“I have a lot of content to cover, so there’s really no time to address multiculturalism.”

Diversity, once largely centered on race and ethnicity, has evolved over the years to include a broad range of personal attributes, experiences, and backgrounds, each interlocking to create one’s social identity.

For example, Texas A&M University defines diversity as “The inclusion, welcome, and support of individuals from all groups, encompassing the various characteristics of persons in our community. The characteristics can include, but are not limited to: age, background, citizenship, disability, education, ethnicity, family status, gender, gender identity/expression, geographical location, language, military experience, political views, race, religion, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, and work experience.”

When viewed through this lens, it becomes easier to see the importance of teaching inclusively, regardless of discipline or ethnic makeup of your course. But what exactly makes a course multicultural?

In the recent online seminar, Four Strategies to Engage the Multicultural Classroom, Texas A&M’s Vice President and Associate Provost for Diversity, Dr. Christine A. Stanley, and Dr. Matthew L. Ouellett, Associate Director of the Center for Teaching & Faculty Development at the University of Massachusetts – Amherst, outlined a framework for multicultural course design. As outlined below, the four conceptual areas — instructors, students, teaching methods and content — are all inextricably linked, while integrating into the larger campus climate and culture.

1. Who are you? Spend some time examining your own experiences, values, assumptions and stereotypes. How have you come to understand your complex social identities? Which aspects are most salient for you in the classroom?
2. Who are your students? Get to know your students, and just as important, give them opportunities to get to know each other. The more students have invested in helping to create a positive classroom environment, the more likely they are to take risks, share their viewpoints, and hear each other out even if they may disagree, Ouellett said.
3. What are your pedagogical choices? Create a more student-centered teaching model that engages students. “What we need to do is shift the dynamics so we’re less about demonstrating our expertise and more about getting students to build their own ability to construct knowledge,” Ouellett said.
4. What are your content choices? Understand that the principles of an inclusive course apply across all disciplines. Model inclusive behavior by ensuring diverse perspectives, and use examples and illustrations that reflect the diversity that may be in your classroom, Stanley said.

Managing Difficult Conversations
One of the biggest challenges to embracing a multicultural course design is being able to effectively manage potentially polarizing topics where emotions can run high and old stereotypes are exposed. It’s a given that, at some point, a student will say something inflammatory that completely catches everyone off guard and it’s important to have what Ouellett calls “pedagogical parachutes” for those times when you just don’t know how to respond. Examples include: Can you tell me more? How did you come to believe this? Are there other perspectives on this topic?

During the more intense situations, you may want to give students a chance to collect their thoughts and respond to writing prompts, such as How do you feel at this moment? You also could break students into small groups with the discussion prompt: What do we need from each other to continue?

“It’s important to recognize, too, that as instructors we’ve all been there and there is nothing wrong with coming back the next class period and admitting ‘Hey, we were having this discussion last time and I don’t think I handled it particularly well. Let’s talk about it some more,’” Stanley said. “I think that goes a long way with students.”

Four Strategies to Engage the Multicultural Classroom

Creating a welcoming and connected environment for students of all backgrounds is a priority in higher education. This seminar will enhance your professional understanding and engagement with diversity while teaching you a comprehensive and tested approach to teaching inclusively.

Learn how to improve your teaching and embrace diversity with Four Strategies to Engage the Multicultural Classroom, a 90-minute audio online seminar with Drs. Christine Stanley and Matthew Ouellet.

Dr. Stanley is vice president and associate provost for diversity and professor of higher education administration at Texas A&M University. She received the Robert Pierleoni Spirit Award from the Professional and Organizational Development Network in Higher Education for her leadership in diversity and faculty development, and she has consulted on faculty development nationally and internationally. Dr. Ouellett, is the associate director of the Center for Teaching & Faculty Development at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. He partners with faculty and academic administrators campus-wide on initiatives that support teaching excellence, respect, and inclusion; directs the Lilly Fellows Program; and is a lecturer in the Department of Student Development.

Starting with a current, operational definition of “diversity” and the four key points of entry into multicultural course design, Dr. Ouellett and Dr. Stanley, guide you through a framework for creating and sustaining an inclusive classroom.

