Cross Cultural Comparisons of Inclusion

Venue: Malaysian Theatre, Melbourne School of Design

Presenters: Professor Yolanda Moses

Universities as Sites of Transformative Societal Change

Diversity and Inclusion initiatives on university campuses in the U.S. have been occurring since the 1970’s but how successful are they in achieving their goals? Australian Universities have been pursuing a similar agenda for at least a couple of decades. Professor Yolanda Moses argues that diversity programs alone are not enough to guarantee institutional transformation and sustainability around the values of inclusion and excellence that embracing diversity and inclusion could offer both in the U.S. and in Australia.

What is needed is a paradigm shift both in higher education and in society. This shift would include a comprehensive institutional change strategy that involves a rethinking and reformulation of what it means to treat diversity and cultural competence as core institutional commitments. This requires articulating a clear link between the value of diversity and the mission of the institution; and putting that commitment into practice at all levels. In such a model, our institutional missions of research, teaching and service would be looked at through a critical framework. In other words, the status quo will not get us where we want to be. We would ask the critical questions of research for what? And for whom? Whose lives are being made better? We would ask is our teaching focused on who our students are and how do they learn, and are we equipped to help them with their own learning outcomes? And is the service we provide to our communities and stakeholders for all of those in our communities or just for some? A shift to this frame means that the roles of research, teaching and service are then organically tied to the needs of all of the people (especially the most vulnerable ones- students and staff) who attend our universities, and to the critical issues that affect people in civil society such as a more nuanced public understanding of indigenous and Torres Strait Islander rights here in Australia, the volatility behind migration and immigration issues, the very recent abolishing of 457 Visas, and significant new constraints on temporary entrance visas both in the United States and Australia.

Dr. Moses is currently a Fulbright Distinguished Chair in Cultural Competence at the National Center for Cultural Competence, University of Sydney, NSW, Australia. Her appointed is from January to June, 2017.

from
https://events.unimelb.edu.au/events/8781-cross-cultural-comparisons-of-inclusion