Diversity as a Good or Value?
Considerations for
Multicultural Initiatives
ACPA – Tampa, FL
March 6, 2015
Sherry Watt, Kira Pasquesi, Jodi Linley
@Education_Iowa @UIOWAHESA
COLLEGE OF EDUCATION
Leaders.Scholars.
Scholars.
Innovators.
Leaders.
Innovators.
Diversity: Noun, Adjective, or Verb
Hearing the word diversity
over and over and over
managing diversity
diversity hiring
recruiting diversity.
Noun or adjective
it’s only a word.
Without action
it’s only a symbol.
Without commitment
it’s only a sound.
Without strong voices in unison
it’s only a phase
without change.
Diversity is the nice word
we use now
to cover up the pain
and gut-wrenching agony,
the words of feelings, histories,
stories
we can’t stand
to hear more about.
Because it means we face
the raw, bare-boned reality
that we keep leaving out
the same people
over and over again
and the loss we suffer
in their absence
is too great to face.
So we don’t call it
racism.
We don’t call it
homophobia.
We don’t call it
pain for us all.
We call it diversity.
We talk about it.
We talk around it.
We talk.
Diversity is an empty word
unless
we can make it
an Action Verb.
By Kate Kissinger
COLLEGE OF EDUCATION
Leaders. Scholars. Innovators.
2
Resonating Thoughts
Read aloud a line that resonates with you
In pair/small group:
-  What does “diversity” mean to you?
-  What does “diversity” mean to your
institution?
COLLEGE OF EDUCATION
Leaders. Scholars. Innovators.
3
Centering My Campus
Reflect on an issue related to diversity on your campus.
•  Why is this issue significant (to you, the organization, and individuals
with both dominant and marginalized identities)? What is the
historical context of this issue?
•  Who are the key stakeholders? How are stakeholders currently
managing conflict or controversy associated with diversity?
•  How is the issue currently being addressed? Are efforts focused on
individual, community, and/or institutional levels? Are they aimed at
behavioral or attitudinal change?
•  What types of skills would members of the organization need to
possess in order to engage diversity effectively?
COLLEGE OF EDUCATION
Leaders. Scholars. Innovators.
4
Diversity as a ‘good’ vs. Diversity as a ‘value’{Excerpts from Watt Chapter, 2012}
•  Some institutions are motivated by
“ ‘diversity as a good’ which only requires
a surface level understanding of
systematic oppression.”
•  “Other institutions are striving to embrace
strategies to disrupt systematic
oppression on a deeper level …
embracing ‘diversity as a value’.”
COLLEGE OF EDUCATION
Leaders. Scholars. Innovators.
Approaches to Diversity Efforts
‘diversity as a value’
‘diversity as a good’
•  central & additive
•  cross-level analysis of
systemic oppression
•  thoughtful balance
between dialogue and
action
•  dominant group
leadership
•  Met with resistance;
changes ‘how things are
done here’
•  required & marginalized
•  surface-level
understanding of
systemic oppression
•  disjointed efforts and
miscommunication
•  marginalized group
leadership
•  Operates within the larger
societal systemic
structure
COLLEGE OF EDUCATION
Leaders. Scholars. Innovators.
Defining Difference
Difference is “having dissimilar opinions,
experiences, ideologies, epistemologies,
and/or constructions of reality about self,
society, and/or identity” (Watt, 2013).
Assumption: Managing conflict related to
Difference is an essential skill for living in
diverse societies.
COLLEGE OF EDUCATION
Leaders. Scholars. Innovators.
7
Defining Multicultural Initiative
A multicultural initiative is “any type of
program and/or a set of strategies that
promotes skill development to better
manage Difference on a personal,
institutional, community, or societal
level” (Watt & Linley, 2013).
COLLEGE OF EDUCATION
Leaders. Scholars. Innovators.
8
AAFES Method
•  Authentic, Action-Oriented Framing for
Environmental Shifts (AAFES) Method
–  Qualities of Process, Questions, and Skills
COLLEGE OF EDUCATION
Leaders. Scholars. Innovators.
