Date of Award
2018
Degree Type
Capstone - Open Access
First Advisor
Elaine Ward
Abstract
Diversity and inclusion training is essential for long-term success and sustainability of an organization, especially institutions of higher education (Cocchiara, Connerley, & Bell, 2010; Cunningham, 2012). This capstone investigates the necessity and benefits of diversity and inclusion training, as well as effective training structures to contextualize the resulting curriculum model. This curriculum addresses an underlying institutional leadership gap at Merrimack College where faculty and staff are not adequately trained or provided with sufficient opportunities to engage in diversity and inclusion training. Feminist Standpoint Theory (Collins, 1997) and Transformational Learning Theory (Mezirow, 2000) provide the theoretical grounding to establish this foundational diversity work and expand it further to create a diversity and inclusion training curriculum for faculty and staff at Merrimack College that dismantles the dominant discourse that sustains oppression, socialization, and marginalization. This capstone proposes initial educational resources that should be utilized as a foundation to adapt more strategic and comprehensive plans around building a more diverse and inclusive campus. This includes developing faculty and staff who are culturally competent, inclusive, and able to subvert and dismantle the dominant discourse. This capstone works to spur development of inclusive educational practices that will benefit Merrimack as a whole.
Recommended Citation
Williams, Nicole, "Making the Case for Faculty and Staff Diversity and Inclusion Training at Merrimack College" (2018). Higher Education Student Work. 34.
https://scholarworks.merrimack.edu/soe_studentpub/34
