Thinking About Diversity and Inclusion
Michelle Ann Cushman
SOC/315
August 18, 2014
Shannon Burke, MA
Thinking About Diversity and Inclusion
What are the dimensions of cultural diversity? Identify and briefly explain the dimensions by referencing both textbooks.
Some of the dimensions of cultural diversity are racial groups, religious groups, gender groups, and ethnic group. Age group could be one of the groups too.
The differences and similarities between the groups must be dealt with very carefully. It is very important to focus on the whole, rather than some of the groups. It can vary, as it is very possible to belong to more than one group. Building a connection is just one dimension of diversity. The school districts structure the motivation for all different kids and people with skills and training which puts the inclusion in strategy, all of the training and skills must be considered at all times when creating a diverse at the workplace that I work with. I am glad that they are not pushing anybody away no matter who they are and what they do because they are different from everybody else like myself.
With what ethnic, cultural, or other groups do you identify? Describe what members of your social circle have in common.
My ethnic group in my dad's mom family is from another country that celebrates Christmas after we do every year and we use to celebrate two Christmas which is ours and his mom's. They go to different churches for each Christmas and New Year's to celebrate their religious which I am just celebrating my grandma's Christmas and New Year's day in memory of her every year. The groups I am in is the Lutheran group because I became a Lutheran from my mom's side of the family and her dad used to be a Lutheran Pastor so they are very religious which my husband and I am now and I will continue to do it in memory of my mom and grandparents too. The only common I have in my social circle is my hearing and speech impairment which comes from mostly my mother's side as my mom, my grandmother, aunts had the same disabilities that I have.
What is the difference between diversity and inclusion?
It could be possible to be 'diverse' without being included. To be 'diverse', just take a couple of people with disabilities where they can't work for the school district and are not treated with respect. As long as you had something showing that the percentage of people with disabilities and normal people you are set. If a disability person got tired of how they were treated and left, just find another one and show off that number like it does mattered to everybody that works for the school district.
If there is no room for people with disabilities, they will leave and go somewhere else to work where they can be hired. There was no attempt to have such people with disabilities by respecting them to work for the school district. While the school district respect them, they weren't actually included in the culture. They did that long time ago before they passed the ada law for all workforce to hired people that have disabilities. At one job I used to work for, they had a meeting where it was way too loud. Not exactly a way to make people like myself to feel respect and to be included in the meeting.
What is the importance of workplace diversity training?
Diversity training is very important and can help people realizing that it might be a bad idea to hold a meeting somewhere that is very loud by helping them to understand that people like me have feelings that should be respect by having a meeting somewhere quiet where they can record everything they are saying at the meeting and speaking one at a time instead of all at once. Just by educating people that it is not a good think or idea to harass people with special needs. It is best to go as far as you can to make sure that people will understand what to do. When I was working, one thing I notice is that some of the teachers don't have any training on how to handle special needs children and now they are training to know how to work with special needs. They need to understand that they need more help when they asked for it because they could be slow learners and some kind of disabilities they have that need help with mostly like maybe they can find somebody that can do sign language or lip reading and that person can tell the teacher what they are saying. It will make them more understanding.
What is your experience with workplace culture? Could there be, or could there have been, more inclusion?
In most cases, the workplace could have been more inclusive. I have worked in places where people don't understand what special needs people like myself need mostly. Occasionally they hired people like myself to help the special needs and teachers to understand what they need. This allowed the school district to hired me so I can be a positive role model for all the teachers to understand what children like me need and they like myself need to work as hard as they can to reach their goals.
I liked working for the school district because I get respected for the work I do with the special needs and helping the teachers to understand the children better. Everybody was given the same chance to work for them. If you had something to say, you were heard and understand. In my opinion, that's all it take to create a inclusive workplace with more training for teachers to understand what special needs children need and that needs to continue to be done yet.

References
Harvey, C.P., & Allard, M.J. (2009), Under & Managing, Diversity. (4th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson
Schaeter, R.T. (2011). Racial & Ethic Groups (12th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson