Core Competency 5

This competency equips PFF participants to teach diverse student bodies and to reflect on the ways in which diverse perspectives can contribute to and affect learning both inside and outside of the classroom.

PFF participants will:

• Recognize the needs of students from diverse backgrounds (e.g., race/ethnicity, gender, sexuality, socio-economic status, abilities and disabilities, religion, and/or nationality/geographic region).
• Recognize how differences in background can impact student learning in the classroom, discuss how to provide a space for students from diverse backgrounds, and provide opportunities for the critique and/or inclusion of course content based on perspectives of diversity.
• Understand how their own personal experiences and background may influence their teaching and classroom experience.
• Lead discussion and adapt curriculum when issues of diversity arise in the classroom.

Core Competency 5 is fulfilled by completing both sessions, facilitated by GSAS, and a third component – Demonstrated Awareness of Diversity Issues in Higher Education. These may be taken at any point in a student’s participation in the PFF program, although ideally they would be taken prior to or during the PFF participant’s first teaching experience.

• Session 1: Perspectives on Diversity/Cultural Competency in Higher Ed Introductory Session. To be held one to two times each academic year, these sessions will feature collaborations between GSAS, the Office of Multicultural Affairs, and guest speakers.
• Session 2: Peer-Led Workshop in Building Inclusion into Syllabus and Course Design. The goal of the workshop is for students to create a syllabus that integrates diversity through reading, discussion, or other educational and creative approaches.
• Demonstrated Awareness of Diversity Issues in Higher Education, as evidenced by any of the following:
  • Creating a syllabus that integrates diversity through reading, discussion, or other educational and creative approaches, producing a diversity statement for a teaching portfolio, or developing and leading a workshop related to diversity.

GSAS is steadfast in its desire to produce future faculty who are dedicated to the furthering of diversity within their classrooms and institutions. The expectation of GSAS is that students seeking to attain PFF status should be integrating diversity into their educational experience throughout their time at Fordham. While this competency can be fulfilled through the three bullets above, PFF participants are also encouraged to attend additional programming hosted by the Office of Multicultural Affairs, Fordham's LBGT and Ally Network of Support Training, and other diversity conferences in New York City.