Below, I have included a link to a video that discusses the value to all students when people from different cultural and economic backgrounds attend college together. However, diversity in a college program is not enough to ensure that people will learn from fellow students who come from different backgrounds. Learners also need to have an opportunity to work with or hear from students who come from different cultural and economic backgrounds to experience the depth of learning that is supported by these types of diversity.
Brookfield (2015) believes that using modalities that mix students based on cultural diversity helps them to see how their diversity impacts their thinking and behaviour. He also points out that mixing students from different racial backgrounds can help White students understand the meaning of White supremacy, or as it is often referred to, White privilege. I took note of the power of mixing people from different backgrounds in a recent training session. In that particular training we include an activity that supports learners to consider how their cultural background impacts who they are and what they believe. A White female learner who was born in BC said she did not really think she had a culture. After being paired with a woman from Japan, the White woman said her eyes were opened about how differently she looks at things because of her Whiteness and Canadian heritage. In turn, the woman from Japan said she learned several things about how her culture has impacted her values and beliefs. Both learners realized the value of their own culture, and also took note of how much their cultural background affects the way they think and behave.
Brookfield, S. D. (2015). The Skillful Teacher: On Technique, Trust, and Responsiveness in the Classroom
(3rd ed.). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Brookfield (2015) believes that using modalities that mix students based on cultural diversity helps them to see how their diversity impacts their thinking and behaviour. He also points out that mixing students from different racial backgrounds can help White students understand the meaning of White supremacy, or as it is often referred to, White privilege. I took note of the power of mixing people from different backgrounds in a recent training session. In that particular training we include an activity that supports learners to consider how their cultural background impacts who they are and what they believe. A White female learner who was born in BC said she did not really think she had a culture. After being paired with a woman from Japan, the White woman said her eyes were opened about how differently she looks at things because of her Whiteness and Canadian heritage. In turn, the woman from Japan said she learned several things about how her culture has impacted her values and beliefs. Both learners realized the value of their own culture, and also took note of how much their cultural background affects the way they think and behave.
Brookfield, S. D. (2015). The Skillful Teacher: On Technique, Trust, and Responsiveness in the Classroom
(3rd ed.). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
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