Authors

Nicole Rumfola

Document Type

Research Paper

Publication Date

1-6-2023

Abstract

This paper investigates the effects of the diversity requirement on the Ethnic Studies department and classrooms through the teacher perspective. Within the literature surrounding Ethnic Studies, there seemed to be a gap on how having diversity students in traditionally Ethnic Studies classes affects the classroom environment. There was lots of literature about the BIPOC experience at predominantly white institutions and how to create safe and humanizing classrooms for these students but not much about the teacher's perspective on both the administrative and academic aspects of the requirement. I analyze the history of the school and their multicultural education timeline as well as current conversations about diversity on campus to contextualize the moment in which this project was conducted. I interviewed with three professors within the Ethnic Studies department and found common themes between all their experiences in the classroom: imbalance of knowledge and harm reduction, dealing with the system, university intentions, and next steps.

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