Diversity is far from being a mere abstraction. Rather, it is a holistic picture of a changeable landscape of any given society and the world as an intact whole. Diversity is mirrored in the mission and vision statements of every self-respecting educational institution, and I firmly believe that every individual educator should base their conduct and teaching practices on the values of diversity as well.
Every educational institution works towards a common goal of preparing its students for life and work within a society (Reeves, 2011, Paul & Elder, 2014). This formal commitment is expanded by every school’s individual mission. A nursing school’s position should account for the impact of socio-cultural diversity within their community and on the global scale. More importantly, it has to consider student diversity in terms of the individual ways of learning, capabilities, and needs in order to establish the atmosphere of cultural humility and assist the students in pursuing their career.
The categories and ways of learning are not confined to the basic sensory channels of perceptions, as most people tend to assume (Howard Gardner’s Theory, n.d., Edutopia, 2010). The multiplicity of learning modes outlined by Howard Gardner suggests that the way the students’ individuality is perceived should not be confined to biased conceptions of a model learner. Nor should the students’ cultural backgrounds and the out-of-school situations affecting their learning behavior be regarded as a deviation from the predominantly “normal” (Sheets, 2005). Therefore, the learning potential of each individual student has to be valued and respected by the educators. In other words, the educators’ work involves a certain share of cultural competence applied to instruction and interaction with students, which is one of the assets to efficient practice.
Promoting diversity within one’s own culture can be a challenge because culture has enormous power over every individual’s behavior (Sheets, 2005). Group preferentialism and cultural clashes appear to root from every person’s “mind habits” – the ways they think routinely. These issues may be overcome if the instructions are designed so as to illuminate the students’ strengths and embrace the differences. Integrated strategies to account for all the peculiarities are one of the ways to solve the preferentialism problem and serve all students equitably.
There are numerous stories to clarify the importance of hearing each voice in the mass of the ever-changing demographics. Temple Grandin, a professor at Colorado State and an autistic visual thinker, is one of them: the speaker’s position is that people with special learning needs can bring in valuable ideas that “neurotypical” brains cannot come up with (Grandin, 2010). Ali Carr-Chellman shares this idea: underlining the value of masculine intelligence, she praises gender diversity in the classroom and urges the teaching community to comply with the needs of every gender in her other works (Carr-Chellman, 2010; Carr-Chelman, 2016).
As the stories illustrate, in an academic setting that is sensitive enough to distinguish diversity, its unarguable value lies in the ideas it is likely to bring forth and improve the system of healthcare. The opportunities a diverse academic community is likely to acquire greatly outweigh those where diversity is not an option. Thus, my position is that every educational institution should make diversity one of their core values and provide the students with an equitable opportunity to flourish as scholars and professionals.
References
Carr-Chellman, A. (2010). Gaming to re-engage boys in learning. Web.
Carr-Chellman, A. A. (2016). Instructional design for teachers: Improving classroom practice (2nd ed.). New York, NY: Routledge.
Edutopia. (2010). Multiple Intelligences Thrive in Smartville. Web.
Grandin, T. (2010). The world needs all kinds of minds. Web.
Howard Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligences. (n.d.). Web.
Paul, R., & Elder, L. (2014). How to improve student learning: 30 practical ideas (3rd ed.). Tomales, CA: Foundation for Critical Thinking.
Reeves, A. (2011). Where Great Teaching Begins. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.
Sheets, R. H. (2005). Diversity Pedagogy Examining the Role of Culture in the Teaching-Learning Process. London, UK: Pearson.