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Looking for teaching materials on racial gap

  • 1.  Looking for teaching materials on racial gap

    Posted 05-09-2006 17:05
    Hello everyone,
    I'd like your advice finding resources for a project.

    I am part of an interdisciplinary group of faculty members at University
    of Michigan - Dearborn working on compiling materials for a website
    focusing specifically on race and the racial divide, which we define as
    the gap between racial groups in terms of social outcomes such as
    wealth, property, income health or education. We have a partial list of
    major themes to address which include history, social and cultural
    issues, business/employment, and immigration. Faculty from different
    disciplines will pull together some of their teaching materials to cover
    these topics. Our focus is Southeast Michigan, but many of the issues we
    have here will be common to those in other parts of the country. We aim
    to provide materials that permit students to begin to imagine the
    situation of people who have been subject to discrimination and unjust
    institutional treatment.

    The goal is to put these materials onto a website that will accompany a
    student summit being held in October by New Detroit, a coalition of
    Detroit leadership which focuses on race relations. Students can visit
    the website for additional information after attending the summit, and
    the website can offer an alternative way to convey the information for
    students who can't attend the summit.

    One of our major challenges is how to make this appealing and engaging
    for students. Powerpoint slides are probably not be the zippiest way to
    catch the attention of a group of 18-25 year-old students! We want to
    find resources that will offer a more interactive experience, so we are
    looking for best practices out there. Has anyone done anything like
    this, or does anyone know of websites that offer broad overviews of
    diversity topics? While we are focusing mostly on race, ideas from
    resources with different focus groups can also help. I'd appreciate any
    advice you can offer. Please contact me off-list at
    jebeatty@umd.umich.edu, and I will post the ideas I receive back to the
    list.

    Thanks for your ideas.

    --
    Joy E. Beatty
    Assistant Professor
    Department of Management Studies
    School of Management
    University of Michigan - Dearborn
    313-583-6524
    jebeatty@umd.umich.edu