“Looking ahead to 2013, the STEM education community is riding on several years of high-profile investments and a strong national rhetoric for reform in math and science education, which is why we must place diversity at the center of the STEM education agenda in 2013. The STEM agenda provides a unique opportunity to advance diversity goals. There are few national—and indeed international—movements that have such a broad base of support and the potential to deeply resonate with individual citizens as well as policymakers from all political persuasions….”

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Friday, November 30, 2012, 12:00pm – 2:00pm, CTL

Presenters: Colin Adams, Mary Agoglia, Susan Pinsker

This event is funded under the Massachusetts Vision Project

This two-hour workshop will explore the relationship between diversity and the teaching-learning process in academic disciplines. Panelists will present short case studies from their perspective. The second hour will feature work with diversity scenarios and brainstorming approaches to common classroom issues. We will conclude with exchanging approaches and further questions that result from the workshop. A $50 stipend will be offered to adjunct and full-time faculty who attend this workshop.  Lunch will be included. Please register by November 15 at http://bit.ly/RI5byr

A “Diversity and Inclusion Summit” will be held  Friday Sept 28, 2012 from 8:30am to 3:30pm  at Middlesex Community College.  To register, please see:   https://www.middlesex.mass.edu/diversityandequityaffairs/summit.aspx

“Every day, it seems — and rightly so — there are new calls to strengthen and diversify the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) pipeline by leaders from across the political spectrum. The education community knows this cause well. As many researchers will tell you, interest in STEM majors and careers by underrepresented students is not the issue. It’s what happens along the way to a STEM degree that poses a problem to the majority of students who start down this path.”

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These four levels of curriculum change put in a nutshell the challenge of creating a true multicultural curriculum. Most institutions tend to get stuck at the first, most superficial level, of adding images, readings, and recognitions to existing content. The deeper levels track both the mandate of critical thinking, and the notion of social action — having students take what they learn about a topic and apply that learning to co-curricular activities. Here are the four levels in a brief but understandable format:

The Contributions Approach

This approach reflects the least amount of involvement in multicultural education approaches.  This is incorporated by selecting books and activities that celebrate holidays, heroes, and special events from various cultures.  For example, spending time reading about Dr. Martin Luther King in January is a common practice that falls into this category.  In this approach, culturally diverse books and issues are not specified as part of the curriculum (Banks, 1999).

The Additive Approach

In this approach content, concepts, themes, and perspectives are added to the curriculum without changing its basic structure.  This involves incorporating literature by and about people from diverse cultures into the mainstream curriculum without changing the curriculum.  For example, examining the perspective of a Native American about Thanksgiving would be adding cultural diversity to the traditional view of Thanksgiving.  However, this approach does not necessarily transform thinking (Banks, 1999).

The Transformation Approach

This approach actually changes the structure of the curriculum and encourages students to view concepts, issues, themes, and problems from several ethnic perspectives and points of view.  For example, a unit on Thanksgiving would become an entire unit exploring cultural conflict.  This type of instruction involves critical thinking and involves a consideration of diversity as a basic premise (Banks, 1999).

The Social Action Approach

This approach combines the transformation approach with activities to strive for social change.  Students are not only instructed to understand and question social issues, but to also do something about important about it.  For example, after participating in a unit about recent immigrants to North America, students may write letters to senators, Congress, and newspaper editors to express their opinions about new policies (Banks, 1999)

Reference

           Banks, J.A. (1999).  An Introduction to Multicultural Education (2nd ed.). Boston: Allyn and Bacon.

http://www.intime.uni.edu/multiculture/curriculum/approachs.htm

New Arguments for Diversifying the Curriculum: Advancing Students’ Cognitive Development

by Hans Herbert Kögler, Professor of Philosophy, University of North Florida

http://www.diversityweb.org/digest/sm99/curriculum.htm