SOCIAL  DIVERSITY  IN  THE  GEOGRAPHY  CURRICULUM
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Course content that addresses diversity
The content that has been useful in showing me forms of diversity have been representations of the other (or of otherness).

The Honors Program requires its students to take 3 courses in World Civilization.  Currently, I am taking a class on the history of relations between US and Latin America.  While a lot of the class is events, people, and dates, part of the readings and discussion deal with the effects of US values on everyday people in other countries – realizing that capitalism in the US has historically led to mistreatment of people elsewhere.  This is not a particularly new fact: most people are aware that Americans tend to dominate and exploit, but it is a good example of content explicitly addressing the repercussions of one’s actions on other people.

Another World Civilization class I took was about Tibet (survey of history and culture, along with present day status).  This class conveyed some cultural differences, such as the presence of polyandry in the society.  More interesting than the fact itself was student reaction the fact: many students seemed a little alarmed by it, and so tried to turn it into a joke.  Though we all talk about celebrating differences, it is important to understand that some people’s prejudices (and I assume that everyone has some form or another of prejudice)  can be debilitating to attempts at promoting cultural tolerance.

Both those classes deal diversity outside the United States.  The course that best addressed diversity within the United States was English 370, Intro to the Study of the English language.   (I have a feeling the issues raised had a lot more to do with the professor’s approach to the content than with the content itself.)  The class used dialect variation in the US to look at some of the prejudices people had/have about people based on the languages they speak.  This class was particularly effective because we first learned about systematic dialectal variation, which meant we learned that dialects are not incorrect/bad/wrong/sloppy English, and we then learned about/examined our own views toward nonstandard dialects.  This of course simplifies the debate about nonstandard vs. standard dialects, but the main point is that the professor forced us to look at the otherness inherent in English, or the ways in which the English language is exploited so that groups can use it to represent themselves as “others.”

Course pedagogy/structure that addresses diversity

The most commonly cited structure/pedagogy for the best way to promote understanding of diversity is group activity.    And this has been useful to an extent, but what made more of a difference for me was the instructor’s level of interest in promoting diversity (and I suppose we are still uncertain what it means)  For example, in English 370, the instructor led a discussion of current views toward AAVE (African American Vernacular English, also known as Black English) and how they did not jive with current linguistic (and therefore scientific) views on dialects.  The discussion revealed a lot of our own prejudices and misconceptions, but the sensitivity of the topic required mediation and moderation by the professor.  BY contrast, in my English 131 class, we had online discussions of the poetry we were reading – supposedly student-led – and these always degenerated, especially when the discussions turned to ideas of otherness.  when people are uncomfortable with an idea, they seem to deal with it by turning it into a joke, or downplaying its importance.  Neither of these methods are effective for students who have any desire to be aware of multicultural issues, but professors need to help equip students with tools – throwing students into groups has, in my experience, not lent itself to sudden insight into diversity.

Diversity experience beyond courses, within the University?

The most obvious, and most instructive experience I encountered as a student was my study abroad adventure to France.  Living, breathing, seeing, feeling a different country through my own lens, not only exposed me to the stereotypes I had made about French culture and people, but also to the assumptions and ideals that I had as a result of my American upbringing.  When forced to confront them because they conflicted with the way French society ran itself, I had to think long and hard about why I preferred the American way, and make sure that my sole reason wasn’t that it was just what I was used to.
Everyone should study abroad.  It equips students to deal with all sorts of problems that they aren’t exposed to in a normal university experience.  And it makes cultural differences seem a lot easier to deal with.
For example, there has been a recent movement on campus involving Lynette and Joe and a bunch of yellow t-shirts.  Informal investigation reveals that this is an effort on behalf of Christian groups on campus to “get the word out” on Christ and his teachings (I think that’s the goal anyway).  While I have never been a big fan of proselytizing (out of a belief that it takes away a very personal aspect of faith, but not in such a way that community is emphasized) I am positive that my experiences abroad have assisted in my new found live-and-let-live policy.  So while I am not ready to convert, I am certainly not as likely to shut the group out as I would have done two or three years ago.

What does it mean to teach diversity?
-- Respect
-- Awareness
-- Curiosity

I think the goal of diversity education is to come to some sort of process by which students aren’t afraid of or uncomfortable with differences, and they begin to look at what sort of judgements, evaluations, and assumptions they attach to various types of difference.  Teaching about diversity should also say something about the benefits of diversity – that an ability to work and interact with diverse groups leads to better/bigger/more innovative ideas.  And I guess, practically speaking, it has to be made clear that even if you don’t like diversity, you are still going to have to learn to live and function with it.