Resource Library

Book Review: Teaching for Diversity, by Laura Border & Nancy Van Note Chism (eds.)

A challenge for American classrooms approaching the 21st Century is creating an environment conducive to preparing students to be culturally competent citizens. Teaching for Diversity, edited by Laura L. B. Border and Nancy Van Note Chism, is one resource available in the Faculty Development Library that addresses this challenge.

This book provides insights on a range of instructional issues associated with teaching for diversity. Learning styles, instructional designs, institutional culture, equitable classroom participation across gender, race, and ethnicity, and strengthening cultural competence among faculty and staff are some of the topics covered. This topic is huge. Thus, the book is limited in scope and primarily directed at the classroom and teacher/student interactions. One particularly interesting chapter gives examples of eight universities and their strategies for teaching for diversity.

A paradigm shift is required if university campuses are going to meet the challenges of teaching for diversity. The more homogeneous the campus, such as Union is, the more daunting is the task. How do we create opportunities for our students to build competence in relating to others in cross-cultural situations when the presence of diverse cultures is such a small portion of the population of our community? Short-term travel courses and experiences help, increased recruitment efforts for minority and international students help, employing more faculty and staff would help significantly. Ultimately, though, the university has to be stirred to action to change the climate--the "organizational culture." Only this will make it possible to meet the challenges of diversity and competence building so necessary for today's citizens.

This book might be helpful to you if you want to give some focused attention in your classes and with your student groups to "teach for diversity."