Diversity Education

The mission of the Diversity Education Initiative is to educate Pratt students on important terms and concepts integral to an understanding of diversity and to engage students in ways that help them to understand themselves, others, and their positions in society. The Diversity Education Initiative at Pratt recognizes the importance of diversity awareness in promoting students’ personal development and a critical social consciousness. Consequently, it committed to collaboratively and intentionally developing programs that promote diversity awareness.

Goals

• To develop programming that encourages students to value their individual worth and the worth of others.
• To promote respect and sensitivity toward differing perspectives and identities.
• To lay the groundwork for students to be critical of society and aware of social justice issues.
• To help students understand the concepts of privilege and power and to give them the tools to apply those concepts to interactions between social groups.

Terms for Diversity Education

• Prejudice- An adverse judgment or opinion formed beforehand or without knowledge or examination of the facts; Prejudice is a baseless and usually negative attitude toward members of a group. Common features of prejudice include negative feelings, stereotyped beliefs, and a tendency to discriminate against members of the group.
• Bias- tendency or preference towards a particular perspective, ideology or result, when the tendency interferes with the ability to be impartial, unprejudiced, or objective.
• Perspective- a social value system and associated beliefs
• Social Justice- the idea of creating a society or institution that is based on the principles of equality and solidarity, that understands and values human rights, and that recognizes the dignity of every human being.
• Diversity- Diversity refers to human qualities that are different from our own and those of groups to which we belong; but that are manifested in other individuals and groups. Dimensions of diversity include but are not limited to: age, ethnicity, gender, physical abilities/qualities, race, sexual orientation, educational background, geographic location, income, marital status, military experience, parental status, religious beliefs, work experience, and job classification;  A broad term encompassing all of the ways that we human beings are both similar and different.  It involves variations in factors we control as well as those over which we have no choice.
• Identity- a person's conception and expression of their individuality or group affiliations (such as national identity and cultural identity.