essay about diversity in classroom

Have a language expert improve your writing

Check your paper for plagiarism in 10 minutes, generate your apa citations for free.

• Knowledge Base
• College essay
• How to Write a Diversity Essay | Tips & Examples

How to Write a Diversity Essay | Tips & Examples

Published on November 1, 2021 by Kirsten Courault . Revised on May 31, 2023.

Table of contents

What is a diversity essay, identify how you will enrich the campus community, share stories about your lived experience, explain how your background or identity has affected your life, other interesting articles, frequently asked questions about college application essays.

Diversity essays ask students to highlight an important aspect of their identity, background, culture, experience, viewpoints, beliefs, skills, passions, goals, etc.

Diversity essays can come in many forms. Some scholarships are offered specifically for students who come from an underrepresented background or identity in higher education. At highly competitive schools, supplemental diversity essays require students to address how they will enhance the student body with a unique perspective, identity, or background.

In the Common Application and applications for several other colleges, some main essay prompts ask about how your background, identity, or experience has affected you.

Why schools want a diversity essay

Many universities believe a student body representing different perspectives, beliefs, identities, and backgrounds will enhance the campus learning and community experience.

Admissions officers are interested in hearing about how your unique background, identity, beliefs, culture, or characteristics will enrich the campus community.

Through the diversity essay, admissions officers want students to articulate the following:

• What makes them different from other applicants
• Stories related to their background, identity, or experience
• How their unique lived experience has affected their outlook, activities, and goals

Prevent plagiarism. Run a free check.

Think about what aspects of your identity or background make you unique, and choose one that has significantly impacted your life.

For some students, it may be easy to identify what sets them apart from their peers. But if you’re having trouble identifying what makes you different from other applicants, consider your life from an outsider’s perspective. Don’t presume your lived experiences are normal or boring just because you’re used to them.

Some examples of identities or experiences that you might write about include the following:

• Race/ethnicity
• Gender identity
• Sexual orientation
• Nationality
• Socioeconomic status
• Immigration background
• Religion/belief system
• Place of residence
• Family circumstances
• Extracurricular activities related to diversity

Include vulnerable, authentic stories about your lived experiences. Maintain focus on your experience rather than going into too much detail comparing yourself to others or describing their experiences.

Keep the focus on you

Tell a story about how your background, identity, or experience has impacted you. While you can briefly mention another person’s experience to provide context, be sure to keep the essay focused on you. Admissions officers are mostly interested in learning about your lived experience, not anyone else’s.

When I was a baby, my grandmother took me in, even though that meant postponing her retirement and continuing to work full-time at the local hairdresser. Even working every shift she could, she never missed a single school play or soccer game.

She and I had a really special bond, even creating our own special language to leave each other secret notes and messages. She always pushed me to succeed in school, and celebrated every academic achievement like it was worthy of a Nobel Prize. Every month, any leftover tip money she received at work went to a special 509 savings plan for my college education.

When I was in the 10th grade, my grandmother was diagnosed with ALS. We didn’t have health insurance, and what began with quitting soccer eventually led to dropping out of school as her condition worsened. In between her doctor’s appointments, keeping the house tidy, and keeping her comfortable, I took advantage of those few free moments to study for the GED.

In school pictures at Raleigh Elementary School, you could immediately spot me as “that Asian girl.” At lunch, I used to bring leftover fun see noodles, but after my classmates remarked how they smelled disgusting, I begged my mom to make a “regular” lunch of sliced bread, mayonnaise, and deli meat.

Although born and raised in North Carolina, I felt a cultural obligation to learn my “mother tongue” and reconnect with my “homeland.” After two years of all-day Saturday Chinese school, I finally visited Beijing for the first time, expecting I would finally belong. While my face initially assured locals of my Chinese identity, the moment I spoke, my cover was blown. My Chinese was littered with tonal errors, and I was instantly labeled as an “ABC,” American-born Chinese.

I felt culturally homeless.

Speak from your own experience

Highlight your actions, difficulties, and feelings rather than comparing yourself to others. While it may be tempting to write about how you have been more or less fortunate than those around you, keep the focus on you and your unique experiences, as shown below.

I began to despair when the FAFSA website once again filled with red error messages.

I had been at the local library for hours and hadn’t even been able to finish the form, much less the other to-do items for my application.

I am the first person in my family to even consider going to college. My parents work two jobs each, but even then, it’s sometimes very hard to make ends meet. Rather than playing soccer or competing in speech and debate, I help my family by taking care of my younger siblings after school and on the weekends.

“We only speak one language here. Speak proper English!” roared a store owner when I had attempted to buy bread and accidentally used the wrong preposition.

In middle school, I had relentlessly studied English grammar textbooks and received the highest marks.

Leaving Seoul was hard, but living in West Orange, New Jersey was much harder一especially navigating everyday communication with Americans.

After sharing relevant personal stories, make sure to provide insight into how your lived experience has influenced your perspective, activities, and goals. You should also explain how your background led you to apply to this university and why you’re a good fit.

Include your outlook, actions, and goals

Conclude your essay with an insight about how your background or identity has affected your outlook, actions, and goals. You should include specific actions and activities that you have done as a result of your insight.

One night, before the midnight premiere of Avengers: Endgame , I stopped by my best friend Maria’s house. Her mother prepared tamales, churros, and Mexican hot chocolate, packing them all neatly in an Igloo lunch box. As we sat in the line snaking around the AMC theater, I thought back to when Maria and I took salsa classes together and when we belted out Selena’s “Bidi Bidi Bom Bom” at karaoke. In that moment, as I munched on a chicken tamale, I realized how much I admired the beauty, complexity, and joy in Maria’s culture but had suppressed and devalued my own.

The following semester, I joined Model UN. Since then, I have learned how to proudly represent other countries and have gained cultural perspectives other than my own. I now understand that all cultures, including my own, are equal. I still struggle with small triggers, like when I go through airport security and feel a suspicious glance toward me, or when I feel self-conscious for bringing kabsa to school lunch. But in the future, I hope to study and work in international relations to continue learning about other cultures and impart a positive impression of Saudi culture to the world.

The smell of the early morning dew and the welcoming whinnies of my family’s horses are some of my most treasured childhood memories. To this day, our farm remains so rural that we do not have broadband access, and we’re too far away from the closest town for the postal service to reach us.

Going to school regularly was always a struggle: between the unceasing demands of the farm and our lack of connectivity, it was hard to keep up with my studies. Despite being a voracious reader, avid amateur chemist, and active participant in the classroom, emergencies and unforeseen events at the farm meant that I had a lot of unexcused absences.

Although it had challenges, my upbringing taught me resilience, the value of hard work, and the importance of family. Staying up all night to watch a foal being born, successfully saving the animals from a minor fire, and finding ways to soothe a nervous mare afraid of thunder have led to an unbreakable family bond.

Our farm is my family’s birthright and our livelihood, and I am eager to learn how to ensure the farm’s financial and technological success for future generations. In college, I am looking forward to joining a chapter of Future Farmers of America and studying agricultural business to carry my family’s legacy forward.

Tailor your answer to the university

After explaining how your identity or background will enrich the university’s existing student body, you can mention the university organizations, groups, or courses in which you’re interested.

Maybe a larger public school setting will allow you to broaden your community, or a small liberal arts college has a specialized program that will give you space to discover your voice and identity. Perhaps this particular university has an active affinity group you’d like to join.

Demonstrating how a university’s specific programs or clubs are relevant to you can show that you’ve done your research and would be a great addition to the university.

At the University of Michigan Engineering, I want to study engineering not only to emulate my mother’s achievements and strength, but also to forge my own path as an engineer with disabilities. I appreciate the University of Michigan’s long-standing dedication to supporting students with disabilities in ways ranging from accessible housing to assistive technology. At the University of Michigan Engineering, I want to receive a top-notch education and use it to inspire others to strive for their best, regardless of their circumstances.

If you want to know more about academic writing , effective communication , or parts of speech , make sure to check out some of our other articles with explanations and examples.

Academic writing

• Writing process
• Transition words
• Passive voice
• Paraphrasing

 Communication

• How to end an email
• Ms, mrs, miss
• How to start an email
• I hope this email finds you well
• Hope you are doing well

 Parts of speech

• Personal pronouns
• Conjunctions

In addition to your main college essay , some schools and scholarships may ask for a supplementary essay focused on an aspect of your identity or background. This is sometimes called a diversity essay .

Many universities believe a student body composed of different perspectives, beliefs, identities, and backgrounds will enhance the campus learning and community experience.

Admissions officers are interested in hearing about how your unique background, identity, beliefs, culture, or characteristics will enrich the campus community, which is why they assign a diversity essay .

To write an effective diversity essay , include vulnerable, authentic stories about your unique identity, background, or perspective. Provide insight into how your lived experience has influenced your outlook, activities, and goals. If relevant, you should also mention how your background has led you to apply for this university and why you’re a good fit.

Cite this Scribbr article

If you want to cite this source, you can copy and paste the citation or click the “Cite this Scribbr article” button to automatically add the citation to our free Citation Generator.

Courault, K. (2023, May 31). How to Write a Diversity Essay | Tips & Examples. Scribbr. Retrieved April 9, 2024, from https://www.scribbr.com/college-essay/diversity-essay/

Is this article helpful?

Kirsten Courault

Other students also liked, how to write about yourself in a college essay | examples, what do colleges look for in an essay | examples & tips, how to write a scholarship essay | template & example, "i thought ai proofreading was useless but..".

I've been using Scribbr for years now and I know it's a service that won't disappoint. It does a good job spotting mistakes”

• Our Mission

A Classroom Where Everyone Feels Welcome

Six strategies for building the strong relationships with students that are the heart of a culturally inclusive classroom community.

In the United States, students spend the majority of their day in the care of adults who are not their parent or guardian. Those school-based adults assume the responsibility of caregiver for children who are not their own. The cultural upbringing of the teachers and the cultural upbringing of the students form an intersection that is critical to the academic success of the students and the professional success of the adults.

It’s imperative that students and teachers know each other beyond the subjective cultural experiences that each may bring to the classroom, and that educators possess an understanding of diverse cultures but not stereotype people into a one-size-fits-all cultural mold. Students need to be related to as full, complex, multidimensional people.

To achieve this desired objective, school leaders and classroom teachers should view their school or classroom spaces as culturally inclusive classroom communities where everyone is welcome.

Fostering a Sense of Inclusion in the Classroom

When we talk about the dynamics of creating a culturally inclusive classroom community, the typical focus is on the diversity of the students in the room or school building. All too often the culture and diversity of the adults are on the periphery. But in order to navigate the intersection of student and adult cultural diversity, we must first acknowledge and understand our adult beliefs and practices.

This thinking requires educators to be willing to explore and analyze our own history and its effects on our behavior. First we must consider our historical and current living situations and conditions. When we examine our childhood, young adult, and present-day lives, we examine how our experiences influence us today and how they might have an effect on our work with children and families who have vastly different experiences.

While culture refers to a collective worldview, schools as culturally inclusive communities must relate to individual students first in addressing the distinct needs of the students who make up the those communities. I’ve used several relationship-building approaches that I feel could help educators and students successfully navigate the cultural intersection of the school community.

1. Learn your students’ names and learn to pronounce them. Our names are our identities. Students feel valued and acknowledged when teachers and other school-related adults take the time to learn their names.

Name recognition is so personal that mobile assistance programs like Siri for the iPhone have a pronunciation feature so that the device can correctly pronounce the name of the owner. If mobile technology can recognize the importance of name recognition, it seems that the same can be said for the classroom community.

Intentionally mispronouncing someone’s name is a passive-aggressive form of disrespect.

2. Set aside time for relationship housekeeping. Teachers can set aside a short time each class period for students to ask questions, share brief short stories of their lives, and just check in and transition into the new class period, or the second half of the day for elementary students.

As humans we are relational. Children and adults desire a connection with those they trust.

3. Have one-on-one conversations, discussions, and informal meetings with students. Remember: An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. These conversations should occur early in the year and routinely during the year. Don’t wait until there’s a problem or the student is in trouble to talk with him or her.

4. Connect with parents. Conferences, phone calls, and brief emails are ways to bond with parents or guardians. These interactions should start early, prior to any problems that may occur, and they should be used simply as a means of getting to know your students and their families.

5. See yourself as the students see you. What type of facial expressions do students see? What does your body language tell them about how comfortable you are around them? What tone of voice do you use to show your students that you respect them as individuals? What biases and perceptions do the students have of you based on how you look, dress, and talk?

Let your students get to know you. Do they know your favorite color? Do they know your pet peeves? Do they know what you like to do for fun? In any relationship, both people come to know each other—a teacher-student relationship is no exception.

6. Know your content. Students want teachers who are well versed in their content. Teachers should be able to demonstrate their content knowledge by anticipating student misconceptions and have the ability to explain the content in a variety of ways.

To create culturally inclusive classroom communities, both teachers and students build relationships with each other. Students are motivated by teachers they respect. Teachers show genuine care and concern for students by holding them accountable and by acknowledging their good work. And teachers who show that they care are more successful in reaching students.

An elementary-school-age student may not be able to articulate his or her specific needs as they relate to learning and safety. However, student behavior may indicate which path the teacher should take to address what is in the student’s best interest. So the student is the navigator and the teacher is the driver at this cultural crossroad.

Center for Teaching

Increasing inclusivity in the classroom.

The goals of this teaching guide are threefold: 1) to discuss the importance of inclusivity in the classroom, 2) to present examples of teaching more inclusively, and 3) to provide additional resources for further guidance.

Why is inclusivity important?

What does inclusivity look like, reducing stereotype threat, additional resources at vanderbilt.

Drawing from the literature on inclusive teaching in higher education, the current section considers the importance of increasing inclusivity and is framed by two overarching issues. The first issue is that of student belonging in their classrooms and in the broader campus culture. Most students struggle to transition into college, but students of less privileged and more marginal backgrounds face even greater challenges as they enter what they can perceive to be an unwelcoming or even hostile environment (Carter, Locks, Winkle-Wagner, & Pineda, 2006; Kalsner & Pistole, 2003). To help students overcome challenges integrating into college life, teachers can work to cultivate a sense of belonging among their students. Section Two of this teaching guide provides resources for teachers to increase the sense of belonging in their classrooms.

At the institutional level, increasing a sense of belonging among students is embodied in the following four goals, as derived from a review of inclusion statements across campuses (Hurtado 2003, in Locks, Hurtado, Bowman, & Oseguera, 2008 p. 279):

• Ensuring that students of underrepresented populations have the support they need to be academically successful.
• Building relationships and developing multicultural skills with members from diverse backgrounds.
• Enhancing students’ ability to participate in a pluralistic, interdependent global community.
• Increasing the participation of students of color in campus life.

Studies repeatedly find that positive diverse interactions increase students’ sense of belonging on campuses (e.g., Locks, Hurtado, Bowman, & Oseguera, 2008). Conversely, interactions that result in feelings of social anxiety and fear decrease a sense of belonging. Accordingly, student cultures that foster positive diversity experiences help students – all students – feel like they are a valued part of a campus community.

The second theme of inclusivity is stereotype threat, which refers to the fear of confirming a negative stereotype about their respective in-group, a fear that can create high cognitive load and reduce academic focus and performance (Steele & Aronson, 1995). The effects of stereotype threat are profound and can impact students from a variety of backgrounds.  Multiple studies have found that stereotype threat significantly reduces performance for undergraduates from less privileged socioeconomic statuses (Croizet & Claire, 1998; Spencer & Castano, 2007), African American students  (Steele & Aronson, 1995), women in math and science courses (Good, Aronson, & Harder, 2008), as well as Latino (Schmader & Johns, 2003) and LGBT students at traditionally religious institutions (Love, 1998). Stereotype threat is especially detrimental for individuals who identify strongly with the stigmatized group (Marx, Stapel, & Muller, 2005). Identifying and eliminating stereotype threat should be a central goal for teachers who want to increase inclusivity in the classroom. Sections Two and Three describe specific examples and strategies to increase the sense of belonging in the classroom as well as to reduce stereotype threat.

When instructors attempt to create safe, inclusive classrooms, they should consider multiple factors, including the syllabus, course content, class preparation, their own behavior, and their knowledge of students’ backgrounds and skills. The resources in this section offer concrete strategies to address these factors and improve the learning climate for all students.

