LEADERSHIP
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mportant as the focus on diversity may be in any kind of organisation, it can be argued that it has a particular significance in educational institutions like schools, colleges and universities. There are four main arguments for this, each of them linked to what many see as the key moral purpose of
education: to improve the human condition, both by developing people’s understanding and knowledge in the institution’s immediate society and thereby contributing to progress on a wider scale. First, future citizens need to be able to see, in the adults who
guide their learning, role models who embody the future and improved state. If all that they see in the world presented by their learning environment is that which reinforces what has been, they will learn or deduce that this is the preferred state. This may include such extremes as: only women teach very young children only men can be school caretakers or janitors only able-bodied people can teach only adults of certain races can hold senior positions only heterosexual people can excel at certain sports.
In a school or college, therefore, pupils and students need ideally to have the opportunity to see the embodiment of diversity in the way adults on the staff hold particular roles and perform in those roles according to what they do, not who they are. Without this opportunity, the tendency to stereotype certain roles and tasks according to certain types of people is difficult to avoid. The issue of positive discrimination, whereby appointments are made on the basis to bolster the balance on a staff between different groups, has been a factor in addressing this issue for schools and colleges in particular contexts. In an evaluation of a masters, course for black and minority ethnic students, researchers Marianne Coleman and Rosemary Campbell-Stephens found the vast majority were adamant they did not want positive discrimination, but valued the opportunity to meet as a group because of their shared interests. Secondly, as an educational institution responsible for children
and young people, a school or college can provide the best learning environment for them by having staff that have the richness of diversity, bringing together the various strengths of different people. A relevant example relates to the range of strengths that could
exist in a staff that is ethnically diverse. While much debate centres on the value of one ethnic-cultural approach compared to another, particularly Western models being transposed to Asian or Eastern cultures, as covered by Nick Foskett and Jacky Lumby in Leading and Managing Education: International Perspectives, a more important argument concerns the possibility of utilising the strengths of both – or more – cultures. There are possibilities, at least ideally, in a staff with elements of, for example, varying degrees of group and work ethic, collaborative approaches and problem- solving abilities all being represented through various personnel from different cultural backgrounds. Thirdly, educational organisations have, by their very nature, a
moral imperative to lead change since their task is helping with the formation of the next generation(s). Therefore, they should offer signs of that improved future via the environment and ethos within which their learners and employers operate. The ways in which they are led and managed is the clearest signal to their adult employees about what the future is seen to be. Fourthly, and by far the most important, a focus on diversity
that permeates the whole ethos, as well as the strategic and operational processes of a school or college, encourages and fosters those values which are central to positive human development, such as respect for others, equity, social justice, critical thinking and tolerance.
If all that they see in the world presented by their learning environment is that which reinforces what has been, they will learn or deduce that this is the preferred state
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www.edexec.co.uk / september 2013
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