AN OVERVIEW

When you walk into a classroom as a teacher, you have the power to change people’s lives. This change happens by sharing your experiences, your perspective, and your knowledge. It creates a new sense of real understanding. Teaching is more than just going through a well structured syllabus. It is building relationships with people, influencing the lives of people by your interactions with them, and creating a lasting impression.

A survey of 55,000 college and university faculty members nationwide was conducted by the Higher Education Research Institute at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA). They were asked about what benefits a diverse student body brings to an institution. Ninety percent of respondents said “a racially/ethnically diverse student body enhances the educational experience of all students” (Milem & Hakuta, 2002, p. 396). These authors also assert that “students who interact with diversity in college show greater relative gains in critical and active thinking. They also are more likely to show evidence of greater intellectual engagement and academic motivation” (2002, p. 396). Pascarella, Whitt, Nora, Edison, Hagedorn, and Terenzini (1996) report that students who participate in racial and cultural awareness programs in college show measurable gains in their critical cognitive thinking skills.