|
1
|
- Alma R. Clayton-Pedersen, Ph. D.
- Vice President, Office of Education and Institutional Renewal, AAC&U
|
|
2
|
- Diversity infused into all aspects of campus life raises profound
questions about higher education’s mission and purpose
- Necessitates a new approach
- Learning that engages rich diversity provides all students with the
cognitive skills, intercultural competencies, and civic understanding
needed for a 21st world
|
|
3
|
- Diversity: Individual differences (e.g., personality, learning styles,
and life experiences) and group/social
differences (e.g., race/ethnicity, gender, country of origin, and
ability as well as cultural, political, religious, or other
affiliations) that can be engaged in the service of learning
|
|
4
|
- Inclusion: The active, intentional, and ongoing engagement with
diversity—in people, in the curriculum, in the co-curriculum, and in
communities (intellectual, social, cultural, geographical) with which
individuals might connect—in ways that increase one’s awareness, content
knowledge, cognitive sophistication, and empathic understanding of the
complex ways individuals interact within systems and institutions.
|
|
5
|
- establish hallmarks of academic excellence and institutional
effectiveness
- operationalize inclusion in campus functioning
- ensure academic freedom responsibilities are understood and practiced
- create an educational process that has diversity and inclusion at the
center
|
|
6
|
- Knowledge of Human Cultures and the Natural and Physical World
- Intellectual and Practical Skills
- Individual and Social Responsibilities
- Integrative Learning
|
|
7
|
- The Higher Education Learning Environment Today: Disparate Elements
|
|
8
|
- Characterized by:
- Isolated functioning of each part, with specific leadership for each
(“silos”)
- A focus on the uniqueness of learners mainly as a way to have different
perspectives represented in the classroom
- Elements that serve as ends in themselves to sustain the institution and
its enterprises
- Institution in “reaction mode” toward an array of moral, political,
economic, legal, and practical imperatives, with different imperatives
at play on different campuses
|
|
9
|
- Considers the impact that decisions made about the environment has on
learners
- Utilizes each element intentionally to enhance learning for everyone in
the environment
- Creates synergy at the points where various elements of learning
intersect (through communication, coordination, collaboration)
|
|
10
|
- Makes the most of the uniqueness of each learner—as an individual and as
a member of multiple identity groups—to enhance key learning outcomes
- Uses learning facilitators, facilities, and resources in the service of
learning and knowledge development to strengthen our nation’s diverse
democracy and quality of life for all
|
|
11
|
|
Notes
