Inclusive Pedagogy Reading Group Launches

Whistling Vivaldi: How Stereotypes Affect Us and What We Can Do

by Claude M. Steele

As part of our ongoing Inclusive Pedagogy programming, a semester-long discussion of social psychologist Claude Steele’s Whistling Vivaldi: How Stereotypes Affect Us and What We Can Do has commenced. In this book, Steele discusses the issue of “stereotype threat,” which is present whenever someone knows that "their performance could confirm a bad view of their group and of themselves, as members of the group" (59). An example of the effect of stereotype threat is that women tend to do worse on math tests when they are reminded about society's stereotypes of women. Our aim in these discussion sessions is to get a better understanding of how stereotype threat functions and to develop strategies to counteract this threat in our classrooms. Space is limited.

We meet from 12:30-2:00pm on the following days:

• Monday, January 29, 2018 (Introductions + Chapters 1- 2)
• Monday, February 26, 2018 (Chapters 3-5)
• Monday, March 19, 2018 (Chapters 6-8)
• Monday, April 23, 2018 (Chapters 9-11 + Conclusion/Next Steps)