For Whom? Diversity Education to What End?

• In Event: From the Façade of Diversity to the Dream of Transformation: Critiquing and Transforming Higher Education

Abstract

Racial diversity and inclusion are frequently touted as priority learning outcomes at higher education institutions. A call for increased compositional diversity and the teaching of racially inclusive and competent content have resulted in the development of students of color recruitment programs and the advent of curricular “diversity” requirements. However, the question of whom these so-called diversity and inclusion initiatives are intended for has not yet been widely explored. The purpose of this study is to examine how a shift in target audience (e.g., from white majority students to historically marginalized students of color) impacts both curriculum and pedagogy in teaching racial diversity in a college context. This study is situated in a critical race theoretical framework, which presumes the permanence of race and emphasizes the importance of counter-narratives and transgressive pedagogy to actively resist hegemonic white supremacy. This study will utilize autoethnographic methodology to consider the impact of a college educator’s commitment to equity and justice by intentionally centering students of color rather than catering to white majority students in the development of anti-racism curriculum and pedagogy.

Author

• Aeriel A. Ashlee, Miami University - Oxford