Diversity online
What is diversity?
In my professional field, I perceive people of many different educational backgrounds, be it as language students or kindergarten children. Social diversity covers gender, race, nationality and ethnic origin, religion, physical ability, age, sexual orientation, and identity. Showing appreciation for everybody and creating a welcoming atmosphere helps build bridges and create space for growth. Diversity can be made a topic among colleagues and parents of the children by involving them in shared activities. These principles apply to online environments as well as to face-to-face settings. Strategies and approaches can be transferred to virtual communication, yet the communication channels are reduced to audio, visual, and social exchange.
Integration means bringing persons into an organization and helping them feel comfortable within that culture. "Treat others as you want to be treated yourself."
Inclusion brings together minority and underrepresented groups and the dominant social group. "Treat others as they want to be treated."
Discrimination is usually seen as
- Structural discrimination refers to the unequal distribution of wealth and opportunities, which impact power relations between different populations.
- Cognitive discrimination focuses on individual cognitive processes that yield the perceived differences in physique, lifestyles, values, etc.
Diversity Wheel Model, based on the Diversity Wheel (Loden/Rosener, 1991), was adopted by the Blog Anthology Admin (University of Sydney), 2019, to meet the present global challenges.
This diversity model states that group-based differences significantly impact individual perceptions, experiences, and opportunities. The focus is on community more than on an individual/personal level.
Social identity and an essential self-image are shaped by diversity's primary/core dimensions: age, ethnicity, gender, physical abilities/qualities, race, and sexual orientation.
The secondary dimensions of diversity are acquired later in life and presumably have less influence in defining who we are. They are educational background, income, marital status, work experience, personal appearance, religion and political beliefs, personal values, and thinking style.
The different categories of diversity are open enough to allow many combinations of dimensions. This way, the key determiners and areas of developing potential for groups or individuals can be identified and worked on. Also, different levels of diversity and overcoming it can be reflected upon.
For example, when teaching English to adult students from the Arab/Persian Gulf region, it is necessary to adapt content from the mainly European-centered course books to the vocabulary needs of the learners, e. g. learning new words for clothes, nature, habits. It is also essential to handle care topics like religious beliefs, political values, and human rights, as the perception and opinions may vary widely and differ from the teacher's.
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