The Thornton Proposal

Leslie J. Thornton II, Ph.D.

April 2001

 

Problem

Students entering UM-D who have been educated in the school districts in the Metro Detroit area, lack the inter- and multicultural knowledge, skills, and experiences to effectively function within a culturally diverse campus, region, state, nation, and world. While many pieces of advertising materials pushing a UM-D education mention our diverse environment and education, virtually none of the programs and curricula on campus emphasize the knowledge and skills necessary to be culturally and functionally literate in a diverse country and world.

Many professors will say that some cultural elements and concerns are included in their courses, but the reality is that students arrive on campus culturally illiterate then graduate with college degrees--still culturally illiterate. The problem is not unique to UM-D; it is a national problem. It becomes an acute problem for the Metro Detroit area because, as recent national research shows, the Metro Detroit area is now the most racially and ethnically segregated area in the United States

Elementary , secondary , and higher education in the U .S. is primarily monocultural
in its assumptions and implementation. Subjects such as gender, color, social class, and sexual orientation are virtually absent and are not seen as important to or within the overall educational process. The popular assumption that "education" is the answer to the social problems of sexism, racism, classism, and homophobia is sorely misunderstood. At present, education in the U .S. does not truly address these issues in any systematic, mandatory and focused way.

The past two decades have seen an increase in specialized technical skills development at the expense of people-oriented skills development. The myth that organizational problems are related to lack of specific technical skills is untrue. A majority of the problems facing organizations today are people-oriented--the ways people "team" and interact with other people, the ways management and supervision interact with employees, and individual-to-individual interactions.

Before we can talk about globalization, global competition, global economies, and/or the proverbial "global village," we must fIrst give people the necessary knowledge, skills and experiences of interacting with people who are culturally different from themselves who are real, present, and exist now in their own school, city, state and nation. Students who leave our university with the personal and professional expectation of being able to function effectively in and within a world that is, to . many of our professors a "foreign" place, deserve to be more than simply "schooled" in technical skills that are already or predictably will become obsolete by their third year of employment.

Because business and industry claim they need competent people who can comfortably cross borders and move between and among cultures, we have a duty to provide students with necessary skills, infonned knowledge and meaningful experiences before we turn them out into a world where they will be expected to interact with different countries. If we, as a university community , continue to ignore these issues, then we will continue to move through the system culturally illiterate college graduates bearing the name "The University of Michigan- Dearborn."

 

Action

There needs to be in place, two mandatory 3-credit courses for all UM-D students, where successfully passing each course is a requirement of graduation. This requirement for graduation includes undergraduate students in all schools and colleges within the university , and those who enroll in certification-only programs of study. To be effective and most current, the mandatory classes would be required
in the student's last two semesters of study (i.e., "senior year"), regardless of the program. This placement of two course requirements at the end of their program would allow them to integrate their specific majors, minors, and areas of concentration into the people-oriented and intercultural skills they will be called
upon to demonstrate as they take their places within society .

These courses would include but not be limited to the following conceptual and applied areas of study:

(a) Democracy -as it relates to people-to-people interactions. The study of democracy does not operate on an assumption that voting equals democracy; instead, the study of democracy asks and then explores such questions as "Which kind of democracy?" "For what purpose?" "What does it look like and how do I know when I've found it?" "Upon what evidence do I determine the presence or absence of democracy?" "What role do individuals play in a democracy?" "Who decides?" "How is the notion of democracy related to and within the owrk I will do and the people with whom I already do or will in the furture interact?"

(b ) Systems of Thinking -as it relates to the understanding and realization that all people do not think the same way, -that how and why people "think" as they do is a systematic organization of internalized information gained through various stages of socialization and the experiences people have as they continue to grow and develop. Studying systems of thinking asks and then explores such questions as " Am I even aware of what it means to 'think' ?" "How do I know?" "What is the difference between 'thinking' and 'feeling'?" "Why do others 'think' so differently from me, and what are the implications of monocultural thinking?", "Why doesn't everyone think the same, especially when our organization is clear on the goals everyone is supposed to have in common ?" "How do various systems of thinking impact my life, my work, and ultimately my place in the world?" "What am I using as reliable information ?" "Who decides ?"

( c ) Gender -as it relates to the physical differences and characteristics of maleness and femaleness. The study of gender goes deeper than the popular Mars and Venus rhetoric to include perceptions of gender and gender: identity; what it means to self - identify along gender lines and the consequences (rewards and punishments) of doing so; how myself and others think, react, and act on the world based on gender. The snrdy of gender asks and explores such questions as "What if I don't believe I am discriminated against as a woman?" "How can I, as a male, possibly have anything to do with sexism when I'm not sexist?" "What does sexism look like and how will I know it when I see it?" "What rights, duties or responsibilities do I have with regard to gender when encountering and working with people from countries outside of the U.S. ?" "Who decides?"

( d) Color -as it relates to eliminating the erroneous and unproven assumption about the existence of "race" when what we're really talking about is color and ethnicity. The study of color asks and explores such questions as "What is color and who decides?" "How has color driven and does continue to drive economic gains and losses ?" "Instigate and perpetuate wars and destruction ?" "What are the
differences among prejudice, discrimination, and racism ?" "How do I know it when I see it?" "What is institutional racism and upon what is it predicated?"
"What--if any--is the responsibility of the individual to work for social justice in eliminating racism ?" "How does racism affect me in my family, neighborhood, work, and ultimately in my place in the world?" "Who decides?"

