Welcome to: My Story, Your Story, Our Story:
Building Respect for Diversity in the Classroom
The information in this tutorial comes from a weekend seminar of the same name presented by Suzanne Bunkers and Sheryl Dowlin.
This seminar focused on measures to enhance faculty members' and students' level of diversity awareness as a means for meeting the challenges and difficulties of difference in the classroom. Self-assessment, diversity awareness skill development, personal narrative, storytelling, interactive activities, and methods for developing curricula that enhance students' awareness and appreciation for difference are among the topics addressed.
The Center for Teaching and Learning offers other tutorials about diversity and how it relates to teaching: Teaching in a Racially Diverse Classroom, Effective ESL Peer/Student Tutoring, and Active Learning in a Diverse Classrooms.
Suzanne Bunkers is Professor of English at Minnesota State University, Mankato. She has just begun her twenty-sixth year of full-time teaching. She completed her B.S. in English Education, her M.A. in English literature at Iowa State University, her doctorate in English literature at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her teaching specialties include courses such as "Survivors' Stories: Cross-cultural Narratives" and "Coming of Age: Gendered and Culturally Diverse Perspectives." Most recently, along with Sheryl Dowlin, Suzanne served as co-director for the "Moving Towards Respect" project, working with K-12 and university teachers throughout southern Minnesota.
http://www.intech.mnsu.edu/bunkers
Sheryl Dowlin is a Professor Emerita of Speech Communication, Minnesota State University, Mankato, received her B.S. English/Communication degree from Boise State University and her Masters and PhD degrees in Communication Studies from Southern Illinois University. She is currently working on a documentary project entitled Return of the Winnebago (Hochunk): Reconciliation 142 Years featuring an historic return visit by the Nebraska Hochunk people to southern Minnesota on May 7, 2005.
www.dowlinconsulting.com
