Teaching diversity in North American higher education master's programs: curricula and rationales

Purpose This study aims to examine North American master's programs in higher education administration, leadership and student affairs; the extent to which these programs incorporate diversity coursework; and their reasons for doing so. Graduate programs must prepare practitioners who are able to work effectively with multiple groups of students, ameliorate persistence and graduation gaps, and create more socially just campuses.Design/methodology/approachUsing an open-ended questionnaire and document analysis, the authors analyzed the extent to which and why these master's programs incorporate courses and course material on diversity.FindingsExactly half of higher education leadership (50%) and a small majority of student affairs (52%) programs require some type of diversity course, while only 42% of higher education administration programs do so. Reported reasons for including such coursework include students' demand for such courses, the centrality of diversity to university missions and standards in the field.Research limitations/implicationsResearch on faculty perceptions regarding the need for diversity courses with a focus on interest convergence may be productive.Practical implicationsProgram directors should ensure that coursework on diversity is required, and that faculty teaching these courses are comfortable discussing these topics to prepare students to work with diverse groups in multiple contexts.Originality/valueThis study uses multiple methods (document analysis, open-ended questionnaire of program directors) to analyze programs and program design intentions. The authors use the critical race theory framework's tenet of interest convergence to understand program rationales.

RACISM TOWARDS AFRICAN AMERICAN COMMUNITY AS REFLECTED IN MAYA ANGELOU’S I KNOW WHY THE CAGED BIRD SINGS: BLACK AESTHETIC CRITICISM

The study of the African American community always circulates among the issues of race, racism, discrimination, slavery, and oppression. All these issues become the grand themes of African American literature. These literary works could be studied and covered under the scope of Black Aesthetic criticism. One of the prominent works of African American literature is an autobiography of Maya Angelou entitled I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969). This autobiography portrays Angelou’s childhood experiences which brings up the issues of race, racism, and oppression. This paper aims to analyze the kinds of racism experienced by the African American community and their struggle against it as depicted in the book. To provide a thorough discussion of the matter, critical race theory was employed as the method of analysis. The result is drawn based on the basic tenets of critical race theory proposed by Richard Delgado and Jean Stefancic (2001); everyday racism, interest convergence, the social construction of race, differential realization, intersectionality, and voice of Color. The findings show the struggle of African American community against racism which are expressed through the act of ignorance, promoting intelligence, communal efforts, resistance, promoting social movement, and stepping forward to voice their experience through African American literature.

Beyond convergence and divergence: Towards a ‘both and’ approach to critical race and critical Indigenous studies in Australia

Although the study of race in relation to both settler colonialism, and Indigeneity and Indigenous sovereignty is insufficiently supported by sociology and the social sciences in Australia as elsewhere, scholars are exploring the synergetic possibilities between critical race and decolonial, Indigenous-centred approaches to theorizing the racial state. Nevertheless, some scholars have argued that the critical race toolbox is insufficient for making sense of how race is produced, reproduced and maintained in settler colonial states. Contributing to this critical discussion, this article explores the conceptual, empirical and practical relationship between race, Indigeneity and Indigenous sovereignty as lenses to examine racism, antiracism and Indigenous self-determination as interrelated, but discrete, issues. In particular, via a discussion of the concept of ‘interest convergence’, the article examines the synergetic possibilities of Critical Race Theory (CRT) and Critical Indigenous theories and methodologies. The authors conclude that rather than ‘throwing the baby out with the bathwater’ by jettisoning CRT, we should work to deepen and broaden scholarship that connects race, Indigeneity and Indigenous sovereignty in ways that benefit both local and global understandings of the many and complex workings of race.