Factors contributing to the use of references to diversity, inclusion, and gender issues in undergraduate economics courses: Findings from the sixth national “chalk and talk” survey

Abstract

This study uses data from the sixth national quinquennial survey on teaching and assessment methods in economics, also known as the “chalk and talk” survey, to examine, for the first time, how instructor, departmental, and institutional characteristics may contribute to the use of references to diversity, inclusion, and gender issues in undergraduate economics courses. Findings suggest that undergraduate students are differently exposed to these issues depending on the characteristics of the instructors, departments, and institutions. Our work provides a baseline for supporting targeted interventions to increase the use of issues related to diversity, inclusion, and gender in the economics classroom.

Keywords:

• Diversity and inclusion
• gender
• teaching methods
• undergraduate economics

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 The 2020 survey included an expanded 0–6 integer response. We use the prior survey coding of 0–4 in this paper for consistency with earlier studies. In 2020, a response of 0 represented teaching strategies “never” used; 1 indicated strategies used “very rarely” or less than 10% of the time; 2 represented methods used “rarely” or 11–33% of the time; 3 identified activities used “occasionally” or 34–50% of the time; 4 indicated strategies used “frequently” or 51–65% of the time; 5 signified activities used “very frequently” or 66–85% of the time; and 6 denoted methods used by an instructor “usually or always” or more than 85% of the time. On the 0–4 scale, a response of 4 indicated a method was used “almost always” or 66–100% of the time.