This article promises to help instructors "learn how care-based, culturally relevant class openings build belonging, strengthen faculty-student relationships, and increase student engagement from the first minutes." It struck me as I read it how the centre of focus and attention is on the instructor throughout. My approach is different, more direct, and (if I may say) less performative. Near the beginning of most of my talks or presentations, I say something like "this presentation is about you, not me." What that means, I say briefly, is that participants can change what's happening at any time - ask questions, make comments, challenge arguments, switch to a different topic. I tell them what I have planned, and ask if that's OK. Most audiences just go with the flow, which makes sense, because they've come to take advantage of my expertise, but sometimes they want to do something different, and I'm always game for that, because what we're doing is something mutual, together, and not 'me doing something to them'.
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