Interculturalization in Higher Education
The word interculturalism connotes a method of promoting a sensible, relatable interaction and tolerating two different cultures from two different point of view into the same perspectives with no superiority or inferiority but absolute equality. In many of the United States institutions, there is an ongoing issue on lack of diversity between the majority students, minority students, majority faculty and staff and minority faculty and staff. Similarly, Interculturalization is an avenue in enlightening the institution to be culture conscious and tolerance. The combination of international and indigene students, PWI and HBCU, Faculty and staff, Male, Female, Transgender and Gay means being aware of and
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One might succinctly shows how oblivious the white students are on the issues of racism, lack of diversity, social and political. The underrepresented students are very conscious of the negative effect of segregation, discrimination, and racial tension, social and political inequality. While the underrepresented students tend to feel perplexed on these issues, the underrepresented faculty members on the other hand tend to feel incapacitated and not courageous to address these issues due to the fear of losing their job. To the contrary, some faculty members with tenure position were able to address these issues, provide a logical solution, and implore the institution to implement diversity in their curriculum. According to Karkouti, (2016) diversity has the power to create a friendly social environment that can allay the fear of racial tensions among students and can be used as an educational tool to enhance students’ learning and development. Lundy (2015) argues that in order to foster intercultural relationship on HBCUs and PWIs campus there should be desegregation not segregation. This means the PWIs student enrolment should include more African Americans and other non-Whites. In contrast, the HBCUs desegregation should increase the number of White students’ enrolment, despite the fact that HBCUs never had or display discriminatory admissions policies. In order to address some of the diversity issues in the U.S. higher education system, there is a need for assertive leaders who can logically create a serene cultural environment for students, faculty members and staff. He has to be versatile with the issues of diversity and must be able to implement effective strategies that will suit the students, faculty member and staff (Brown, 2017-class note). In doing so,
“College campuses are not dominated by widespread racial/ethnic segregation and the racial/ethnic clustering that does occur isn’t impeding intergroup contact.” (578, Hoeffner and Hoeffner). Throughout the essay, the writer continues to provide facts and sources on the information that diversity is not a problem on college campuses. She quotes evidence that states that college students are getting a “variety of positive educational outcomes that result from being educated in a diverse environment.” (578, Hoeffner and Hoeffner).
With regards to the opinion that the existence of HBCUs is in fact, a mellowed form of racism, one must first remember the history behind the origins of HBCUs Many people believe that these institutions have outlived their purpose because we live in a fully integrated society and these institutions stand as hallmarks of segregation. However, by thinking this way is not an analyzing the complete picture because one must bear in mind that HBCUs are old and hallowed institutions of higher learning established in a time when talented, desiring and tenacious Afric...
In 1994, renowned college professor Nikki Giovanni published an awe-inspiring article. It contains guidance to black college students on how to academically apply themselves in college, and she teaches them how to deal with the ignorance of white people, from sharp tongued comebacks to gaining a professor’s respect. Along the way, the article “Campus Racism 101” states Giovanni has acquired a tenure, she has a teaching position for life, at the predominately white student body Virginia Tech (Giovanni 11). Nikki Giovanni’s “Campus Racism 101” uses logic when giving advice to black students on how to succeed in college, appeals to Giovanni’s credibility, and appeals to the emotions of racism all in order to educate how black college students need to deal with ignorance on a college campus.
By embracing, and not just celebrating diversity in our colleges, we can create a more broad, educated, and interesting view of the
Imagine this; the year is 1836. You are a 17-year-old student interested in learning more about the world around you; however, such an opportunity won’t come your way because you are black. Due to this fact you have no hope of furthering your education past the reading, writing, and arithmetic their slave masters taught your parents. A mind is a terrible thing to waste. The minds of many African American’s go to waste due to individual ignorance of their people and thus of themselves. Historically Black Colleges and Universities were put into effect to educate the black mind and eliminate the ignorance. The discussion of whether Historically Black Colleges and Universities are still necessary in the 21st century has taken place in recent years. Within the discussion many debate that due to the fact that the world is no longer like it was in the 1800’s, the time period in which Historically Black Colleges and Universities were created, the purpose of them no longer exists. However, the cultural significance of Historically Black Colleges and Universities seems to be overlooked by those who argue their importance and relevance in a time where blacks have the option of attending predominantly white institutions (PWIs). The purpose and grounds on which Historically Black Colleges and Universities were developed are still being served. The need to increase efforts to not only rouse, but support Historically Black Colleges and Universities is necessary now more than ever in order to preserve our past, fulfill the purpose of our present, and ensure our future.