Order the CD + Transcript Package

A Comprehensive Diversity Model
This seminar provides you with a comprehensive model for working with diversity issues. You’ll learn:

• An enhanced definition of diversity, going beyond race and gender
• A framework for multicultural course design and operation
• Appropriate techniques for critical discussion in a multicultural classroom
• Teaching strategies to promote diversity in your classes.

Drs. Ouellett and Stanley provide practical information you can use right away, such as how to:

• Use self-assessment, student feedback and professional development throughout your career to enhance your ability to teach inclusively
• Build mutually educational relationships with colleagues from different backgrounds
• Solicit and incorporate useful feedback from students
• Link your course’s learning outcomes to diversity and social justice.

You’ll also receive valuable support materials to help you implement what you learn, including:

• Guidelines for next steps
• Sample documents
• Rubrics
• Do’s and Don’ts
• List of additional resources
• Prompts for self-assessment
• Ideas to spark further discussion.

View a brief clip from the seminar:

When you order the recording of this seminar on CD, you’ll also receive the complete transcript.

An optional Campus Access License is available for an additional $200. It allows the purchasing institution to upload the CD of the seminar onto the institution’s password-protected internal website for unlimited access by the entire campus community.

Order the CD + Transcript Package

All seminars include a discussion guide for facilitators
Participating in a Magna Online Seminar as a team can help leverage unique insights, foster collaboration, and build momentum for change. Each seminar includes a Discussion Guide for Facilitators which provides step-by-step instructions for generating productive discussions and thoughtful reflection. You’ll also get guidelines for continuing the conversation after the event, implementing the strategies discussed, and creating a feedback loop for sharing best practices and challenges.

Learning Styles: Theory and research confirm that students have preferred learning styles that can enhance their learning effectiveness. There are many instruments available to measure students’ learning styles from related literature. The Learning Style Survey developed by Diablo Valley College is a popular online instrument used for determining students’ learning styles, and won an award for “Best Use of Technology in Education for 1999.”

This survey provides immediate results on students’ learning style preferences, which I then use to gauge the amount and types of multimedia to include in PPT lectures. U.S. research suggest that typically, 30 percent of students prefer learning visually (e.g., images, charts, maps, videos, and notes), 34 percent auditorily (e.g., lecture tapes, sound bites, background music, and discussion) and 36 percent kinesthetically/tactilely (e.g., keyboarding quiz answers or comments, and manipulating learning material).

Using these findings as a multimedia gauge for a 30-slide PPT lecture, roughly 30 percent of the slides (9) will contain graphics, 34 percent (10 slides) audio or sound, and 36 percent (11 slides) interactive content (keyboarding, quiz in PPT, animations, and links to possible simulated exercises). I also include any detailed notes within the PPT “Click to Add Notes” feature for the particular slide, so students have all the information on the topic at hand. I would hasten to add that the latter is not absolute and other modalities can be used to present online course content.

Cultural/International Backgrounds: In addition to knowing students’ learning style preferences, I also ask my online students to share a little about themselves including their cultural/international backgrounds. In this way, the online learning community (students and instructor) can have a shared understanding and appreciation of its diversity. Using this information, I can choose graphics, audio, and interactive content that will accommodate for their cultural/international backgrounds in making learning more interesting and stimulating for students. For example, I would not place a black border or rim around pictures of persons as this symbolizes death for Chinese students. The color red can have both negative and positive meanings culturally so I use it sparingly.

Further, while Americans hold their dogs and cats in high esteem, other cultures do not. As such, I am culturally sensitive when using animal graphics. If I have Caribbean students, their infamous reggae, calypso, or steelpan music is included in the PPT audio. In addition, combat scenes are quite acceptable to U.S. students, who are reminded daily of the different wars being fought by U.S. troops around the globe. However, such scenes may appear abrasive to other international students, so I choose course content that will be generally acceptable to all students.

In being sensitive to online students’ learning style preferences and cultural/international backgrounds, I think we can enhance our online PPT lectures in making them easier for students to relate to and learn from effectively.

