I really enjoyed reading it.

Thank you so much for sharing your personal experiences I really appreciate to learn more, and become more educated to try to make things better every time.

I partially agree with you. I think is important to also focus on the fact that it’s OK to have differences. I’m proud of my differences, I don’t want to focus on similarities, rather I want to focus on the respect that I have for our differences. Does it make sense?

I know, right?

Thanks for sharing!

As Greg’s I also think this can be a powerful idea. However, there is something that we need to consider and be very careful about it. You mention to focus on the similarities, and comment “We will look for similarities, and a peaceful life– rather than focus on differences which could lead to conflict.” I think it is important to mention that differences shouldn’t be leading to conflicts. It’s not OK to have to find what things make us similar in order to be able to have a peaceful life. We should be able to have a peaceful life recognizing, honoring, and being proud of our differences. But I do see your point and the need to start by something on a very complex issue.

My ideal situation is that circle, triangle, square, and line with no shape can recognize, respect and interact without anyone having a privilege over one another, and respecting every single aspect of them.

Again, we need to start by something so I’m interested in learning how we can bring this into the classroom?

Homero

Thanks for sharing.

I really like how you did the breakout of the topics, and provide specific recommendations.

I will say we need to add ethnicity, and ability. Since those are also two very complex issues. As per your comment on disabilities, believe me, I’m working with a case of disability right now and the office for disabilities at VT are not being very effective treating a disable student. I’ll comment more on class tomorrow.

Homero

Thanks for sharing!

Great experiments. I also am an advocate for international opportunities. One of the best experiences of my life was to be on the Global perspectives program. I encourage everyone taking the class to apply, since it’s a great experience. Talking and sharing with people from different disciplines about higher education, and cultural differences in Switzerland and Italy is for sure a great learning experience.

Homero

Erin,

Thank you so much for sharing. I’m happy that you are in your field and are making things better. I’m also pretty sure of how much impact you are making to that one student that otherwise would be probably shut down, just for being in that environment. I’m positive that what you do not only make her feel better in the classroom but is also having an impact on her learning process, she probably will recognize how feeling included is changing the metacognition of her thinking. Therefore, by being more reflective about it probably you help her improve the way she understand her learning.

Looking forward to the moment that you think is right to talk about your experiences, again thanks for sharing!

Thanks for sharing!

I really like your post. You will really enjoy our guest tomorrow since she developed a diversity app ?

Also thanks for sharing the video. Very interesting. I wonder if you can share the paper you wrote, it seems very interesting.

Homero

Thanks for sharing!

I agree with you in the fact that I don’t think people’s feelings are important in an intelectual debate. However, I do think that gender, age, ethnicity, sexual orientation, and social class do affects the ability of a person to apply science to solve problems. At least that is part of what my field of engineering education is about. Identity development is one of the most important processes happening during the education of engineering students. Depending on how you develop your engineering identity, it will shape your worldview, and what you see, and how you respond to it.

I also agree with you that there are infinite numbers of categories in which students may not feel identified with the dominant group. However, the point in inclusive pedagogy (at least in my mind) is not to create or expand the division between the majority and the minority, rather is about being able to develop learning environments that take everyone’s perceptions, identities, and values into consideration so everybody feel that their opinion, and their safety is important for the other people in the learning community. For example, one big thing that I believe we will discuss tomorrow is about universal design. How we can create class materials (syllabus, ppt’s, etc) that are universally designed to take into consideration everyone despite their perceptions and abilities.

Thanks for sharing.

Thanks for sharing!

Great post. I can feel totally related, even when I haven’t walked around in Hyde Park, I feel a similar sensation in several campuses here in the U.S.

It’s interesting how depending on your life experiences, furthermore, your life experiences as being a non-white person in a predominately white environment shape your behaviors. For example, I was traveling to Ecuador with an American friend last year and I was telling him how every time I will board a plane I need to think about who will be seating next to me. Moreover, will they feel comfortable with me seating next to them. He was fascinated about it, because it was something that he never felt the need to think about.