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Question: As a Black female faculty member, it is often assumed that I (or one of my colleagues of color) will teach the Diversity courses on campus. Why is this, and what can we do to change this?
Answer from Emily Allen Williams: The spring semester will begin in four days, and you have prepared [during the brief intermission] for the courses you have been assigned to teach. You are feeling a deep sense of satisfaction as you have taken last semester’s student feedback and significantly revised elements of your courses to be more engaging and inclusive of students at all levels of entry into the courses.
Opening semester faculty sessions have taken place, and you feel especially ready to meet your new students, continue your research, and engage with co-faculty in service work.
And, then it happens…
Your department chair approaches you in the hallway with a huge smile on their face as you leave opening semester faculty session and says:
Congratulations!
You have been highly recommended by your school dean and the provost to teach the newly minted diversity, equity, and inclusion course. Based on your committee work and student evaluations, we all feel that you will bring a lot to this course that is required of all first-year and transfer students at the university. If you have a few moments to step into my office, I will brief you on the course and give you the materials that were used by the professors who taught the course last semester.
Really?
Not only is this a course that you know you are not prepared nor credentialed to teach, but you are also taken by surprise with the lack of notice toward the ability to prepare for a course that is acclaimed as essential for all new students to the university.
You do not — emphatically, do not — want to teach this course! You have no demonstrable foundation nor recent preparation to enable you to successfully lead students into successful inquiry and discourse in the area of diversity studies. Your mind starts to race as you mentally visualize the demographics of your department.
Yes…
You are the sole Black person [and female] in the department with an academic footprint (African American Cultural Studies) that suggests you would not only be interested in teaching the course but also be racially and ethnically situated to provide entry-way into a university course on diversity, equity, and inclusion.
Full stop!
Scenarios such as the one above are too often a reality in U.S. colleges and universities with Black female professors more likely than not “pursued” to teach DEI courses. In turn, some feel powerless to say no, particularly those who are in tenure-track or appointment stream positions. Job security becomes a looming issue when some Black female professors consider saying ‘no’ and, instead, they say ‘yes’ to maintain their positions and minimize conflict.
Department chairs, deans, provosts, and other executive-level leaders in higher education should not enter lightly into recommending and assigning faculty to teach diversity courses. Focusing on race and ethnicity as an element of credentialing faculty to teach diversity courses is a slippery slope in this regard.
The following are just a few foundational credentialing considerations to catalyze meaningful professorial assignments for teaching diversity courses in U.S. colleges and universities:
- historical and contemporary knowledge of equity and social justice in the United States, specifically, and the world, holistically
- knowledge of the federally protected classes
- understanding and respect for compliance matters
- academic training in data assessment and analysis in discussing diversity across protected classes
- empathy and respect for people (students, faculty, staff, and community) with myriad experiences from different cultural backgrounds
- capacity to discuss diversity initiatives and mediate discussions of difference within the classroom
- broad knowledge of anti-discriminatory legislation
- some specific training in diversity, equity, and inclusion
- willingness to teach diversity courses (if credentialed, such as described, et.al.)
Clearly, teaching a diversity, equity, and inclusion course is not to be entered into lightly. The race and ethnicity of an individual — in this scenario, a Black female — should not be the premise for teaching a diversity course.
As colleges and universities continue to face cyclical tides in the teaching of diversity courses as well as courses that focus on diverse populations, it is more important than ever for higher education leaders to be deliberate in the credentialing of professors to teach diversity courses as with all course matters of credentialing.
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