The main question that is guiding my research is why do not more institutions provide disability services? My argument and research is derived from the notion that making institutions disability friendly is an easy thing to do that benefits all. I believe that this question is of high importance as it is an easy fix that most of us forget about. For those who can walk, walking up a ramp is a quick and easier alternative to taking the stairs. Elevators are seen as the easier way to travel. For those who can see, navigating the way through a crowd can be made in an instant. For those who can hear, notifications can be turned off if they are seen as loud or annoying. However, those who can not do these things do not have the luxury of enjoying the nonchalant gestures people with different abilities have. I became aware of this when I went on a mission trip in Jamaica, and the children who we worked with could not do the basic functions as I could. It put into perspective how much myself and those around me take the functions of life that we forget about for granted. For the work I plan to be apart of in the future, the importance of disability and diversity inclusion is important to me as it reflects the values a company has. To me, if a company can not open up the employment pool to all, what does this say about them? With what we have been learning about organizational culture, this incentive has grown more important to me and has had me reflecting on the world we live in. I will be looking in the professional field mainly as I find more primary sources about those reflecting on the workplace. The secondary sources I have found are those that center about the workplace, and I feel as though the source material is in bulk regarding professional life.
Research Plan
For this project, I have chosen to focus on diversity in the education system and how public and private school screening processes may have an affect on this. For our unit 1 assignment, I had seen one of my classmates blog post about diversity in education and it really caught my interest. Diversifying the education system is a really important topic in organizational culture. I wanted to specifically look at screening and while I was doing the research, I noticed that it is a highly debated topic with many viewpoints and discussions surrounding this. After reading several articles about this, I have developed a couple questions to guide more of my research. One of them simply being why is diversity in education important? I have found that integrated classroom environments are essential in helping students learn to collaborate and work with people of different backgrounds and cultures. It then creates a safer and more connected workplace.
After reading several articles about this, another question arose which is why aren’t more schools integrating more diversity and does screening have anything to do with it? I want to use the information I find for these questions to really understand the process of screening and whether it ultimately hinders or helps diversify schools. I chose these questions because I was always interested in the process schools went to in order to accept incoming freshman into their schools. Growing up in NYC, I have had to apply to middle and high school and hope to be accepted. However I never really thought about the factors that go into this and how public and private schools may differ. I want to better understand these questions because education is so important in shaping our future, and the process behind it really interests me. Continuing my research, I will continue to looks at articles with authors in the field of education. So far, I have found exactly that and even some who specialize in the diversity programs at certain schools across the country. I am going to continue to look at SU libraries which so far has been successful for me. Primary sources seem to be a little more difficult but I am going to expand my searches in hopes to find one that will connect to the topic.
Lastly, I believe that the experiences and work I have done at previous programs, will help make a significant connection to my topic. For example, a few years ago I volunteered at the JCC who partnered with a school in upper Manhattan for one on one tutoring in both math and reading. The students were all in elementary school and predominantly African American. After my school ended, on Tuesdays I would take the train uptown to this school and see the student I was assigned to tutor. Immediately he saw me and the first thing he said was “oh you’re white.” He was accustomed to teachers of his race helping him through school and wasn’t used to anything different. The reason I gave this story is because even though we had a lot of similarities such as watching and playing basketball, he still found it hard to connect because he wasn’t used to it. I think it is important to have integrated schools so it helps young people how to collaborate and work with people who they may not be used to working with. I believe that screening can be helped to diversify schools if the right information is presented and therefore will allow students to work well with anyone no matter the circumstances.
Research Plan, Aaron
The readings and assignments in this class have really opened my eyes and made me think about diversity and inclusion in ways I never have before. One area that has stuck out to me is the area of diversity in education. To break it down even further, I am interested in the bias against different races, ethnicities and genders in school. Are there biases that have a strong correlation on academic performance and outcomes? What really sparked me to ask this question was finding out about implicit theories of knowledge and the idea that administrators and educators can have a predetermination on whether you will be successful or not based on what race or culture you belong to.
