No man is an island entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, and a part of the main; … any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind. And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee. (Donne, 1959, pp. 108–109)
When one student’s constructive ideas and perspectives are diminished or ignored, everyone stands to lose. Just as scientific dialogue propels the knowledge base forward, student dialogue advances the learning process in the classroom. An inclusive classroom environment refers to a learning context in which all students feel a sense of belonging and that their unique characteristics are valued by their peers and instructor (Shore etal., Reference Shore, Randel, Chung, Dean, Ehrhart and Singh2011). Such an environment facilitates learning, allowing us to reap the greater benefits from diversity (Shore etal., Reference Shore, Randel, Chung, Dean, Ehrhart and Singh2011). Failure to create this environment may impede learning by encouraging conformity and making students feel excluded. Kath etal. (Reference Kath, Salter, Bachiochi, Brown and Hebl2021) offer several helpful recommendations for promoting diversity and inclusion, though they are largely geared towards shaping interactions between instructors and students via individual- and task-level predictors (e.g., providing opportunities for self-expression in assignments, learning each student’s name). We extend Kath etal.’s (Reference Kath, Salter, Bachiochi, Brown and Hebl2021) discussion by presenting macro-level antecedents to perceptions of inclusion, namely psychological safety and leadership behaviors, which instructors can leverage to develop an inclusive classroom environment.
Psychological safety climate
An inclusive classroom environment enhances psychological safety among students. Psychological safety climate (PSC) is defined as the shared belief that a team will not embarrass or punish an individual when they voice their ideas (Edmondson, Reference Edmondson1999). By developing a positive PSC, students can experience a sense of comfort during the learning process because they know that they can speak up and ask questions without negative repercussions such as experiencing embarrassment during class. Students who perceive their environment as psychologically safe for risk taking (e.g., expressing challenging or unpopular ideas) can promote knowledge sharing, learning behavior, positive attitudes, and performance (Edmondson & Lei, Reference Edmondson and Lei2014). Therefore, the question that remains to be answered is “How can we effectively maintain a psychologically safe climate in the classroom?”
Creating a psychologically safe climate requires that positive interpersonal relationships be cultivated between students and both the instructor and their peers, with trust in leadership and team members being particularly important for the development of PSC (Frazier etal., Reference Frazier, Fainshmidt, Klinger, Pezeshkan and Vracheva2017). Trust can be fostered through ongoing dialogue and interdependent work throughout the semester, as students rely upon their instructor and peers to help facilitate their (iterative individual/personal) learning process. As industrial-organizational (I-O) psychologists, we know that errors and feedback are important components of learning (Edmondson, Reference Edmondson2011), and the source of this feedback predominantly comes from social interactions in the classroom (as opposed to self- or technology-driven feedback). Although there is a plethora of literature available on fostering trust, we offer two suggestions for the PSC classroom. First, promoting opportunities for, and encouraging, the sharing of mistakes will enable students to feel that their competence is not being judged every time they speak (e.g., as in the uncomfortable, “pin-drop” silence we have likely all experienced as students or instructors in heavily discussion-based courses). To help with this effort, instructors can share lessons learned from their own mistakes and encourage students to do the same through assigned reflection pieces or class discussions. Second, we recommend collecting feedback periodically throughout the semester, asking students to share their struggles with course content via surveys or short focus group sessions. These interactions, in addition to being learning experiences in themselves, can help students establish positive relationships that are conducive to a PSC.
Despite its several benefits, Edmonson and Lei (Reference Edmondson and Lei2014) note that a PSC can also produce undesirable outcomes. An overabundance of psychological safety may create space for off-topic commentaries, redundant questions, and student monologues that detract from other students’ learning experiences. To combat this “dark side” of psychological safety, instructors will want to set clear expectations that they deem to be consistent with the goals, values, and mission of the class (e.g., task-relevant comments that demonstrate a respect for other students’ time and ideas) and hold students accountable. They may turn to the employee recognition literature to redirect or reinforce students to desirable behaviors (e.g., challenging the “status quo,” integrating others’ ideas with their own) through expressions of gratitude, praise, and affirmation (e.g., a personal note from the instructor, drawing attention to positive interactions as exemplars).