Debra Ferdinand, PhD, is a recent consulting distance education facilitator with Cipriani College of Labour and Co-operative Studies, Trinidad.

References:
Diablo Valley College (1999). A learning style survey for college. Retrieved August 19, 2010 from http://www.metamath.com/multiple/multiple_choice_questions.html.

Miller, S. C. (2007). Learning styles. Retrieved August 19, 2010, from http://www.4faculty.org/includes/digdeeper/lesson4/learningstyles.htm.

Carlson-Pickering, J. (1999, November). MI & technology: A winning combination. Retrieved August 19, 2010, from http://www.ri.net/RITTI_Fellows/Carlson-Pickering/MI_Tech.htm#Learning%20and%20Our%20Emotions.

A new report, Diversifying the STEM Pipeline: The Model Replication Institutions Program, released by the Institute for Higher Education Policy (IHEP), describes effective practices and policies that have enhanced and strengthened the STEM offerings at nine MSIs.

These institutions participate in the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Model Replication Institutions (MRI) initiative, which builds on best practices in STEM undergraduate education identified previously by a NSF- and NASA-supported, 11-year-old program called the Model Institutions of Excellence (MIE). The participating MRI minority-serving institutions include: Alabama A&M University, Navajo Technical College, New York City College of Technology, Northwest Indian College, Paine College, Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute, Stillman College, Texas A&M University Corpus Christi, and Universidad del Turabo.

“Clearly, a driver of the future global economy is STEM and a way to close the gap in STEM degree completion rates is by tapping into underrepresented minorities who are the fastest growing segment in our population,” IHEP President Michelle Asha Cooper, Ph.D. said in a statement. “These institutions have set an excellent example of how to increase student enrollment and graduation rates while remaining committed to expanding and diversifying the STEM workforce and closing the achievement gaps in the STEM fields among Black, Hispanic, and Native American students.”

Key Practices to Improve STEM Education among Minority Students
The report finds that the nine MRI minority-serving institutions replicated the following seven components from the MIE model to improve their STEM programs:

• Precollege Initiatives. Prepare matriculating students to succeed in college and introduce students to STEM disciplines and careers.
• Student Support. Provide social, financial, and academic assistance to students.
• Undergraduate Research. Enable students to become directly involved in ongoing research.
• Faculty Development. Support recruitment, retention, and professional development of STEM faculty.
• Curriculum Development. Align curricula with accepted content standards and concepts relevant to the marketplace, the community, and the student population.
• Physical Infrastructure. Upgrade and maintain facilities and equipment.
• Graduate Programs and Science Career Initiatives. Facilitate admission to and retention in STEM graduate programs and careers.

Diversifying the STEM Pipeline: The Model Replication Institutions Program offers several recommendations—geared toward institutions, private foundations, researchers, and federal and state policymakers—to improve recruitment, retention, graduation, and matriculation into STEM graduate programs or careers.

Some suggested approaches include strengthening mathematics preparation through K-12 partnerships, providing statewide opportunities to share best practices, and investing in institutional data capacity.

Diversifying the STEM Pipeline: The Model Replication Institutions Program is available for download here.

But there are a couple of problems. First, faculty often don’t think of themselves as funny—some are, but most academics would not make a living as stand-up comedians. In fact, any number of faculty cannot successfully tell a joke, even after carefully rehearsing the lines and easing their tension with liquid libations. So, how might a serious academic find his or her way to humor that works in the classroom?

And then there’s the problem of propriety. Not all humor is appropriate, especially given the commitment of higher education to cultural respect, diversity, and equality. If you can’t make jokes about ethnicity, politics, religion, or sex, is there anything left for one-liners?

Fortunately some recent research offers help on both fronts. For faculty who don’t think they can be funny in the classroom, there is a wide range of different kinds of humor. Options abound. Early research (referenced in the article below) identified seven different kinds of humor: funny stories, funny comments, jokes, professional humor, puns, cartoons, and riddles.