This question is important to me on a personal level because once I am done with my schooling I plan to become a teacher either in middle school or high school (in social studies), so this idea of how teachers may look at and treat their students before having an honest chance to evaluate their skills, strengths and weaknesses is something that I plan to look into and learn as much as I can about.
My career outside of this school project has dealt with diversity in the sense that I have been around many cultures in jobs I have had in the past, and while my coworkers would more often than not tend to stick to their own kind of people and shy away from helping (or working with) people who have a different ethnic background than them, I’ve always found it easy and natural to do the opposite of that. Now that I plan to go into a different profession in my later years, getting into teaching, it is going to be interesting to find out how people who are already established in this field feel about their students- are they generally fair or exhibit their implicit bias?
In conducting this research, the bulk of my work comes from finding scholarly articles and book chapters that have been written by educators, sociologists, psychologists and administrators in the education system. Seeing what people who are in this field come up with will be important to seeing where the goal posts are in this argument of how diversity effects academic performance, and I have chose to solely rely on this kind of testimony because of the “inside look” at what these authors are contributing.
Research Plan Blog Post
Peeling back all the layers of the internal conversation which led me to settle on this topic, I suppose it comes down to this question: Does it really matter if I choose to boycott a business? Sure, it might make me feel better to not do business with a company or support an organization I disagree with, but what impact does my choice really have? There are likely to still be plenty of people who are willing to shop, dine, donate to, or support that company or organization. If that’s really the case then, besides addressing my own principles or sensibilities, have I really made a difference?
I recently shared with you all my personal anecdote about “Crossbar”, the German-style beer hall here in Baltimore. I explained my decision to stop going there after the owner made racist comments on Twitter. It truly is a great spot to get some beers (Served by the liter!) and spend time with friends. However, when you think about it, apart from the liters of beer, I’ve just described any number of places where beer is served, and friends gather.
That’s something I’ve come to better understand as I’ve been doing my research. I’ve been looking at a lot of books and articles written mostly by sociologists. The consistent theme is choice. Choice is what makes my decision possible. The fact that there are other places to grab a drink and hang with friends makes it a less painful decision for me to stop going to Crossbar. In fact, the sheer amount of choice is what makes “consumer activism” possible. The more options a person or a group or a society has, the easier it is to choose to support some organizations and businesses over others.
What I’m hoping to learn as I pull all of this research together is whether the owner of Crossbar even knows that I’ve stopped going? Not literally, obviously. We don’t know each other personally. He won’t notice I’ve stopped coming around. However, do my actions serve as an example to others? It’s not enough to simply stop going myself. I need to share with others the reasons behind my choices, and perhaps inspire them to make that choice too. When many stand in solidarity to express their displeasure, would that somehow influence the Crossbar owners of the world to change their negative behavior?
Research Portfolio, plan, Benjamin Fisch
1.) I want to use my research to understand 2 things. The first thing I want to understand is why employees with neurological conditions are so under represented in the work place. The second thing I want to understand, is how companies will benefit from hiring employees with neurological disorders, because it is clear from research that these types of employees can have a lot of beneficial qualities for an organization.
2.) I am interested in these two questions, because the potential answers for both connect with a personal experience of mine. My little brother, when he was born to the age of about 3, was showing signs of developmental slowness, and as a family we were worried that he may be autistic, which is a type of neurological disorder. It turns out, thankfully, that he grew out of these developmental issues, but still to this day, the scare of them still holds close to my heart.
3.) I believe there will be connections with the research I am doing on this topic, and my later life experiences. The one main connection that I for see, is having to interact with co employees that have neurological disorders. Rather than viewing these hypothetical co workers as limited, I will respect and admire their rare contributions to the organization, rather than focusing in on areas where they may struggle in.
4.) The fields that are going to matter most for my search inquiry, are fields that are heavily dependent on math and numbers. This is so, because neurotypicals are known to be very advanced with math and numbers. Researching fields like finance and technology organizations will definitely benefit my intentions.
