Director will oversee memberships, conference registrations, and communications with members and nonmembers, among other responsibilities. The Operations Manager will serve as parliamentarian and historian for the Executive Committee and will support the work of other STP leaders (e.g., drafting policies and procedures, updating pages on the STP website). Tom Pusateri, the current Executive Director, will complete his term of office in the Operations Manager position through 2027. Sue Frantz, the current Assistant Executive Director, will be appointed as interim Executive Director in 2025, during which there will be a call for applications for that position to begin January 1, 2026.
The decision to divide the responsibilities of the Executive Director will require a bylaws revision that will add the Operations Manager as an ex officio member of the Executive Committee. In addition, the Executive Committee supports a recent STP task force recommendation to revise the STP Mission Statement by changing the phrase diversity, equity, and inclusion” to “diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging.” We will notify STP members when the vote for these bylaw revisions is open, and we encourage all STP members to approve both revisions.
I am a planner! And as a dedicated planner, I've already begun preparing for the next semester, even though the current one is still in full swing. Nevertheless, recent events reminded me of the need for flexibility in the classroom and in life.
Each spring, the STP Executive Committee members conduct an in-person business meeting. These meetings typically involve three days of intensive planning for the future of the Society. This year’s meeting occurred in Memphis, TN, April 4-7. After selecting the date and scheduling the venue, I discovered the meeting would coincide with the 56th commemoration of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s life, sponsored by the National Civil Rights Museum at the Lorraine Hotel. Several of us arrived early on the first meeting day and were able to attend the commemorative event. The ceremony featured exquisite music by a local university gospel choir, poetic readings by high school students, and presentations by local dignitaries and members of Dr. King’s immediate family. Touring the museum and reflecting on Dr. King’s life of service and sacrifice for others set a positive tone for the balance of our meeting. I am pleased that some committee members were flexible in travel, allowing us to participate in and witness this historical event together.
As a self-proclaimed planner, I have often followed the advice of Marilla Svinicki and Bill McKeachie (2011), who wisely wrote, “…spend a little time on your [course] plans each day…let them percolate in your mind, [and] ideas will come to you while driving, jogging, or walking into your office,” (p. 18). But I have been teaching long enough to realize that some of the best class lectures or activities were the ones I did not plan. Ideas or activities have organically arisen mid-semester and I have followed some of them to fruition. These diversions in my teaching plans have often paid big dividends. I have learned that allowing flexibility in my schedule can enrich my teaching experience and greatly benefit my students.
My recommendation to you is to embrace both approaches to teaching. Plan your lectures and activities for the entire semester but reserve the right to change directions if you can or feel the need to do so. Planning and spontaneity in teaching are not the antithesis of each other. They can co-exist and often result in an enriching experience for students and the instructor alike.
Reference
Svinicki, M. & McKeachie, W. J. (2011). McKeachie’s teaching tips: strategies, research, and theory for collect and university teachers (13th Ed.). Wadsworth, Belmont, CA.
Guest Column
Loretta McGregor, STP President
For this month’s update, I have invited our Vice President for Grants and Awards, Morton Ann Gernsbacher, to submit a guest column. Morton is seeking participants for a survey on renaming the Abnormal Psychology course to reduce stigma. Please complete the survey and encourage your colleagues to do as well.
by Morton Ann Gernsbacher
Academic course titles preview our courses’ content, connect with our departments’ curricula, and entice our potential students. We also hope that our course titles don’t offend or stigmatize any students in our courses or members of the general public.
Recently, many psychology departments have chosen to change the title of their “Abnormal Psychology” courses, due to concern that the term “Abnormal” might be offensive and stigmatizing. In 2022, the previously named APA Journal of Abnormal Psychology also changed its name to The Journal of Psychopathology and Clinical Science due to concerns about stigma.
Last year, then STP President Diane Finley commissioned a Working Group to investigate the curricular implications of changing the name of “Abnormal Psychology” courses. I heartily encourage everyone interested in this topic to read this Working Group’s masterpiece report.