The purpose of the study referenced below was to identify what students consider appropriate and inappropriate humor. Researchers did that by asking 284 undergraduates to list several examples of “appropriate and suitable” humor and then asking them to do the same for humor that was “offensive and/or not fitting for the class.” The students had no trouble identifying examples in both categories.

This student sample generated 712 examples of appropriate teacher humor, which researchers placed in four different categories. The first, which contained almost half the listed examples, researchers called “related humor.” This humor linked with course materials; examples included a physics instructor who regularly played with a Slinky to demonstrate certain physics principles or another who used course material in jokes: “What do you call someone who likes to go out a lot?” Answer: “Fungi.”

The second category was unrelated humor. These first two categories contained more than 90 percent of the examples students provided, although researchers note that there was overlap between the two categories. Examples in this second category include some teasing of student groups or individual students, or some stereotypical student behavior such as procrastinating.

The remainder of the appropriate examples were self-disparaging humor in which the instructor made jokes or told stories that poked fun at or belittled him or herself. Then there was a very small category of unintentional or unplanned humor when something funny happened spontaneously in class.

Equally valuable in this research is the analysis of inappropriate humor, for which students offered 513 examples, which researchers again placed in four categories: disparaging humor targeting students, disparaging humor targeting others, offensive humor, and self-disparaging humor.

More than 40 percent of the examples fell into the first category where instructors disparaged students individually or collectively. Students were disparaged for their lack of intelligence, gender, or appearance, as well as for their opinions.

When the disparaging humor targeted others, it used stereotypes and such specific group characteristics as gender, race/ethnicity, or university affiliation. Some inappropriate humor examples were listed as offensive because they contained sexual material or vulgar verbal or nonverbal expressions, or they were too personal.

In conclusion, researchers encourage faculty to explore humor related to the course content. Students always considered it appropriate. Moreover, many reported that it helped them relate and recall important course information.

Reference: Wanzer, M. B., Frymier, A. B., Wojtaszczyk, A. M., and Smith, T. 2006. Appropriate and inappropriate uses of humor by teachers. Communication Education 55 (2): 178–96.

Excerpted from Humor: Getting a Handle on What’s Appropriate, The Teaching Professor, Feb. 2007.

Teng administered questionnaires to 59 students (13 of whom were Asian) at three institutions to answer the following research questions:

• How does Asian students’ perception of social presence correlate with their perceived interaction in online discussions? With their perceived learning? With their satisfaction?
• Are there differences in the correlations between Asian and Caucasian students?
• Do they perceive the observed variables differently?

The survey results indicate that students’ perception of social presence was strongly correlated to their perceived learning, their perceived interaction, and their satisfaction with the course.

Asian students, however, perceived less social presence than their Caucasian counterparts did. Although this perceived lower level of social presence was not correlated with significant differences in satisfaction or perceived learning, Teng recommends that instructors pay attention to the issue of ethnicity and how it might affect communication in the online classroom.

She offers the following suggestions for overcoming these differences in social presence among different ethnicities:

• Provide non-content-related icebreaker activities at the beginning of the course.
• Teach students how to communicate online.
• Allow students opportunities to express their needs.
• Encourage participation, and acknowledge students’ contributions.

Excerpted from Study: Social Presence Perceived Differently by Different Ethnic Groups, May 2007, Online Classroom.

2. Recognize the diversity of opinions and backgrounds of your students. Learning takes place from exposure to a wide variety of views. Be open to all perspectives, and ask students to voice their points responsibly.

3. Add a statement to your syllabus. Explain any material or topic you plan to introduce that is sensitive or controversial, so that students are prepared for potential sensitivity issues. Explicitly state the classroom norms for communication and dialogue, and provide students with a specific understanding about how to frame their opinions.

4. Be prepared. Even if you do not think there will be a reaction to an issue you raise, plan ahead what you will do if you encounter one. Know yourself and your own emotional triggers. Don’t personalize remarks.

5. Foster civility in the classroom. Focus the discussion on the topic, not the individual student. Don’t personalize the exchanges or the comments. Foster an environment of debate and dialogue in which it is OK to disagree.

