Diversity Innovations Faculty and Staff Development

Teaching Diversity

American Indian Inclusion Manual (pdf), by Martin Reinhardt and Traci Maday
This manual was developed for a broad range of educators, both Indian and non-Indian, engaged in the process of teaching others about American Indian concepts and issues across the curriculum. It is not intended to be used as a text for any specific area of American Indian or Native American Studies, except perhaps as supplementary or complementary material for a methods course for classroom educators. We have purposefully left the definition of "classroom" general enough to be useful in many types of educational environments. When used in conjunction with the various resources we reference, this manual provides a starting point or restarting point for good American Indian inclusion.

Teaching Tolerance
The Southern Poverty Law Center, which publishes Teaching Tolerance seeks to combat hate, intolerance, and discrimination. Teaching Tolerance spotlights educators, schools, and curriculum resources dedicated to promoting respect for differences in the classroom and beyond. The magazine also provides educators with activities and resource recommendations. To reach this site, you must click the icon for Teaching Tolerance from the Southern Poverty Law Center's homepage.

Tolerance.org

Tolerenace.org is a website designed to combat hate crimes by outlining methods of prevention. This site offers various classroom activities that help students to uncover hidden biases and deconstruct biased language.

What Does it Mean to Teach Diversity in Rural Minnesota by Anne J. Aby, Worthington Community College

Aby reports that, "diversity issues dealing with race, class and gender are now represented in many of our course offerings even at this fairly racially homogenous college located in a demographically changing region." As she describes the changes she has seen in WCC courses and ways of making diversity visible to students, she concludes, "while many might assume that the region lacks, then, even racial/ethnic diversity, diversity is, in fact, all around our campus."

Teaching Diversity: Ohio State University, Fisher College of Business
These teaching tips require readers to go beyond addressing issues of diversity or multiculturalism and ask them to become aware of how students are treated as well as how they treat each other. Spanning disciplines and professions, these issues are important in all classes whether the format is lecture, discussion or team projects. Susan L. Josephs emphasizes that each class, regardless of format or discipline, offers the opportunity to increase awareness of diversity and multicultural issues.

Program on Intergroup Relations, Conflict, and Community at the University of Michigan The Intergroup Relations, Conflict, and Community (IGRCC) program links formal education course work to the social experiences of the students outside of the classroom. Site includes information on Intergroup Dialogues and Alternative Spring Breaks.

Creating Inclusive Classrooms

Creating Inclusive College Classrooms, by Shari Saunders and Diana Kardia, was written for the Center for Research on Learning and Teaching at the University of Michigan to examine five aspects of teaching that can promote or hinder an inclusive classroom, such as classroom climate, course content, and teaching materials.

Annotated Bibliographies on Multicultural Teaching, Learning, and Faculty Development
This list of annotated bibliographies was developed for participants at the University of Michigan's "Summer Institute '98: Building Multiculturalism into Faculty Development." It includes books and articles relevant to promoting diversity in the classroom.

Teaching for Cultural Fluency, a monograph created by Mount St. Mary's College, helps students and teachers interested in becoming culturally fluent. Visit Mount St. Mary's Institutional profile, to read more about their own Teaching for Cultural Fluency Center. For more information contact: Joy Jacobs, Assistant Director of Public Relations Mount St. Mary's College, 12022 Chalon Road, Los Angeles, CA 90049-1599

Notes from Academe: Senegalese Scholar Focuses on Race in American Society by Carolyn J. Mooney

Dr. Ndongo is an associate professor of American literature at Cheikh Anta Diop, the larger of Senegal's two public universities, and he began thinking about how to teach racism to Africans last year when he was a Fulbright scholar at the University of Californa at Irvine. One day, at a seminar on teaching slavery, he says, "I realized that slavery in the American context was quite different. In Senegal, people associate slavery with economic and social factors, not skin color." Dr. Ndongo developed the course on racism to help his students -- many of whom are studying English in hopes of landing a better job -- to understand the complexities of race in American society.

Building Creativity and Collaboration in Diverse Classrooms by Jose Calderon, Associate Professor in Sociology and Chicano Studies, Pitzer College
Professor Calderon describes the use of creative cultural media in his sociology classes to connect the theoretical with the practical and build collaborative learning and cooperative ethnic relations.

Learning Communities

Intercultural Studies Project: A Living/Learning College, St. Lawrence University
The Intercultural Studies Project is a living/learning center devoted to engaging faculty and students in the study of cultural diversity and the critical practices which promote it. This project imbeds intergroup dialogue pedagogy within a diverse living/learning center called the Intercultural House. Students who live in The Intercultural House are enrolled in Introduction to Intercultural Studies (CE 150). This course will engage students in an interdisciplinary study of U.S. cultural diversity in a global and comparative context.

Women in Science and Engineering (WISE) Residence Program, University of Michigan
The WISE residence program brings together over 120 first year and sophomore women to live together in an academically supportive living-learning community where women with similar academic interests and educational and career goals can learn from as well as with one another. This residence program stems from the larger Women in Science and Engineering Program (WISE), whose goal of increasing the number of women students who choose majors, advanced degrees, and careers in science, engineering and mathematics is achieved by offering a variety programs and resources for K-12, undergraduate and graduate students.

FISE House - First year In Science and Engineering, Pennsylvania State University
The FISE interest house offers a supportive living-learning environment targeted at retaining women and students of color in technical majors. FISE students live in a scholarly and diverse living-learning community that offers students an opportunity to live and study with students who share not only an academic orientation, but many of the same initial courses.

Developing Diversity Through Learning Communities by Roberta S. Matthews, at Marymount College
"[The New York Learning communities program]helps participants explore new frontiers and provides a safe environment for difficult dialogues," explains Roberta Matthews. In this brief description of how schools are developing diversity through learning communities, she provides key references for further reading as well as contact information.

Technology-Based Learning

Diversity in the Classroom: Bridging Difference and Distance Through Computer-mediated Communication by Leslie Harris, Instructional Technology Facilitator, SUNY-Plattsburgh
Harris describes computer-mediated communication used in his class called Families Across Cultures as a way to bring diverse exchanges into seemingly "homogenous" classrooms. He notes that "computer mediation alleviates the panoptic pressure of oral discourse and reduces the struggle to monopolize the discourse space. Students no longer have to take turns to speak; all can participate simultaneously, as they type their responses via the computer conferencing system."

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