Diversity in Curriculum and
Instruction
Angela Byars-Winston
Counseling Psychology
UW-Madison
August 14, 2003
If the world were a village
of 100 people, there would be…
57 Asians
21 Europeans
14 from the Western Hemisphere (north and south)
8 Africans
52 would be female 48 would be male
70 would be non-white, 30 white
70 would be non-Christian, 30 would be Christian
89 would be heterosexual, 11 homosexual
59% of the entire world's wealth would be in the
hands of only 6 people and all 6 would be citizens
of the United States
80 would live in substandard housing
70 would be unable to read
50 would suffer from malnutrition
1 would be near death, 1 would be near birth
Only 1 would have a college education
1 would own a computer
Assumption
Cultural diversity is a fact of life and efforts
to build a common culture inevitably
privilege the dominant culture
(Ortiz & Rhoads, 2000)
Ivey (1993)
What influences your teaching?
1) Your positionality (perspectives
resulting from an intersection of multiple
social identities)
2) Your experiences as a function of
dynamics created by and resulting from
membership in multiple social groups
Questions:
What was the best class experience you
ever had?
What factors made it enjoyable for you?
Teaching and Learning Are
Function of…
Culture of student
Culture of instructor
Culture of department, college, institution
Does diversity make a difference?
Engagement and Diverse Instruction Yields:
Cognitive Complexity
Critical thinking


Openness to new ideas and different
points of view; being challenged
Knowledge Acquisition & Application]
Persistence & Educational Attainment
Creativity
If necessity is the mother of
invention, then
diversity may well be the mother
of creativity
Culturally Inclusive Classrooms
Integrate diverse perspectives into the
syllabus (science problems in diff parts of
the world).
Create a classroom community in which all
students feel included and involved.
Present course material in a variety of
ways
Good teaching comes from the identity
and integrity of the teacher. . .Good
teachers possess a capacity for
connectedness.
Parker J. Palmer (1998), The
courage to teach: Exploring the inner
landscape of a teacher’s life.
Facilitators of Diverse Instruction
and Student Engagement
Varied teaching practices
Contact
Curriculum