• Creating Inclusive College Classrooms : An article from the Center for Research on Learning and Teaching at the University of Michigan which addresses five aspects of teaching that influence the inclusivity of a classroom: 1) the course content, 2) the teacher’s assumptions and awareness of multicultural issues in classroom situations, 3) the planning of course sessions, 4) the teacher’s knowledge of students’ backgrounds, and 5) the teacher’s choices, comments and behaviors while teaching.
• Teaching for Inclusion: Diversity in the College Classroom: Written and designed by the staff of the Center for Teaching and Learning at UNC, Chapel Hill, this book offers a range of strategies, including quotes from students representing a range of minority groups.
• Managing Hot Moments in the Classroom , from the Derek Bok Center at Harvard University, describes how to turn difficult discussions into learning opportunities.

The  Faculty Teaching Excellence Program (FTEP) at the University of Colorado has compiled a series of faculty essays on diversity in  On Diversity in Teaching and Learning: A Compendium . This publication is available for download (as a PDF file) from the  FTEP website (scroll down towards the bottom of the page for the download links). The essays in this volume include, among others:

• Fostering Diversity in the Classroom: Teaching by Discussion: Ron Billingsley (English) offers 14 practical suggestions for teaching discussion courses (with 15-20 students) and creating an atmosphere in the classroom that embraces diversity.
• Fostering Diversity in a Medium-Sized Classroom: Brenda Allen (Communications) outlines seven ways to create an interactive environment in larger classes (with 80-100 students) and thus promote diversity in the classroom.
• Developing and Teaching an Inclusive Curriculum: Deborah Flick (Women Studies) uses the scholarship of Peggy McIntosh and Patricia Hill Collins to support a useful syllabus checklist and teaching tips that include techniques to provoke discussion about privilege and stereotypes among students.
• The Influence of Attitudes, Feelings and Behavior Toward Diversity on Teaching and Learning: Lerita Coleman (Psychology) encourages instructors to examine their own identity development and self-concept to determine how they feel diversity and bias affect their teaching. She also shares 14 specific teaching tips.

Steve Stroessner (Columbia) and Catherine Good (Baruch College) provide guidelines and concrete strategies to reduce stereotype threat in the classroom. Their work can be found here . These psychologists classify strategies to reduce stereotype threat into the following categories:

Reframe the task This portion of the website describes ways that teachers can reduce stereotype threat by acknowledging the steps that they have taken to make a task or test fair for stereotyped groups.

Deemphasize threatened social identities This activity encourages test givers to modify questions that might make stereotyped groups recall their stigmatized identity while they are performing a graded task. The modifications can include moving identity questions to the end of the test or asking questions that highlight students’ valued identities to empower students to perform well.

Encourage self-affirmation Repeatedly, studies suggest that self-affirmation – where students think about their valued characteristics, skills etc. – leads to increased performance. This section of the website presents evidence and examples of self-affirmation activities.

Provide role models Positive role models, who perform well in fields that typically invoke stereotype threat, can increase otherwise poor performance for stigmatized groups.

Provide external attributions for difficulty Help students attribute their anxieties to causes other than stereotype to lessen anxiety for students who would normally suffer from stereotype threat. For example, some studies posited that instructors reduced poor performance by suggesting that anxiety might actually help with test taking, without connecting the anxiety to any stereotype.

Emphasize an incremental view of intelligence This portion of the website suggests that instructors should assist students to overcome fixed notions of intelligence. When notions of genius or inherent talent were downplayed, stereotype threat was greatly reduced.

University Programs and Centers

• Antoinette Brown Lectures – Vanderbilt University Divinity School Established in 1974, this lectureship brings distinguished women theologians and church leaders to the Divinity School to speak on a variety of concerns for women in ministry.
• Bishop Joseph Johnson Black Cultural Center This center, dedicated in 1984, provides educational and cultural programming on the Black experience for the University and Nashville communities, and serves as a support resource for African-descended students. The center’s programs are open to the Vanderbilt and Nashville communities.
• Carpenter Program in Religion, Gender and Sexuality Established in 1995, this program fosters conversation about religion, gender, and sexuality by providing education and encouraging communication within and across religious affiliations, ideological bases, and cultural contexts. The program facilitates courses of study, workshops, lectures, and provides consultation and information services. Their website includes news items on gender, religion, and sexuality, as well as a list of syllabi, papers and student projects.
• Office for Diversity in Medical Education This office administers an active recruitment program that involves visits by students and staff to other campuses; encourages contacts between applicants and matriculating students; and arranges visits to the Vanderbilt campus for newly accepted under- represented minority applicants. This site also links to related programs fostering diversity at the School of Medicine, such as the  Vanderbilt Bridges Program and the Meharry – Vanderbilt Alliance .
• The LGBTQI Resource Office provides information about a variety of organizations that serve the needs of gay, straight, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender undergraduates, graduates, faculty, and staff.
• Margaret Cuninggim Women’s Center Providing activities on women, gender equity, and feminism through lectures, This center sponsors campus workshops and special events. These programs are open to students, faculty and staff, as well as interested members of the local community. The center’s 2000-volume library houses the only collection on campus devoted to gender and feminism, and is available for reference, research and general reading.
• Vanderbilt launched new Title IX and Student Discrimination , Student Access Services and Equal Employment Opportunity offices to serve students, faculty and staff Jan 15, 2018. The mission of these coordinated offices is to take a proactive stance in assisting the University with the interpretation, understanding, and application of federal and state laws and regulations which impose special obligations in the areas of equal opportunity and affirmative action.
• Project Dialogue Project Dialogue is a year-long, University-wide program to involve the entire Vanderbilt community in public debate and discussion, and to connect classroom learning with larger societal issues. Project Dialogue has been run every other year since 1989, each year centering on a particular theme. Recent speakers have included Naomi Wolf, Cornel West, Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., Oliver Sacks, and Barbara Ehrenreich.
• Robert Penn Warren Center for the Humanities The Robert Penn Warren Center for the Humanities promotes interdisciplinary research and study in the humanities and social sciences, and, when appropriate, the natural sciences. The center’s programs are designed to intensify and increase interdisciplinary discussion of academic, social, and cultural issues. Recent and upcoming fellows program themes include: “Memory, Identity, and Political Action,” “Constructions, Deconstructions, and Destructions in Nature,” and “Gender, Sexuality, and Cultural Politics.” Lectures, conferences, and special programs include: Race and Wealth Disparity in 21st Century America, a Gender and Sexuality Lecture Series, Rethinking the Americas: Crossing Borders and Disciplines, Diversity in Learning/ Learning and Diversity, Feminist Dialogues, and the Social Construction of the Body.
• The Office of the University Chaplain This office offers programs to students to help them understand their own faith and the faith of others, clarify their values, and develop a sense of social responsibility. The office also provides leadership for Project Dialogue, as well as the Martin Luther King Jr. Commemorative Series and the Holocaust Lecture Series.

International Services and Programs

• English Language Center This center is a teaching institute offering noncredit English language courses for speakers of other languages. The center provides English instruction to learners at all levels of proficiency to enable them to achieve their academic, professional, and social goals.
• International Student and Scholar Services This office offers programs and services to assist international students and scholars across the university.

Student Offices and Programs

• Office of Leadership Development and Intercultural Affairs – Dean of Students This office initiates, develops, and implements multicultural education in the areas of policies, services, and programs for the entire student body.
• International Student Organizations Lists information on organizations sponsoring programs and offering support systems for international students at Vanderbilt.
• Religious Student Organizations Lists information on a range of fellowship and worship services provided by Vanderbilt’s diverse religious community.
• Representative Student Organizations Lists information on a range of additional student groups, such as the Asian-American Student Association, Black Student Alliance, etc.

Outreach Programs

• Girls and Science Camp This camp was established at Vanderbilt University in the summer of 1999 in response to the gender differences in science achievement found in high school. Its goals are to engage girls in science activities, to foster confidence in science achievement, and to encourage girls’ enrollment in high school science courses.

Carter, D. F., Locks, A. M., Winkle-Wagner, R., & Pineda, D. (2006, April). “ From when and where I enter”: Theoretical and empirical considerations of minority students’ transition to college. Paper presented at American Educational Research Association annual meeting, San Francisco.

Croizet, J. C., & Claire, T. (1998). Extending the concept of stereotype threat to social class: The intellectual underperformance of students from low socioeconomic backgrounds. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 24 , 588–594.

Good, C., Aronson, J., & Harder, J. (2008). Problems in the pipeline. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 29 , 17–28.

Kalsner, L., & Pistole, M. C. (2003). College adjustment in a multiethnic sample: Attachment, separation-individuation, and ethnic identity. Journal of College Student Development, 44(1), 92–109.

Locks, A.M., Hurtado, S., Bowman, N.A., & Oseguera, L. (2008). Extending notions of campus climate and diversity to students’ transition to college. Review of Higher Education, 31, 257-285.

Love, P. G.(1998). Cultural barriers facing lesbian, gay, and bisexual students at a catholic college . Journal of Higher Education, 69, 298–323.

Marx, D.M., Stapel D.A, & Muller, D. (2005). We can do it: The interplay of construal orientation and social comparisons under threat. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 88, 432–446

Schmader, T., & Johns, M. (2003). Converging evidence that stereotype threat reduces working memory capacity. Journal of Personality & Social Psychology, 85, 440-452.

Spencer, B., & Castano, E. (2007). Social class is dead. Long live social class! Stereotype threat among low socioeconomic status individuals. Social Justice Research, 20, 418 – 432.

Steele, C.M., & Aronson. J. (1995). Stereotype threat and the intellectual test performance of African Americans. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 69 , 797–811.

Teaching Guides

• Online Course Development Resources
• Principles & Frameworks
• Pedagogies & Strategies
• Reflecting & Assessing
• Challenges & Opportunities
• Populations & Contexts

Quick Links

• Services for Departments and Schools
• Examples of Online Instructional Modules

Search form

• About Faculty Development and Support
• Programs and Funding Opportunities

Consultations, Observations, and Services

• Strategic Resources & Digital Publications
• Canvas @ Yale Support
• Learning Environments @ Yale
• Teaching Workshops
• Teaching Consultations and Classroom Observations
• Teaching Programs
• Spring Teaching Forum
• Written and Oral Communication Workshops and Panels
• Writing Resources & Tutorials
• About the Graduate Writing Laboratory
• Writing and Public Speaking Consultations
• Writing Workshops and Panels
• Writing Peer-Review Groups
• Writing Retreats and All Writes
• Online Writing Resources for Graduate Students
• About Teaching Development for Graduate and Professional School Students
• Teaching Programs and Grants
• Teaching Forums
• Resources for Graduate Student Teachers
• About Undergraduate Writing and Tutoring
• Academic Strategies Program
• The Writing Center
• STEM Tutoring & Programs
• Humanities & Social Sciences
• Center for Language Study
• Online Course Catalog
• Antiracist Pedagogy
• NECQL 2019: NorthEast Consortium for Quantitative Literacy XXII Meeting
• STEMinar Series
• Teaching in Context: Troubling Times
• Helmsley Postdoctoral Teaching Scholars
• Pedagogical Partners
• Instructional Materials
• Evaluation & Research
• STEM Education Job Opportunities
• Yale Connect
• Online Education Legal Statements

You are here

Diversity in the classroom.

Promoting diversity is a goal shared by many in American colleges and universities, but actually achieving this goal in the day-to-day classroom is often hard to do. The goal of this teaching module is to highlight a few of the key challenges and concerns in promoting diversity, and illustrate ways to incorporate an understanding of diversity in the classroom and beyond.

Diversity is a term that can have many different meanings depending on context. This module will not offer a comprehensive definition of the term, instead, this module will highlight two key areas related to diversity:

• Identify how diversity affects the classroom
• Provide practical tips for promoting an inclusive classroom

How Diversity Affects the Classroom

Much discussion about diversity focuses on the following forms of marginalization: race, class, gender, and sexual orientation — and rightfully so, given the importance of these forms of difference. In fact, students come to the university classroom with different backgrounds, sets of experiences, cultural contexts, and world views.

Additionally, issues of diversity play a role in how students and teachers view the importance of the classroom and what should happen there. For example, assumptions about what a typical student should know, the resources they have and their prior knowledge are extremely important.

Students may perceive that they do not “belong” in the classroom setting — a feeling that can lead to decreased participation, feelings of inadequacy, and other distractions. Teachers may make flawed assumptions of students’ capabilities or assume a uniform standard of student performance. Teachers may themselves feel out of place based on their own ascriptive traits (i.e. differences based on class, privilege, etc.).

Identifying and thinking through notions of difference and how they affect the classroom allow both students and teachers to see the classroom as an inclusive place. 

Practical Tips for Promoting an Inclusive Classroom

While many discussions concerning diversity focus on talking about the importance of diversity and recognizing difference, it is equally important to move to the next step: incorporating specific tips for addressing differences and how they play out.

One way to form strategies for promoting an inclusive classroom is to use self-reflection and think of potential classroom scenarios and how one might address them. The solutions to such scenarios are ones that each teacher should consider for him- or herself, since there are no immediate right or wrong answers.

YOU MAY BE INTERESTED IN

The Poorvu Center for Teaching and Learning routinely supports members of the Yale community with individual instructional consultations and classroom observations.

Reserve a Room

The Poorvu Center for Teaching and Learning partners with departments and groups on-campus throughout the year to share its space. Please review the reservation form and submit a request.

Instructional Enhancement Fund

The Instructional Enhancement Fund (IEF) awards grants of up to $500 to support the timely integration of new learning activities into an existing undergraduate or graduate course. All Yale instructors of record, including tenured and tenure-track faculty, clinical instructional faculty, lecturers, lectors, and part-time acting instructors (PTAIs), are eligible to apply. Award decisions are typically provided within two weeks to help instructors implement ideas for the current semester.

Home — Essay Samples — Social Issues — Diversity — Importance of Diversity in The Classroom

Importance of Diversity in The Classroom

• Categories: Cultural Anthropology Diversity Gender Discrimination

About this sample

Words: 630 |

Published: Mar 16, 2024

Words: 630 | Page: 1 | 4 min read

Table of contents

Enhances learning experience, fosters inclusivity and equity, enhances intercultural competence (optional).

Cite this Essay

Let us write you an essay from scratch

• 450+ experts on 30 subjects ready to help
• Custom essay delivered in as few as 3 hours

Get high-quality help

Dr. Heisenberg

Verified writer

• Expert in: Arts & Culture Social Issues

+ 120 experts online

By clicking “Check Writers’ Offers”, you agree to our terms of service and privacy policy . We’ll occasionally send you promo and account related email

No need to pay just yet!

Related Essays

2 pages / 1064 words

1 pages / 571 words

4 pages / 1612 words

3 pages / 1552 words

Remember! This is just a sample.

You can get your custom paper by one of our expert writers.

121 writers online

Still can’t find what you need?

Browse our vast selection of original essay samples, each expertly formatted and styled

Related Essays on Diversity

Cletus, H. E., Mahmood, N. A., Umar, A., & Ibrahim, A. D. (2018). Prospects and challenges of workplace diversity in modern day organizations: A critical review. Journal of Business and Public Administration, 9(2), 35-52. [...]

In the modern healthcare landscape, diversity in nursing has emerged as a crucial and highly relevant topic. The nursing profession is a cornerstone of healthcare systems worldwide, and its effectiveness hinges on the diverse [...]

Diversity in the workplace has become an increasingly important topic in today's globalized and interconnected world. With the growing diversity of the workforce, organizations are faced with the challenge of managing and [...]

Within the realm of contemporary educational discourse, the concept of multicultural education stands as an indelible cornerstone, profoundly shaping the educational landscape. This essay undertakes an extensive exploration of [...]

The debate over importance of workplace diversity is not new. It has been in discussion for last 6 decades. Many researchers, academicians, human resource professionals and entrepreneurs have debated about its benefits, [...]

In conclusion, Bronx Masquerade by Nikki Grimes offers a powerful exploration of the themes of self-expression and diversity. Through the analysis of the themes, characters, and literary devices used in the novel, it becomes [...]

Related Topics

By clicking “Send”, you agree to our Terms of service and Privacy statement . We will occasionally send you account related emails.

Where do you want us to send this sample?

By clicking “Continue”, you agree to our terms of service and privacy policy.

Be careful. This essay is not unique

This essay was donated by a student and is likely to have been used and submitted before

Download this Sample

Free samples may contain mistakes and not unique parts

Sorry, we could not paraphrase this essay. Our professional writers can rewrite it and get you a unique paper.

Please check your inbox.

We can write you a custom essay that will follow your exact instructions and meet the deadlines. Let's fix your grades together!

Get Your Personalized Essay in 3 Hours or Less!

We use cookies to personalyze your web-site experience. By continuing we’ll assume you board with our cookie policy .