The report answered the important question of how changing the name of “Abnormal Psychology” courses would affect high school advanced placement credits and applications to graduate programs. The working group concluded there would be “minimal problems” and any “problems can be minimized with communication among interested parties (alerting transfer institutions, providing course description and/or course syllabus).”
The report also recommended possible replacement names for “Abnormal Psychology” based on important metrics of stigma. Last summer, my lab conducted a study to evaluate the Working Group’s most highly recommended replacement name, along with the previous name “Abnormal Psychology” and an often-chosen replacement name “Psychopathology.”
In our study, we used assays for assessing both implicit and explicit bias. This past fall, we replicated the results of our previous one-site study on four additional campuses, plus a larger sample on our home campus.
I’ll be reporting the results of these studies in a future STP newsletter column. One preview I can share now is that the STP Working Group’s most highly recommended replacement name did indeed fare the best!
For now, I’d like your input. Has your department considered changing the name of its “Abnormal Psychology” course? If so, I would be incredibly grateful if you could complete this short survey.
Thank you in advance!
What do you love most about teaching? Take a moment to reflect on your answer. I’m confident your answer did not include “the pay.” I have taught for more than three decades, and on most days, I love my job. I still cannot believe I get paid to do what I do.
I put this question to a couple of my colleagues. Both are early career psychology professors. Each mentioned the thing they love the most about teaching is the ability to impart knowledge about psychology to others. One colleague added that it allows them to talk about psychology to a captive audience. I think these comments reflect how many of us feel, or have felt, about the teaching of psychology.
After many years of teaching, I’ve come to love my job because I now know I make a difference in the lives of my students. This may sound a bit self-aggrandizing, but I have evidentiary proof. Social media has given me the gift of remaining in contact with former students like never before. This continued contact gives me a glimpse into their lives after college. Occasionally, these individuals contact me and cite a specific previous interaction that has impacted their and their families' lives. I am grateful when someone recalls a particular event from class, a comment from an earlier conversation, or explains how they turned a psychological concept into something actionable. These interactions help me realize that what I do does make a difference in the world.
While teaching my students about psychology, they often teach me about pop culture, current events, and constantly challenge me to re-examine some of my beliefs. In other words, my current students keep me young at heart and encourage my continued cognitive growth through their questions and conversations. As I stated above, I love my job!
It is easy for us sometimes to lose sight of the joy we receive through teaching. Strained institutional budgets, governmental oversight, and politicization of the educational system can make even the most stalwart educator question their career choice. But take a moment to breathe and realize you are doing great work! You are changing lives! I appreciate your dedication to the teaching of psychology.
Greetings and Happy New Year,
With great honor and humility, I assume the responsibilities of STP president for 2024. Please allow me to introduce myself. My name is Loretta Neal McGregor. I hold a Ph.D. in Human Factors and a Master of Science degree in General Experimental Psychology. I have been active within The Society for the Teaching of Psychology (STP) for 30+ years. As an STP member, I have served in numerous areas and positions; for example, I served as Associate Director of Society Programming for the APA Convention and as a member of the G. Stanley Hall Lecture selection committee. I have volunteered to work on numerous task forces like The Advisory Task Force for the Center for Teaching Resources in Psychology and the Task Force on Minority Issues.
As an active member of APA, I have worked on various task forces and committees. For example, I was a member of The Board of Directors for Educational Affairs (BEA). I was a member of the BEA's Advisory Task Force on Undergraduate Major Competencies and a participant in the National Conference on Undergraduate Education. This experience resulted in my contributing to the book, Undergraduate education in psychology: A blueprint for the future of the discipline. I currently serve as a member of the advisory panel for APA's Leadership Institute for Women in Psychology.
However, my most meaningful contribution to the discipline and society has been my research and scholarship on the life and contributions of Dr. Mamie Phipps Clark. Dr. Clark, a black woman and psychologist from Arkansas, played a crucial role in the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka Supreme Court decision. I, too, am a black woman and psychologist from Arkansas. I view Dr. Clark as a giant in the discipline, role model, and my "homegirl." I have given presentations throughout the US and abroad about Dr. Clark's life and contributions to the discipline; it has been an honor and pleasure to share her story with the world.
