Comment on Building an Inclusive Learning Environment by Farha

Khushboo, thank you. I am glad that you find the discussion of intellectual and non-intellectual (or identity based) diversity interesting. I understand that the application of identity-based diversity can be challenging in teaching, but I also think it is possible to make everyone ( of different identities) feel welcome and not judged in a classroom space and or academic settings to enhance the learning environment. Often time, the responsibility of doing that falls on us as educators.

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Comment on My biases, I did not know of by Farha

HI Khushboo, thanks for your post! It felt like I went back to my childhood and getting kitchen set, barbies as gifts whereas my brothers got toy cars, bikes etc. Initially I used to think that it is more like a cultural bias based on the South Asian background I am from which is not as open as the culture here in the United States. However, with time, that notion has changed and I could see that there are inherent biases in every human being, it just takes different form of expression based on the person’s background. I agree with you that we need to be aware of our biases and make sure we do not project them onto anyone, specially students.

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Comment on Easy to suppress the bandits in the city but difficult to suppress the bandits in your heart by Ruixiang Xie

Thank you for your comment! Unfortunately, I have made a group with American students before, but well, you know, it is arranged by the teacher, so after finished the group works, we didn’t connect with each other at all, maybe what the article mentioned is right, but I do not have the same feeling. Perhaps what Leslie mentioned above is a good method!

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Comment on Diversity; an opportunity to leap or a seed of tragedy by Systems Approach

Hi Seungbee, your use of Disney as a jumping off point for this conversation is a great way to engage the reader informally. One thing I immediately thought of as you described the Disney characters and your question about how to teach children about diversity is why don’t we have movies that better represent our actual societies? Meaning, I grew up in a DC suburb where kids were from India, Ethiopia, Honduras, the Philippines, etc. and we had an international night in elementary school where each student represented their country and brought traditional foods to share. What if our media represented those worlds, or if our protagonists were from multiple lineages? Our media is too simplified to convey the world that we actually occupy.

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