Research Plan
I chose to focus my research on generational diversity in the workplace. A classmate introduced this topic to the blog and I was immediately intrigued because I feel as though working with others who come from different generations as me will be a challenge I could potentially face in the near future. I have watched several TedTalks now and read several articles about bridging this gap in the workplace and have concluded that the questions guiding my research are: What are the implications of generational diversities in the workplace? How can we manage these conflicts into becoming a successful, multigenerational workforce? How is generational diversity a competitive advantage in a working environment? I want to use this research to understand how others must respect and listen to those who have different perspectives of them while still working efficiently together, especially because growing up in completely times leads to having different outlooks on how to live one’s life.
I want to understand the questions italicized above because the career I plan on going towards is advertising. With advertising, there is no doubt that I have already heard from my professors how much group work there is over individual work, so I am expecting to be working with people of all ages after post-graduation when I find my first job. Not only would I be working with people of different generations, but depending on my position I could also be presenting my ideas and having clients who come from a different generation as me. I want to know these answers to not only better myself as an employee, but make those around me feel just as professional when working with me regardless of my age.
I believe that my professional, internship, and organizational coursework inform the inquiry because even in my current summer job, I have noticed the lack of ability to overcome this generational gap. I work at a local smoothie shop, and the staff is all high school and college students. Some days it gets very disorganized and we’ll be short on staff, or not have enough ingredients, etc. because I feel like our manager and owner, who are Millennials, don’t know how to properly communicate. This is a current example in my life of why I want to explore this topic more; the fact that I don’t even have a professional job yet and I already see conflicts between Gen Z and Millennials happening in such a casual work environment honestly blows my mind so I can only imagine what I will experience in the actual working world. Because of this research assignment, I will be expanding my knowledge on an issue that I will soon be confronted with after my time at SU and into the world of advertising. The fields that matter most to my inquiry are scholarly articles from several SU databases and professional websites such as Forbes.com which I have already gained a few sources from. I think having the contrast of scholarly databases and casual yet academic websites really feeds me detailed information that is also not too difficult to search for.
Research plan, Isaac Haseltine
In recent years, I have become increasingly more aware of the negative state our country is in, there is deeply rooted privilege that creates a harsh imbalance in the organizational cultures across the world. As I searched for a topic that peaked my interests I found myself intrigued by the steps being taken towards a more inclusive education system. The papers included studies and programs that have been implemented to research the discrimination of young children, and how it dawned on me the recycled racism we have occurring in our country. As a young black child steps into life, they are immediately faced with all the disadvantages that the parents must face, and it creates a cycle of oppression that only seems to create more generations of disadvantaged groups. Where is the education system failing in regards to creating equity for the global population of children? And what changes are individual schools implementing into their curriculum that has an actual effect? I ask these questions because I don’t agree with the morals the schools are governed with and the fact that our grandparents were fighting for the same rights we are now. There is a massive population of kids and young adults who have a significant disadvantage because of the position they are born into. The education system is a significant part of the issue, because of its important role in the formative years of children’s lives I believe it is one of the most important areas to focus on.
I have watched my friends get racially profiled and I have heard racial slurs yelled into their faces. I have been the only white person in a neighborhood, and very briefly, I dealt with the problems minorities must face every day of their lives. As an artist, I feel that part of my purpose in this world is to inspire change and reassessment of a persons life and mindset. The largest connection I have to this topic is that I am a product of it, as well as the people I am surrounded by. I have always considered myself an outsider to our society, and I consciously have to act a certain way to fit in. My differences and unique ideologies are what define me, yet they are what separate me so much from the life most of my classmates have. “If I could change anything I would change everything”, there isn’t a day that goes by without me wanting to change the world. Where we are currently creating mountains of unsold produce while Yemen has over 3 million malnourished children. We have become selfish, in the United States especially, and it begins with how our children are introduced to this world. I strongly believe that the only way we can positively grow as a species is to drastically apply changes to our standardized lives and what we focus our attention on and who we listen to.
