The Normalization of Diversity : Multicultural Curricular Change at Urban University / Estela Mara Bensimon.

This paper examines the effect of organizational culture and power on the meaning and practice of multicultural curricular change. A case study is presented of an urban academic institution that had adopted a university-wide undergraduate diversity requirement in 1991 after considerable debate and n...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Bensimon, Estela Mara
Corporate Author: National Center on Postsecondary Teaching, Learning, and Assessment, University Park, PA
Language:English
Published: [Place of publication not identified] : Distributed by ERIC Clearinghouse, 1992.
Subjects:
Change Strategies.
College Administration.
Colleges.
Cultural Pluralism.
Curriculum Development.
Educational Change.
Ethnic Groups.
Higher Education.
Minority Groups.
Multicultural Education.
Undergraduate Study.
Universities.
Urban Education.
Diversity Concept
Opinion Papers.
Speeches/Meeting Papers.
Genre:
Opinion Papers.
Speeches/Meeting Papers.
Physical Description:40 pages
Format: Microfilm Book
Description
Summary:
This paper examines the effect of organizational culture and power on the meaning and practice of multicultural curricular change. A case study is presented of an urban academic institution that had adopted a university-wide undergraduate diversity requirement in 1991 after considerable debate and negotiation among various constituencies. The politics of multicultural curricular change are explored, as well as the effect of structural characteristics of the bureaucratic university such as hierarchy, differentiation, normative power, standardization, and regulation on curricular policy. The interpretations of the university's diversity requirement given by institutional administrators are further explored, paying close attention to messages about power and the politics of difference encoded in language. Selected aspects of commitment to underrepresented groups which indicate an awareness of cultural diversity and receptiveness to multicultural curricular change are also considered. Includes 19 references. (GLR)
Note:Sponsoring Agency: Office of Educational Research and Improvement (edition), Washington, DC.
Contract Number: R117G10037.
ERIC Note: Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association (San Francisco, CA, April 1992). For a related document, see HE 026 452.
Microform.
Call Number:ED357703 Microfiche
Reproduction Note:
Microfiche. [Washington D.C.]: ERIC Clearinghouse microfiches : positive.