• Instructions Followed To The Letter
• Deadlines Met At Every Stage
• Unique And Plagiarism Free

The Benefits of Inclusion and Diversity in the Classroom

It’s been a little more than 60 years since Brown vs. Board of Education, one of the most important Supreme Court cases in the history of the United States. The decision made it illegal to segregate public schools on the basis of race. That cornerstone decision of the civil rights movement has played a major role in breaking down racial barriers in the decades since. It has also enabled social scientists to study how diversity in the classroom leads to students’ increased cultural understanding, stronger critical thinking skills and enhanced creativity, which all better prepare them for adulthood.

The National Education Association reports that 2014 was the first year in which the majority of students in American public schools represented racial and ethnic minorities. In addition, the Southern Education Foundation found that in 2013, a full 51 percent of public school children were from low-income families. While student demographics vary greatly across the country, there is no question that cultural respect and inclusion are values that matter greatly in the modern classroom. Those considering enrolling in a Doctorate in Education (EdD) program should seek out one that emphasizes the importance of inclusion and diversity in the classroom, and the benefits they can provide.

Exploring the Benefits of Classroom Diversity and Inclusion

Diverse schools feature differences in ethnicity, socioeconomic class, religion, reading level, athletic ability, background, gender, personality, and much more. Strong EdD programs teach educators to value the unique aspects of what makes each student different, and helps them embrace those differences in the classroom.

An in-depth research review of dozens of other studies on diversity—conducted by The Century Foundation, a New York-based think tank—found that having different and divergent perspectives can create positive learning outcomes. Those outcomes, explored below, can have benefits that reflect well beyond students’ graduation and can impact their lives going forward.

Diversity Improves Cognitive Skills and Critical Thinking

The presence of diversity in the classroom allows students to consider perspectives and opinions beyond those they’ve already formed or were shaped in early life by family and friends. By presenting students with viewpoints far different from their own, it gives them the opportunity to think critically about their own beliefs and examine the world in fresh ways. As noted by an article in Scientific American, exposure to diversity alters the way individuals think by promoting creativity and innovation, as well as decision-making and problem-solving skills. As the article summarizes, “Diversity jolts us into cognitive action in ways that homogeneity simply does not.”

Exposure to Diversity Helps Students Enter Adulthood

When students enter the professional world, they join a vast and diverse workforce. Interacting with people of all different backgrounds and mindsets can present a challenge without prior exposure to diversity, especially at a younger age. Companies are taking note of their employees’ ability to handle diversity with grace and maturity; 96 percent of major employers, according to the Century Foundation, say it is vital that employees are able to work with people from diverse backgrounds.

Diversity Prepares Students for Citizenship

As part of the Century Foundation’s research study on diversity, the authors reviewed 27 different studies about the effects of diversity on people’s willingness to interact with and improve their local community—a concept known as civic engagement. The study found that experiences with diversity in college do lead to increased civic engagement. This indicates the more involved citizens are with their government and political landscape, and the more educated they become about government processes, the more informed decisions they can make about how they are governed. As the U.S. Department of Education notes, students’ experiences with diversity help mold them into more engaged citizens.

Diversity Promotes Creativity

At its core, creativity is all about bringing together different ideas and transforming them to make something new, unique, and personal. The more ideas and experiences people are exposed to, the more creative they can be. Indeed, Scientific American cites a study conducted by several research professors who found that groups with racial diversity significantly outperformed groups without diversity in a problem-solving scenario. In professional and nonprofessional situations that call for creativity, it is a wise choice to bring together diverse perspectives.

Discover How to Encourage Inclusivity and Diversity as an Educator

As has been discussed, diversity in the classroom has numerous positive benefits for students, but how can educators ensure their pupils are getting the most out of interacting with their diverse peers? Well-trained educators, like those with an EdD, are equipped with the tools to encourage the exchange of ideas and interpersonal understanding. No matter what level of education, elementary school teachers through college professors can all utilize the following strategies to benefit their classrooms.

Learn about Students’ Cultural Backgrounds

Classroom students aren’t the only ones who can benefit from learning about what makes them diverse. According to the NDT Resource Center, an academic source committed to nondestructive evaluation, educators should also get to know their students and what makes them unique, thereby discovering the viewpoint from which they see the world and their personal learning style. For an educator, understanding cultural diversity in the classroom is a crucial part of being able to anticipate where certain lessons might lead, or any issues that might arise between students of different backgrounds. Educators can establish a tone of inclusion, emphasizing that all perspectives are valuable.

Create a Culturally Responsive Learning Environment

An educator who properly creates a culturally responsive environment will have fostered a classroom where students become respectful and understanding of cultures different from their own. Those students are typically more willing to listen respectfully to different viewpoints, rather than mock, scorn, or fear the unfamiliar. The best way for educators to achieve this, according to The Edvocate, is to teach students that people who do not look the same as them—or who come from different socioeconomic backgrounds, follow different religious traditions, speak different languages, or have a different sexual orientation or gender identity—are still just the same as them on the inside.

Allow Students to Learn about Their Community

Learning about one’s own culture is just as important as learning about others when it comes to developing cultural understanding among students. Educators with a strong teaching background such as an EdD can facilitate projects for their students that encourage them to get to know their own history. The NDT Resource Center suggests activities such as visiting community landmarks of importance to their culture, and interviewing important members of their community. Students can then be given the opportunity to share what they discover with their classmates.

Establish a Zero-Indifference Negative Behavior Policy

In recent years, schools have enacted zero-tolerance policies in an attempt to curb bullying, harassment, and intimidation. However, the tide is now shifting toward zero-indifference policies instead, according to GLSEN. Zero-indifference is an alternative that promotes safety in schools by consistently and firmly addressing disrespectful behavior. Unlike zero-tolerance, in which a first offense results in punishments as harsh as suspension or expulsion, zero-indifference allows the teacher to use culturally insensitive moments as opportunities for learning and understanding. The Tolerance.org project of the Southern Poverty Law Center recommends zero-indifference policies when it comes to addressing bullying and harassment, as does the Anti-Defamation League; the American Civil Liberties Union; the Respect for All Project; and the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network—according to research by Jacqueline Leung on the Oregon Commission on Black Affairs.

Learn How to Foster Cultural Diversity in the Classroom

Teachers who wish to be at the forefront of their profession should have a strong foundation in understanding diversity and how to create an environment of inclusion in the classroom. To accomplish this, educators would do well to explore an award-winning education program, such as American University’s Online Doctorate of Education . The curriculum is designed to provide educators with the tools and understanding to adapt to any classroom, regardless of its diverse student makeup—and to ultimately foster a wider appreciation of our human differences.

Education Week, “Six Ways Teachers Can Foster Cultural Awareness in the Classroom”

Leung, Jacqueline, “Reforming School Discipline for Equity and Excellence in Oregon: Recommendations for Policy and Practice”

National Education Association, “Diverse Student Populations Are in the Classroom”

Scientific American, “How Diversity Makes us Smarter”

The Century Foundation, “How Racially Diverse Schools and Classrooms Can Benefit All Students”

The Edvocate, “Ways to Promote Diverse Cultures in the Classroom”

Tolerance.org, “Critical Practices for Anti-Bias Education”

Request Information

Multicultural Diversity and Performance in the Classroom Essay

Issues around cultural diversity in classroom, the concept of multiculturalism in australia, political and social climate influence on students’ achievements, culturally competent and multicultural education.

Diversity in a classroom can be a rewarding experience for students, as it could increase their awareness of other cultures and teach them how to collaborate with people from different backgrounds. However, diversity can also be challenging for teachers because it requires them to use an informed approach to developing a positive and inclusive classroom environment and adjust the lessons to the needs of all students. When I was in school, there were a lot of students in my class who came from different cultural and socio-economic backgrounds. For example, we had two students from immigrant families whose first language was not English, as well as several Indigenous students. We also had children from different socio-economic backgrounds, including those from low-income families. As the majority of the students were white and from middle-class families, students from other backgrounds were seen as different and sometimes struggled to communicate or blend in with the rest of the class.

Unfortunately, my school did not address these students’ differences in any formal way. However, some teachers attempted to facilitate communication with students from immigrant families by engaging them in discussion and encouraging them to develop their English skills. This was particularly helpful for one of the students, who had the opportunity to improve her English skills. Others, however, were shy to participate in the conversation and made little progress with their language skills. My classmates did not try to address the cultural, socio-economic, and linguistic differences, which led to students forming several different small groups. There was also a problem of bullying in my school, and students from diverse backgrounds were often targeted by bullies.

Thus, I believe that my school and teachers did not address classroom diversity appropriately. I think it would be more practical if the school has taken action against the bullying of students from minority groups and taught students about cultural diversity and communicating with people from various backgrounds. Providing English lessons for students from immigrant families would also help to promote communication. Finally, I believe that the school could offer extra-curricular activities aimed at improving children’s awareness of other cultures. This could assist in addressing barriers to communication and facilitate a sense of community while also teaching students to respect those who are different in any way.

Overall, if I had to teach a class that has students from diverse backgrounds, I would aim to ensure that all students get equal opportunities to learn. To do that, I would partner with children from all backgrounds and their parents to develop a suitable curriculum. I would also apply teaching methods that promote discussion in the classroom, which would help to engage students from different cultural, linguistic, and socio-economic backgrounds. I would also partner with school leaders to develop and implement an effective strategy for preventing bullying and promoting cultural awareness in all students through extra-curricular events and activities.

The first topic of the class explored the concept of multiculturalism as it applies to Australia. In particular, the readings focused on political approaches to multiculturalism, as well as on its integration in schools. For instance, Jupp (2002) described some of the criticism of multiculturalism. According to Jupp (2002), multiculturalism raised several issues with the Indigenous peoples, as they were perceived as distinct from other minority cultural groups. Multiculturalism was considered to be an alternative to cultural assimilation, which threatened the identity of Aboriginal people. However, it was also seen as a divisive policy contradicting the notion of ‘one Australia’.

A similar discussion is evident in the second reading, as it discusses the application of multiculturalism to education. Smolicz (1999) raises the issue of dominant versus minority groups, arguing that most approaches to politics and education in these settings lead to cultural reductionism. Another problem with cultural assimilation that is noted by the author is that it does not lead to equal treatment. Smolicz (1999) argues that educational programs promoting multiculturalism should incorporate minority ethnic content into the curriculum. Thus, the chapter shows the necessity of integrating minority cultures into teaching.

Hill and Alan (2004) also describe the relationship between political movements and education in Australia. The authors consider the conflict between cultural assimilation in education and preserving Indigenous identity. Leeman and Reid (2006) reflect on the essence of multicultural education in Australia, showing how it aims to promote cultural assimilation by reducing social exclusion and fostering communication among the students. The article also notes that preserving the Indigenous culture is critical, as the loss of culture can have a profound effect on the youth.

My plan of addressing cultural diversity in the classroom appears to be similar to the approach promoted in multicultural education. However, the readings show that this approach is not always correct. For example, helping students to learn the English language could affect their cultural values and heritage, as culture and language are tightly connected (Smolicz, 1999). My plan would also promote cultural assimilation, which can have a negative influence on the students and their identity. Particularly in the case of Indigenous populations, cultural assimilation does not help to resolve the problems experienced by minority groups (Smolicz, 1999). While various events can help to improve cultural awareness among students and reduce tension between dominant and minority groups, it does not integrate minority cultures into the curriculum. Thus, I can see that my approach is rather one-sided and does not target the cultural needs of minority students.

Based on the readings for Topic 1, I would make some corrections to my approach. First of all, it would be critical to include education about minority cultures in the curriculum. For instance, when studying a topic, it would be beneficial to consider it from the viewpoint of the dominant culture, as well as the minority groups. This strategy would help to engage minority students in the discussion while taking into account their cultural heritage. Secondly, I would also consider additive bilingualism as a strategy for addressing multiculturalism (Smolicz, 1999). Given the importance of language to cultural heritage, it would be beneficial to provide students from minority cultural groups with the opportunity to learn their native language in the same way as they are learning English. This strategy would require a commitment from the school and its leaders, but it could be a helpful solution. Lastly, while I believe that extra-curricular events for promoting cultural awareness are useful, it is also essential to address the minority groups’ needs for cultural separatism. Introducing extra-curricular activities for students of specific minority groups would enable them to retain their cultural identity.

The readings for Topic 2 explored the impact of the political and social climate on students’ achievement. For example, Cummins (1997) shows that the coercive and collaborative relations of power impact both the educator role definitions and educational structures, thus affecting the interactions between teachers and students and students’ engagement in learning. While coercive relations of power reinforce the relationship between the dominant and the subordinate group, collaborative relations promote empowerment and communication across the boundaries. Delpit (1988) also considers the influence of power structures on learning in culturally diverse classrooms. The author shows how interrelations of power affect students’ learning, explaining how teachers can target oppressive power structures within their classrooms to promote a safe learning environment.

Other authors also consider students’ academic achievement as a result of the roles reinforced by dominant cultural groups. For example, Fordham and Ogbu (1986) state that the problem of underachievement of black students arose as part of cultural stereotypes created by the dominant white culture, which deemed black people less intellectually capable. As a result, academic achievement is often seen as white people’s prerogative, and black Americans began to discourage their peers from “acting white” and striving for academic success (Fordham & Ogbu, 1986). The authors thus show that the problem of academic achievement is rooted in stereotypes that were enforced by the dominant culture.

Kohl (2007) offers another viewpoint on students’ lack of academic achievement, arguing that non-learning is a choice stemming from the desire to avoid oppression, racism, and similar challenges. For instance, students from cultural or ethnic minorities might find the majority of textbooks racist and thus refuse to study the material presented in it. The author explains that the best strategy, in this case, is to teach the students how to acknowledge, question, and confront oppression in all settings instead of avoiding it. Finally, Mansouri and Trembath (2005) also highlight the role of the political climate in the minority students’ classroom achievement. The article shows how educators should seek to challenge social inequality experienced by minority groups, thus engaging in a dialogue with students and parents.

After reading the materials for this topic, it became clear that I did not address underachievement and academic struggles as part of my plan for promoting cultural diversity. I believe that this was mainly because I did not acknowledge the effect that social inequality has on students and their academic life. The articles on this topic showed that students from minority groups are often less likely to succeed academically, and their learning is affected by external social and political forces. In particular, I found Cummins’ (1997) discussion of influences useful in explaining minority students’ attitudes towards learning. However, it is also important that all of the articles highlighted the teacher’s role in mediating the relationship between coercive power relations and academic achievement.

Therefore, based on the readings, it would be essential to expand my plan for addressing cultural diversity. In particular, it is critical to establish a collaborative relationship with all students, thus empowering them to achieve academic success. The knowledge of this topic would also help address underachieving students. As an educator, I should allow students to challenge the information presented in textbooks and other readings so that they would learn how to acknowledge and question oppressive systems in real life. Additionally, it would be useful to offer students and parents additional resources for improving achievement. For example, if the student is struggling despite the efforts to address the problem, they could benefit from a minority-friendly psychologist, who would help them to improve motivation.

The materials for Topic 3 review strategies for culturally competent and multicultural education. Grant and Sleeter (2003) offer a questionnaire that can be used by teachers to examine the extent to which a classroom or a school is accommodating to the needs of students from minority groups. The assessment considers a variety of learning components, from visuals in presentations to staff resources. Additionally, the questionnaire examines gender equality in education, which is also relevant to the topic of classroom diversity. Based on this activity, educators can determine the gaps in their approach to diversity. Ladson-Billings (1995) reflect on the components of culturally relevant teaching, drawing a link between cultural competence and academic success. In particular, the author argues that teachers should use students’ culture as a “vehicle for learning” (p. 161). The article also suggests some useful strategies for teaching in culturally diverse classrooms, including parent involvement, promoting sociopolitical consciousness, and fostering a collaborative relationship with students.

Other authors stress the importance of comprehensive multicultural education in their texts. For instance, Nieto and Bode (2008) define multicultural education as “a process of comprehensive school reform and basic education for all students” (p. 44). They also describe seven critical features of multicultural education, which can be used by teachers to apply multiculturalism in their classrooms. Pearce (2005) explains some of the main mistakes made by teachers in culturally diverse classrooms, which include avoiding differences and racism. According to the author, teachers should provide a safe environment for critical, cross-cultural discussions to promote diversity. Lastly, Burridge, Buchanan, and Chodkiewicz (2009) offer comprehensive strategies for teachers to respond to cultural diversity. The authors state that teachers should counter racism, promote representations of cultural diversity, and encourage cultural exchange throughout schools.

