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New Paradigms for Diversifying Faculty and Staff in Higher Education: Uncovering Cultural Biases in the Search and Hiring Process **Professional Development workshop **DVD/workbook program **Train-the-trainer model. Produced by DiversityWorks Inc. (Champaign, Illinois).
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New Paradigms for Diversifying Faculty and Staff in Higher Education: Uncovering Cultural Biases in the Search and Hiring Process**Professional Development workshop**DVD/workbook program**Train-the-trainer model Produced by DiversityWorks Inc. (Champaign, Illinois)
Since 2004, Approximately 750 Colleges and Universities Have Used New Paradigms: University of Colorado at Denver, University of North Carolina, Southern Methodist University, Arizona State University, Portland State University, Missouri State University, University of Colorado at Boulder, California State University, Albuquerque Technical Vocational Institute, University of Scranton, University of Kentucky,
Colleges and Universities Who Bought the DVD or Contracted for On-Campus Workshops: Washington State University, University of Wisconsin, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Rochester Institute of Technology, Texas A&M University, Indiana University, University of Illinois, University of South Florida, Colgate University, Tulane University, University of Missouri, Northeastern University, University of Rhode Island, Purdue University, Auburn University, Virginia Tech University, University of Iowa, University of California Irvine, MIT, etc.
Rationale and Design for New Paradigms (from 2006 article in Multicultural Education): • Crucial role of search committees • Crucial role of departmental and institutional culture • “Revolving door” syndrome (i.e. recruitment is not retention) • Naming and understanding individual/institutional resistance • Myths about search committees (they have no biases!) • Assessment of intercultural sensitivity/role of cultural identity
Milton Bennett’s Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity (1993): • People “in defense” construe cultural differences as an “attack” on them. • “Defensive” educators would equate incompetence, affirmative action, and special treatment with diverse candidates. • People “in minimization” prefer to emphasize ethnocentric similarities and avoid differences. • Educators “in minimization” would only consider candidates like themselves who “fit”
Using Bennett’s Development Model To Analyze Search Committee/Hiring Dynamics: • People “in acceptance” recognize, appreciate, and value cultural differences. • Educators “in acceptance” would advocate for diverse hiring but not for changes in hiring practices, policies, and procedures. Consider the dynamics of a search committee—two in defense, four in minimization, and two in acceptance: How likely will an African American or Latino candidate be considered, interviewed, and recommended?
The Role of Cultural and Racial Identity in Search Committee Decisions: • Bill Cross, “Stages of Nigrescence” (1991)—Black identification: • Pre-encounter—African American is assimilated and race is not an important aspect of identity. • Encounter—negative experience makes race more salient to identity. • Immersion/Emersion—race becomes the central aspect of identity and self-definition. • Internalization—race becomes an internalized aspect of identity but not the only one (i.e. gender, nationality, religion,etc.)
The Role of Cultural and Racial Identity in Search Committee Decisions • Janet Helms, “Stages of Racial Consciousness Among Whites” (1985): • In Contact stage, Whites are aware of other cultures but regard themselves as “individuals”. • In Disintegration, experience dissonance because their group is seen as racist and dominant. • In Reintegration, feel “under siege,” become defensive, and refuse to empathize with other groups. • In Pseudo-Independence, accept differences on a cognitive level and want more knowledge of and experiences with other cultures.
Janet Helm’s “Stages of Racial Consciousness Among Whites” (1985) • In Autonomy, Whites actively seek out cross-cultural interactions and begin to re-evaluate their own culture. • Consider, an African American candidate who is in immersion (very Black identified) interviewing with a search committee of… White Educators who are either in disintegration or reintegration: Will he or she be hired? **Most likely, any diverse candidate hired by this committee will be an assimilated minority who “fits”; other diverse candidates won’t be considered.
Goals of Professional Development on Diverse Hiring in Higher Education: • Assist in moving out of defense and minimization stages of intercultural sensitivity and into acceptance and adaptation.(Bennett) • Support in developing into pseudo-independent and autonomous stages of racial consciousness.(Helms) • Increase their intercultural awareness and understanding. • Enable them to identify and address their cultural biases in the search and hiring process. • Nurture a transformation in attitudes and behaviors while not provoking defense and backlash.
The Key To Effective Professional Development for Predominantly White Search Committees: Non-threatening, cognitive-affective approach that combines support, challenge, collaboration, theory, empathy, and practical application
Objectives of New Paradigms for Diversifying Faculty and Staff: • To describe the benefits of diverse faculty/staff to the department, the institution, etc. • To analyze how institutional, workplace, and departmental cultures could be fostering an unwelcoming and exclusionary climate for cultural diversity. • To identify cultural biases in the search/hiring process that might be discouraging or excluding culturally diverse and minority candidates. • To examine institutional, workplace, and departmental obstacles to hiring and keeping a diverse faculty and staff.
Results and Recommendations: **By listening to video interviews of faculty and staff of color, participants understand (many for the first time) their concerns, anxieties, frustrations, and dreams. **By the end of the workshop, a majority (not just the choir) are recommending specific changes that can be implemented immediately to increase diverse hiring.
Design, Approach, and Tone: • Encourages collaboration and problem-solving to address diverse hiring. • Minimizes and disarms defensiveness from those who feel they are being coerced into hiring “unqualified” minorities. • Fosters “buy-in” by more than just the “usual” supporters of diversity. • Offers a non-threatening model of inquiry to support practical recommendations and action plans on diverse hiring.
Four Paradigms: Five Dimensions of Faculty and Staff Diversity 2. Stages of Institutional Impact of Diverse Faculty and Staff 3. Four Frameworks on Diversity in Educational Organizations 4. Individualism and Collectivism in Relational Dynamics (Communication Style Differences)
“If colleges and universities are serious about faculty/staff diversity… • They must make a concerted effort to educate everyone who serves on their search committees and is involved in the hiring process. • Diversification of faculty and staff can not occur without search committees becoming aware of how their biases, assumptions, and stereotypes influence their perceptions, judgments, and decisions.” Pauline E. Kayes, “New Paradigms…” Multicultural Education, Winter 2006: 65-69.