Leadership behaviors
As a complement to Kath etal.’s (Reference Kath, Salter, Bachiochi, Brown and Hebl2021) recommendation to adopt transformational leadership behaviors, we offer a few examples below of leadership behaviors that instructors may enact to cultivate perceptions of inclusion in the classroom (Randel etal., Reference Randel, Galvin, Shore, Holcombe Ehrhart, Chung, Dean and Kedharnath2018): sharing decision making, supporting students, ensuring justice and equity (belongingness), encouraging diverse contributions, and helping students fully contribute (uniqueness).
Ideally, instructors would consider the development and well-being of students before their own interests when managing their courses, which closely mirrors the sentiments of servant leadership, in which a leader emphasizes morality and concern for others (Greanleaf, Reference Greenleaf1979). By demonstrating key characteristics of servant leadership (e.g., listening, empathy, awareness, conceptualization, foresight, stewardship), an instructor can empower students to challenge normative decision-making patterns (van Dierendonck, Reference van Dierendonck2011). Instructors engaging in servant leadership may provide an ongoing anonymous form for students to express concerns to the instructor, and by explicitly gathering anonymous student feedback at several points throughout the semester (regarding major assignments and the class as a whole), then work to integrate this feedback into the remainder of the class as well as future classes. By providing students an avenue to provide the instructor with constructive critiques or express discomfort about specific events, without fear of being ostracized, we suspect students would participate in class exercises and consider the goals of assignments and discussions on a deeper level.
Although the above recommendation may increase student perceptions of inclusion, it also requires sufficient levels of intellectual humility on the instructor’s part (i.e., awareness of the other, self, and situations). In the previously given example, this could manifest as an instructor being more open to counterarguments and constructive feedback. Instructors with high intellectual humility will be more likely than are their counterparts to recognize that their memory of a past event, understanding of facts, or cultural values hold the potential to be flawed (Leary etal., Reference Leary, Diebels, Davisson, Jongman-Sereno, Isherwood, Raimi, Deffler and Hoyle2017). Although relatively stable, research suggests that intellectual humility is malleable (Porter & Schumann, Reference Porter and Schumann2018; Zachry etal., Reference Zachry, Phan, Blackie and Jayawickreme2018). By cultivating intellectual humility, instructors should find themselves enjoying the pursuit of knowledge more, falling prey to dogmatic thinking less frequently, and becoming more open to those with opposing views (Leary etal., Reference Leary, Diebels, Davisson, Jongman-Sereno, Isherwood, Raimi, Deffler and Hoyle2017), which may benefit the student experience.
Shared decision making in the classroom requires instructors to implement practices that allow students space to make joint decisions with them. For example, instructors can permit students to choose optional topics to be discussed for a portion of a class period or select from a number of assignments or discussions. These and several other manifestations of participative decision making can be applied to evoke feelings of inclusion and empowerment, and subsequently, higher performance and lower course dropout rates (Randel etal., Reference Randel, Galvin, Shore, Holcombe Ehrhart, Chung, Dean and Kedharnath2018). These benefits are likely to extend outside the classroom to produce a more engaged student body.
In contrast to the above approaches to inclusion, our last recommendation concentrates on transmitting preferred behaviors from the instructor to students through role modeling (Bandura, Reference Bandura1986). As an example, an instructor can model supportive behaviors such as congratulating students when their performance improves, even if performance falls below the class average. Because some students may have fewer abilities, less motivation, or greater obstacles to overcome than others, instructors may want to recognize intraindividual accomplishments rather than recognizing only top performers (i.e., social comparison-based recognition) to foster inclusion. Such behavior would simultaneously be promoting inclusion by helping to create more equitable student experiences. However, for role modeling to be successful, we should ensure that behaviors are visible to followers, simple (i.e., unambiguous and familiar), and routinely reinforced (Boekhorst, 2015). The ability to pass on inclusive behaviors to students allows a bottom-up process to be initiated and work in tandem with the macro-level and top-down processes so that together these processes can sustain an inclusive classroom.
Conclusion
Addressing Kath etal.’s (Reference Kath, Salter, Bachiochi, Brown and Hebl2021) call to apply I-O knowledge to undergraduate teaching, we offer several recommendations that instructors may implement to foster an inclusive learning environment through psychological safety climate and leadership behavior. To this end, we anticipate that educators will be able to extract at least one recommendation from our commentary that will improve their classrooms.