9
AAFES Method: Authentic
•  Process Quality: Focus on You not the Other
–  Listening to multiple voices and competing views,
exploring own identities, participating authentically and
intentionally in difficult dialogues, focusing on personal
development
•  Sample Questions:
–  Does the initiative invite a focus on personal learning and
growth (not of the ‘other’) in relation to understanding
personal sense making of Difference in relation to the self?
–  Does the initiative create space for personal and collective
explorations of the head (thoughts), heart (emotions), and
hands (actions)?
•  Skills
–  Noticing (thoughts, information), Nurturing (emotion,
personal connections), and Naming (meaning making)
COLLEGE OF EDUCATION
Leaders. Scholars. Innovators.
10
AAFES Method: Action-Oriented
•  Process Quality: Focus on thoughtful balance between
dialogue and action
–  Maintaining a balance between thoughtful dialogue and
action; wrestling with meaningful questions and discovering
innovative strategies to practice in ways that are constructive,
generative, and central to the organization’s identity
•  Sample Questions:
–  Does the initiative guide participants to deconstruct and
reconstruct structural inequities within their particular
environment?
–  How will the initiative prepare participants for the ensuing difficult
dialogues? What skills will they need?
•  Skills
–  Sitting with discomfort, engaging in difficult dialogues, and
seeking critical consciousness.
COLLEGE OF EDUCATION
Leaders. Scholars. Innovators.
11
AAFES Method: Framing for
Environmental Shifts
•  Process Quality: Focus on shifting the environment for inclusion
not surviving dehumanization
–  Engendering last resort strategies - traditional uses of power (i.e.
patriarchy, coercion, extortion, intimidation, and patronization) for further
gain; instead, uses of power subversively or overtly to name injustices;
taking the long view balancing deconstruction and reconstruction
of structural inequities to attend to immediate needs; viewing social
problems as ‘third things’
•  Sample Questions:
–  In other words, do the participants (stakeholders, community members,
staff, administrators, etc.) have the opportunity to dialogue collectively
about the issue using various mediums (artifacts, stories, poems, and
images) related to the issue?
–  Simultaneously, is the initiative primarily focused on individuals
speaking from their positionality including some connection to collective
empathy?
•  Skills
–  Keeping a flexible mindset, viewing missteps as developmental rather
than fatal flaws, holding the tension of paradoxes (competing,
ambiguous, and conflicting notions)
COLLEGE OF EDUCATION
Leaders. Scholars. Innovators.
12
AAFES Applied: Case Study
“The University of Iowa
is a diverse community
with no tolerance for
racism, and the artwork
that was briefly displayed
on the Pentacrest this
morning was deeply
offensive to members of
our community…
The UI respects freedom
of speech, but the
university is also
responsible for ensuring
that public discourse is
respectful and sensitive.”
COLLEGE OF EDUCATION
Leaders. Scholars. Innovators.
13
Bringing It Home (Small Group)
•  Share your campus examples
•  Process one using AAFES:
You are organizing a division-wide meeting
to plan a response to the scenario you
selected. Identify strategies or actions that
exemplify each of the 3 AAFES method
principles (authentic, action-oriented,
framing for environmental shifts)
COLLEGE OF EDUCATION
Leaders. Scholars. Innovators.
14
Processing AAFES
Questions:
•  How did AAFES work in your small group?
•  What were the limitations of the method?
•  What is the utility for AAFES in your work?
COLLEGE OF EDUCATION
Leaders. Scholars. Innovators.
15
“Education either functions as an instrument
which is used to facilitate integration of the
younger generation into the logic of the present
system and bring about conformity or it
becomes the practice of freedom, the means by
which men and women deal critically and
creatively with reality and discover how to
participate in the transformation of their world.”
― Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed
COLLEGE OF EDUCATION
Leaders. Scholars. Innovators.
16
Shameless
Plug!
COLLEGE OF EDUCATION
Leaders. Scholars. Innovators.
17
Thank You
Sherry K. Watt, Associate Professor
[email protected]
Kira Pasquesi, Doctoral Candidate
[email protected]
Jodi Linley, Visiting Instructor
[email protected]
COLLEGE OF EDUCATION
Leaders. Scholars. Innovators.
18