WASHINGTON — Roderick Carey and Laura Yee say diversity must be taught daily and understood in order to serve all students in elementary and secondary schools.
The doctoral students at the University of Maryland work with future teachers and often see challenges in the classrooms.
“We see a lot of White teachers, especially in elementary schools, but they are from monolingual, suburban communities with limited exposure to other environments,” Yee said Tuesday. “Their experience will be less relevant to a more diverse environment and schools are becoming so much more diverse. I’m not looking to blame anyone. Our hope is these teachers come to the schools with some [diversity] experience than none at all.”
Yee and Carey spoke about this topic during the seventh annual National Association of Diversity Officers in Higher Education (NADOHE) conference.
Various sessions were held to promote, celebrate and encourage diversity at all institutions of higher learning. The attendees acknowledged with state and federal budget cuts, the problem of being able to enhance current programs and incorporate new ones in the curriculum looms.
Dr. Benjamin D. Reese Jr., president of NADOHE, said one way to find money is through “effective” fund-raising.
“You must look for programs you want to fund and then effectively and strategically seek ways to put those programs to fruition,” said Reese, who is also vice president for institutional equity at Duke University. “Diversity is not just a societal issue, but an economic issue. Diversity is about the way people live and work together. It takes a lot of work to make that happen.”