Overall, the resources for Topic 3 provided useful insights into creating a practical approach to cultural diversity. Looking at the initial essay, I understand that my plan for addressing cultural diversity was somewhat relevant, but not comprehensive. For instance, in terms of school policies, it only considered anti-bullying efforts. However, as shown by Grant and Sleeter (2003), schools are also involved in establishing an inclusive environment for all students. To develop my plan further, I would focus on changes on the school level. For example, it is essential to ensure that the plan for selecting study materials includes the criteria for multicultural education and that the school library reflects cultural and language diversity (Grant & Sleeter, 2003). Special events hosted by the school should also consider diversity and should be relevant to students from all cultural, racial, ethnic, and religious backgrounds.

Another essential addition to my plan would be a collaboration with parents in all aspects of learning. Ladson-Billings (1995) note that families are often a valuable cultural resource for young students, and thus involving parents in various events and discussing learning goals with them could improve the school’s approach to cultural diversity. For instance, when planning events for students, I could consult with parents about the aspects of their culture that could be reflected in the event.

Furthermore, the resources also provided a useful framework for resolving diversity-related problems in class, such as cultural differences, racism, and more. As a teacher, I should be active in responding to these problems instead of avoiding them. For example, taking note of cultural differences among the students and challenging racist views or expressions are meaningful strategies for addressing diversity-related issues. In general, all of the approaches explained in the materials for this topic could be successfully incorporated in an Australian classroom. Moreover, these strategies could complement the ones developed after reading the articles for previous topics, thus forming a comprehensive plan for approaching diversity.

Burridge, N., Buchanan, J. D., & Chodkiewicz, A. K. (2009). Dealing with difference: Building culturally responsive classrooms. Cosmopolitan Civil Societies: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 1 (3), 68-83.

Cummins, J. (1997). Minority status and schooling in Canada. Anthropology & Education Quarterly, 28 (3), 411-430.

Delpit, L. (1988). The silenced dialogue: Power and pedagogy in educating other people’s children. Harvard Educational Review, 58 (3), 280-299.

Fordham, S., & Ogbu, J. U. (1986). Black students’ school success: Coping with the “burden of ‘acting white’”. The Urban Review, 18 (3), 176-206.

Grant, C. A., & Sleeter, C. (2003). Action research activity 5.2: Classroom and school assessment. In C. A. Grant & C. Sleeter (Eds.), Turning on learning: Five approaches for multicultural teaching plans for race, class, gender, and disability (pp. 213-215). New York, NY: John Wiley & Sons.

Hill, B., & Allan, R. (2004). Multicultural education in Australia. In J. Banks & C. A. McGee Banks (Eds.), Handbook of research on multicultural education (2nd ed., pp. 979-996). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Jupp, J. (2002). The attack on multiculturalism. In J. Jupp (Ed.), From white Australia to Woomera: The story of Australian immigration (pp. 105-122). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

Kohl, H. (2007). ‘I won’t learn from you!’: Confronting student resistance. In W. Au, B. Bigelow & S. Karp (Eds.), Rethinking our classrooms: Teaching for equality and justice (vol. 1, pp. 165-166). Milwaukee, WI: Rethinking Schools Ltd.

Ladson‐Billings, G. (1995). But that’s just good teaching! The case for culturally relevant pedagogy. Theory into Practice, 34(3), 159-165.

Leeman, Y., & Reid, C. (2006). Multi/intercultural education in Australia and the Netherlands. Compare A Journal of Comparative and International Education , 36 (1), 57-72.

Mansouri, F., & Trembath, A. (2005). Multicultural education and racism: The case of Arab-Australian students in contemporary Australia. International Education Journal, 6 (4), 516-529.

Nieto, S., & Bode, P. (2009). Multicultural education and school reform. In S. Nieto & P. Bode (Eds.), Affirming diversity: The sociopolitical context of multicultural education (5th ed., pp. 42-62). Sydney, Australia: Pearson.

Pearce, S. (2003). The teacher as a problem. In S. Pearce (Ed.), You wouldn’t understand: White teachers in multiethnic classrooms (pp. 29-51). Trent, UK: Trentham Books.

Smolicz, J.J. (1999). Culture, ethnicity and education: Multiculturalism in a plural society. In M. Secombe & J. Zadja (Eds.), J.J. Smolicz on education and culture . Melbourne, Australia: James Nicholas Publishers.

• Chicago (A-D)
• Chicago (N-B)

IvyPanda. (2020, November 27). Multicultural Diversity and Performance in the Classroom. https://ivypanda.com/essays/multicultural-diversity-and-performance-in-the-classroom/

"Multicultural Diversity and Performance in the Classroom." IvyPanda , 27 Nov. 2020, ivypanda.com/essays/multicultural-diversity-and-performance-in-the-classroom/.

IvyPanda . (2020) 'Multicultural Diversity and Performance in the Classroom'. 27 November.

IvyPanda . 2020. "Multicultural Diversity and Performance in the Classroom." November 27, 2020. https://ivypanda.com/essays/multicultural-diversity-and-performance-in-the-classroom/.

1. IvyPanda . "Multicultural Diversity and Performance in the Classroom." November 27, 2020. https://ivypanda.com/essays/multicultural-diversity-and-performance-in-the-classroom/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "Multicultural Diversity and Performance in the Classroom." November 27, 2020. https://ivypanda.com/essays/multicultural-diversity-and-performance-in-the-classroom/.

• Multicultural Australia: Multiculturalism and the Context
• Multiculturalism in Education
• Arguments For and Against Multiculturalism
• Multiculturalism in the International Community
• “The Menace of Multiculturalism" by McKenzie Critique
• Power of Agency in a Multicultural Classroom
• Multiculturalism and Diversity in Higher Education Institutions
• Canadian Immigration and Multiculturalism
• Policy of Ethnicity and Identity: Multiculturalism
• Multiculturalism, the Italian Culture
• School Climate and Student Culture
• Cultural Agents in Organizing and Influencing Learning
• Language Preferences in Multicultural Class
• Education and Religion: Old and New Patterns
• Cross-Cultural Interactions at Wake Forest University

Advertisement

Diversity in the Classrooms: A Human-Centered Approach to Schools

• Published: 17 April 2020
• Volume 51 , pages 429–439, ( 2020 )

Cite this article

• Daniela Fontenelle-Tereshchuk 1 , 2  

2951 Accesses

5 Citations

2 Altmetric

Explore all metrics

This article explores the perceptions of experiences and insights of four Alberta teachers on the understanding of diversity in the classrooms. The teachers in this multiple case study argue that the popular understanding of diversity, especially in schools, is often supported by American contextualized narrative of polarized racial views focusing on assumptions of contrasting ‘whiteness’ visible in race, culture and socio-economic status associated to ones’ skin colour, for instance it recognizes dark-skinned students as diverse as opposed to teachers who are perceived simply as a large group of ‘white, middle-class ladies’. Such conceptualization of diversity is problematic as its social-constructed understanding implies that teachers of European descent share a common ‘Euro-centered’ history, culture, and ethnicity, while Europe is in fact an ethnically, historically and culturally diverse continent. These assumptions have serious implications on teaching and learning as it directly reflects on teacher preparation programs, professional development practices and educational policies. The selective approach to diversity based on race and culture does a disservice to education’s purpose as it over-focuses on visible aspects of differences among students while it disregards the universal needs of a community of learners in schools. This paper advocates for a human-centered understanding of diversity in schools, which seeks to understand diversity beyond the socially constructed borders surrounding race, culture and gender, often used to define teachers as simply ‘white’ in the context of diversity in Canada.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price includes VAT (Russian Federation)

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Rent this article via DeepDyve

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

The justification for inclusive education in Australia

Christopher Boyle & Joanna Anderson

The Role of School in Adolescents’ Identity Development. A Literature Review

Monique Verhoeven, Astrid M. G. Poorthuis & Monique Volman

Inclusion and equity in education: Making sense of global challenges

Mel Ainscow

Alberta Education (2010). Making a difference: Meeting diverse learning needs with differentiated instruction . Retrieved from https://education.alberta.ca/media/384968/makingadifference_2010.pdf

Aoki, T. T. (2005) Toward curriculum inquiry in a new key (1978/1980). In Aoki, T. T., Pinar, W. F., Irwin, R. L., & Ebrary, I.  Curriculum in a new key: The collected works of Ted T. Aoki . Mahwah, N.J: Lawrence Erlbaum.

ATA -Alberta Teachers Association (2014). Report of the blue ribbon panel: Inclusive education in Alberta school . Retrieved from https://www.teachers.ab.ca/SiteCollectionDocuments/ATA/News-Room/2014/PD-170-1%20PD%20Blue%20Ribbon%20Panel%20Report%202014-web.pdf

ATA -Alberta Teachers Association (2009). Mental health in Schools: Teachers have the power to make a difference . Edmonton, Canada. Retrieved from https://www.teachers.ab.ca/Publications/ATA%20Magazine/Volume%2090/Number%201/Articles/Pages/MentalHealthinSchools.aspx

Banks, J. A., & Banks, C. A. M. (2004). Handbook of research on multiculturalism education (2nd ed.). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Google Scholar  

Bhabha, H. (1994). The location of culture . New York, NY: Routledge.

Charmaz, K. (2006). Constructing grounded theory: A practical guide through qualitative analysis . Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Courtland, M. C., & Gonzalez, I. (2013). Imagining the possibilities: The potential of diverse Canadian picture books. In I. Johnston & J. Bainbridge (Eds.), The pedagogical potential of diverse Canadian picture books: Pre-service teachers explore issues of identity, ideology, and pedagogy (pp. 96–113). Toronto, Canada: University of Toronto.

Cranston, A. J. (2015). Navigating the Bermuda Triangle of teacher hiring practices. In N. Maynes & B. E. Hatt (Eds.), Canada the complexity of hiring, supporting, and retaining new teachers across Canada (pp. 128–149). Polygraph Series: Canadian Association for Teacher Education (CATE).

Creswell, J. W. (2012). Educational research: Planning, conducting, and evaluating quantitative and qualitative research (4th Ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson.

Creswell, J. W. (2013). Research design (international student edition): Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches . Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

Crocker, R. K., & Dibbon, D. C. (2008). Teacher education in Canada: A baseline study. Society for the Advancement of Excellence in Education. Kelowna, Canada: University of Calgary. Retrieved from https://deslibris.ca/ID/216529

Denzin, N. K., & Lincoln, Y. S. (2008). Collecting and interpreting qualitative materials (3rd Ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

Fontenelle-Tereshchuk, D. D. (2019). Exploring teachers' insights into their professional growth and other experiences in diverse classrooms in Alberta. University of Alberta, Canada. Doctoral unpublished dissertation.

Gérin-Lajoie, D. (2012). Racial and ethnic diversity in schools: The case of English Canada. Prospects, 42 (2), 205–220. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11125-012-9231-0 .

Article   Google Scholar  

Gérin-Lajoie, D. (2008). Educators' discourses on student diversity in Canada: Context, policy, and practice . Toronto, Canada: Canadian Scholars.

Glaser, B. G., & Strauss, A. L (1967). The discovery of grounded theory. Chicago, IL: Aldine. Retrieved from https://www.sxf.uevora.pt/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/Glaser_1967.pdf

Guess, T. J. (2006). The social construction of whiteness: Racism by intent, racism by consequence. Critical Sociology, 32 (4), 649–673. https://doi.org/10.1163/156916306779155199 .

Guo, Y. (2011). Perspectives of immigrant Muslim parents: Advocating for religious diversity in Canadian schools. (Researching bias). Multicultural Education, 18 (2), 55–60.

Howe, E. (2014). Bridging the aboriginal education gap in Alberta: The provincial benefit exceeds a quarter of a trillion dollars. Rupertsland Centre for Métis Research .

McLaren, P. (1994). Life in schools : An introduction to critical pedagogy in the foundations of education (2nd ed.). Toronto, Canada: Irwin.

McLeod, K. (1975). Education and the assimilation of new Canadians in the North-West territories and Saskatchewan1885–1934 . University of Toronto, Canada. (Unpublished Doctoral dissertation).

Miller, J. (2018). Residential Schools in Canada. The Canadian Encyclopedia. Retrieved from https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/residential-schools

Milner, H. R. (2010). What does teacher education have to do with teaching? Implications for diversity studies. Journal of Teacher Education, 61 (1–2), 118–131. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022487109347670 .

Moore, A. (2004). The good teacher: Dominant discourses in teaching and teacher education . New York, NY: Routledge Falmer.

Book   Google Scholar  

Padula, A. P., & Miller, L. D. (1999). Understanding Graduate Women's Re-entry Experiences: Case Studies of Four Psychology Doctoral Students in a Midwestern University. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 23 , 327–343.

Palmer, H. (1982). Patterns of prejudice: A history of nativism in Alberta . Toronto, Canada: McClelland and Stewart.

Peacock J., Holland D., (1993) The Narrated Self Life Stories in Process. Ethos 21(4): 367–383

Rodrigues, S. (2005). Teacher professional development in science education . In S. Rodrigues, International perspectives on teacher professional development: Changes influenced by politics, pedagogy and innovation (pp.1 13). New York, NY: Nova Science

Ryan, J., Pollock, K., & Antonelli, F. (2009). Teacher diversity in Canada: Leaky pipelines, bottlenecks, and glass ceilings. Canadian Journal of Education, 32 (3), 591–617.

Syed, K. T. (2010). Canadian educators’ narratives of teaching multicultural education. International Journal of Canadian Studie s, 42, 255–269. Retrieved from https://www.erudit.org/en/journals/ijcs/2010-n42-ijcs1516360/1002181ar.pdf

Statistics Canada (2017). Focus on Geography Series, 2016 Census. Statistics Canada Catalogue no. 98–404-X2016001. Ottawa, Ontario. Data products, 2016 Census. Retrieved from https://www12.statcan.gc.ca/census-recensement/2016/as-sa/fogs-spg/Facts-pr-eng.cfm?Lang=Eng&GK=PR&GC=48&TOPIC=7

U.S. National Library of Medicine (2019). Help me understand genetics: Direct-to-Consumer Genetic Testing. Retrieved from PDF version of https://ghr.nlm.nih.gov/primer/dtcgenetictesting/ancestrytesting .

Yin, R. K. (2009). Case study research: Design and methods (4th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Download references

Author information

Authors and affiliations.

Department of Secondary Education, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada

Daniela Fontenelle-Tereshchuk

Werklund School of Education, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada

You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Daniela Fontenelle-Tereshchuk .

Ethics declarations

Conflict of interest.

We have no known conflict of interest to disclose.

Additional information

Publisher's note.

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Fontenelle-Tereshchuk, D. Diversity in the Classrooms: A Human-Centered Approach to Schools. Interchange 51 , 429–439 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10780-020-09402-4

Download citation

Received : 03 January 2020

Accepted : 08 April 2020

Published : 17 April 2020

Issue Date : December 2020

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/s10780-020-09402-4

Share this article

Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content:

Sorry, a shareable link is not currently available for this article.

Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative

• Find a journal
• Publish with us
• Track your research

May 8, 2023

Celebrating Our Differences: Inspiring Essays on Diversity and Inclusion

Ready to celebrate diversity and inclusion? Discover how to craft an exceptional essay on this important topic with our expert tips and real-world examples. Join us as we explore the power of diversity and its impact on individuals and communities alike.

Imagine yourself walking into a room full of people, each with their own stories to tell. What makes your story stand out? What makes your voice unique? This is the essence of a good diversity essay .

In your essay, you have the opportunity to show the admissions committee how your life experiences have shaped your perspective, identity, and aspirations. Through sharing personal stories, you can paint a picture of who you are and how you will contribute to the vibrant tapestry of the campus community.

Maybe it's growing up in a multicultural household that has taught you to value different perspectives and ways of life. Or, perhaps it's overcoming adversity and facing challenges that have made you a more empathetic and resilient person. Whatever your story may be, your diversity essay is a chance to showcase the richness and depth of your lived experiences.

As you craft your essay, think about how your unique background has informed your actions, beliefs, and goals. Share specific examples and anecdotes that bring your story to life, and make sure to emphasize how you will use your diverse perspective to contribute positively to the campus community. With a well-written diversity essay, you can show the admissions committee that you are more than just a set of grades and test scores - you are a unique and valuable addition to their community.

We have provided a guide as well as some essay examples to assist you in writing your essay about diversity. If you need inspiration for an essay, read them till last. But before we dig into the specifics, a basic understanding of diversity is necessary.

What is Diversity in actuality?

institutions. By recognizing and celebrating the unique experiences, viewpoints, and identities of students from diverse backgrounds, schools can create a more inclusive and welcoming environment that benefits everyone. Through diversity essays, students have the opportunity to showcase the strength of diversity and how it can contribute to the greater community. 

Scholarship options designed for historically underserved communities also demonstrate the importance of diversity in leveling the playing field and creating opportunities for all. Therefore, embracing diversity can lead to a stronger and more vibrant academic community.

