Diversity, equity, and inclusion strategies foster a learning environment where all students can thrive and understand complex academic content.
Photo by Matthew Bamberg
What is the purpose of a university? For most of the classical liberal tradition, the purpose of the university was to produce scholarship in pursuit of the true, the good, and the beautiful. — Christopher Rufo
DEI is so much more than protesting. Photo by Matthew Bamberg
Mixed messages about DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) have infiltrated our society. This is part of an overreaction to respecting everyone at work and school.
Has it gone too far?
Ask Christopher Rufo. He says, “For most of the classical liberal tradition, the purpose of the university was to produce scholarship. This pursuit was for the true, the good, and the beautiful.”
That sounds nice. Then he says, “DEI bureaucracies contribute nothing to students’ education. They promote harmful ideologies fixated on race and gender. These ideologies censor free debate and discussion in the classroom.”
And now…what’s one to believe? Are DEI and other woke-like movements taking us down a destructive path to vice-filled Babylon?
The DEI was initially linked with the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s as a holistic approach. It addressed diversity, equity, and inclusion. This collectively created a term to define social inequality.
Today, the acronym DEI has spawned misinformation and book bans. It has also led to unruly school board meetings and political turmoil. An educational crisis has emerged, which hasn’t been experienced in decades.
Think Tank White Privilege
Christopher Rufo is an activist. Linked to the conservative Manhattan Project Think Tank, Rufo is also among the top academics who torment advocates of DEI. He is a board member of New College in which the state of Florida took over. He witnessed the firing of board members. Many students also departed after DEI policies were overruled.
Deriding DEI is not new. It’s been going on for several years now. Research praises the misunderstood programs for promoting collaboration among diverse groups. This occurs when working or learning in groups.
The fact is that it is beneficial when carefully incorporated into meaningful programs. In education, DEI is not an isolated topic. It is not simply taught to students to help them coexist peacefully with each other.
Applying DEI to academic and social knowledge improves work and school environments. This effect has been substantiated.
As an adjunct professor for 25 years, I’ve seen DEI work wonders.
How, you ask?
In education, DEI begins with new teacher candidates. Many of these candidates are White. Some come from isolated backgrounds and have never left their hometown since birth. These candidates learn to think critically about their own experiences to understand those of their students.
DEI programs are integrated into coursework and practicums. In these settings, teacher candidates learn substantiated strategies for teaching content. They will guarantee students from diverse backgrounds can understand, relate to, and engage with the material. These teaching and learning approaches include applying critical thinking and theories specific to each topic. Academic vocabulary is retained using repetition applied to various subjects.
The key to DEI is understanding how it’s applied to academics. Unlocking meaning for effective communication is essential. This can be achieved by including heavy contextual elements in lessons. These lessons should be compiled into units based on state-mandated standards.
Additionally, DEI teaches us that each culture learns differently. DEI goes beyond optimal learning strategies. It provides students with a plan of attack on topics they never heard of in their culture.
Finally, large groups of students acquire and learn English as a second language. They engage in multidisciplinary studies. They acclimate by comparing their heritage cultures with ours. They also contrast these cultures.
New College in Sarasota, Florida, was a liberal arts institution. It had many course offerings in gender studies and a range of DEI programs. All that is gone now. Gov. Ron DeSantis dismantled the DEI initiatives.
DEI Link to Critical Race Theory
“The Republican false narrative of DEI is linked to critical race theory. Jonathan Butcher said this. He is a research fellow in education policy for The Heritage Foundation, yet another right-wing think tank.
Critical Race Theory is a complex term. It describes efforts to educate about systematic racism. Some Americans would prefer this topic not to be discussed.
As a social justice educator, I have struggled in my teaching for over two decades. For the past twenty-five years, I’ve attempted to teach various so-called woke concepts in nearly all my graduate university courses. This includes courses covering Critical Race Theory concepts.
The education courses I’ve been teaching are research-based. They give students the techniques to make logical arguments. They also allow me to do the same. I’ve learned how to model effective ways to locate the most reputable education sources. I have also acquired the critical thinking skills to explain why they are reputable.
Each source they use must be explained. It should describe what an article or study is about. It must also answer who, what, why, when, and how.
For example, teachers can research the authors of picture books. They can give first through third-graders information about an author. This includes a description of the author’s work. Teachers can also prompt students to think about why authors wrote their books.
Note here that I am not referring to only picture books about race, gender, and sexual orientation. I am also not referring to only students in elementary school.
Aspects of Black life in America are highlighted in The Undefeated by Kwame Alexander and Kadir Nelson (Illustrator). The book covers topics from slavery to the civil rights movement. They engage students’ imagination with text and images of little-known Black leaders who made a difference. Would teaching elementary students why the author wrote the text be appropriate? Should the illustrator’s reasons for drawing pictures for such a book also be discussed? Yes. Such a question requires higher level critical thinking skills as they are applied to history. It’s often referred to as multicultural education, an academic way to include diversity in the history curriculum.
Multicultural Education is everybody’s education.
Isn’t the fact that slavery led to the Civil War, which supposedly was a start to the concept of equality? History is what this is. Real life that was experienced. Real life was documented in primary sources at the National Library of Congress.
