Abstract

Diversity education deepens undergraduate students’ experiences, enhances personal growth, and fortifies communities (McLaughlin, McLaughlin & McLaughlin, 2015). While there have been notable efforts to increase inclusion of diversity and multiculturalism in disciplines across the university curriculum, these are often confined to specialized “diversity” courses or focus on only one aspects of diversity such as race, class or gender (Fuentes & Shannon, 2016). A more effective approach to diversity education involves analyzing the intersectionality of aspects of diversity in courses interwoven all across the curriculum (Deuze, 2006). This project seeks to interweave multiculturalism and diversity across the curriculum by using a multicultural teaching framework in two undesignated Communication courses. This framework consists of diversity teaching methods suggested by Feuntes and Shannon (2016) such as cultural self-assessment, shared definitions, and safe academic environments as well as Gunn, Peterson & Welsh’s (2015) case study approach. Change in students’ cultural awareness will be measured at the beginning and end of the term using the Cultural Diversity Awareness Inventory.

Works Cited

Deuze, M. (2006). Multicultural journalism education in the netherlands: A case study.Journalism & Mass Communication Educator, 390-401.

Fuentes, M. & Shannon, C. (2016). The State of multiculturalism and diversity in

undergraduate psychology training. Society for Teaching of Psychology, 197-203.

Gunn, A., Peterson, B., & Welsch, J. (2015). Designing teaching cases that integrate course content and diversity issues. Teacher Education Quarterly, 67-81.

McLaughlin, J., McLaughlin, G., & McLaughlin J. (2015). Using composite metrics to measure Student Diversity in Higher Education. Journal of Higher Education Policy and Management. 222-240.