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No man is an island entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, and a part of the main; … any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind. And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee. (Donne, 1959, pp. 108–109)
When one student’s constructive ideas and perspectives are diminished or ignored, everyone stands to lose. Just as scientific dialogue propels the knowledge base forward, student dialogue advances the learning process in the classroom. An inclusive classroom environment refers to a learning context in which all students feel a sense of belonging and that their unique characteristics are valued by their peers and instructor (Shore etal., Reference Shore, Randel, Chung, Dean, Ehrhart and Singh2011). Such an environment facilitates learning, allowing us to reap the greater benefits from diversity (Shore etal., Reference Shore, Randel, Chung, Dean, Ehrhart and Singh2011). Failure to create this environment may impede learning by encouraging conformity and making students feel excluded. Kath etal. (Reference Kath, Salter, Bachiochi, Brown and Hebl2021) offer several helpful recommendations for promoting diversity and inclusion, though they are largely geared towards shaping interactions between instructors and students via individual- and task-level predictors (e.g., providing opportunities for self-expression in assignments, learning each student’s name). We extend Kath etal.’s (Reference Kath, Salter, Bachiochi, Brown and Hebl2021) discussion by presenting macro-level antecedents to perceptions of inclusion, namely psychological safety and leadership behaviors, which instructors can leverage to develop an inclusive classroom environment.
Psychological safety climate
An inclusive classroom environment enhances psychological safety among students. Psychological safety climate (PSC) is defined as the shared belief that a team will not embarrass or punish an individual when they voice their ideas (Edmondson, Reference Edmondson1999). By developing a positive PSC, students can experience a sense of comfort during the learning process because they know that they can speak up and ask questions without negative repercussions such as experiencing embarrassment during class. Students who perceive their environment as psychologically safe for risk taking (e.g., expressing challenging or unpopular ideas) can promote knowledge sharing, learning behavior, positive attitudes, and performance (Edmondson & Lei, Reference Edmondson and Lei2014). Therefore, the question that remains to be answered is “How can we effectively maintain a psychologically safe climate in the classroom?”
Creating a psychologically safe climate requires that positive interpersonal relationships be cultivated between students and both the instructor and their peers, with trust in leadership and team members being particularly important for the development of PSC (Frazier etal., Reference Frazier, Fainshmidt, Klinger, Pezeshkan and Vracheva2017). Trust can be fostered through ongoing dialogue and interdependent work throughout the semester, as students rely upon their instructor and peers to help facilitate their (iterative individual/personal) learning process. As industrial-organizational (I-O) psychologists, we know that errors and feedback are important components of learning (Edmondson, Reference Edmondson2011), and the source of this feedback predominantly comes from social interactions in the classroom (as opposed to self- or technology-driven feedback). Although there is a plethora of literature available on fostering trust, we offer two suggestions for the PSC classroom. First, promoting opportunities for, and encouraging, the sharing of mistakes will enable students to feel that their competence is not being judged every time they speak (e.g., as in the uncomfortable, “pin-drop” silence we have likely all experienced as students or instructors in heavily discussion-based courses). To help with this effort, instructors can share lessons learned from their own mistakes and encourage students to do the same through assigned reflection pieces or class discussions. Second, we recommend collecting feedback periodically throughout the semester, asking students to share their struggles with course content via surveys or short focus group sessions. These interactions, in addition to being learning experiences in themselves, can help students establish positive relationships that are conducive to a PSC.
Despite its several benefits, Edmonson and Lei (Reference Edmondson and Lei2014) note that a PSC can also produce undesirable outcomes. An overabundance of psychological safety may create space for off-topic commentaries, redundant questions, and student monologues that detract from other students’ learning experiences. To combat this “dark side” of psychological safety, instructors will want to set clear expectations that they deem to be consistent with the goals, values, and mission of the class (e.g., task-relevant comments that demonstrate a respect for other students’ time and ideas) and hold students accountable. They may turn to the employee recognition literature to redirect or reinforce students to desirable behaviors (e.g., challenging the “status quo,” integrating others’ ideas with their own) through expressions of gratitude, praise, and affirmation (e.g., a personal note from the instructor, drawing attention to positive interactions as exemplars).
