Advancing Equity through Professional Development

This chapter argues that professional development is a crucial and underutilized lever for creating the conditions that advance educational equity, primarily because higher education practitioners’ knowledge, skills, and abilities matter so much to student success. The authors suggest that much can be gleaned from the field of educational development (professional development focused on teaching and learning) that offers guidance on furthering equity in higher education more broadly. A historical overview and analysis of diversity and inclusion efforts in US educational development highlights lessons learned and obstacles encountered. Insights are distilled into a set of ten guiding principles for equity-focused professional development across institutional departments and types, categorized at the level of the individual, the collective, and the institution. The chapter closes by recognizing contemporary disruptions, emerging challenges, and the risks they carry for the most vulnerable in higher education, urging readers to stay the course.