As Professor Diemer writes, “quantitative courses are commonly experienced as notation-heavy technical exercises that are divorced from both the lived experiences of students and from larger societal issues.” Students enter his advanced statistical method classes expecting to drilled with complex equations, often intimidated by the material, believing that they’ll never be “good at math.” 

By integrating issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion into all aspects of the course, this project provides a roadmap for exploring the impact and causes of pressing social issues across various academic disciplines, especially those with heavy technical content. With a syllabus that centers the perspectives of diverse scholars, who are sorely underrepresented in other quantitative courses, students learn not only the advanced quantitative skills, but how to use those techniques to “speak the language” of those in power. Students go from being “statistics skittish” to being able to communicate and advance DEI in spaces where facility with highly technical quantitative concepts and techniques may be privileged. 

In combination with a classroom climate where students are empowered to ask questions and make mistakes, and a self-reflective instructor aware of their own privilege and power in the classroom, this model can be readily replicated to education and social science quantitative methods classes. These innovations have significantly impacted student learning here at Michigan, increasing interest, enrollment, and persistence in quantitative courses, particularly among female students and students of color, explicitly puncturing the idea of who can be “good at stats.”