What is Inclusion?

Inclusion is the practice of making a place where everyone, despite their differences, is treated with dignity and respect . It's the act of making sure nobody is held back from contributing to a group or community because of their identity or background.

Each person's race, ethnicity, gender identity, sexual orientation, financial background, ability, religion, and other characteristics are valued and celebrated through the practice of inclusion. It's not enough to just tolerate differences; we need to celebrate them and foster communities where everyone can feel safe and included.

To advance social justice and equity, inclusion is crucial. It allows people from all walks of life to meet one another, learn from one another, and work together towards a shared objective. Positive results for individuals and communities can result from their inclusion in more open, welcoming, and supportive settings.

Step-by-Step guide on how to write an essay on diversity and inclusion

Writing an essay on diversity and inclusion is an important task that requires careful planning and execution. In this step-by-step guide, we will provide you with a roadmap on how to write a compelling essay on this topic.

Here are seven suggestions to consider as you write your diversity statement.

Tell your story

Highlight any challenges you had to overcome while writing an essay. Tell the world about how you used to have to lug two 20-pound sacks of rice uphill to school every day. Recognize your privilege if you were born into affluence. Either way, you can utilize your experience to demonstrate your ability to empathize with kids who struggle to complete their education.

Focus on commonly accepted understandings of diversity and inclusiveness

Issues of race, gender, class, and sexual orientation should be given special attention. Don't try to soften your stance by mentioning, for example, how challenging it is to be a Kansan in Missouri. Write about racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, ableism, or another form of oppression that is well-known instead.

Avoid false parallels

When writing a diversity essay, it is important to avoid false parallels. False parallels are when two things appear to be similar, but in reality, they are different. To avoid false parallels, you must carefully examine the similarities and differences between the two things you are comparing. This will help you to make accurate and meaningful comparisons, which will ultimately strengthen your diversity essay.

Write about specific things you have done to help students from underrepresented backgrounds succeed

If you've never helped anybody before, now is the time to start. Become involved as a tutor at a low-performing school, help Habitat for Humanity construct homes, or adopt an antiracist pedagogical approach in your classroom. Not only will you gain valuable experience, but you can also use it to strengthen your diversity statement.

Highlight any programs for underrepresented students you’ve participated in

If you have participated in any programs for underrepresented students, be sure to highlight them in your essay on diversity. This could include programs focused on increasing access to education for students from disadvantaged backgrounds, mentorship or internship programs for underrepresented groups, or community service initiatives aimed at promoting diversity and inclusion.

By highlighting these programs, you can showcase your commitment to diversity and demonstrate how you have taken active steps to promote equity and inclusion in your community.

Write about your commitment to working toward achieving equity and enhancing diversity

Provide details on what you can bring to the table. You might express your desire to help existing programmes on campus or to start something brand new inspired by what you've seen elsewhere.

Modify your statement based on where you are sending it

When writing an essay on diversity, it's important to tailor your statement to the specific institution or audience you are addressing. Modifying your statement based on where you are sending it shows that you have taken the time to research the institution and understand its values and priorities. This can increase the likelihood of your statement resonating with the reader and ultimately being successful in achieving your goals.

3 Example essays on Diversity and Inclusion

The importance of diversity workforce, introduction.

Workforce diversity is a critical aspect of modern-day organizations. It involves hiring individuals from different backgrounds, cultures, ethnicities, genders, and ages. The concept of workforce diversity is gaining prominence as organizations are increasingly recognizing the benefits of having a diverse workforce. In this essay, we will explore the importance of workforce diversity, the challenges associated with it, and the benefits it offers.

Encourages Innovation and Creativity

Diversity brings together a wide range of perspectives and ideas that can help drive innovation and creativity. When people from diverse backgrounds come together, they can offer different viewpoints and ideas, leading to new solutions to problems.

Enhances Employee Engagement and Retention

Employees who feel included and valued are more engaged and motivated, leading to higher retention rates. When employees feel they belong and are appreciated, they are more likely to stay with the organization, reducing turnover costs.

Increases Global Competitiveness

Diversity in the workforce is crucial for organizations looking to expand globally. Organizations with a diverse workforce are better equipped to understand and navigate the cultural nuances of different countries and regions, making them more competitive in the global marketplace.

Promotes a Positive Image

Organizations that embrace diversity are viewed positively by the public, customers, and employees. A diverse workforce demonstrates that the organization values and respects individuals from all backgrounds, contributing to a positive brand image.

Resistance to Change

Implementing diversity initiatives can be met with resistance, particularly from those who believe that the traditional way of doing things is the best. It is essential to educate and raise awareness about the benefits of diversity to overcome this challenge.

Communication Barriers

When individuals from different backgrounds come together, there may be communication barriers due to language or cultural differences. It is essential to provide training and resources to overcome these barriers and foster effective communication.

Stereotyping and Bias

Stereotyping and bias can negatively impact diversity initiatives. It is essential to establish a culture of inclusivity and respect, where individuals feel valued and appreciated for their unique contributions.

Improved Decision-Making

A diverse workforce can provide a range of perspectives, leading to better decision-making. When individuals with different backgrounds come together, they can offer different viewpoints, leading to a more comprehensive and well-rounded decision-making process.

Increased Creativity and Innovation

Diversity can lead to new ideas and perspectives that can drive innovation and creativity. A diverse workforce can bring together different viewpoints and experiences, leading to new solutions to problems.

Enhanced Reputation

Improved Employee Engagement and Retention

When employees feel included and valued, they are more engaged and motivated, leading to higher retention rates. A diverse workforce can help create a sense of belonging, leading to improved employee engagement and retention.

Workforce diversity is crucial for modern-day organizations. It can lead to improved decision-making, increased creativity and innovation, and enhanced reputation. However, diversity initiatives can be met with resistance, communication barriers, stereotyping, and bias. It is essential to establish a culture of inclusivity and respect, where individuals feel valued and appreciated for their unique contributions. By embracing diversity, organizations can create a more productive, engaged, and innovative workforce.

2. The challenges of diversity in different institutions

Diversity is a term that describes the differences among people, whether they are cultural, ethnic, racial, linguistic, gender, or sexual orientation differences. While diversity is often celebrated, it can also pose challenges, especially in institutions such as schools, workplaces, and governments. This essay will explore the challenges of diversity in different institutions and how they can be addressed.

Challenges of Diversity in Schools

Schools are meant to be places where students can learn and grow, but diversity can sometimes be a challenge. Students who come from different backgrounds may face discrimination and exclusion from their peers, which can affect their ability to learn and thrive.

Teachers may also struggle to provide a curriculum that is inclusive of all students experiences and perspectives. Addressing these challenges requires a commitment to creating an inclusive environment where all students feel valued and respected.

Challenges of Diversity in the Workplace

Workplaces are becoming increasingly diverse, but this diversity can pose challenges. Employees from different cultural backgrounds may struggle to communicate effectively or may feel excluded from the workplace culture. Discrimination and bias can also be a problem, as can the assumption that everyone shares the same experiences and perspectives. To address these challenges, employers need to be proactive in creating a workplace culture that values diversity and promotes inclusivity. This can involve training and education for employees, as well as policies and procedures that support diversity and inclusion.

Challenges of Diversity in Government

Governments are responsible for serving diverse populations, but this can be a challenge. Members of different cultural and linguistic groups may have different needs and expectations from their government, and some groups may face discrimination or exclusion. 

To address these challenges, governments need to be proactive in engaging with diverse communities and ensuring that their policies and programs are inclusive. This can involve outreach and consultation with community groups, as well as the development of policies that reflect the needs and perspectives of diverse communities.

Ways to Address the Challenges of Diversity

Addressing the challenges of diversity requires a commitment to creating inclusive environments where all individuals feel valued and respected. This can involve several strategies, including education and training, policies and procedures, and community engagement.

Education and training can help individuals better understand the experiences and perspectives of those from different backgrounds. This can involve training programs for employees or professional development opportunities for teachers. It can also involve curriculum changes in schools that better reflect the experiences and perspectives of diverse students.

Policies and procedures can also play a role in promoting diversity and inclusion. This can involve policies that prohibit discrimination and harassment in the workplace or schools. It can also involve policies that promote diversity in hiring or that ensure that government programs and services are inclusive of all members of the community.

Community engagement is also an important strategy for promoting diversity and inclusion. This can involve outreach to community groups and the development of partnerships with organizations that serve diverse communities. It can also involve the creation of advisory committees or other mechanisms for engaging with diverse populations.

In conclusion, diversity is an important aspect of our society, but it can also pose challenges in different institutions. Schools, workplaces, and governments need to be proactive in creating inclusive environments where all individuals feel valued and respected. This requires a commitment to education and training, policies and procedures that promote diversity and inclusion, and community engagement. By addressing the challenges of diversity, we can create a more equitable and inclusive society for all.

3. Ideas on how to Reduce Discrimination in Society

Racial discrimination is a pervasive issue that has plagued society for centuries. It is a problem that continues to affect individuals and communities around the world. Discrimination is an act that denies individuals equal rights, opportunities, and treatment based on their race or ethnicity. The impacts of racism are far-reaching, and it affects individuals' economic, social, and emotional well-being. Therefore, there is a need for collective efforts to reduce racial discrimination and promote social justice. This essay discusses some of the best ways to reduce racial discrimination in society.

Education and Awareness

Education is a powerful tool that can help reduce racial discrimination. Education is essential in teaching individuals about diversity, equity, and inclusion. When people understand the impact of racism, they are more likely to become allies and advocates for change. Education can take many forms, such as books, documentaries, and workshops. 

Institutions can also incorporate cultural competency training into their curriculum to educate students and faculty members about the impact of discrimination. It is essential to recognize the different forms of discrimination, including implicit bias, microaggressions, and institutional racism, to address them appropriately.

Political Action

Political action is another way to reduce racial discrimination in society. Leaders at the local, state, and federal levels can enact policies that promote equality and diversity. Policies such as affirmative action and diversity initiatives can promote inclusion in the workforce and educational institutions. 

Politicians can also pass laws that make racial discrimination illegal and provide support to victims of discrimination. It is essential to recognize that racism is a systemic issue that requires political action to address.

Community Engagement

Community engagement is an important way to reduce racial discrimination. Building strong communities that are inclusive and diverse can help reduce racism. Communities can engage in activities that promote diversity, such as cultural festivals, food fairs, and art exhibits. 

These events can help build bridges between different communities and promote understanding. Community members can also engage in conversations about racism and work together to address it. This can create a sense of belonging and unity that can help reduce discrimination.

Diversity in Institutions

Institutions play a significant role in reducing racial discrimination. Institutions such as schools, businesses, and government agencies can promote diversity by recruiting and retaining individuals from diverse backgrounds. A diverse workforce or student body can help reduce discrimination by promoting inclusion and understanding. 

Institutions can also create policies that promote equality and diversity, such as flexible work arrangements, diversity training, and bias reporting systems. It is important to ensure that institutions are representative of the communities they serve to reduce discrimination.

In conclusion, reducing racial discrimination requires a collective effort from individuals, institutions, and political leaders. Education and awareness, political action, community engagement, and diversity in institutions are all effective ways to address discrimination. It is important to recognize that reducing discrimination is a long-term effort that requires commitment and perseverance. By working together, we can create a more inclusive and equitable society that values diversity and promotes social justice.

Final Words

In conclusion, embracing diversity and inclusion is crucial for creating a more equitable and harmonious society. Whether it's through recognizing and celebrating racial diversity and cultural diversity, fostering a sense of belonging for all individuals, or actively working to combat discrimination and prejudice, we must prioritize these values in all aspects of our lives. By championing diversity and inclusion, we can cultivate a richer, more vibrant world that values the unique perspectives and experiences of all people. By embracing diversity and inclusion, we can build a better future for ourselves and for generations to come.

If you are tired of struggling to write essays on diversity and inclusion and find yourself running short on time and needing assistance to meet your deadline then go for Jenni.ai! This powerful AI tool can help you write an essay in a matter of minutes. Jenni.ai eliminates the stress and pressure of essay writing, allowing you to produce high-quality content quickly and efficiently. With its innovative technology, you can enjoy originality and coherence in your writing without spending hours of writer’s block. Sign up for Jenni.ai today and take your writing to the next level!

Try Jenni for free today

Create your first piece of content with Jenni today and never look back

• Undergraduate Students
• Doctoral Students
• Master’s Students
• Engineering Master’s Students
• Faculty & Staff
• Parents & Families
• Asian / Pacific Islander
• Black/African American
• First Generation/Low Income
• Hispanic/Latinx
• International
• Native American/Indigenous
• Neurodiverse
• Student Athletes
• Students with Disabilities
• Undocumented
• What is a Career Community?
• Business, Finance & Consulting
• Data, Technology & Engineering
• Discovery & Exploration
• Education, Government, Nonprofit & Policy
• Energy, Environment & Sustainability
• Entertainment, Media & Arts
• Healthcare & Biomedical Sciences
• Innovation, Entrepreneurship & Design
• Know Yourself
• Explore Options
• Focus & Prepare
• Take Action
• Evaluate & Refine
• Featured Opportunities
• Career Readiness Resources
• Personalize Your Hub
• For Employers

6 Ways to Incorporate Diversity in the Classroom

• Share This: Share 6 Ways to Incorporate Diversity in the Classroom on Facebook Share 6 Ways to Incorporate Diversity in the Classroom on LinkedIn Share 6 Ways to Incorporate Diversity in the Classroom on X

In an increasingly diverse and multicultural society, educators need to incorporate culturally responsive instruction across all levels in education. Teachers should include ethnic and cultural diversity, but also other forms such as religious, socioeconomic status, gender identity, language background, and more. 

Here are six ways to manage diversity in the classroom and promote cultural awareness. 

• You should get to know your students. 

Learning about the cultural backgrounds, hobbies, and learning styles of all students will make them feel valued and allow for a trusting bond to form between you and them. 

• You should maintain consistent communication with your students. 

Having one-on-one check-ins with your students throughout the school year will make them feel included and help you to improve your classroom’s accessibility. 

• You should acknowledge and respect every student. 

Paying attention to the uniqueness of your students and allowing them to learn about their cultural background and share that knowledge with their peers promotes understanding in the classroom and beyond. 

• You should practice cultural sensitivity. 

Creating interactive and collaborative learning experiences ensures that every student is given the space to learn in their own ways. 

• You should incorporate diversity in your lesson plans.

Always try to present and connect your lessons to real-world issues to foster your student’s cultural awareness. 

• You should give your students freedom and flexibility in their educational lessons. 

Acting as more of a facilitator instead of as a lecturer gives your students the ability to connect better to the curriculum and gain more knowledge through their own directed experiences. 

It is important to teach culture because it will create greater multicultural awareness and inclusion in the classroom and help students from all backgrounds succeed. Highlighting the cultural diversity among your students will encourage acceptance and prepare students to thrive in our diversifying world. 

Other benefits to your students include:

• Becoming more empathetic and open-minded 
• Gaining a better understanding of their lessons and other people 
• Feeling more confident and safe in their communities

Teachers have to teach their students a variety of skills to contribute to society, and this also includes preparing them to adapt to our evolving world. 

If you are interested in reading more about the importance of diversity and cultural awareness in the classroom, check out this article . 

Diversity in schools and classrooms essay

The world is a huge place; full of people with various cultures and backgrounds. When such people with their differences in language, perception, and understanding come together in a classroom setting, we refer to it as diversity. Diversity can be observed in almost all schools all around the world. It has become a hot topic for educators, since they have been working on creating a system through which they can meet the diverse needs of the students.

Articles on diversity in schools and classrooms Following are five articles from psychology journals, all referring to meeting the diverse needs of students coming from different cultures. Article one: “Our Multicultural Classroom” is an article by Nanette Avery, who teaches in America to Pre-K 8 classroom. She talks about how each year a new student or perhaps more join her class, and these students are from a different background, culture or ethnicity; as compared to the average American child.

In her article she says that it is important to treat each child differently with respect to his diverse needs, but at the same time one should not label them or put them in the front portrayed to be an alien. The problem she talks about is the language differences; not every student is fluent in English due to different cultures. For this she has designed a small English test in which each student writes a poem; just so she can understand the varying English proficiency of each student and then cater to them accordingly.

This particular article was helpful in understanding the fact that while helping students adapt to the different cultural setting, one should not make their differences so obvious, so that they do not feel more awkward. (Avery, 2005) Article two: This article is named Classroom culture and cultural diversity, it is by Olguin. Olguin in his article talks about how a typical school system of most American universities does no address to saving a person’s cultural background, his perceptions; but simply alters the student’s thinking into a typical stereotyped perceptive way of the American society.