My main source of information has been through academic papers on varying topics within the subject of discrimination in the education system. Primary sources include experiences that are crucial to the full severity of how discrimination affects a child and helps me comprehend how a malleable their minds are. Typically, I’ve read papers written by education professors who have years of experience as research professors, as well as a background working in younger classrooms. This is very helpful because their field encompasses not only creating the programs and studies that are made to improve our education system, but they also have a solid understanding of the role of a teacher working with children.
After reading others posts, and doing some research on my own, I have realized that I want to focus on diversity and disabilities in education. The main question that is guiding my research is: What is inclusion, and why does it matter in education? I believe that this is a very important question because many people do not know exactly what inclusion is. In the field of education, inclusion is a very talked about topic. My major at Syracuse is inclusive elementary and special education, and most of my classes so far have been about inclusion, and why it works. The work that I have done so far in my previous courses will help me with my research because I now have some background information about inclusion, and I know the benefits when it is done correctly. This topic is important for me to understand for my future career because I want to be the kind of teacher who accepts and supports all of her students. I want each and every child to feel welcomed and safe in my classroom. I believe that inclusion is important for everyone to know about, not just teachers and teacher candidates because it can help people understand why it is essential to try to include others in our daily lives. Maybe if everyone understood inclusion, our world would be a more accepting place. The fields that matter most to my inquiry are education, and possibly psychology/science. This is because I am focusing specifically on education, and a lot of the articles I have found so far have studies that prove a certain point, or help explain inclusion.
Discussion Week 6/29
- One concept that has always been heavily misunderstood is the idea that all people are seen as equals despite race, gender or religion. However, that is not the case and Wong points it out. We are all human beings living on this earth however our backgrounds and experiences set u apart from each individual. Wong uses the metaphor of a standard shoe given to everyone and those who don’t fit into it being at a disadvantage. We come in all shapes and sizes and it is not our job to be like everyone else but to thrive in what makes us unique. Wong explains how important it is to thrive in each others differences and support each other because we do not know everyones experience. It may even be offensive to deny this persons identity and treat them as if their background doesn’t play a monumental role in the person they have become.
- One TSIS idea that can be seen in the article is when Wong argues that understanding who a person is and not just what you see on the outside requires work. It requires knowing about the individual and not making a simple blanket statement about who you think they are and where you think they’ve been. Wong says “Rather than assume everyone is the same (or should be), it is crucially important to seek and understand how differences in identities and experiences inform how we interact with our surroundings and each other.” This idea of connecting the parts is explained when we must put in the effort to understand where these minorities are coming from and choose to acknowledge who they are as individuals. This is important because to truly sympathize and understand the true injustice they face we must be able to make these connections within our own lives.
discussion post for 6/28
- I think the most significant addition to the argument Wong makes is when she titles a subsection called “What Can You Do?” on the fourth page. Although Wong does add to the preexisting argument in other parts of her article, this section was significant to me. Wong details an almost step by step process that people can use for themselves to become active members of diversity inclusion. She suggests multiple things to do, like acknowledging microaggressions and counteracting them to the larger scale of putting yourself out there and breaking boundaries. As much as one person can read about how to change an environment that is comfortable for all, people tend to learn best by things they can relate to. I felt Wong did this well as she gives almost instruction from the very basic personal level, to the larger scale work environment. I believe she adds to the argument in doing this by focusing on the fact it is very small changes within oneself that can lead to bigger changes in time. I believe she adds to the argument in this piece as she details a call to action, and makes the reader relate it to themselves and connect truly with what they are reading.
- In chapter 8 of TSIS, the main focus is connecting points and flow across sentences or paragraphs. One of the ways in which to connect the parts is to use a contrast transition, where the author can use “In contrast” to transition points and reflect another part of the argument. Wong does this on page 4 of her article when she starts the second paragraph with “in contrast, those” where she then goes on to detail how marginalized identities often are able to recognize when spaces were not meant for them and adapt. She uses this transition to come off of her previous point, and transition smoothly into the next. In doing so, she is able to connect her points seamlessly and as TSIS puts it, connects the parts.