Syllabus Description:
This graduate seminar focuses on race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, sex/gender, sexuality, disability and other identity differences in the U.S. higher education. Diversity—a collective label for the plurality of our identities—is discussed from a historical perspective, providing a context for contemporary experiences described by and about students, staff, faculty, and administrators. In this course, we examine contemporary issues related to access, participation, climate, curriculum, policy, outcomes, and benefits. The course is designed to introduce students to theories, concepts, policies, controversies, challenges and possibilities related to gender, racial, ethnic, sexual orientation, socio-economic, ability, and religious differences among students, faculty, administrators, and other employees in postsecondary settings. The successful student in this course will be able to describe and analyze historical and contemporary issues related to diversity and equity, as well as discuss current trends and challenges in educational research, theory, policy, and practice.The aim of this course, and its identification as a core course in the program, is to prepare graduates to work in an increasingly pluralistic society and to have multicultural competence for engaging with diverse groups. The goal of multicultural competence seems unarguable; students should have awareness (of self and the impact it has on others), knowledge (of diverse cultures and groups), and skills (ability to openly discuss differences). However, in this course, we will draw upon a critical perspective in our readings and discussion in order to interrogate our (taken-for-granted) assumptions about the ‗goodness‘ of multicultural competence that might leave us falling short in enacting a commitment to social justice or critical consciousness? How might the development of multicultural competencies serve to maintain the status quo more than inspire creative thinking about the root of social problems? These questions and more will be investigated in this course.