Leadership behaviors
As a complement to Kath etal.’s (Reference Kath, Salter, Bachiochi, Brown and Hebl2021) recommendation to adopt transformational leadership behaviors, we offer a few examples below of leadership behaviors that instructors may enact to cultivate perceptions of inclusion in the classroom (Randel etal., Reference Randel, Galvin, Shore, Holcombe Ehrhart, Chung, Dean and Kedharnath2018): sharing decision making, supporting students, ensuring justice and equity (belongingness), encouraging diverse contributions, and helping students fully contribute (uniqueness).
Ideally, instructors would consider the development and well-being of students before their own interests when managing their courses, which closely mirrors the sentiments of servant leadership, in which a leader emphasizes morality and concern for others (Greanleaf, Reference Greenleaf1979). By demonstrating key characteristics of servant leadership (e.g., listening, empathy, awareness, conceptualization, foresight, stewardship), an instructor can empower students to challenge normative decision-making patterns (van Dierendonck, Reference van Dierendonck2011). Instructors engaging in servant leadership may provide an ongoing anonymous form for students to express concerns to the instructor, and by explicitly gathering anonymous student feedback at several points throughout the semester (regarding major assignments and the class as a whole), then work to integrate this feedback into the remainder of the class as well as future classes. By providing students an avenue to provide the instructor with constructive critiques or express discomfort about specific events, without fear of being ostracized, we suspect students would participate in class exercises and consider the goals of assignments and discussions on a deeper level.
Although the above recommendation may increase student perceptions of inclusion, it also requires sufficient levels of intellectual humility on the instructor’s part (i.e., awareness of the other, self, and situations). In the previously given example, this could manifest as an instructor being more open to counterarguments and constructive feedback. Instructors with high intellectual humility will be more likely than are their counterparts to recognize that their memory of a past event, understanding of facts, or cultural values hold the potential to be flawed (Leary etal., Reference Leary, Diebels, Davisson, Jongman-Sereno, Isherwood, Raimi, Deffler and Hoyle2017). Although relatively stable, research suggests that intellectual humility is malleable (Porter & Schumann, Reference Porter and Schumann2018; Zachry etal., Reference Zachry, Phan, Blackie and Jayawickreme2018). By cultivating intellectual humility, instructors should find themselves enjoying the pursuit of knowledge more, falling prey to dogmatic thinking less frequently, and becoming more open to those with opposing views (Leary etal., Reference Leary, Diebels, Davisson, Jongman-Sereno, Isherwood, Raimi, Deffler and Hoyle2017), which may benefit the student experience.
Shared decision making in the classroom requires instructors to implement practices that allow students space to make joint decisions with them. For example, instructors can permit students to choose optional topics to be discussed for a portion of a class period or select from a number of assignments or discussions. These and several other manifestations of participative decision making can be applied to evoke feelings of inclusion and empowerment, and subsequently, higher performance and lower course dropout rates (Randel etal., Reference Randel, Galvin, Shore, Holcombe Ehrhart, Chung, Dean and Kedharnath2018). These benefits are likely to extend outside the classroom to produce a more engaged student body.
In contrast to the above approaches to inclusion, our last recommendation concentrates on transmitting preferred behaviors from the instructor to students through role modeling (Bandura, Reference Bandura1986). As an example, an instructor can model supportive behaviors such as congratulating students when their performance improves, even if performance falls below the class average. Because some students may have fewer abilities, less motivation, or greater obstacles to overcome than others, instructors may want to recognize intraindividual accomplishments rather than recognizing only top performers (i.e., social comparison-based recognition) to foster inclusion. Such behavior would simultaneously be promoting inclusion by helping to create more equitable student experiences. However, for role modeling to be successful, we should ensure that behaviors are visible to followers, simple (i.e., unambiguous and familiar), and routinely reinforced (Boekhorst, 2015). The ability to pass on inclusive behaviors to students allows a bottom-up process to be initiated and work in tandem with the macro-level and top-down processes so that together these processes can sustain an inclusive classroom.
Conclusion
Addressing Kath etal.’s (Reference Kath, Salter, Bachiochi, Brown and Hebl2021) call to apply I-O knowledge to undergraduate teaching, we offer several recommendations that instructors may implement to foster an inclusive learning environment through psychological safety climate and leadership behavior. To this end, we anticipate that educators will be able to extract at least one recommendation from our commentary that will improve their classrooms.