I am a professor of psychology at Arkansas State University. One of my favorite things about being a professor is mentoring students and newly degreed psychology faculty members. I thoroughly enjoy meeting and mentoring new faculty members. These individuals often bring fresh ideas and an infectious enthusiasm to the discipline and the classroom. That is why I have chosen the theme of Cultivating the next generation of psychology educators as my platform for this year. If you have worthwhile ideas about how STP can encourage current and former students to become teachers within the discipline, please feel free to share your thoughts with me. Thank you to those who have already sent their ideas. I will be in touch.
I believe teachers and professors of psychology make a meaningful difference in each student's life and the lives of their student's current and future families. Yet, we do not do this by brainwashing students! We make a difference by teaching them about human thoughts, emotions, behavior, and development. The mission of the American Psychological Association is "...to promote the advancement, communication, and application of psychological science and knowledge to benefit society and improve lives." As educators of psychology and STP members, this is what we do best! The need to understand human behavior and display empathy toward others is something we currently need in our world. This is why we need more passionate teachers and professors to join our ranks.
As I write my last Presidential column, I am delighted to include a column from long-time STP leader, Susan Nolan. I also want to say thank you to everyone who has helped me through the Presidency in so many ways. There are far too many to name and far too many ways in which I realized that I am simply the facilitator for STP to happen. It has been an honor and I wish everyone a restful holiday season.
Our guest columnist is Susan Nolan who has served STP in so many ways – it would take a whole column to mention them all. I asked her to write this in her capacity as Director of International Programming. Susan has raised the visibility of STP internationally in only a few months and I see great growth coming. We have always said that STP was an international organization and Susan is making that claim true. International Programming Susan Nolan
I am grateful to Diane Finley for the opportunity to contribute to her Presidential Letter. As a former STP president and the current Director of STP Programming at International Conferences, I have long valued the opportunity to work with STP to explore international aspects of psychology pedagogy, curricula, assessment, and policy. Just this calendar year, STP has co-sponsored international conferences in Aotearoa/New Zealand, Australia, Mexico, and Sweden. Already, we have plans to co-sponsor in-person conferences in 2024 in India and France, as well as a series of webinars in English and Spanish, co-sponsored with several other organizations, including the International Council of Psychology Educators (ICOPE). Of our 16,000 Facebook members, more than 7,000 are from outside of the United States.
Through STP and other teaching organizations, such as ICOPE, I have had the privilege of meeting psychology educators from around the world. One result of those connections is the International Collaboration on Undergraduate Psychology Outcomes (ICUPO) which I co-founded with STP member and former STP Presidential Citation awardee Jacky Cranney of the University of New South Wales (Australia). Jacky and I began this project with the goal of developing international foundational competences for the undergraduate psychology major, a goal we outlined in a 2022 paper with several colleagues.
A little over a year ago, Jacky and I recruited a team which comprised a central ICUPO committee of 13 psychology educators from 17 countries and a broader advisory committee, the International Reference Group on Undergraduate Psychology Outcomes (IRGUPO). More than 100 IRGUPO members come from more than 40 countries. Both the ICUPO and IRGUPO include many (approximately 30) STP members. (And we have been recruiting more and more of those involved with ICUPO and IRGUPO to become STP members; we are grateful that STP now facilitates expanded membership by recognizing that there are economic disparities among nations. Those from any countries not designated as high income by the World Bank may now join STP for US $5 rather than the US $25 for those from high-income countries.)
The aim of the ICUPO and IRGUPO is to develop a consensus document that provides learning outcomes (which we call competences) that might supplement or inform national or regional psychology learning outcomes or other regulatory guidelines at the undergraduate level. We strived to develop competences that were relatively content-agnostic, but rather, were focused on skills and values relevant to psychology undergraduate programs across cultures and countries. We hope that this document will facilitate communication across countries and cultures, and might contribute to mobility of psychology students, faculty members, and degrees.