6. Protect all students equally during moments of potential conflict. Seek to draw out understanding and communication as well as opinions. Ask them to step back, listen to other opinions, and analyze why they feel the way they do.

7. Ask students to take time out for reflection. Assign a writing exercise about the issue as a calming follow up to discussion. Or assign a research paper or essay, in which students must argue for the position with which they disagree.

8. Use your office hours. You may need to discuss issues outside class, particularly if a student has been emotionally affected by pointed remarks or argued stances. Help them learn from the experience, and to voice their opinions thoughtfully and civilly by engaging them in out-of-the-class conversation.

9. Acknowledge hurtful or offensive remarks. When student comments and/or actions are potentially hurtful, immediately move the dialogue to less personal examinations of why words can hurt. Ignoring the situation will leave other students feeling unprotected and victimized, and give tacit permission for the behavior to continue. If you are unable to find a workable position, let students know that this is an important issue and that you will address it later.

10. Know both your rights and your responsibilities as a classroom instructor. If a student suffers from an emotional reaction or angry outburst because of a sensitive topic discussion, acknowledge it, and ask them if they would like to remain or leave for a while. If you feel the situation is serious, inform Counseling and Psychological Services.

Adapted from:

• UC Berkeley’s Office of Educational Development: Sensitive Topics in the Classroom
• Intergroup Relations Center, Arizona State University, Discussion Ground Rules
• Lee Warren, “Managing Hot Moments in the Classroom.” Derek Bok Center for Teaching and Learning, Harvard University.

Reprinted with permission from the Center for Teaching and Faculty Development at San Francisco State University (http://ctfd.sfsu.edu/).

Based on the stories in the book and her own experiences, Stanley recommends the following strategies to help retain faculty of color:

• Grow your own—Consider hiring candidates who attended graduate school at your institution. The relationships they formed as students can help them feel more connected to the institution as faculty.
• Try to understand the experiences of faculty of color—Talk about diversity issues in exit interviews as well as in ongoing conversations with faculty who remain at the institution.
• Cluster hiring—Faculty of color often feel lonely, isolated, and “constantly under the microscope.” To alleviate these feelings, hire more than one faculty member of color at a time when possible.
• Provide mentoring—“I wouldn’t be where I am today without mentors,” Stanley says. “They were not afraid to give me constructive and critical feedback when I needed it. They didn’t walk on eggshells around me. They helped me navigate landmines and helped me get into certain networks that I probably wouldn’t have access to. But I think in academia … ‘mentoring’ sort of connotes that somehow you’re deficient in some way, and, quite frankly, some faculty don’t seek mentoring because they don’t want to be perceived as deficient.”
• Limit service activities—Faculty of color often take on a lot of service responsibilities as a way to give back to the community. Department chairs or administrators should act as a buffer between the faculty and those who ask them to serve on committees to protect these faculty members’ time and enable them to engage in activities that count toward promotion and tenure.
• Encourage a deeper dialogue on diversity—People are often reluctant to broach the subject of diversity for fear of appearing racist, sexist, or homophobic. But the issues must be out in the open, or else there won’t be any progress. Stanley appreciates her mentors’ candor in talking about diversity. For example, they often ask Stanley’s opinion as to whether something they said might be perceived as racist. ‘They always tell me, you can call me on things I’m doing wrong.’ And I consider these individuals strong allies for diversity. When Stanley gets upset over something she perceives as racist, “they never say to me, ‘Well, Christine, I think you’re being too sensitive’ or ‘You’re reading too much into it.’ Instead, they ask, ‘Why do you feel that way?’ or ‘Why did you reach that conclusion?’”
• Take action to prevent faculty of color from being lured away—“Don’t wait until the negotiation stage with the other institution. Sit down and have a conversation with that person, and say, ‘I’ve heard you’re interviewing with another institution. Is there anything we can do to keep you here?’”
• Provide opportunities for advancement—If a person color being interviewed doesn’t see many people of color in leadership positions, that could be seen as an indication that the institution has not progressed very far in its diversity goals.

Excerpted from Retaining Faculty of Color, Academic Leader, March 2006.

