Development and Implementation of an Antiracist, Equity, and Inclusion Focused Syllabus Rubric in Graduate Public Health: A Foundational Framework

Recent shifts within the field of public health have demanded that graduate institutions more fully integrate antiracism, equity, and inclusion into their curricula and training of students. Federal agencies, organizations, and accrediting bodies have centered health equity at the core of public health activities and provided various frameworks and resources to advance racial equity and address structural racism. However, there is a critical need to better understand how to adequately meet the requirements of educating the next generation of public health professionals. In summer 2020, the Antiracism and Equity (ARE) Committee was formed in response to nationwide and campus attention on racism in public health and demand for antiracism efforts. Spurred by theoretical inquiry, inclusive teaching practices, and faculty feedback, the committee’s initial charge was to develop a comprehensive and useful syllabus rubric that integrated antiracism, equity, and inclusion practices along with constructs based on teaching pedagogy, accessibility, and critical praxis. By rethinking aspects of public health pedagogy, we applied components of an academic rubric to the development of a syllabus rubric that incorporated foundational antiracism, equity, and inclusion content for faculty to use during course creation or revision. This descriptive case study highlights the importance of advancing foundational change in course syllabi, along with ongoing faculty professional development with critical self-reflection related to antiracism, equity, and inclusion. These efforts encompass best practices in creating a more inclusive and welcoming environment for students from marginalized backgrounds and meeting the needs of an ever changing public health student body.