Conversations around equity, diversity, and inclusion are gaining traction on college campuses in the United States. In many cases, these conversations are overdue, so a willingness to even have the talk represents progress. But how can campuses move from talking equity talk to walking the equity walk? How can the buzz be transformed into a breakthrough? This post argues that taking a metacognitive approach is essential to taking steps in more equitable directions.

Becoming more equitable is a process. As with any process, metacognition encourages us to consider what’s working, what’s not, and how we might make adjustments to improve how we are living that process. If college campuses genuinely want to travel down more equitable roads, then they need to articulate their equity goals, map their route, and remove obstacles preventing them from reaching that destination. And if along the way, campuses find that their plans aren’t working, then metacognition can point the way towards a course correction.

A guide and the need for collective metacognition

In From Equity Talk to Equity Walk: Expanding Practitioner Knowledge for Racial Justice in Higher Education, Tia Brown McNair, Estela Mara Bensimon, and Lindsey Malcolm-Piqueux (2020) offer guidance to campuses wanting to do more than just talk. They argue, for example, that campuses need a shared understanding of equity and diversity. College mission statements are a start, but their lofty words define aspirations but not a path. Big words will never amount to more than talk unless a campus can figure out how to live into those big ideas. For example, it is one thing to pepper conversation with words, like ‘diversity,’ ‘equity,’ and ‘inclusion.’ It’s another thing altogether to develop a shared campus-wide understanding of these ideas and how those ideas need to practiced in the day-to-day life on campus. If institutional change requires shared understanding, then I argue that college campuses need collective metacognitive moments.

Metacognition urges us to establish goals and continually check-in on our progress towards them. Taking a metacognitive approach to institutional change will require that campuses articulate their equity goals with shared understanding of the underlying terms, map a plan to work towards those aspirations, monitor their progress, and make adjustments when appropriate.

• What are the shared goals around equity? What might it mean to live into these goals in concrete terms?
• Are these goals widely shared? If not, why not?
• How can members of the campus community contribute and see themselves in their contribution?

Taking a metacognitive approach can also help locate the “pain points.”

• Is the lack of progress owing to a lack of shared understanding, a lack of planning, or well-intentioned individuals working at cross-purposes?
• What can be done to get efforts back on track?

As with any process, metacognitive check-ins around what’s working and what’s not working can point to areas for improvement. Metacognition, therefore, can keep a college campus heading down the equity path.

Progress requires being aware of barriers and working to remove them

Being concrete about the move from equity talk to walking the equity walk requires removing barriers to progress. According to McNair, Besimon, and Malcolm-Piqueux, barriers include individuals claiming not to see race or substituting class issues for race. Taking a metacognitive approach could encourage individuals to get curious about why they claim not to see race or feel more comfortable talking about economic issues. Why might someone be reluctant to consider the extent of their white privilege? Why might a campus be reluctant to acknowledge the reality of institutional racism and its implications?

Taking a metacognitive approach to such questions can honor the fact that talking about inequity can be awkward and uncomfortable. Yet, metacognition also encourages us to ask whether things are working and whether we might need to make adjustments. Walking the equity walk requires asking how white privilege and institutional racism might be inadvertently influencing campus policies and the delivery of instruction. Taking a metacognitive approach encourages campuses to look for ways to make adjustments. Awareness and adjustments are precisely what is needed in the move from equity talk to the equity walk.

By way of illustration,  McNair, Besimon, and Malcolm-Piqueux call on campuses to stop employing euphemisms, such as ‘underrepresented minorities.’ In their view, campus administration, individual departments, and instructors should disaggregate data instead. The thought is that equity issues can be addressed only if they are named. If, for example, the graduation rate of African-American males is lower than other groups, then walking the equity walk requires understanding why and looking for ways to help. If first-generation students are stopping out after their second semester (or their fourth), then campuses that are aware of this reality are positioned to make the necessary adjustments.

Administrators should look at institution-wide patterns to see if institutional protocols are impediments to student success. Individual departments should review student progress across programs and within particular courses to see how they might better support student learning. And individual instructors should take a careful look at when, where, and how students struggle with particular assignments, skills, and content. It may turn out that all students are equally successful across all areas. It might also be the case that patterns emerge which indicate that some groups of students could use more support in certain identifiable areas.

A metacognitive approach to institutional change requires that universities, academic departments, and individual instructors articulate their equity goals, track progress, and make adjustments where appropriate. Disaggregating data at all levels (institution-wide, by department, individual courses) can uncover inequities. Identifying those obstacles can be a step towards making the necessary adjustments. This can, in turn, help campuses walk the equity walk.

Improve with metacognition

Taking a metacognitive approach to process improvements encourages individuals (and institutions) to get curious about what works and where adjustments need to be made. It encourages them to continuously assess and use that assessment to make additional adjustments along the way. Colleges and universities have a long way to go if they are to address the realities of systemic inequities. But learning to walk the equity walk is a process. If we know anything about metacognition, we know that it provides us with the resources to offer process improvements. So, I argue, metacognition is essential to learning to move beyond equity talk and actually walking the equity walk.