Immersing Graduate Students in Inclusive Pedagogical Practices at Digital Scholarship Hubs

Multiple disciplines are increasingly embracing digital scholarship in teaching and learning spaces. Digital pedagogy practitioners should engage with a wealth of intersecting positionalities and identities in classroom settings (both in-person and virtual), ensuring that learners' experiences are recognized and validated. However, insufficient training for digital and computational methodologies within subject/departmental silos means that opportunities for learning how to teach technical concepts (i.e., how to handle troubleshooting, live participatory coding, etc.) are especially rare or non-existent via departmental offerings–especially as it relates to inclusive teaching practices. Many graduate students are not afforded the space to unpack inclusive pedagogy as a concept while also juggling departmental demands, requests, and priorities. To respond to these needs, the Navari Family Center for Digital Scholarship launched its Pedagogy Fellowship Program in Fall 2021 where Notre Dame Ph.D. students/candidates build their instructional expertise related to digital scholarship. The Fellows provide workshops for the Hesburgh Libraries, extending their knowledge to the Notre Dame community and help build the libraries' capacity in providing digital scholarship training. Inclusive teaching and diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA) are central to the fellowship’s ethos, and the inaugural cohort were given the space and time to think through and act upon inclusive teaching practices in the following ways: frequent skillshares, reading discussions, engagement with guest speakers and facilitators, and community engagement opportunities.