Unfortunately, many faculty still do not include diversity-related materials in their courses. One study of faculty at Research I institutions (cited in the article referenced below) found that the majority of faculty endorsed diversity, seeing it as helping students achieve the goals of a college education, but the majority of this group also reported making no changes in their classroom practices.

It would be helpful to know why faculty aren’t changing what they teach, which was the purpose of the study referenced below. These researchers studied faculty at one, predominantly white, public university located in the Midwest. The study’s dependent variable was determined by a yes or no response to this question: “In the past year, have you incorporated content designed to promote sensitivity toward diversity issues in your courses?” (p. 155). Sixty-nine percent of the sample said yes; 31 percent responded no.

Some demographic and professional characteristics of those faculty who did and did not make changes in course content were predictable. Faculty of color, both males and females were more likely than white faculty to include diversity-related content. More surprising, faculty in education were less likely to include diversity content than faculty from the arts and sciences, business, and fine arts, and faculty from engineering were more likely to teach diversity than faculty in these other fields. Tenure status and time at the institution did not reliably predict who made curricular changes.

Also interesting was the fact that in this study faculty decisions about diversity content were more significantly influenced by climate for diversity in their department than the broader institutional environment.

As for beliefs that predict which faculty will and will not incorporate diversity, one of the three variables tested was significant. On average, if faculty were more likely to agree that “affirmative action leads to hiring of less qualified faculty and staff” (p. 161), then those faculty were less likely to incorporate diversity-related content in course materials. It turned out that for these faculty, participation in activities (such as workshops) that aimed to increase faculty sensitivity toward diversity, did powerfully predict those who reported making changes. Based on this finding, the researchers recommend that administrators consider inducements like release time and stipends to encourage more faculty to participate in these kinds of events.

These findings should encourage academic leaders to examine the reasons that do and do not motivate faculty to include diversity-related content in the courses they teach. This study raises those persistent questions about what content and how much of it is needed to advance the learning goals of our disciplines and of the larger college experience.

Reference: Mayhew, M. J. and Grunwald, H. E. (2006). Factors contributing to faculty incorporation of diversity-related course content. Journal of Higher Education, 77(1), 148–168.

Excerpted from What Encourages Faculty to Include Diversity Materials in Their Courses? Academic Leader, January 2006.

A goal of equitable facilitation of online discussions is the promotion of a safety net and the provision of opportunities to freely express one’s ideas, feelings, and experiences in an online discussion forum. The hope is that this will ensure respect for diversity and other important issues as well as promote reflection and better understanding. Based on Dr. Joyce Kaser’s publication, “Equity in On-line Professional Development: A Guide to E-learning That Works for Everyone” (2004), I describe briefly the suggestions discussed for facilitating issues of equity in online courses.

1. Monitor the course to make sure that the equity content is accurate and comprehensive. The facilitator is the individual who must be aware of possible stereotypes and biases embedded in the course and who is able to examine and analyze these issues in light of what is being discussed in the course and the forum.

2. Establish early an environment that enables participants to be safe and secure. This could come from the type of learning the group is participating in as well as the facilitator’s style of engagement. The facilitator could provide the ground rules, including the right to ask questions and to respond in ways that are respectful of one another. The facilitator could also take the discussion to a deeper level or move to the exploration of issues with equity implications.

4. Monitor the level of trust that exists. The facilitator is the agent who promotes the building of trust among participants. At the same time, the facilitator makes sure that any sensitive issue that becomes a point of discussion and exploration within the course is appropriate for the level of trust within the group. When several of the participants post messages and no one dominates the discussion in any significant way, it is possible that participants trust one another to express what’s on their minds.

5. Note your own hesitancy about exploring any aspect of equity. The facilitator should ask him/herself what his/her personal biases or fears might be that may interfere with effective facilitation. These issues may result in the facilitator’s avoidance of certain salient topics or discomfort when participants raise points related to those topics. In such an instance, the facilitator could raise his/her reservations to the group, making this a learning opportunity for everyone.

Excerpted from 5 Suggestions for Equitable Online Facilitation, Online Classroom, October 2006.