MSU Thoughts on Teaching #3 Dealing with Diversity When We, As Educators, Allow Our Pedagogy

MSU Thoughts on Teaching #3 Dealing With Diversity

“When we, as educators, allow our pedagogy to be radically changed by our recognition of a multi-cultural world, we can give students the education they desire and deserve. We can teach in ways that transform consciousness, creating a climate of free expression that is the essence of a truly liberatory liberal arts education.” - bell hooks Teaching to Transgress (p. 44)

Change can be painful and intellectual change, particularly so when questions prompt us to confront our own, closely held concepts of who we are as teachers. But to be the kind of “transformative” educators bell hooks describes, at some point we must consider questions that provoke us to see ourselves and our students as something other than “the Other.”

Recent tragedies have caused us to become more aware of our students. I hope we are also considering more thoughtfully diversity in the college classroom. We know that our students come from a wide range of racial and social class backgrounds, but have we considered often enough that they come to MSU in search of knowledge and skills for a variety of reasons? Part of making our classrooms into diverse communities in which participants exchange ideas and opinions freely means that first, some of us must rethink our “sacred” concepts of ourselves as teachers and second, we had better reconsider how we think of our students. If our goal as teachers is to provoke our charges into creating for themselves concepts of the world that more meaningfully explain relational differences, we need to avoid behaviors that cause unnecessary distance between our students and ourselves.

Benjamin Bowser and his colleagues in Confronting Diversity Issues on Campus recommend that teachers do four things to promote better inclusion in the classroom. They are, in abbreviated form:

1. Examine and challenge your own attitudes and beliefs about the purpose of education. How might your students’ motivations for attending MSU be different than your approach to teaching? 2. Develop rhetorical and teaching strategies that relate to your students. Push students in to relating class material to their own experiences. Ask often: Why should you know this?

3. Be open, pay attention to the indirect relational messages that students may be sending you. Sometimes an indication that you care makes all the difference.

4. Assess students’ level of preparation for the course early in the semester, preferably at the beginning. Do it routinely throughout. If necessary, make adjustments to the syllabus. As teachers we must address why, when, and how we assess learning.

Dealing with diversity, really learning to appreciate meaningfully the relational differences of our students means that some of us need to break out of our old patterns to appreciate what our students can offer. Doing so will promote the kind of community bell hooks describes, open, honest, perhaps a little painful at times, but safe.

Today’s Teaching Tip: Assess your students’ interests at the beginning of the semester, before you create the final version of your syllabus. Find a way to include some of those interests in the course. Point out in the syllabus when you are making this “compromise” and why.

Sources: Following are a number of resources addressing diversity in college teaching and the role of multi-culturalism in modern classrooms. I’ve included hooks and Giovanni because their thoughts concerning diversity’s impact on higher education characterize some of the best thinking (and writing) about what modern educators should strive to become.

Adams, Maurianne, Ed. Promoting Diversity in College Classrooms: Innovative Responses for the Curriculum, Faculty, and Institutions. San Francisco: Jossey- Bass, 1992.

Alger, Jonathan R. “The Educational Value of Diversity.” Academe. V. 83, No. 1 (January-February, 1997): 20 – 23.

Bowser, Benjamin, Auletta, Gale S., & Jones, Terry. Confronting Diversity Issues on Campus. Survival Skills for Scholars Series, Ed. Mitchell Allen. Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications, 1994.

Giovanni, Nikki. “A Theory of Patience.” Chapter in Racism 101. New York: William Morrow and Company, Inc. 1994.

Halpern, Diane F. and Associates. Changing College Classrooms: New Teaching and Learning Strategies for an Increasingly Complex World. San Francisco: Jossey- Bass, 1994. hooks, bell. Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom. New York: Routledge, 1994.

Meacham, Jack. “Conflict in Multiculturalism Classes: Too Much Heat or Too Little?” Liberal Education. (Fall, 1995): 24-29.

Roberts, Helen. Teaching From A Multi-Cultural Perspective. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 1993.

Rudenstein, Neil L. “Why A Diverse Student Body Is So Important.” The Chronicle of Higher Education. V. 42, No. 32 (April 19, 1996): B1-B2.

Schoem, David. Ed. Multicultural Teaching in the University. Westport, CT: Praeger, 1993.

University of Michigan Diverse Democracy Project http://www.umich.edu/~divdemo

Next week: Strategies for Promoting Good Discussions