Related essays:

• Integrative Education Essay essay
• How To Engage Students Who Receive Special Education Accommodation to Ensure They Have Success in Classroom and Athletics essay
• Multicultural Diversity and Disability in the United States of America essay

Olguin says that in universities, they educate a person according to what they school thinks is right for the student, and changes their thinking into how the school wants the students to think. This is not right because people coming in from various cultures all have a different mind set which should be respected and nourished, rather than making them all into robots who think alike. The syllabus is designed such that it is assumed that everyone who walks into the classroom has a good grip over the American systems and ways; which is not true, as people from all over the world are present.

This causes a lack of understanding and hence poor performance. Olguin says that in his class, he allows for opinions to be expressed and differences to be voiced, so each student understands the cultural diversity; and along side he assigns group projects, so that students learn to respect and understand and work with these differences. I feel this is a really good approach, to create awareness regarding the cultural diversity, to address to it so that each child develops in his own way.

(Olguin, 1991), January) Article three: This article is by Rao Shaila; addressing to the need of a multicultural educational system in order to meet the diversity in classrooms. In this article Shaila has summarized a number of studies taken place regarding the multicultural educational system. It has been identified that there are four dimensions to a multicultural educational system. The first being integration; where knowledge is related to different cultures for better understanding.

The second is construction; where a student is taught how to adapt to the new cultural ways; the third is where the teacher is expected to alter her teaching styles to fit the varying learning styles and needs and the last is empowering, where the student is in the end given the choice to learn; think and educate himself in ways that are most suitable for him. In this article Shaila reviewed a number of studies such as the ones by Banks (1995), and Sleeter and McLaren (1995). Each study had an independent variable being the diversity and the dependent variable was the progress of the students in response to multicultural education.

Basically what the studies have identified was that it is not right to have a standardized syllabus which has to be pushed inside the students minds even at the cost of changing their own ways of thinking. Each child comes from a different background, and hence needs to be treated differently; to be given the right to think and learn in the ways which are best for him. A multicultural education system ensures that such differences are recognized, and the child is given time to adapt to new settings.

Multicultural education does not simply means giving examples from different cultures so that the minorities understand the lecture well, but it allowed the students to develop in unique manners, and not become stereotypical “citizens”. I feel this article is written really strongly. I agree with most of the things stated in this article. The importance of a multicultural education system is immense since all students cannot be assumed to be the same; they have diverse needs which should be catered to effectively for their progress. (Rao, 2005)

Article four: This article is by Robert Shobe. It is called “respecting diversity. ” So in this particular article, he discusses how when he would teach incarcerated male students, he noticed how some students progressed real well, where as others, mostly of the minorities were not doing so well. It diverted his attention towards the cultural diversity which was present in his classroom. He took a survey to better understand this case. The survey was conducted in Indiana, and about 10% of the subjects were African American, Caucasian and Hispanic.

Even though the subject sample was small, it shed some light on the need to understand, respect and cater to the diverse backgrounds that students come from. The results which he obtained were mostly such, that most students from the minority groups, were identified to prefer teachers who understood their needs and catered to them; who did not force them to be like their other fellow Americans. The students from a different background stated they preferred to work alone as then their ideas are not crushed by the overwhelming majority American population.

Basically, in the survey he identified the need for cultural differences awareness. That teachers and fellow students should both have a good understanding of the fact that each person is unique and hence has differences which need to be respected, and not considered wrong. Only with this awareness will the students be able to work in harmony, and the teachers will be able to teach the different groups more effectively. (Shobe, 2003) Article five: Linguistic Diversity and Classroom Management is an article by Mary Elizabeth in which she talks about how in a classroom, there will be students whose first language is not English.

Such students when enter a school where the medium of instruction is English have a very difficult time adapting, if the teachers do not address to cultural diversity and plan their syllabus accordingly. Mary Elizabeth in her article has stated numerous ways in which these students, referred to as English language learners (ELLs) can be dealt with in order to deal with the linguistic diversity that exists due to different backgrounds. One such method she talks about is pairing the students. Each ELLs student can be paired with a student who is fluent in English.

This is will be of great help to the ELL and will help him adapt to the new setting. Another method she outlines is allowing for different students to use their native language wherever necessary. However, I feel this can be a bit too chaotic in a classroom especially if the other students and the teacher have no clue about the students’ native languages. What I strongly agree about from this article is allowing for concessions to be made when it comes to submitting assignments, the deadlines. Mary states that ELLs can be given extra time.

This I feel will make them feel more important and help them learn better. (Curran, 2003) Conclusion After reading the articles mentioned above, I have gained some insight into exactly what cultural diversity refers to and how it should be dealt with. I have understood that it is a very sensitive issue, than can actually make or break ones future. In a school, there are people from different backgrounds, culture, ethnicity, religion, race, cast, language and so forth. This adds diversity to a classroom.

It should not be perceived as negative by the students or the teachers. However, it should be identified and awareness regarding different cultures should be created so that their different ways are not labeled as wrong, but simply as being unique. Multicultural educational systems are important for the success of the students from minority groups. Teachers and students need to understand that different students have different ways of learning and perceptions, which should be encouraged and not compared against a particular culture.

This way each student will be able to develop into a unique individual who will offer different benefits to the society. From the articles, what has been identified is that a cultural awareness needs to be created. Teachers should be more flexible in their teaching styles, and open to different ideas and ways of thinking. This way the student will be able to adapt to new settings in an easier manner, guaranteeing future success. This assignment has increased my insight regarding this topic.

Lesson learnt being that one should never consider a particular culture to be the benchmark against which everyone should be compared. We need to understand that the world is a place full of millions of different people, and to respect their identity and nourish it is of key importance for the benefit of the society.

References Avery, N. (2005). Our Multicultural Classroom. 3. Curran, M. (2003, Fall2003). Linguistic Diversity and Classroom Management. Theory Into Practice, 42(4), 334-340. Retrieved July 11, 2009, from Academic Search Premier database.

• Prodigy Math
• Prodigy English

From our blog

• Is a Premium Membership Worth It?
• Promote a Growth Mindset
• Help Your Child Who's Struggling with Math
• Parent's Guide to Prodigy
• Assessments
• Math Curriculum Coverage
• English Curriculum Coverage
• Game Portal

7 Ways to Support Diversity in the Classroom [With Examples]

Written by Maria Kampen

Reviewed by Diana Truong, MA-CSE

Engage and motivate your students with our adaptive, game-based learning platform!

• School Leaders
• School Leadership
• Teaching Strategies
• A quick definition of what diversity in the classroom means for your school
• Why diversity in the classroom setting is important
• 7 ways to promote diversity in your school and community

A school culture where people embrace diversity in the classroom can positively impact the school community. When this happens, a school community creates a safe, supportive and purposeful environment for students and staff which, in turn, allows students to grow — academically and socially.

In an increasingly fragmented society, the ability to connect with peers, coworkers and neighbours with diverse backgrounds and abilities is invaluable. Diversity improves critical-thinking skills, builds empathy and encourages students to think differently.

If you want to support diversity, then this post is for you.

What is diversity in the classroom?

Diversity is everything that makes people different from each other. This includes many different factors: race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, socio-economic status, ability, age, religious belief, or political conviction. All these factors work together to inform how students (and teachers, and everyone else) encounter the world.

The University of Rhode Island defines diversity in the classroom as “understanding each student brings unique experiences, strengths, and ideas to our classroom … Diversity is the exploration and incorporation of these differences to enrich learning in our classroom.”

For an illustrated definition of diversity, this video breaks down what the United States would look like if it were just a group of 100 people:

These realities are already reflected in your school, and it’s important for you to address them.

Why is diversity in the classroom important?

If you ignore the issue of diversity in the classroom and choose to not promote diversity in your school, you’re not doing your job.

Children go to school to be prepared for the workforce, so teaching must effectively address and embrace the realities that come with living and working in a diverse school, community and country.

Not only that, but there are other research-backed reasons for promoting diversity in the classroom:

Diversity in the classroom builds critical thinkers

According to an article from Scientific American , we’re more likely to think harder about an issue when we’re talking to someone who is different than us:

“Decades of research by organizational scientists, psychologists, sociologists, economists and demographers show that socially diverse groups (that is, those with a diversity of race, ethnicity, gender and sexual orientation) are more innovative than homogeneous groups.”

The same article goes on to point out that even the appearance of diversity (and with it, the suggestion that different opinions exist) makes us change how we approach issues.

Students are no exception to this rule. Diversity in the classroom helps students develop social awareness which helps them appreciate different perspectives and draw stronger conclusions. Challenging students to consider different perspectives can also teach them how to interact with their peers on a social level, and equip them with skills they’ll use for the rest of their life.

It improves academic outcomes

Diversity in the classroom doesn’t just improve social skills, it can also have an impact on academic results . It improves critical thinking skills and encourages academic confidence.

According to a case study from The Century Foundation , students who attended a magnet school in Hartford, Connecticut that was required to meet racial integration standards through a lottery system outperformed students at suburban school that had a higher percentage of affluent, white students on standardized test scores .

The same report also found that effectively integrated schools had less misbehavior, lower dropout levels and noticed that students were more likely to want to pursue post-secondary education.

It helps students feel represented and included

According to OISE professor Ann Lopez , diversity can “disrupt narratives and stereotypes in the classroom that position diverse people as lacking invaluable knowledge or unqualified.”

We commend this California high school instructor for encouraging essential #21stcentruryskills , such as communication and social/diversity awareness, through collaboration in the classroom. https://t.co/fnxu1AScJG https://t.co/fnxu1AScJG — Elizabeth Woods (@woods_spunky) April 1, 2019

When schools take inclusive and responsive approaches to diversity, students are more likely to see their identity represented in classroom materials or other students. When diversity is not a priority and these students don’t feel included, they’re more likely to not participate and feel inferior to their peers.

A study from the University of California, Los Angeles looked at diverse classrooms to assess the emotional gains of students, and found encouraging results. According to the study, students in the most diverse classrooms were more likely to feel safer, less lonely and less bullied at school.

Richard Messina , principal of OISE’s Dr. Eric Jackman Institute of Child Study, defines this practice as “idea diversity:”

“To understand an idea is to understand the ideas that surround it, including those that stand in contrast to it.  Idea diversity creates a rich environment for ideas to evolve into new and more refined forms . This pedagogical approach may help students to appreciate and value all forms of diversity and how diversity enriches learning.”

7 ways to encourage a culture of diversity in your school

Alright. So diversity is important to cultivate in your classroom because of the academic and social benefits. That’s a great thing to know, but what does diversity in the classroom look like in action? And how can you promote it in your school?

Good news: there are lots of different ways!

1. Re-evaluate your teaching materials

Which voices are speaking in your classroom?

That is, whose stories do you tell? Especially in the humanities and social sciences, teaching materials can often be limited to Western, white, male and middle-class narratives.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Alyssa Lopez (@see_the_able)

Work with your teachers to see if you’re representing a wide range of voices in the curriculum. If possible, teach literature from authors of color. Examine historical narratives to see which voices are missing — for example, a discussion about the civil rights movement can examine how it intersects with gender equality, immigration and the stories of Latino, Hispanic and Native American peoples.

This is exactly what Citizens of the World Charter Schools in California is doing through a focus on a project-based, culturally-responsive and data-driven learning model.

Some of the projects they’re working on to promote diversity in the classroom include:

• A first-grade rally to end homelessness : To learn about homelessness and civic engagement, students write letters to the mayor and use their creative skills to produce awareness materials like posters and songs.
• Second language practice in second grade : Students who speak Spanish at home help teach their classmates and teachers how to pronounce and translate a Spanish song.
• Fourth-grade history : While learning about the gold rush, students write diaries from a wide range of historical actors like mine workers and owners, but also from the perspective of women and immigrants that worked alongside them.

If it’s difficult to change your existing curriculum, use the opportunity to ask students why different perspectives aren’t included and challenge them to apply critical thinking skills.

2. Get to know your students

All the students in your school are unique individuals, so use that fact to build a diverse and inclusive school culture .

Take the time to learn about your students: Where do they come from? What kind of socio-economic situation do they live in, broadly speaking? Are they meeting academic achievement standards, or are they struggling? Do they get along with their peers?

With everything that you have to keep track of and work on, it might be difficult to find the time to intentionally build relationships with students — especially if you’re new to the school or to a leadership position.

Here are some ways to start:

• Schedule time out of your day to visit classrooms or walk through the halls . Let students know that they can approach you with problems (or just to say hello), and then follow through on what they come to you with.
• Communicate your vision and goals for the school to your teachers . Encourage them to come to you with any questions or concerns, and work with them to promote diversity in the classroom.
• Show some school spirit . Participate in school events and visit different clubs or after-school activities. If students see that you’re invested in school culture, they’ll be more likely to also participate.

When you know your students and understand their strengths and weaknesses, you’re better equipped to help build a safe and secure learning environment, where all of them can thrive.

3. Be willing to address inequality

Part of supporting diversity in the classroom is creating a safe space for students and educators to talk about how issues of discrimination affect them on a personal, classroom- and school-wide level.

The more diversity is a topic of discussion in your school, the less students and teachers will hesitate to address it . As a school leader, you’re in a position to lead the conversation and inspire others in the school to take action.

This conversation shouldn’t just be limited to words — in order to make effective change, you need to take practical steps to address inequality when you encounter it, such as:

• Use language that promotes positivity and doesn’t reinforce existing stereotypes. For example, the phrase “boys will be boys” shouldn’t be used to justify sexism or aggression.
• Respond immediately and effectively to inappropriate comments or actions. Take infractions seriously and keep families informed.
• Model inclusion and acceptance. Encourage students to include all of their peers if you see division forming along racial or economic lines.
• Remove existing markers of inequality in your school. For example, make sure students who are eligible for free or reduced lunch programs aren’t singled out and made to feel different.

Fair does not equal the same — fair means making sure that every student has what he or she needs to succeed both personally and academically. When you lead the conversation and follow through with action, you signal that discrimination will not be tolerated in your school.

4. Connect with families and community

Schools are a central part of the community and should reflect and celebrate its diversity.

Communicate your goals for diversity in the classroom to families. Ask if they have any questions or concerns, and then listen. Invite them to identify areas in the curriculum or in the school culture that they feel could benefit from more of a focus on diversity.

Reach out to leaders in the community that can offer different perspectives, either as experts in their field, professionals, community workers or activists. Consider asking teachers to develop service learning projects that connect classroom learning with community initiatives.

When your students meet members of their community, they get to see examples of people from different backgrounds succeeding in their field and might be inspired to think differently about their own future.

Other options for staying in touch and building relationships with families and neighbours:

• Host a community food drive . Ask students, families and neighbours to bring in non-perishable food items to donate to the local food bank
• Start a paper or email newsletter  to communicate school news and events to families
• Host a parent or family night  as an opportunity to outline any curriculum additions or special events the school is having to promote diversity

5. Meet diverse learning needs

Uniform standards can’t apply to a diverse classroom, so start working with your teachers to establish different approaches for students with different learning needs. Some suggestions for making sure the classroom stays accessible and equitable:

• Introduce adaptive technologies .  Adaptive technologies  make learning accessible for all students. This can include anything from speech-to-text software, talking calculators for students with dyscalculia, or modified computer accessories for students with physical disabilities.
• Encourage teachers to use different types of instruction and teaching strategies.  Techniques like  project-based learning ,  differentiated instruction  and  blended learning  all allow teachers to help learners with different needs. (For even more ideas about classroom teaching strategies, read our  Ultimate List of Teaching Strategies !)
• Create opportunities for all students to contribute. Within groups, have students take on different roles that fit their strengths. Some students can act as note takers, while others can facilitate the conversation.

6. Hire diversely

The vast majority of teachers in the United States are white and female. According to federal data , 81.6 percent of teachers are white, while just 6.8 percent are black. As a contrast, 47 percent of students are white, while 16 percent are black.

In a 2018 study from the Learning Policy Institute , researchers found that having teachers of color increased the academic performance of students of color.

As a school leader, you can directly impact the diversity of your faculty through hiring and recruitment efforts. Some of the suggestions from the study for hiring a more diverse faculty include:

• Establish programs at the district level that recruit teachers from non-traditional programs and provide financial help and training.
• Improve the data systems that monitor diverse hiring efforts, and reward schools that meet diversity requirements.
• Hire earlier in the year to reach more in-demand candidates
• Support principal preparation programs, including actively recruiting teachers and supporting their professional development

It’s important to always hire the best candidate for the position, regardless of their background. At the same time, work to challenge your biases and assumptions about what makes a candidate qualified. A staff that reflects diversity in the classroom will expose your students to different ideas and teaching styles, and make them stronger as a result.

