Diversity
Diversity in education and specifically curriculum & pedagogy is a complex topic, but offers the potential to increase the quality and relevance our educational experience, as well as to improve what we make as artists and designers. This page is an information resource for our discussion about diversity at Art Center.
Background
Diversity has long been an important issue in higher education, and has evolved from the basic issue of representation among students, faculty, administration, and trustees to encompass broader educational contexts including community, student life, curriculum and pedagogy. Art Center needs to more formally address issues of diversity both in awareness and discussion, as well as in specific policies and goals. According to the recent WASC accreditation report:
“It is recommended that diversity as a framework for educational excellence become an authentic institutional focus with resources and leadership for study, reflection, and strategy.”
As part of the curriculum & pedagogy group’s work, we hope to bring in an educational diversity expert to help us and the school understand the issues and opportunities.
March 31st, 2010 at 12:49 pm
Diversity -n. the condition of being different: VARIETY
That covers a lot of territory- so let’s be categorically specific.
In terms of faculty:
-a diversity of pedagogical approaches; educational philosophies; esthetics; ideas;
ideological positions; cultural and political viewpoints?
-a diversity of professional practice and areas of expertise?
OR- are you referring to “diversity” as a euphemism for race, gender, ethnicity. religion, etc?
Would it not be more appropriate to think in terms of a wide variety of cultural knowledge and experience?
Students:
Does this include
–a more varied geographical spread: Urban, suburban, rural? East, middle, west?
National vs international?
–educational background — ie: more students with higher education degrees?
better language skills?
–economic and class issues — those who can pay, versus those who need substantial
scholarships? Do we seek out more outstanding talent from less affluent groups?
Do we sacrifice quality for the sake of “difference”? Or do we seek out the highest quality wherever it comes from, and provide greater opportunities for it to thrive?
Our student body is quite diverse ethnically compared to 20 years ago. Today I would guess somewhere between 12-15% are multiracial. And more than 50% east Asian.
April 5th, 2010 at 8:03 pm
Re: diversity and the AsiaPacific population
As some of you know, I spent the first part of my research career investigating the art and culture of the Asia Pacific region. With the help of Art Center grants (and a Fulbright) I collected images, most of which are in our slide library collection. The slides are current up to 2002.
Happy to bring this fact to the attention of the art history and critical theory lecs.