IX 365 · Strategic Leadership Series · Course No. 09
Teaching for Inclusive Excellence
in a Pluralistic World
Preparing faculty to build rigorous classrooms where students think deeply and engage across difference.
FULL COURSE + EXECUTIVE BRIEFING + APPLICATION WORKBOOK
About this course
This course equips faculty and academic leaders to create rigorous learning environments where students can engage difference, examine competing ideas, navigate disagreement, and learn together in an increasingly pluralistic and polarized world. Participants explore how rising polarization, declining trust, identity-centered conflict, concerns about viewpoint diversity, and changing policy expectations are reshaping the classroom, while learning to distinguish disciplined academic inquiry from advocacy and productive disagreement from conduct that crosses into harm. The course integrates Pluralism and Inclusive Excellence as complementary approaches: pluralism provides the framework for engaging different identities, beliefs, and viewpoints constructively, while Inclusive Excellence connects that engagement to stronger learning, critical thinking, perspective-taking, discovery, and student success. Participants apply the ABCDs of Affirming Identity, Building Community, Collaborative Leadership, and Deliberate Dialogue to instructor self-awareness, content design, pedagogy, classroom norms, and the student learning experience, developing practical strategies for facilitating difficult conversations without requiring agreement, conformity, or silence. Ultimately, the course positions the classroom as a critical space for preparing students to think rigorously, engage across difference, challenge ideas with evidence, participate in constructive dialogue, and develop the intellectual and relational capabilities required to lead in a complex, interconnected world.
What you receive
Three components.
Every course.
The Full Course
Self-paced video modules, fully online, 12 months of access.
The Executive Briefing
The course’s core frameworks and findings, in video and written form, distilled for reference.
The Application Workbook
Applied exercises that translate the course to your own institution.
License. Every enrollment is a single-user license for your own professional use. IX 365 materials are not licensed for teaching, consulting, or reproduction for others, and IX 365 does not offer commercial licensing.
Teams and groups. Enrolling more than one person, or building a custom package for your unit or campus, happens through a conversation with our team as part of the Institutional Partner program. Talk with us.
Your instructor
Dr. Damon A. Williams
Chief Catalyst
Author of Strategic Diversity Leadership and The Chief Diversity Officer. One of the original architects of the Inclusive Excellence framework in organizational life. Has worked with more than 1,000 organizations and taught the Strategic Responsiveness and Engagement Model™ to nearly 10,000 leaders since 2023.
Your first step is free. Download the Strategic Responsiveness and Engagement Model™ Brief at no cost. From there, choose the level that fits: $397, $549, $1,997 a year, $3,497, or institutional licensing from $500 per seat. The Brief is included at every level.
Enroll today.
Teaching for Inclusive Excellence in a Pluralistic World: the Full Course, the Executive Briefing in video and written form, and the Application Workbook. $549, 12 months of access. Or unlock the entire curriculum with IX 365 Membership.
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Dr. Damon A. Williams · Chief Catalyst · Center for Strategic Leadership & Social Innovation