Clearly, HBCUs provide several benefits to African-American students. Not only have they helped to combat the cycle of discrimination that minority students experienced before the civil rights initiatives of the 1960s, but they strive to provide a warm, supportive and inclusive academic environment that addresses African-American college students as a whole person. Additionally, HBCUs are increasing their efforts to ensure that higher education is accessible, affordable and achievable for individuals with unique socioeconomic challenges. Despite obstacles, historically Black institutions will continue to play a vital and significant role in the fabric of higher education.
Eduardo Bonilla-Silva and Sue both demonstrate from their research that Whites do not comprehend the impact of their unconscious biases. These biases towards students of colour in a white-based post-secondary school environment can result in stress and weak interracial relationships. This is an issue since the significance of these everyday actions is not fully recognized and acknowledged. I will elaborate on a variety of examples, specifically the influence of the peers, and faculty.
Those efforts improve students' learning and experiences by cultivating key behaviors and knowledge and by providing a unique educational context. Published in the American Educational Research Journal, this paper gives insight into how racial diversity stretches beyond educational engagement and social composition. The significant difference made by diversity-related efforts, such as hybridized racial interactions and policies, is fully explored. The findings of the study presented can be generalized to the argument of institutional racism, as this piece presents rationale against it. The limitations of this paper are the insufficient detail regarding educational context needed to illustrate the steps institutions can take to apply diversity.
“There is exactly one sentence about why schools should want to discriminate… It reads, ‘When the state’s most elite universities are less diverse, [a school official] said, it doesn’t provide our students with a level of diversity they need in order to learn about other cultures and other communities’…And that’s supposed to outweigh all these costs of discrimination; It is personally unfair, passes over better qualified students, and sets a disturbing legal, political, and moral precedent in allowing racial discrimination.”
"On the Importance of Diversity in Higher Education." On the Importance of Diversity in Higher Education. Fairleigh Dickinson University, 2001. Web. 25 Apr. 2014.
Tim Wise’s video, “Beyond Diversity: The Hidden Curriculum of Privilege - Part 5” resonated with me. In the video, he gave examples of institutionalized racism in institutions of higher education. He gave the example of the University of Texas ghetto party. The University of Texas is my alma mater. I graduated from the university of Texas a little over a year ago, and I have tremendous respect for the educational institution. It is a wonderful university and in a lot of ways it champions diversity. However, during orientation, before I had even started class at the University, I encountered more racial discrimination and sexism than I had at in my life. My college orientation began as I witnessed bleach bombs dropped on students of color and ended with a sexist party that depicted women in the office or workplace as sexual objects for men thereby championing sexual discrimination in the workplace (the name of the party is not appropriate to post in an academic forum). Throughout my college experience, I began to reflect on why I had never noticed racial
The University of Massachusetts Dartmouth talks about their commitment to diversity in their student bodies and faculty but when it comes to actually hiring black (African American) faculties, their commitment does not agree with the rhetoric. The question that I hope to address is “Why Isn’t there enough black (African American) faculty at UMD. I am interested in this topic because ever since I started my college education here at UMD, I have only had one black professor and she was even African. The significance of black students having black professors is that it will cultivate their interest to their studies and make them work very hard. For me, having more black professors will challenge me and I will work harder because I know they will understand the
Diversity and Inclusion are important to the University of Toledo’s campus because they don’t just serve to one ethnicity, they serve to many. Many different kinds of cultures come to UT to give themselves an education and to better themselves. Here at the University, they want everyone to get along with each other, since it’ll make coming to school more exciting
Garcia, E. (2002). Student cultural diversity: Understanding and meeting the challenge (3rd Ed.). New York, NY: Houghton Mifflin Company.
There have traditionally been two approaches: multicultural education and Intercultural Education. Multicultural education uses learning about other cultures in order to produce acceptance, or at least tolerance, of these cultures. Intercultural Education aims to go beyond passive coexistence, to achieve a developing and sustainable way of living together in multicultural societies through the creation of understanding of, respect for and dialogue between the different cultural