What We Are Reading
Parker defines the meaning(s) of diversity at a college or university and how is it different from other contexts. “Diversity often represents structural or compositional diversity, i.e., the numbers or counting of diverse individuals and populations. Harrison and Klein (2007) asserted diversity as “the distribution of differences among the members of a unit with respect to a common attribute, X, such as tenure, ethnicity, conscientiousness, task attitude, or pay” (p. 1200). Other scholars have contended that diversity characterizes the social differences and differentiations of individuals and populations, such as education, wealth, and identity (Blau, 1977; Harrison & Sin, 2006). DOI: 10.4324/9781003008521-2 3 Eugene T. Parker III 4 Diversity has also been associated with multiculturalism, college access, and recruitment. Diversity is associated with campus climate, particularly the campus racial climate. Some higher education scholars contend diversity in higher education institution’s racial environment, including educational outcomes, institutional programs, and practices that promote or impede diversity equity and inclusion (Milem et al., 2005). While we have furthered our understanding of diversity in higher education through research and best practices, these varying conceptions of diversity have exacerbated how we have attended to the issue. However, taken together, these different notions of diversity provide an overview of how diversity is conceived at colleges and universities and grounds the perspectives in this book.” The full text is available online from our GW library and worth your time.
Just when you might have thought that science is neutral, Inside Higher Ed (January 4) had a report about the types of research projects typically focused on Black, Asian and Latinx scientists. The paper was also published in the Proceedingas of the National Academies. The authors question whether science is truly a meritocracy – a challenge that has been noted as far back as the challenge of the advancement for women. “If science really was a meritocracy, Monroe-White said, “there would not be a relationship between race and gender, research topic and impact. That there is one demonstrates that advances in scientific knowledge are shaped by socially constructed, nonmeritocratic factors." Their study, which was based on articles found in the Web of Science between 2007 and 2019, found that “Compared to the general U.S. population, the researchers found that white and Asian populations are overrepresented among first authors overall, while Black and Latinx populations are underrepresented.”
