Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, & Justice

Guided by our Jesuit ideals and social justice mission, we strive to foster a culture that is diverse, inclusive, and equitable. Care and compassion characterize our teaching and mentorship, and we actively apply research to disrupt the oppressive forces that marginalize. Through our curriculum, placements, programs, and service trips, students learn how to apply culturally sensitive practices that empower diverse populations to thrive.

Community Voices

Our students represent a variety of life experiences, personal interests, and professional goals. Together with our supportive faculty and staff, they make up our vibrant community.

The architecture of diversity and difference enables us as faculty to advance a broader, richer, and deeper understanding of how professionals in education and applied psychology can create a more just and compassionate world. Our diverse identities and experiences shape our inquiries and the meaning we make of our conclusions, allowing us to compose a more complete understanding of the public good.
Ana M. Martínez Alemán, Associate Dean for Faculty


Current Initiatives

The Lynch School of Education and Human Development is home to a variety of centers and initiatives focused on serving our communities. By developing new models of student support, reshaping achievement standards, and advancing human rights, our research centers and initiatives offer students opportunities to make an impact. 

Institute for the Study of Race and Culture

Championing race and culture as assets and addressing the societal conflicts associated with them.

Mary E. Walsh Center for Thriving Children

Focused on studying and addressing the out-of-school factors that impact student success.

Center for the Study of Testing, Evaluation, and Educational Policy

CSTEEP strengthens school assessment practice and policy with research, engagement, and advocacy.

Center for Human Rights and International Justice

A multidisciplinary center nurturing leaders who improve global human rights through service and scholarship.

Community Justice and Engaged Pedagogy

Creating transformative learning opportunities within and beyond prison walls and investigating critical issues through a community justice lens.

Campus School at Boston College

Providing personalized educational and therapeutic services to students ages 3–21 who face complex challenges and have unique learning needs.

Equitable Instruction Initiative

This initiative helps disrupt inequalities by supporting schools and teachers in instruction that empowers student voices to support more equitable learning.

The Roche Center for Catholic Education

Through four strategic initiatives, the Roche Center strengthens and transforms Catholic schools and improves student outcomes.

Urban Outreach Initiatives

Creating a more just world through training transformational educators who prioritize social justice and equity in classrooms and organizations.

Professor in class

Addressing Oppression and Diversity in Our Pedagogy and Practices

During the 2018-2019 academic year, the Lynch School organized a Faculty Seminar titled Addressing Oppression and Diversity in Our Pedagogy and Practices, focusing on anti-racism. Ongoing work incorporating learning from this seminar into every day pedagogy is carried on by the Undoing Oppression committee. 

Laptob on table

Syllabi Assessment Project

Faculty were invited by the LSEHD Educational Policy Council (EPC) to participate in a project designed to help faculty assess the extent to which their course syllabi address diversity, equity, and inclusion topics. The EPC, working with the Dean’s Office, provided faculty desiring this support with a syllabi review and consultation. The review used the “Race, Ethnicity and Inter-Cultural Understanding Curriculum Map” tool developed at Columbia University. 

Columbia University tool

Laptob on table

First Year Experience Course Review

In 2019 a curricular and pedagogical revision of the first-year course, Experience, Reflection, & Action (ERA), was undertaken to offer a more academically robust and substantive program than previous iterations of the course.

First Year Experience Course

Professors talking

Diversity Doctoral Fellows

Graduate Student Services at the Lynch School oversees a Diversity Doctoral Fellows program. Students that participate in this program receive mentorship from current faculty and programming centered on current issues.

Small group conversation

Restorative and Transformational Justice Minor 

The minor is designed to advance understanding of restorative and transformational justice as a critically important tool. Students will explore restorative and transformational justice topics as they relate to education, applied psychology, and human development; select electives from different departments; and engage in social impact action project or senior thesis. 

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Martin Scanlan in classroom

Certificate in Social Justice Leadership

This certificate helps school leaders develop and enact a theory of change to boldly advance equity in schools.  Through a series of four courses, participants discern organizational impediments to students’ opportunities to learn, then envision and enact a systemic response to confront these barriers.

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Trio logo

The Ronald E. McNair Post-Baccalaureate Achievement Program

The Ronald E. McNair Post-Baccalaureate Achievement Program (McNair Program) is a graduate school preparation program for Boston College undergraduates who are low-income, first-generation college students, or undergraduate students from underrepresented backgrounds interested in furthering their education and are committed to pursuing an advanced degree. 

Funded by the U.S. Department of Education, the McNair program prepares undergraduates from underrepresented backgrounds to pursue and attain an advanced degree to enter careers in research and academia. Students are paired with faculty mentors and are provided with academic advising, research opportunities and workshops tailored to the graduate school experience and application process.

Learn More

Professors talking

Undoing Oppression Committee

Created as a subcommittee of the Lynch Educational Policy Committee (EPC) the the Undoing Oppression Committee is a voluntary group of interested faculty and staff who have come together to take action toward more closely living the social justice aspirations of our community. The committee has created a Canvas site with resources for current faculty and staff, and puts on workshops and brown bag events throughout the academic year.

Small group conversation

Faculty Search Committee Training

In order to implement best practices for equity and inclusion in academic searches, we conduct training before beginning a search for all faculty engaged in search committee duties. 

Lecture

Faculty Speaker Series

Every semester the Lynch School's Dean's Office brings in leading scholars across the country to discuss their research on current issues across education and human development.

Lynch School Graduate Programs

Donovan Urban Teaching Scholars

The Charles F. Donovan Urban Teaching Scholars program is an intensive one-year Masters in Education program leading to teacher licensure, that seeks to prepare K-12 teachers to work effectively with students and families in urban schools throughout the country. 

Donovan Urban Teaching Scholars


 

Urban Catholic Teaching Corps

The UCTC actively engages in the ministry of teaching in the schools of the Archdiocese of Boston and provides an academically rigorous and experientially rich urban Catholic teacher preparation based on the Jesuit tradition of formative education. 

Urban Catholic Teaching Corps

Being a great leader isn't about speaking up for the ‘voiceless’. It's about creating spaces where ‘voiceless’ doesn't exist.
Donovan Alum '13

College Bound at BC

College Bound is a pre-collegiate enrichment and support program offered to a diverse group of 50-60 students in 7th through 12th grade. The mission of the College Bound Program is to empower students to become positive change agents in their schools and communities. Through a S.T.E.A.M (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics) lens, students learn about a variety of important issues impacting their communities.

More About College Bound

BC Resources

Office for Institutional Diversity

Dedicated to advancing a Boston College culture and climate that is welcoming to all through leadership, support, education, compliance, and policy.

Forum on Racial Justice in America

This forum provides a meeting place for dialogue about race and racism in the U.S., while serving as a catalyst for bridging differences, promoting reconciliation, and encouraging new perspectives.

Courageous Conversations

Courageous Conversations Towards Racial Justice is a dialogue-centered initiative on racism and privilege designed to address racial healing, equity, and justice.

Veterans Services

Boston College proudly welcomes all veterans of the United States Armed Forces and is committed to helping them find the resources they require to thrive here.

LGBTQ Resources

Boston College is dedicated to fostering a welcoming, safe, and inclusive environment for all students and to positively impact and improve the LGBTQ+ student experience.

Thea Bowman AHANA and Intercultural Center

This center supports and empowers undergraduate students, with a particular focus on AHANA, multicultural, and multiethnic issues.

Feedback?

We want to hear from you! We welcome suggestions for the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion site.