The diversity of American—and global—society, history, and culture is an increasingly important aspect of higher education. There are two aspects that we consider when talking about diversity: first, responding to the increasing diversity in our classrooms in ways that enrich and include; second, incorporating relevant materials from various cultures into our curriculum in ways that expand our students’ understanding and education. The various resources below provide guidance in both of these areas.
American Cultures
The American Cultures requirement is a Berkeley campus requirement, the one course that all undergraduate students at Cal need to take and pass in order to graduate. The requirement was instituted in 1991 to introduce students to the diverse cultures of the United States through a comparative framework. Courses are offered in more than forty departments in many different disciplines at both the lower and upper division level.
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
Campus website designed to provide campus community members and visitors greater access to UC Berkeley’s pursuits and organizational commitment in the areas of diversity, equity and inclusion.
Diversity Web
An organization of the Association of American Colleges and Universities, Diversity Web has a great deal of information ranging from curricular reform to faculty development, and “Diversity Digest,” an online journal.
Multiculturalism/Diversity/Inclusive Classrooms (Michigan State University), including
a. Inclusive Teaching Methods
b. Incorporating Multicultural Content into your Teaching
c. Teaching for Diverse Populations
An excellent article that addresses this issue is "Creating Inclusive College Classrooms" by Shari Saunders and Diana Kardia of the Center for Research on Learning and Teaching at the University of Michigan.
The Faculty Teaching Excellence Program at the University of Colorado at Boulder has developed an excellent resource for helping faculty recognize and work with the diversity of opinions and backgrounds in their classes. The Teaching and Learning Series on Diversity consists of a series of monographs on a variety of topics.
Berkeley’s Making Classroom Groups inclusive [pdf]