After more than a year of work (see this paper, starting on p. 22, for an early overview of our theoretical background and process), we recently publicly unveiled the beta draft of the International Undergraduate Foundational Psychology Competences (IUFPC). Members of the ICUPO and IRGUPO have now presented drafts of the IUFPC at conferences in Aotearoa/New Zealand, Australia, Mexico, and Sweden, as well as at the 2023 STP Annual Conference on Teaching (ACT). At all these venues, including at ACT, attendees provided thoughtful and concrete feedback that has already led to additional changes in the document. We recently launched the latest phase of the project, which is to explicitly seek broad input from psychology educators and psychology associations around the world.
STP members from many different countries have formed the backbone of the ICUPO and IRGUPO. We hope that many more STP members will contribute to the ongoing revisions of the IUFPC. Our goal is to have a completed document by July 2024, and we encourage you to be a part of the project! We invite you to read the beta draft and email us with any feedback, whether laudatory or constructive. You may email me directly at susan.nolan@shu.edu.
I hope everyone is finding something to keep you going as we draw near the end of the term. I know this time of year can be difficult as daylight gets shorter and it gets colder in some places. I just hate getting up and eating meals in the dark!
I would like to remind everyone of some STP information:
I wanted to share some research related to my talk at the recent ACT. My talk centered on sharing our stories and using story to teach (albeit being judicious about what we share in the classroom). I stumbled across a meta-analysis that supported the positive effects of narratives on comprehension and memory. How exciting to see some of my theories supported by research!
Since it is that time of year when we begin to think about those things for which we are grateful, I wanted to use this column to say some thank yous. I am not able to individually thank each person who has supported me this year, but I do want share a few.
Thanks to the Executive Committee (Linda, Loretta, Danae, Teceta, Morton, Bill, Kristin) who has worked far beyond what I even imagined. It is really their hard work (and that of all their committees) that keeps STP running. They have terrific ideas for new initiatives and their grace during our discussions can serve as a model for how to disagree without distressing everyone.
Thanks especially to Secretary Stephanie who keeps meticulous (and speedy) minutes. She can always find the motion or answer other questions (that I should probably know the answer to!).
Thanks to our Executive Director, Tom, for his patience with all my endless questions and for keeping me on track with what I need to be doing.
Thanks to our Treasurer, Jeff, who helps me understand all our budget issues and can always answer my questions about the money. His has a difficult job, and he does it without complaining.
Thanks to Lindsay, our Director of ACT, and Melissa, our APA Program Director. They also answered my questions patiently and they produced two wonderful programs.
Thanks to the many, many other STP committee members who have responded to my queries or helped answer a question. Your work is noticed and appreciated.
I hope you plan some downtime for the upcoming holiday. Try to unplug, don’t check an LMS, don’t answer email!
Happy October! I am coming off the excitement of a VERY successful Annual Conference on Teaching but also coping with jet lag from the West to East coast flight! A HUGE thanks to ACT Director Lindsay Masland and her conference committee: Brittany Avila, Jacqueline Goldman, Kate Jansen, Alison Melley and Blake Nielsen. Their hard work before and during helped to make the conference an inspiring three days.
I hope everyone who attended ACT left with the same sense of excitement and purpose without jet lag. If you were not able to join us in Portland, remember that there will be an online conference in February. Be sure to check out the details on the ACT web page.
STP has a lot going on. There are a few positions available at our Get Involved page. Please do think about applying to serve in one of these positions. There is always a name you can email if you have more questions.
We also will be seeking applications for three members of our Executive Committee: STP President Elect, VP for Membership, and VP for Diversity and International Relations. The deadline for these positions is November 15, 2023.
I want to share some of the announcements, recognitions and awards from the conference so everyone in STP knows about the great work so many people are doing. There are far too many people for me to name individually, but know that your service to STP is valued.