7. Support professional development opportunities

Your teachers will probably take on the bulk of the day-to-day efforts to promote diversity in the classroom. Offer professional development resources to help them effectively respond to challenges and opportunities.

At Blackstone Valley Prep in Rhode Island , teachers go through specific professional development sessions that illustrate how structural inequalities are present in classroom dynamics, and learn to elevate student voices above their own.

This is especially important considering their student body has a great deal of economic diversity and aims to give at least half of its opening to students who qualify for free or reduced lunch. With professional development, teachers in that school are better equipped to address challenges and confront biases in themselves and in their students.

Here are some great resources and organizations to get you started:

• National Education Association EdJustice : Here you'll find inspiring stories and resources from education justice activists along with ways to take action in your community.
• Beyond Heroes and Holidays : This resource is for teachers, school leaders, students and parents alike. It provides a model for building a culturally responsive curriculum and includes in-service activities, strategies for teaching and offers an analysis of racial inequality in the current school system.
• The Center for Culturally Responsive Teaching and Learning  is an organization that offers professional development opportunities for schools, businesses and the general public on becoming culturally responsive, “moving below the superficial focus on culture.” They offer half to multi-day workshops, as well as coaching and online courses.
• Teaching Tolerance  is an organization that helps “teachers and schools educate children and youth to be active participants in a diverse democracy.” The program emphasizes social justice and anti-bias, and offers workshops in a number of major cities as well as free online resources. They also have a team of professional development trainers available to run sessions at the school or district level.

Final thoughts: Diversity in the classroom

Diversity expresses itself in so many different ways, so it can be daunting to try and start conversations around bringing it to the classroom.

The good news? Your school is already full of students and staff with diverse and amazing backgrounds, abilities and skills! All you have to do is start highlighting that diversity.

Start slowly and intentionally. Don’t be afraid to admit when you don’t know the answer, but always try to keep learning and growing. Listen to what others around you are saying, and look for feedback and ways to continuously improve. Change doesn’t happen overnight, but the most important step is getting started.

How Prodigy supports diversity

The certified teachers at Prodigy Education who create the in-game educational content care greatly about equity, diversity and inclusion.

From ethnically-diverse names to choose from, to students' abilities to personalize their avatars to look like them, to questions that go beyond traditional gender norms, our education content creators are always moving toward ensuring that the diverse group of students who play Prodigy are truly represented, and feel included and involved in their learning journey.

And, if your students have existing Prodigy Math accounts, they can modify their avatars even after they've been created.

See for yourself! Create or log in to your free teacher account on Prodigy – a standards-aligned, game-based learning platform for math that’s easy to use for educators and students alike. It’s used by millions of students and teachers.

Which program are you applying to?

Accepted Admissions Blog

Everything you need to know to get Accepted

May 11, 2023

Writing an Excellent Diversity Essay

What is the diversity question in a school application, and why does it matter when applying to leading programs and universities? Most importantly, how should you respond?

Diversity is of supreme value in higher education, and schools want to know how every student will contribute to it in their community. A diversity essay is an essay that encourages applicants with disadvantaged or underrepresented backgrounds, an unusual education, a distinctive experience, or a unique family history to write about how these elements of their background have prepared them to play a useful role in increasing and encouraging diversity among their target program’s student body and broader community.

In this post, we’ll cover the following topics: 

How to show you can add to diversity

Why diversity matters at school, seven examples that reveal diversity, how to write about your diversity, diversity essay example, want to ensure your application demonstrates the diversity that your dream school is seeking.

If you are an immigrant to the United States, the child of immigrants, or someone whose ethnicity is underrepresented in the States, your response to “How will you add to the diversity of our class/community?” and similar questions might help your application efforts. Why? Because you can use it to show how your background will add a distinctive perspective to the program you are applying to.

Download this sample personal background essay, and see how one candidate won over the adcom and got accepted into their top-choice MBA program.

Of course, if you’re not from a group that is underrepresented in your field or a disadvantaged group, that doesn’t mean that you don’t have anything to write about in a diversity essay.

For example, you might have an unusual or special experience to share, such as serving in the military, being a member of a dance troupe, or caring for a disabled relative. These and other distinctive experiences can convey how you will contribute to the diversity of the school’s campus.

You could be the first member of your family to apply to college or the first to learn English in your household. Perhaps you have worked your way through college or helped raise your siblings. You might also have been an ally to those who are underrepresented, disadvantaged, or marginalized in your community, at your previous school, or in an earlier work experience. 

As you can see, diversity is not limited to one’s religion, ethnicity, culture, language, or sexual orientation. It refers to whatever element of your identity  distinguishes you from others and shows that you, too, value diversity.

Admissions officers believe diversity in the classroom improves the educational experience of all the students involved. They also believe that having a diverse workforce better serves society as a whole.

The more diverse perspectives found in the classroom, throughout the dorms, in the dining halls, and mixed into study groups, the richer the discussions will be.

Plus, learning and growing in this kind of multicultural environment will prepare students for working in our increasingly multicultural and global world.

In medicine, for example, a heterogeneous workforce benefits people from previously underrepresented cultures. Businesses realize they will market more effectively if they can speak to different audiences and markets, which is possible when members of their workforce come from different backgrounds and cultures. Schools simply want to prepare graduates for the 21st century job market.

Adcoms want to know about your personal diversity elements and the way they have helped you develop particular character and personality traits , as well as the unusual experiences that have shaped you.

Here are seven examples an applicant could write about:

• They grew up with a strong insistence on respecting elders, attending family events, or learning their parents’ native language and culture.
• They are close to grandparents and extended family members who have taught them how teamwork can help everyone thrive.
• They have had to face difficulties that stem from their parents’ values being in conflict with theirs or those of their peers.
• Teachers have not always understood the elements of their culture or lifestyle and how those elements influence their performance.
• They suffered from discrimination and succeeded despite it because of their grit, values, and character.
• They learned skills from a lifestyle that is outside the norm (e.g., living in foreign countries as the child of a diplomat or contractor; performing professionally in theater, dance, music, or sports; having a deaf sibling).
• They’ve encountered racism or other prejudice (either toward themselves or others) and responded by actively promoting diverse, tolerant values.

And remember, it’s not just about who your parents are. It’s about who you are – at the core.

Your background, influences, religious observances, language, ideas, work environment, community experiences – all these factors come together to create a unique individual, one who will contribute to a varied class of distinct individuals taking their place in a diverse world.

Your answer to the diversity question should focus on how your experiences have built your empathy for others, your embrace of differences, your resilience, your character, and your perspective.

The school might well ask how you think of diversity or how you can bring or add to the diversity of your school, chosen profession, or community. Make sure you answer the specific question posed by highlighting distinctive elements of your profile that will add to the class mosaic every adcom is trying to create. You don’t want to blend in; you want to stand out in a positive way while also complementing the school’s canvas.

Here’s a simple, three-part framework that will help you think of diversity more, well, diversely:

• Identity : Who are you? What has contributed to your identity? How do you distinguish yourself? Your identity can include any of the following: gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity, disability, religion, nontraditional work experience, nontraditional educational background, multicultural background, and family’s educational level.
• Deeds : What have you done? What have you accomplished? This could include any of the following: achievements inside and/or outside your field of study, leadership opportunities, community service, , internship or professional experience, research opportunities, hobbies, and travel. Any or all of these could be unique. Also, what life-derailing, throw-you-for-a-loop challenges have you faced and overcome?
• Ideas : How do you think? How do you approach things? What drives you? What influences you? Are you the person who can break up a tense meeting with some well-timed humor? Are you the one who intuitively sees how to bring people together? 

Learn more about this three-part framework in this podcast episode.

Think about each question within this framework and how you could apply your diversity elements to the classroom, your school, or your community. Any of these elements will serve as the framework for your essay.

Don’t worry if you can’t think of something totally “out there.” You don’t need to be a tightrope walker living in the Andes or a Buddhist monk from Japan to pass the diversity test!

And please remember, the examples I have listed are not exhaustive. There are many other ways to show diversity!

All you need to write successfully about how you will contribute to the rich diversity of your target school’s community is to examine your identity, deeds, and ideas, with an eye toward your personal distinctiveness and individuality. There is only one you .

Want our advice on how you can best show diversity?

Click here to sign up for a free consultation.

Take a look at this sample diversity essay, and pay attention to how the writer underscores their appreciation for and experience with diversity. 

When I was starting 11 th grade, my dad, an agricultural scientist, was assigned to a 3-month research project in a farm village in Niigata (northwest Honshu in Japan). Rather than stay behind with my mom and siblings, I begged to go with him. As a straight-A student, I convinced my parents and the principal that I could handle my schoolwork remotely (pre-COVID) for that stretch. It was time to leap beyond my comfortable suburban Wisconsin life—and my Western orientation, reinforced by travel to Europe the year before. 

We roomed in a sprawling farmhouse with a family participating in my dad’s study. I thought I’d experience an “English-free zone,” but the high school students all studied and wanted to practice English, so I did meet peers even though I didn’t attend their school. Of the many eye-opening, influential, cultural experiences, the one that resonates most powerfully to me is experiencing their community. It was a living, organic whole. Elementary school kids spent time helping with the rice harvest. People who foraged for seasonal wild edibles gave them to acquaintances throughout the town. In fact, there was a constant sharing of food among residents—garden veggies carried in straw baskets, fish or meat in coolers. The pharmacist would drive prescriptions to people who couldn’t easily get out—new mothers, the elderly—not as a business service but as a good neighbor. If rain suddenly threatened, neighbors would bring in each other’s drying laundry. When an empty-nest 50-year-old woman had to be hospitalized suddenly for a near-fatal snakebite, neighbors maintained her veggie patch until she returned. The community embodied constant awareness of others’ needs and circumstances. The community flowed!

Yet, people there lamented that this lifestyle was vanishing; more young people left than stayed or came. And it wasn’t idyllic: I heard about ubiquitous gossip, long-standing personal enmities, busybody-ness. But these very human foibles didn’t dam the flow. This dynamic community organism couldn’t have been more different from my suburban life back home, with its insular nuclear families. We nod hello to neighbors in passing. 

This wonderful experience contained a personal challenge. Blond and blue-eyed, I became “the other” for the first time. Except for my dad, I saw no Westerner there. Curious eyes followed me. Stepping into a market or walking down the street, I drew gazes. People swiftly looked away if they accidentally caught my eye. It was not at all hostile, I knew, but I felt like an object. I began making extra sure to appear “presentable” before going outside. The sense of being watched sometimes generated mild stress or resentment. Returning to my lovely tatami room, I would decompress, grateful to be alone. I realized this challenge was a minute fraction of what others experience in my own country. The toll that feeling—and being— “other” takes on non-white and visibly different people in the US can be extremely painful. Experiencing it firsthand, albeit briefly, benignly, and in relative comfort, I got it.

Unlike the organic Niigata community, work teams, and the workplace itself, have externally driven purposes. Within this different environment, I will strive to exemplify the ongoing mutual awareness that fueled the community life in Niigata. Does it benefit the bottom line, improve the results? I don’t know. But it helps me be the mature, engaged person I want to be, and to appreciate the individuals who are my colleagues and who comprise my professional community. I am now far more conscious of people feeling their “otherness”—even when it’s not in response to negative treatment, it can arise simply from awareness of being in some way different.

What did you think of this essay? Does this middle class Midwesterner have the unique experience of being different from the surrounding majority, something she had not experienced in the United States? Did she encounter diversity from the perspective of “the other”? 

Here a few things to note about why this diversity essay works so well:

• The writer comes from “a comfortable, suburban, Wisconsin life,” suggesting that her own background might not be ethnically, racially, or in other ways diverse.
• The diversity “points” scored all come from her fascinating  experience of having lived in a Japanese farm village, where she immersed herself in a totally different culture.
• The lessons learned about the meaning of community are what broaden and deepen the writer’s perspective about life, about a purpose-driven life, and about the concept of “otherness.” 

By writing about a time when you experienced diversity in one of its many forms, you can write a memorable and meaningful diversity essay.

Working on your diversity essay?

Want to ensure that your application demonstrates the diversity that your dream school is seeking? Work with one of our admissions experts and . This checklist includes more than 30 different ways to think about diversity to jump-start your creative engines.

Related Resources:

•  Different Dimensions of Diversity , a podcast episode • What to Do if You Belong to an Overrepresented Applicant Group • Med School Admissions Advice for Nontraditional Applicants: The Experts Speak

About Us Press Room Contact Us Podcast Accepted Blog Privacy Policy Website Terms of Use Disclaimer Client Terms of Service

Accepted 1171 S. Robertson Blvd. #140 Los Angeles CA 90035 +1 (310) 815-9553 © 2022 Accepted

• Diversity & Inclusion

Sandhu ’25: Diversity, equity and inclusion in the classroom starts with names

Growing up with a name that is not easy for everyone to pronounce, I struggled to feel recognized and included in classrooms where teachers did not learn my name. In the past, I had grown accustomed to mispronunciations of my name, undermining my sense of identity in class. Because of this, I know that pronouncing names correctly has the power to accelerate the progress of diversity, equity and inclusion efforts in education. Though it may seem like a minor detail, correctly using a student’s name creates a space where students can feel confident about their identity, their learning and their belonging in academic settings. And considering it is so simple, there is no reason why we shouldn’t all respect each other’s names.

At the start of this semester, I anticipated a familiar experience. It was the first day of classes. Students peered at the door to check the room number and then silently filed into the classroom. I followed, taking a seat somewhere in the middle-front of the room. As the professor read out the class list and neared the end of the alphabet, I began looking for the signs. Will she pause? Will her expression appear unsure? Will everyone’s eyes turn to me when I speak up to diffuse her mistake? But this time, the pause never came. When I’m called, my name rings around the room in perfect pronunciation. All I have to say is, “Here!”

What was different? This professor was acquainted with my name. The feeling I got knowing that I wasn’t anonymous in this class made me want to speak up more. It also encouraged my classmates to make an effort to learn my name since the professor set an expectation that it was known, pronounceable and important to remember. I felt confident, included and equal to my peers. In the past, I have often thought that to be an excellent student, I had to accommodate or simplify my name so that teachers would recognize me and, therefore, my work. When “Jane” or “Sam” contributed positively to a discussion, a professor who did not take the time to learn challenging names acknowledged these contributions before a contribution made by “Meher,” ultimately depriving some students of equally deserved recognition. I found myself accepting mispronunciations of my name in order to draw less attention to its difficulty and to make sure I was known at all, whether it was by the correct pronunciation of my name or not.

Poet Harman Kaur writes in her collection “Phulkari” about the experience of growing up with a Punjabi name that is difficult to pronounce. She writes that if her classmates can study the pronunciation of scientific terms, they can learn her name. As a biology student, I have diligently learned how to pronounce complicated organic chemistry nomenclature and bacteria names so that, when I spoke up in class, I felt prepared and knowledgeable. Scientific language is universally taught, and, regardless of the student’s native language, they are expected to memorize difficult jargon with ease. Why should we not make the same effort with names?

The solution to this problem has two components. The first is a willingness in teachers to learn how to say students’ names the way they like, and the second is for schools to hire a more diverse faculty that reflects the diversity of students. Not only does diversity in academia offer new perspectives to the learning experience, but representation amongst faculty welcomes minority-background students into the classroom by fostering a sense of belonging. Every student benefits from diversity, inclusion, and equity efforts. And that starts with a commitment to calling every student by their name of choice.

Chang ’27: How Mayor Smiley’s noise cameras can tame Thayer and save our ears

O'Riordan ’27: Students deserve more transparency before they commit to lifelong loans

Valdes ’27: Coming to terms with the pre-med experience

The class of 2028: Accepted students react to acceptance By Talia LeVine | April 4

Yves Tumor, Jordan Ward, Elyanna, Weston Estate to perform at Spring Weekend 2024 By Isabel Hahn and Rya Vallabhaneni | April 5

Three Brown students win prestigious Goldwater scholarship By Irene Zhao | April 8

Ivy Film Festival unveils 2024 line-up By Manav Musunuru | April 3

Trying to fill your fall 2024 Courses@Brown cart? Here are four new classes to consider By Kate Rowberry | April 4

'UK school art curriculum should reflect diversity efforts in our institutions'

Research by the runnymede trust found that only 2.3% of artists named in gcse art papers over the last five years were black or asian.