DEI Benefits — The Proof is in the Pudding
DEI is necessary for successful relationships in schools, businesses, and communities.
It is accepted that diversity stimulates innovation and creativity and correspondingly advances science. Companies whose business is innovative consider diverse teams to be the most successful. Diverse teams are also reported to have a competitive edge (Bock, 2022).
The same rationale can be applied to the education of young Americans. The Gates Foundation is involved. They said, “We believe that we simply cannot achieve our desired impact without focusing on DEI internally. We must also focus on DEI with our partners.” This process starts by earnestly examining our shortcomings. We must also assess our accomplishments (Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, 2021).
In a New Yorker article, Benjamin Wallace-Wells (2021) reported that a part of what parents told Mr. Rufo in Cupertino, California, was that they had complained about what their children were learning. To Christopher Rufo, Critical Race Theory was a perfect weapon against leftist ideology.
Mr. Rufo knew that DEI and Critical Race Theory were vulnerable to criticism. He had said, “The parents were incredibly pissed off. They were doing, like, race and gender theory during math class.”
Mr. Rufo used problematic language during his interview with Mr. Wallace-Wells, making it hard for readers. They would need to be educators to understand it.
Using powerful DEI language, like race and gender theory, is disturbing to most people. This is especially true during these times when terms are not defined well.
After reading Mr. Wallace Wells’ article, the magazine’s readers and others were puzzled by some of the graduate student vocabulary used.
Most need to be made aware of interdisciplinary studies. This involves weaving different subjects together. It helps to understand the meaning of terms and how to apply them to real life.
Concepts like race and equity can match state standards taught in context. High school students would gain from studying patterns of American beliefs about race. They can do this by researching the Pew Research Center. This organization reports the most recent views Americans have on various topics.
Additionally, students can learn how opportunities for some minorities are far below that of other more fortunate groups. Inviting students to consider equality challenges critically will prompt them to rethink their identity. They will also reconsider their opportunities in an effort for change.
Finally, the most significant benefits of DEI are kept silent. “Research generally accepts that diversity stimulates innovation and creativity and correspondingly advances science. Companies whose business is innovative consider diverse teams as the most successful” (Bock, 2022).
Media Literacy
To be sure, DEI education needs a shot in the arm by integrating a good dose of media literacy.
Anyone active in social media should be educated in media literacy. Imagine if Facebook or X required media literacy short courses as a necessity to become a member.
Teaching students and employees techniques to decipher sources is crucial. They need to assess accuracy and reputability. This approach is the essence of any good educational lesson or corporate training. One must learn to question the qualifications.
Throughout history, educators have created complex yet compelling terminology to support the findings of reputable studies. The public quickly needs to understand this academic jargon. Their efforts to deal with education about race and culture are to believe that enough has been accomplished.
This is not the case. What many Americans believe about DEI needs to be more authentic. “Despite a checkered racial history, people in the United States generally believe the nation has made steady progress. They think there has been incremental progress toward achieving racial equality. This article investigates whether this U.S. racial progress narrative will extend to how the workforce views the effectiveness of organizational efforts surrounding diversity, equity, and inclusion” (Torrez et al., 2024).
“An impetus for these efforts is an understanding that despite persistent beliefs in American progress” (Seamster & Ray, 2018, as cited in Torrez et al., 2024), “U.S. workplaces continue to fall woefully short of meeting several standards for improvement or progress on these goals” (DeHaas et al., 2019; Dixon-Fyle et al., 2020, as cited in Torre et al., 2024).
The experts made these concepts to define social trends. They did this without considering how to communicate them to the public in more simplified ways. This lack of consideration can lead to unnecessary controversies. Additionally, educators and the media must define this educational jargon. This ensures the terms are less likely to be incendiary.
Takeaway DEI
“Experts” from right-wing think tanks put forth haphazard assumptions. These assumptions have gone overboard in their condemnation of DEI, woke, social-emotional learning, and Critical Race Theory.
I end with two points:
First, some political pundits can make life easier by telling the entire story. For example, I mention that Bill Gates looks favorably on DEI. Nonetheless, the media mainly covers what Elon Musk thinks.
Second, the DEI naysayers who spout to the Henny Penny public the sky is falling; please know it’s not. Mountains made of molehills are lame, selfish acts of entitlement.
References
Bock, C. (2022). Diversity, Equality, and Inclusion in Our Professions: A Thin and Leaky Pipeline. The Electrochemical Society Interface, 31(1).
Torrez, B., Hollie, L., Richeson, J. A., & Kraus, M. W. (2024). The misperception of organizational racial progress toward diversity, equity, and inclusion. American Psychologist, 79(4), 581–592. https://doi.org/10.1037/amp0001309
Wallace-Wells, B. (2021). How a conservative activist invented the conflict over Critical Race Theory. The New Yorker. https://www.newyorker.com/news/annals-of-inquiry/how-a-conservative-activist-invented-the-conflict-over-critical-race-theory
Matthew Bamberg has been an online educator for one-quarter of a century. He recently received the 2023 Delphi Award for Adjunct Professors in Education at a California university.
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