( e ) Social Class -as it pertains to the stratification of people in groups and their interactions with one another. The study of social class asks and explores questions such as "Why is it important to be aware of social class?" "What does it mean to be categorized?" "Who determines the various class structures?" "For what purpose?" "What happens if I ignore or pretend not to belong to a social class?" "How does my ~ctual or perceived social class and the actual or perceived social class( es ) of others affect how we work together?" "What does social class mean within the context of a declared or claimed democracy?"

(f) Sexual Orientation -as it pertains to actual personhood orientation, not the erroneous and misleading qualifier "preference." The study of sexual orientation examines what exactly "orientation" means and why recognizing orientation is an integral part of person-to-person interaction. Such questions as "Why is it important in organizational contexts?" "What's all the fuss about?" "What does 'Don't Ask/Don't Tell' imply?" "Why?" "Who decides?"

(g) Intercultural Communications -as it relates to verbal and nonverbal skills development in interacting with persons who are culturally different from you. The study of intercultural communications places an emphasis on the research-based and supported phenomenon that all people are, in some way, culturally "different" from one another; that context plays a crucial role in detennining appropriate behaviors in successful interactions; and that, because culture is dynamic and ever-changing, one can never truly acquire a "once-and-for-all" cornerstone on how to behave and interact with culturally different "others." Intercultural communication asks and explores questions such as "How do I identify myself culturally?" "Where did I
learn my culture-specific behaviors?" "Why is it important to know?" "How do the things I call 'nopnal ' impact the work I do and how I behave toward others?" "How adaptable and open am I to learning new ways of behaving that are interculturallyappropriate?"

(h) Field Experience -putting the whole or parts of the above into experience and action. Field experience would provide the applied nature of the combined areas of study, focusing on the student's impressions of learning, change, critical thought, analysis, and her/his own thoughts and actions when illfonned to a greater degree. Field experiences would include people-to-people interactions in settings outside the school environment where the student would have the opportunity to put her/his learning into action. This would provide a means of self -assessment where the student could then detennine what other kinds of skills, knowledge and information she/he needed to pursue in reaching a greater level of culture literacy.

The above is a minimum content each course would include. Students who wish to increase their lmowledge in specific areas should be offered additional courses that support their interests in and endeavors toward cultural1iteracy and people-to- people performance competence.

It is important that these courses are focused on cultural diversity as it exists in this local region, the State of Michigan, and the United States. It is useless to try to train students to interact with people in different countries before they are given the knowledge, skills and experiences to interact with differences that are already
present on their own campus, and in their own cities, state and country .

Given the discipline-specific nature of the schools and colleges atUM-D, these courses should have their own single department (school/college) under the Office of the Provost. This will give them the priority and importance the subject matter deserves. Too often, courses of this nature are not given the appropriate faculty and pri.ority within the various university disciplines. These courses should be interdisciplinary in terms of faculty teaching the courses. For example, faculty members from CASL, Management, Engineering, and Education should be part of the faculty.

Although these courses can be run in each school (i.e., in Engineering, an Engineering professor teaching the course to Engineering students; in Management, a Management professor teaching the course to Management students), what appears to be more effective is a diverse interdisciplinary classroom with students from each of the colleges and a faculty member who mayor may not be representative (by discipline) of all students in the class. In this way, students will get an opportunity to interact with those who are not in their specific discipline. Students in Engineering (predominantly males) will get to interact with students in Education (predominantly females), with CASL and with Management students, thus all students would be engaged in and benefitting from and within interdisciplinary experiences. This provides a robustness that is lacking when specialization by discipline and subject matter precludes the transfer of learning to new, different, and "foreign feeling" situations--those "people skills" business and industry rate the highest in determining success factors in day-to-day work events.

The interdisciplinary nature (Liberal Arts) of these two classes requires faculty with expertise in several of the following areas: Sociology, Psychology, Philosophy, Political Science, U .S .History , non-traditional histories of the various groups that compose U .S. ~09~~~'Pducation, non-traditional history of the present education system, Ecorlb~~aeography, Women ' s Studies, Race and Ethnic Studies, Gay/Queer Studies, Intercultural and Intracultural Communications, Organizational Behavior, Social Class Studies, Whiteness Studies, Social Anthropology, and Environmental Justice.

These two courses would consist of a breadth and balance in methodology: lecture, group work, videos, simulations, field experiences, guest speakers, and computer interactions. Similarly, the courses would have multiple means of assessment, as merely "testing" would be neither sufficient nor effecacious.

This proposal is focused on undergraduate students at UM -D , but there is nothing preventing the use of this outline for creating the same opportunity in the form of a mandatory course for all UM -D graduate students as well. Clearly, this is a course most graduate students will not have had in their undergraduate studies, and it will be beneficial to them in their present and future careers.

Although even two courses cannot begin to change attitudes and behaviors that have developed over 18-plus years of living in the United States, they can be a viable starting point for the UM-D community as a means of addressing some of the present and future social needs of our students. Whether here in the United States
or abroad in other countries, the person-to-person interactions are still and will continue to determine the success or failure of how well we all get along, the degree to which business and industry can claim satisfaction with a culturally literate competent workforce, and the legacies we create and pass on to future generations.

Cost
(not calculated--unknown at present)