“We all should know that diversity makes for a rich tapestry, and we must understand that all the threads of the tapestry are equal in value no matter what their color.”
-Maya Angelou
Beyond guiding and facilitating the education of our students, we, as teachers, have monumentally larger social responsibility. Those in positions of authority have influences on their public, and many times we are unaware of the ways in which we reach and affect those we teach. Diversity and equal opportunity in the classroom are not complying with university or governmental policies. They are not about showing how flexible and accepting we are as instructors. Such principles are necessary because we are some of the few people that have such a strong impact on the development of the collective social lens of the generations to come. How we treat diversity in and out of the classroom creates a model, a construct that will shape the behavior of our students in their own careers, whatever they may be. This is no minor task, and it is a much greater part of our job than is ever mentioned before our installment in the classroom.
The Equality and Human Rights Commission defines equality as “the belief that no one should have poorer life chances because of the way they were born, where they come from, what they believe, or whether they have a disability. [It] recognises that historically certain groups of people with protected characteristics such as race, disability, sex and sexual orientation have experienced discrimination.” While the term “equality” is more recognized now than ever, it is not a universally implemented standard for teaching, by far. Having grown up as openly gay in the North Georgia Mountains, I can attest to this, and a large portion of my desire to teach comes from my experiences with discrimination and inequality that I experienced as a child, and as an adult, because of my sexual orientation. As a first-generation college student, I was unprepared for the experiences associated with being enrolled in a major university. For the first time, I had a support system, whether I needed it or not. I found comfort in knowing that I was protected by those in charge. The feeling I experienced from my personal and professional development that bloomed from this change in surroundings was astonishing, and that feeling is what diversity and equality are about. Every student has the right to that feeling, whether they come from a minoritized group or not. That revelation and that development is what higher education is about, and it should be tailored to the needs of each individual on the most personal basis possible.
In 2018, over 69% of the undergraduate student population at the University of Georgia identified as White, while the next largest ethnic group (identifying as Asian) made up less than 12% of the undergraduate population. However, according to the Georgia Department of Education, that same year 49,704 students identifying as White were expected to graduate and 42,486 students identifying as African American were expected to graduate. These are the two largest groups of students enrolled in public high schools, and yet they are very disproportionately represented in various universities pertaining to the University System of Georgia. As such, many underrepresented groups can feel excluded or alienated from university society, both in and out of class. My actions as an instructor are guided by the intention to include as many students on a personal level as possible. When introducing vocabulary about immediate and extended families, I use materials that include modern and diversified families, such as documentary-style videos about my own experiences with my ex husband in Spain. This provides both authentic context for language learning while also including a marginalized group in a common setting without cultural appropriation. I also use different perspectives to encourage students to understand the material through other perceptions.
In Fall 2019, one of my students was one of the forty-seven students enrolled in 2018 over the age of forty-nine. For one of the holiday themed activities, I asked my students to discuss with a partner how their holidays would be different at the age of 65, assuming that they become grandparents, and how it will be different from their holidays now. While still implementing the content (direct/indirect object pronouns, compound future tense, etc.) in a meaningful and authentic way, I was able to give another perspective to the students, perhaps encouraging to think about that one student´s perception of every day life (or at least of the holidays) in comparison with their own. This, to me, is what diversity and equality are about; an instructor can both appeal to and engage one student identifying as a member of an underrepresented group to make him/her feel included and relevant while also encouraging the members of other groups to consider and appreciate the distinguished perspective that other groups can bring to the table.