Keli Braitman, past Vice President for Grants and Awards presented STP’s annual awards. I am always impressed by the accomplishments of our award recipients. This year’s recipients are:
· Wayne Weiten Teaching Excellence Award (2-year college) – Heather Schoenherr
· Mary Margaret Moffett Memorial Teaching Excellence Award (high school) – Maria Vita
· Wilbert J. McKeachie Teaching Excellence Award (graduate student) – Skyler Mendes
· Jane S. Halonen Teaching Excellence Award (early career) – Leslie Berntsen
· Robert S. Daniel Award (4-year college) – Colleen Seifert
· Civic Engagement Award – Michael Figuccio
· Mentorship of Teachers Award – Jessica Hartnett
· Promoting Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Award - Milton Fuentes
Membership has been busy. The winner of the first annual Design Contest was Jenny Kunz. Her design appears on stickers that were distributed at ACT and will be distributed at other STP-sponsored conferences in 2024. These stickers are sure to become collectibles! This will be an annual contest so look for the announcement and consider submitting a design. The MidCareer Psychology Committee is now officially a committee and is preparing to offer webinars next year. STP’s mentoring services have moved to the Membership area.
Resources has also been busy. There have been special editions of Teaching of Psychology and two new e-books. There are twelve new peer-reviewed syllabi and four new peer-reviewed resources. The Tagging Project has made it easy to find what you need across all our sites quickly.
Diversity and International Relations is continuing to discuss ways to incorporate Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging across all endeavors. They also facilitated the DEIB training for the Executive Committee. Our international presence is growing rapidly and STP will be represented at international conferences in India, Mexico, France and Sweden. Our Director of STP Programming at International Conferences, Susan Nolan, has been making even more connections internationally, so STP has become visible across the world.
Programming has had a successful year. In addition to ACT, STP was present at many conferences. Conference directors include Melissa Maffeo (APA), Molly Metz (APS), David Berg (NITOP), Drew Christopher (SPSP), and Judith Bryant (SRCD). Garth Neufeld oversees the outstanding work of the regional conference coordinators. Brooke Whisenhunt coordinated the speaker selections for our co-sponsored lectures (with APA’s Board of Education Affairs) at APA 2023.
The Executive Committee (EC) has been working for you as well. We have been discussing fiscal responsibility and what that means for our budget. We are exploring ways to honor our members who have passed. We are creating a way to collect demographic information from our members, so we have some data for maintaining and creating programs. Please know that the EC is here to work for you. Let us know if there are concerns or suggestions.
A final note (and a terrific opportunity for college faculty): If you are in higher education and have ever wondered about the Advanced Placement Psychology exam, they are looking for readers (i.e., graders) from higher education. It is a great chance to see how the AP scores are calculated as well as to meet fabulous teachers from all over the world. Plus, you get paid. Next summer’s reading will be in Kansas City. If you are interested, contact Kristin Whitlock.
Welcome back to a new school year! I hope everyone’s year is off to a rousing start. I know we have already had to deal with a lot of natural disasters, and I hope anyone in those zones has stayed safe. Do let us know if there is anything STP can do to help.
Thanks to Melissa Maffeo for a great and successful program at the APA convention. We had some interesting sessions. You can learn more about STP’s programming at APA 2023 by viewing the August 2023 Special Issue of STP News.
The Executive Committee is gearing up for our meetings at the conference in October prior to and during the Annual Conference on Teaching. If you have anything of concern, please let me know so that we can discuss it.
Speaking of the Annual Conference on Teaching, Lindsay Masland and her committee are hard at work to put on another fabulous time in Portland. I hope you will be able to join us in person. Information about the schedule is available here. There will be an online conference in February 2024 as well.
As always, Lindsay has come up with a great opportunity for networking and connecting. She has announced that she is able to support Affinity Group meetings at ACT: On Location in Portland this year! From Lindsay: “So, if you've ever wanted to meet up with other psych teachers who are like you—whether "like you" means a shared sociodemographic identity, a specific teaching context, or some other area of interest—this could be the perfect venue for you! But, for these meetings to happen, we need folks to propose groups. So, if you'd like to make new friends and are willing to take on the very light lift of filling out an application for a potential group meet-up, please fill out this application by September 15th!”
