Some of the easiest ways to think about diversity focus on questions of 鈥渨ho.鈥� Who is present within a space? Who has a seat at the table? Who is given the opportunity to speak 鈥� and who is listened to? Questions of 鈥渨ho鈥� can also be documented and reported on, turned into numbers and figures, with relative ease.
But if diversity stops at 鈥渨ho,鈥� it misses other questions every bit as crucial, like 鈥渨hat鈥� and 鈥渉ow.鈥�
鈥淚t鈥檚 about getting beyond the numbers,鈥� says Dal Provost Teri Balser. 鈥淣umbers are easier to monitor, but metrics and targets don鈥檛 get at the heart of what diversity is, and its value.鈥�
For a university, that means thinking about more than just enrolment numbers and faculty complement 鈥� important as those are 鈥� and diving into what happens in the classroom, at the heart of the academic experience.
These days, questions of 鈥渄iversifying鈥� or 鈥渄ecolonizing鈥� curriculum are top-of-mind in higher education, both as an effort to develop courses and programs to better reflect the growing diversity in universities, and also to challenge systemic biases inherent in the largely white, Eurocentric systems of knowledge that have shaped the history of Western universities.
Pushing for change
For Senate Chair Kevin Hewitt, curriculum diversity has been something he鈥檚 been pushing for most of his life.
鈥淎s a member of the African Canadian community, this has been a battle 鈥� in the school system, for my kids to have a diverse, inclusive curriculum, and in my own experience as a student and faculty member,鈥� he says.
During graduate studies at Simon Fraser University, Dr. Hewitt and his peers pushed the administration to encourage a more inclusive curriculum, even organizing their own 12-part lecture series, 鈥淢issing: Pieces of the African Heritage Puzzle,鈥� to try and bring diverse perspectives across different disciplines to campus. 鈥淕oing through that process, you realize that diversifying the curriculum doesn鈥檛 mean, 鈥極h, we鈥檒l add a course here where we鈥檒l put all the diverse perspectives, and you can take it or not.鈥欌��
To illustrate his point, Dr. Hewitt pulls out his copy of , a 2017 book that counts Dal sociologist Howard Ramos among its authors. He flips to a chapter from the University of Alberta鈥檚 Melina Smith, quoting Harry Garuba of the University of Cape Town.
鈥淒o we simply add new items to an existing curriculum 鈥� rather like adding raffia chairs to the master鈥檚 living room?鈥� writes Dr. Garuba. 鈥淥r do we adopt the reverse approach in which we rethink how the object of study itself is constituted?鈥�
鈥淸Diversity is] not an add on,鈥� says Dr. Hewitt in response. 鈥淚t鈥檚 embedding it in the curriculum, in syllabuses across the university . . . It鈥檚 diversity infrastructure 鈥� part of the foundation of what we do.鈥�
Asking the right questions
Of course, making changes to a foundation isn鈥檛 necessarily easy. In the case of curriculum, and trying to make it more diverse, it means a conversation that鈥檚 different in every course, every discipline, every faculty. And it鈥檚 a full of intersectional terms with lots of room for interpretation and meaning: diversifying, decolonizing, indigenizing.
For Dr. Balser, new to 国民彩票 but who has worked on these sorts of issues in previous roles in Australia, she sees enthusiasm growing for those conversations among deans, faculty members and students.
鈥淭he question