Equity in the Classroom:
Where Learning Reflects
the World We Serve
At Framingham State University, equity is not an abstract principle, it is a daily practice that shapes how students learn, how faculty teach, and how knowledge is understood and applied. In classrooms across disciplines, faculty are intentionally designing learning experiences that help students grapple with inequality, examine power and privilege, and better understand the diverse world they will lead and serve.
“When faculty design courses that honor diverse perspectives and challenge students to think critically, they are advancing both student success and the public good,” says Framingham State Provost, Dr. Kristen Porter-Utley. “This work strengthens academic excellence and ensures our graduates are prepared to serve diverse communities with integrity.”
Across the College of Arts & Humanities, faculty are using literature, language, and cultural analysis to help students examine global and local systems of power. In courses such as Contemporary Global Literature, students explore themes including migration, authoritarianism, and surveillance - not as distant concepts, but as forces shaping their own lives and communities. Through discussion, research, and reflective writing, students are encouraged to imagine more ethical, sustainable, and empathetic futures.
Within the College of STEM, Dr. Vandana Singh has helped pioneer an approach to teaching the climate crisis that pairs scientific rigor with ethical and social justice inquiry, asking students to confront the reality that the communities least responsible for climate change often bear its greatest consequences. Her work has been cited by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
“We can’t sugarcoat that things are going to be difficult and are already difficult for marginalized communities,” she says.
In the social sciences, equity-centered pedagogy invites students to analyze systems rather than individuals. Courses examining capitalism, crime, social control, gender, and law push students to understand how structural inequalities shape outcomes in education, justice, and public policy. These classes encourage students to question dominant narratives and consider how institutions can both perpetuate and dismantle inequity.
Merchandising Alum Royce Veal ’11, who recently returned to FSU to pursue a master’s degree in Counseling Psychology, says he is already applying knowledge from the classroom to the non-profit organization he oversees.
“We talk a lot in our Leadership Psychology class about the importance of adaptive change versus technical fixes that don’t get to the root of a problem,” says Veal, who is as Executive Director of the Chills Diamond Ring Education Foundation, a nonprofit serving youth and adults in Greater Boston. “It’s provided me with new insight into how I want to grow my organization and provide even greater impact.”
What unites these efforts is a shared belief: equity in the classroom prepares students not just for careers, but for citizenship. By engaging difficult questions, honoring lived experience, and fostering respectful dialogue, Framingham State classrooms become spaces where students learn to think critically, listen deeply, and act ethically.