The mention of affinity groups is a great lead-in to my guest columnist this month, Dr. Teceta Tormala from Palo Alto University. Teceta is also the Vice-President for Diversity and International Relations. At the 2022 ACT she talked about how she uses affinity groups in her teaching. She has brought many new ideas to STP, and I am excited for everyone to read about identity and teaching.
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Socioculturally-Embedded Intersectional Teaching in a Polarized World
Dr. Teceta Tormala, STP Vice President for Diversity and International Relations
I am cycling into my 19th year of teaching (wow!), and I think often about how my teaching- and the scholarship of teaching and learning- has evolved over the past two decades. When I was in graduate school and in my early years in academia, the teaching model of “the sage on the stage” predominated, and the prototypical sage was White, male, and in middle age. In my early years, as a Black woman in her late 20s and early 30s, the mold didn’t fit. As my time as an educator progressed, I came to more fully understand where I fit in the model of teaching and learning, and what was missing from my course content and teaching practice. I had to find another path distinct from the way in which much of psychology had been taught, often decontextualized from the multiplicity of individuals and the complexities of the lived experiences of groups in the sociocultural context of a complicated world. Our field wasn’t always inclusive of the psychological processes and experiences of all.
The term that I have been using to capture this approach to teaching is socioculturally-embedded intersectional teaching, which I conceptualize as facilitating and educating from one’s intersectional self with awareness of the nested contexts of the classroom, institution, and society, and in service of deepening and broadening knowledge of the collective. The lens that our corner of the field- the teaching of psychology, and the scholarship of teaching and learning of psychology- must continue to embrace in our approach to educating is a systemic one, which foregrounds the importance of sociocultural identity, structural factors, and sociohistorical forces in shaping individuals. The work of Urie Bronfenbrenner offers a path, through ecological systems theory, that is attentive to the nested contexts in which each of us exists, and the impact that interactions, relationships, places, policies, laws, social representations, and ideologies have on our thoughts, feelings, and emotions.
We are not operating within a vacuum- we are living and teaching in the reality of 2023, riven with conflict and hatred, in which politics, culture, and identity are clashing at their intersections to deleterious effect on nations, on groups, and on individuals. As educators, we need to grapple with this reality as it impacts our teaching and as it impacts our students’ learning. Who we are and who our students are matters; what we teach matters; how we teach matters. How do we engage across lines of difference in meaningful ways? How do we create open and vulnerable classroom spaces where diverse experiences and opinions can be stated and be heard? What are the ways through which students who are liberal and conservative, disabled and abled, people of color and multiracial and white, religious and areligious can truly engage in our classrooms? Why does cultural responsiveness matter when teaching AP psychology or introductory biological psychology or high-level seminars? How do we stay engaged in the work of teaching the content that we love within the noise and conflict of a dispiriting, troubling world?
Models that we see today within our field orient towards belonging and inclusion. Dr. Thema Bryant’s theme from the 2023 APA convention was, “You belong here”. From her role as president of APA, she invited attendees to wear something that reflected an important aspect of their identity, be it religion, race, nationality, sexuality, or another lived experience. The organizers included an interfaith program, with hourlong practices from Native Hawaiian, Buddhist, Muslim, Lakota, Christian, Sufi, and Jewish spiritual and religious traditions, open to people from all backgrounds. Within STP, I have been thrilled to be a part of the creation of affinity groups organized around identity and lived experience. STP members are excited about spaces for connection, support, and community. At present, there are affinity groups aligned around a multitude of educator identities and experiences: Race and ethnic identity (Asian, Pacific Islander, and Desi (APID); Arab, Middle Eastern, and North African (AMENA); Latinx; Black); queer identity; in/visible dis/ability identity; educators at community colleges; late career and retired educators; educators who are parents and caregivers. At the ACT conference in October, Lindsay Masland and the ACT programming committee graciously created space in the schedule for these groups to meet and connect.
Each of us is a whole, complicated, multicultural self with group-based beliefs and experiences- and the only singular us who will ever exist. We share a core humanity and a deep need for connection, and this is the bridge that we traverse as educators- between the collective and the individual, between your way and my way and our way, all in service of deepening our understanding of the human condition.
