The School of Education Diversity Committee: Creating an authentically welcoming culture for diverse faculty and students.

Kristine Gritter taught middle school in Miami, Florida to a population of largely unwhite, middle class and affluent populations, blurring the boundaries of the the typical American achievement gap and race for her.  Instead, teacher perceptions of student ability, including her own, created curricular inequities.  She has taught diversity courses in the past and believes that understanding of learners and their cultures in and out of school is vital for teacher success.

Nyaradzo Mvududu is an associate professor of curriculum and instruction. She teaches statistics and research courses as well as multicultural education. Growing up in a Christian home in Zimbabwe , she has continued her journey of faith in this country and is an active member of the University Temple United Methodist Church. Living is a different culture from the one in which she was raised piqued her interest in issues of diversity. Dr. Mvududu holds as paramount the dignity of all people. She is committed to fostering an atmosphere in which understanding and acceptance of differences are ensured.

Bill Safstrom is currently Director of Field Placement and School Partnerships, and an adjunct instructor in the School of Education.  As a Christian school administrator and teacher for thirty-five years, he helped develop and implement racial reconciliation plans, established and supervised an international student program, and worked with faculty to create an environment that celebrates and supports diversity.  For eight years, he led student service teams to Mendenhall Ministries and the Spencer Perkins Center in Mississippi to build relationships, participate in Christian community development, and learn about racial reconciliation, Biblical justice and solutions to generational poverty.  Recently he worked with Christian school administrators in Guatemala.  He also volunteers with local groups responding to the challenges and opportunities of diversity in education and in the Church, and reads extensively on the subject. 

Tracy Williams: My commitment to immersion in diverse cultures as a way to understand building community began at age 14 with an exchange program through Yamate High School in Japan.  After spending the last 28 years in public schools serving students from many language and cultural backgrounds, my passion is to continue to craft excellent schools by involving members of the community in a democratic fashion.  It is my belief that teacher leaders must commit to grow in our approach to cultural competency.  It has been my privilege to teach a course “Building Community in Diverse Cultures” at the graduate level.  My students and I crafted several experiences that allowed us to unpack the institutional racism that exists in our public schools and to craft personal and corporate responses. My fear is that this could be relegated to an academic exercise, but I am passionate that as children of the Kingdom of God, we must continue to move it to a “head, heart, and hands” experience.  I practice the discipline of reading widely on this topic, and believe that educators must add to both the theoretical and practical literature in the area of creating schools where all students can achieve at high levels.  My goal for myself and my students is to craft a lens of culturally competent instruction that can inform our teaching and connections with our students. I am currently an Associate Professor in the School of Education, and Chair of the Curriculum and Instruction program.