In the UK, we have recently enjoyed a wealth of long-overdue solo and group exhibitions celebrating the rich and varied practices of minority ethnic artists at the heart of our shared visual culture. However, our research with Runnymede Trust exposed that the picture of this visual culture presented in schools looks like a different universe. Only 2.3% of artists named in GCSE art papers over the last five years were Black or Asian, and some exams did not reference a single non-white artist. Over three years, we spoke to teachers, students and artists across England to understand what and how young people are taught in art lessons, and why this narrow curriculum is so disconnected from the ideas and practices flourishing in the sector.

Addressing the class

Beyond the stark absences in GCSE papers, we met art teachers preparing students for these exams whilst themselves desperately lacking in confidence and support. Only four out of ten surveyed felt sure of the correct language to use when discussing minority ethnic artists and their work, and a third had never encountered the practices of any minority ethnic artists in their own education and training. Suffocated and beleaguered by years of underfunding, mismanagement, devaluing of their subject and risk-averse cultures, art teachers are leaving the profession in record numbers. Those who remain discussed with us the struggle to realise the broad, inspiring curriculum to which they aspired.

Black and Asian students in particular facing parental pressure to ‘focus on other subjects’ at four times the rate of their white peers.

Art as luxury

Equally, our research uncovered the bleak reality of a generation of young people educated to see visual art as an archaic luxury with no currency in the real world. Only 6% of students surveyed felt they could relate to artists introduced in the classroom, and less than 10% that art helped them understand their own lives. This preconception extended beyond students to families unable to see a value to studying Art & Design, with Black and Asian students in particular facing parental pressure to ‘focus on other subjects’ at four times the rate of their white peers. Against this desolate landscape, the voices of contemporary artists reflecting on the impact of their own art education illuminated the transformative potential of the subject, and how far current experiences are falling short. In the "artist's voices" section of the report, alongside Simeon Barclay, Rana Begum, Chila Burman, Hardeep Pandhal, Rene Matic and Keith Piper, Harold Offeh spoke of a state school art education that “was relevant and vital, equipping me with tools to reflect on my place in the world, communicate and contribute to it. I was empowered to make, think, play and do.”

Role of the art world

The message from both students and teachers was clear: today’s art education is unfit for purpose. Everyone suffers the consequence of a woefully narrow and uninspiring curriculum, and minority ethnic students experience an intersectional impact of these failings. 66% of students across all ethnicities (80% of Black students) asked for more diverse artists in their lessons, and 90% of teachers would welcome additional support to deliver this. We as a cultural sector have a responsibility to act now to support them in this change.

The message from both students and teachers was clear: today’s art education is unfit for purpose.

Runnymede Trust has set out clear practical recommendations toward enacting this much-needed shift in art education. Some, such as redressing the diversity of exams, are already underway, with two providers (Pearsons and Eduqas) having committed to a target of at least 25% minority ethnic artists in all papers from 2025. Some will be less immediate, working toward structural change in how art education is taught, and its value understood across society; but they are nonetheless urgent and, I believe, achievable. The art sector has a vital role also, in connecting teachers and schools with the full breadth of practices and ideas through meaningful, innovative programmes that go beyond formulaic museum visits. Freelands Foundation hopes to work with partners across the field to move this change forward: artists come from, and represent, an increasingly diverse society and we must all play our part to ensure that art education reflects this.

• Henry Ward is the director of Freelands Foundation

• Skip to main content
• Keyboard shortcuts for audio player

NPR defends its journalism after senior editor says it has lost the public's trust

David Folkenflik

NPR is defending its journalism and integrity after a senior editor wrote an essay accusing it of losing the public's trust. Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images hide caption

NPR is defending its journalism and integrity after a senior editor wrote an essay accusing it of losing the public's trust.

NPR's top news executive defended its journalism and its commitment to reflecting a diverse array of views on Tuesday after a senior NPR editor wrote a broad critique of how the network has covered some of the most important stories of the age.

"An open-minded spirit no longer exists within NPR, and now, predictably, we don't have an audience that reflects America," writes Uri Berliner.

A strategic emphasis on diversity and inclusion on the basis of race, ethnicity and sexual orientation, promoted by NPR's former CEO, John Lansing, has fed "the absence of viewpoint diversity," Berliner writes.

NPR's chief news executive, Edith Chapin, wrote in a memo to staff Tuesday afternoon that she and the news leadership team strongly reject Berliner's assessment.

"We're proud to stand behind the exceptional work that our desks and shows do to cover a wide range of challenging stories," she wrote. "We believe that inclusion — among our staff, with our sourcing, and in our overall coverage — is critical to telling the nuanced stories of this country and our world."

NPR names tech executive Katherine Maher to lead in turbulent era

She added, "None of our work is above scrutiny or critique. We must have vigorous discussions in the newsroom about how we serve the public as a whole."

A spokesperson for NPR said Chapin, who also serves as the network's chief content officer, would have no further comment.

Praised by NPR's critics

Berliner is a senior editor on NPR's Business Desk. (Disclosure: I, too, am part of the Business Desk, and Berliner has edited many of my past stories. He did not see any version of this article or participate in its preparation before it was posted publicly.)

Berliner's essay , titled "I've Been at NPR for 25 years. Here's How We Lost America's Trust," was published by The Free Press, a website that has welcomed journalists who have concluded that mainstream news outlets have become reflexively liberal.

Berliner writes that as a Subaru-driving, Sarah Lawrence College graduate who "was raised by a lesbian peace activist mother ," he fits the mold of a loyal NPR fan.

Yet Berliner says NPR's news coverage has fallen short on some of the most controversial stories of recent years, from the question of whether former President Donald Trump colluded with Russia in the 2016 election, to the origins of the virus that causes COVID-19, to the significance and provenance of emails leaked from a laptop owned by Hunter Biden weeks before the 2020 election. In addition, he blasted NPR's coverage of the Israel-Hamas conflict.

On each of these stories, Berliner asserts, NPR has suffered from groupthink due to too little diversity of viewpoints in the newsroom.

The essay ricocheted Tuesday around conservative media , with some labeling Berliner a whistleblower . Others picked it up on social media, including Elon Musk, who has lambasted NPR for leaving his social media site, X. (Musk emailed another NPR reporter a link to Berliner's article with a gibe that the reporter was a "quisling" — a World War II reference to someone who collaborates with the enemy.)

When asked for further comment late Tuesday, Berliner declined, saying the essay spoke for itself.

The arguments he raises — and counters — have percolated across U.S. newsrooms in recent years. The #MeToo sexual harassment scandals of 2016 and 2017 forced newsrooms to listen to and heed more junior colleagues. The social justice movement prompted by the killing of George Floyd in 2020 inspired a reckoning in many places. Newsroom leaders often appeared to stand on shaky ground.

Leaders at many newsrooms, including top editors at The New York Times and the Los Angeles Times , lost their jobs. Legendary Washington Post Executive Editor Martin Baron wrote in his memoir that he feared his bonds with the staff were "frayed beyond repair," especially over the degree of self-expression his journalists expected to exert on social media, before he decided to step down in early 2021.

Since then, Baron and others — including leaders of some of these newsrooms — have suggested that the pendulum has swung too far.

Author Interviews

Legendary editor marty baron describes his 'collision of power' with trump and bezos.

New York Times publisher A.G. Sulzberger warned last year against journalists embracing a stance of what he calls "one-side-ism": "where journalists are demonstrating that they're on the side of the righteous."

"I really think that that can create blind spots and echo chambers," he said.

Internal arguments at The Times over the strength of its reporting on accusations that Hamas engaged in sexual assaults as part of a strategy for its Oct. 7 attack on Israel erupted publicly . The paper conducted an investigation to determine the source of a leak over a planned episode of the paper's podcast The Daily on the subject, which months later has not been released. The newsroom guild accused the paper of "targeted interrogation" of journalists of Middle Eastern descent.

Heated pushback in NPR's newsroom

Given Berliner's account of private conversations, several NPR journalists question whether they can now trust him with unguarded assessments about stories in real time. Others express frustration that he had not sought out comment in advance of publication. Berliner acknowledged to me that for this story, he did not seek NPR's approval to publish the piece, nor did he give the network advance notice.

Some of Berliner's NPR colleagues are responding heatedly. Fernando Alfonso, a senior supervising editor for digital news, wrote that he wholeheartedly rejected Berliner's critique of the coverage of the Israel-Hamas conflict, for which NPR's journalists, like their peers, periodically put themselves at risk.

Alfonso also took issue with Berliner's concern over the focus on diversity at NPR.

"As a person of color who has often worked in newsrooms with little to no people who look like me, the efforts NPR has made to diversify its workforce and its sources are unique and appropriate given the news industry's long-standing lack of diversity," Alfonso says. "These efforts should be celebrated and not denigrated as Uri has done."

After this story was first published, Berliner contested Alfonso's characterization, saying his criticism of NPR is about the lack of diversity of viewpoints, not its diversity itself.

"I never criticized NPR's priority of achieving a more diverse workforce in terms of race, ethnicity and sexual orientation. I have not 'denigrated' NPR's newsroom diversity goals," Berliner said. "That's wrong."

Questions of diversity

Under former CEO John Lansing, NPR made increasing diversity, both of its staff and its audience, its "North Star" mission. Berliner says in the essay that NPR failed to consider broader diversity of viewpoint, noting, "In D.C., where NPR is headquartered and many of us live, I found 87 registered Democrats working in editorial positions and zero Republicans."

Berliner cited audience estimates that suggested a concurrent falloff in listening by Republicans. (The number of people listening to NPR broadcasts and terrestrial radio broadly has declined since the start of the pandemic.)

Former NPR vice president for news and ombudsman Jeffrey Dvorkin tweeted , "I know Uri. He's not wrong."

Others questioned Berliner's logic. "This probably gets causality somewhat backward," tweeted Semafor Washington editor Jordan Weissmann . "I'd guess that a lot of NPR listeners who voted for [Mitt] Romney have changed how they identify politically."

Similarly, Nieman Lab founder Joshua Benton suggested the rise of Trump alienated many NPR-appreciating Republicans from the GOP.

In recent years, NPR has greatly enhanced the percentage of people of color in its workforce and its executive ranks. Four out of 10 staffers are people of color; nearly half of NPR's leadership team identifies as Black, Asian or Latino.

"The philosophy is: Do you want to serve all of America and make sure it sounds like all of America, or not?" Lansing, who stepped down last month, says in response to Berliner's piece. "I'd welcome the argument against that."

"On radio, we were really lagging in our representation of an audience that makes us look like what America looks like today," Lansing says. The U.S. looks and sounds a lot different than it did in 1971, when NPR's first show was broadcast, Lansing says.

A network spokesperson says new NPR CEO Katherine Maher supports Chapin and her response to Berliner's critique.

The spokesperson says that Maher "believes that it's a healthy thing for a public service newsroom to engage in rigorous consideration of the needs of our audiences, including where we serve our mission well and where we can serve it better."

Disclosure: This story was reported and written by NPR Media Correspondent David Folkenflik and edited by Deputy Business Editor Emily Kopp and Managing Editor Gerry Holmes. Under NPR's protocol for reporting on itself, no NPR corporate official or news executive reviewed this story before it was posted publicly.

• New Terms of Use
• New Privacy Policy
• Your Privacy Choices
• Closed Caption Policy
• Accessibility Statement

This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. ©2024 FOX News Network, LLC. All rights reserved. Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. Market data provided by Factset . Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions . Legal Statement . Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by Refinitiv Lipper .

NPR's 'obsession' with DEI, diversity 'tracking system' scrutinized following veteran editor's bombshell essay

Veteran editor uri berliner says diversity became npr's 'north star' following the death of george floyd.

Longtime NPR editor rips own employer over alleged political bias

Fox News' Howard Kurtz reacts to the media organization coming under fire for its liberal leanings in its coverage on ‘Special Report.’

The bombshell essay penned by a veteran National Public Radio journalist puts a spotlight on what's been called NPR's "obsession" with the left-wing DEI (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion) ideology.

Uri Berliner, the senior business editor and a 25-year NPR veteran, went viral for exposing how liberal groupthink has captured the NPR newsroom and drew significant attention to diversity becoming the news outlet's so-called "North Star" following the death of George Floyd in 2020.

"It was an anguished time in the newsroom, personally and professionally so, for NPR staffers. Floyd’s murder, captured on video, changed both the conversation and the daily operations at NPR," Berliner described in a piece published in The Free Press.

NPR EDITOR REBUKES OUTLET'S OWN COVERAGE OF HUNTER BIDEN LAPTOP, COVID LAB LEAK AND RUSSIAGATE

Veteran NPR editor Uri Berliner went viral with his bombshell essay calling out the left-wing groupthink that has taken over the newsroom. (JP Yim/WireImage)

Berliner repeatedly cited then-NPR CEO John Lansing, who left the organization last fall after a four-year tenure. 

"When it comes to identifying and ending systemic racism, we can be agents of change," Lansing wrote to staff at the time. "Listening and deep reflection are necessary but not enough. They must be followed by constructive and meaningful steps forward. I will hold myself accountable for this."

An article published by NPR in September 2020 declared DEI "is not a project: it is our work" with Lansing stating, "the leaders in public media — starting with me — must be aware of how we ourselves have benefitted from white privilege in our careers. We must understand the unconscious bias we bring to our work and interactions. And we must commit ourselves — body and soul — to profound changes in ourselves and our institutions."

CREDIBILITY CRISIS: NPR INSISTED COVID ORIGINATED NATURALLY BY DISMISSING LAB LEAK THEORY AS NONSENSE

Former NPR president and CEO John Lansing made diversity of staff and audience the news outlet's "North Star" above all else following George Floyd's death, according to Berliner. (SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images)

According to Berliner, Lansing "declared" that diversity of NPR's staff and audience was "the overriding mission, the ‘North Star’ of the organization" and that race and identity had "became paramount in nearly every aspect of the workplace." Several affinity groups dedicated to various subsets of NPR staffers were also formed, including "MGIPOC (Marginalized Genders and Intersex People of Color mentorship program); Mi Gente (Latinx employees at NPR); NPR Noir (Black employees at NPR); Southwest Asians and North Africans at NPR; Ummah (for Muslim-identifying employees); Women, Gender-Expansive, and Transgender People in Technology Throughout Public Media; Khevre ( Jewish heritage and culture at NPR); and NPR Pride (LGBTQIA employees at NPR)."

NPR also began requiring its journalists to log the "race, gender, and ethnicity," among other traits, of their interviewees and sources in a "centralized tracking system" that monitored diversity. 

"I wouldn't have a problem with it if we were also looking at trying to figure out people's perspective, their viewpoint. I didn't love it, but I also think it was very limited. If we were going to do it, let's go all the way," Berliner told The Free Press founder Bari Weiss on her "Honestly" podcast. 

NPR HIT WITH MASSIVE LAYOFFS, CANCELS 4 PODCASTS

DePauw University journalism professor Jeffrey McCall told Fox News Digital that tracking sources based on their identity "artificially disrupts the process of sourcing and researching the news."

"A tracking system is certainly designed to chill the reporting process and alter the normal journalism instincts to go where the story can best be told," McCall argued. 

"The obsession at NPR on race and diversity post-George Floyd is a microcosm of the destructive impact of DEI," Cornell Law School professor and media critic William A. Jacobson told Fox News Digital. "Rather than focusing on the accuracy of a source's information, the source's race, ethnicity, and other identities were tracked and used to measure reporting performance. The news and reporting mission were inevitably corrupted."

NPR required journalists to log the race, ethnicity and gender of all interview subjects and sources in what Berliner called a diversity-based "centralized tracking system." (SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images)

NPR editor-in-chief Edith Chapin sent a memo to staff Tuesday saying she and her leadership team colleagues "strongly disagree" with Berliner's essay and are "proud to stand behind the exceptional work" of their journalists.

"We believe that inclusion - among our staff, with our sourcing, and in our overall coverage - is critical to telling the nuanced stories of this country and our world," Chapin wrote. "We track sources… so we can expand the diversity of perspectives in our reporting." 

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP  

While diversity of skin color took priority at NPR, Berliner told Weiss "diversity of outlook" had ultimately fallen by the wayside, pointing to his own stats that found while 87 of NPR's editors were registered Democrats, zero were Republican. 

Berliner also acknowledged the irony of NPR's diversity push, which resulted in 2023 with only 6% of its audience being Black and 7% being Hispanic, something he stressed "doesn’t come close to reflecting America" since NPR's audience is "overwhelmingly White and progressive, and clustered around coastal cities and college towns." 

NPR did not respond to requests for comment. 

Joseph A. Wulfsohn is a media reporter for Fox News Digital. Story tips can be sent to [email protected] and on Twitter: @JosephWulfsohn.

Get all the stories you need-to-know from the most powerful name in news delivered first thing every morning to your inbox

You've successfully subscribed to this newsletter!