Diversity Initiatives
The College of Education’s longstanding commitment to diversity can be seen throughout the collective work of its departments, centers, and programs since the early 1990s.
With the leadership and support of Dean Debbie Mercer, the College of Education has built upon this legacy with new innovative programs and augmentations to existing programs that enhance diversity – within the college, the university, the state, and the region.
Guiding these initiatives is the vision statement for the college: "Preparing educators to be knowledgeable, ethical, caring decision makers, in a diverse and changing world." While there are numerous noteworthy programs and initiatives going on in the college, we encourage you to read about some of our key efforts below.
Professional Development Opportunities
Our College has a proud history of providing professional development opportunities – in the form of summer institutes, book studies, guest lectures, and workshops – for faculty, staff, graduate teaching assistants, and students.
The College of Education furthers its commitment to diversity and inclusion through the work of the Diversity for Community Committee (DCC). This committee, comprised of faculty, staff, and graduate assistants in the College of Education, is tasked with setting diversity-related priorities and making recommendations to the college. Among these efforts, the DCC traditionally invites speakers and hosts college-wide Diversity Brown Bags on various topics. These opportunities focus on topics of current interest that are important to the University, College, or community.
The DCC also welcomes proposals for funding from College of Education faculty, staff, and students for projects that enhance our knowledge, skills, and professional dispositions, directly related to issues of diversity. Most recently, the DCC has provided funding for events like conference attendance and presentations, mental health aid workshops, and students’ access to the College’s Social Justice Book Study series.
Another type of college-wide professional development is the Diversity Highlights. These are monthly bulletins that are prepared and distributed by the college’s Diversity Coordinator via email to all faculty, staff, graduate students, and College of Education affiliates. These Highlights draw attention to diversity-related current events going on locally, nationally, and internationally, and are usually centered around topics regarding education.
The college has produced a number of documentary video projects with an emphasis on diversity and inclusion.
For example, A Walk in My Shoes is a collaborative documentary series that has covered various topics regarding diverse populations in education. Started by Dr. Kay Ann Taylor in 2012, the first documentary, titled “International Students,” provided a unique glimpse into the lives of K-State international students from five different countries: Angola, China, India, Saudi Arabia, and South Korea.
Since then, a number of other documentaries have been produced by the college, including, “A Long Road: 150 Years of Collective Experience from Five African-American K-State Alumni” and “Humanity Looks Good on Everyone.”
Please visit the Documentaries web page to learn about and view all of the college-produced documentaries.
As the College of Education continues in its mission statement of “Preparing educators to be knowledgeable, ethical, caring decision makers, in a diverse and changing world," we recognize that even teachers are life-long learners. To aid our current and future teachers in becoming the most effective educators they can be, our Diversity Staff has compiled an ever-growing list of diversity-related resources that covers a number of different topics. This list is comprised of websites, articles, books, and podcasts, and more!
The Diversity Staff is always looking for resources to share both within and outside the College of Education. If you have any resources you would like to share with us that we could add to the list, please contact Pedro Espinoza at pedro1@k-state.edu
Departments
For more information on the following Centers and/or Initiatives, contact the departments listed above.
Centers and/or Initiatives
Recruitment and Retention of Diverse, Faculty and Staff
The College of Education strongly believes that a “a diverse and changing world” requires the efforts and perspectives of individuals from different backgrounds and identities. To affirm our vision statement, the College draws from a number of offices and initiatives to recruit and retain talented individuals from diverse backgrounds.
With an extensive array of research, professional development, coursework, and international partnerships, the Center for Intercultural and Multilingual Advocacy (CIMA) is a trailblazer within the College. Through CIMA, the College's continued commitment to the recruitment, retention, and graduation of underrepresented undergraduate and graduate students can be seen in many new and current programs.
- Project KANCO is a 5-year grant funded by the USDE’s Office of Migrant Education which helps students from migrant and seasonal farm work backgrounds to successfully complete undergraduate studies. Since 2009, KANCO has provided students with various services, including scholarship assistance, career exploration, emotional and social support, and other service.
- Project K-STEP UP is a USDE National Professional Development 5-year grant with the primary objective to improve literacy outcomes for English learners in Kansas City, KS schools where the highest growth in the EL population has occurred. Project K-STEP UP aims at implementing literacy software in pre-K and elementary schools and professional development opportunities for teachers.
- Project INSIGHT is a USDE National Professional Development project focused on building teachers’ capacity for critically reflective ecologies in rapidly changing schools. To achieve this, Project INSIGHT provides ESL endorsement to school educators–over 150 to date–with an emphasis on inquiry based and site-specific learning. Participant educators receive 9 credit hours of graduate-level coursework leading to an ESL (English as a Second Language) Endorsement.
While providing culturally competent advising through its group of professional student advisors, the Center for Student Success and Professional Services (CSSPS) continues to innovate its methods of recruitment of students from underrepresented backgrounds. For example, the Call Me MISTER (“Mentors Instructing Students Toward Effective Role Models”) Initiative was established in 2015 to attract some of the most needed students, men of color, to the teaching profession. Its student members are offered both peer and professional mentorship, as well as professional development opportunities throughout each school year.
In partnership with the UFM, K-State Salina, Big Lakes and Twin Valley Developmental Disabilities Centers, and the Wamego, Geary County, and Manhattan/Ogden school districts, the College initiated Project EXCELL in 2010. The project, "Extending College Education for Lifelong Learning," brings adults with mild development disabilities to the K-State campus for supplemental transition services. Examples of classes offered are sign language, music, dance, vocational exploration, and money management. Classes are offered in two five-week sessions per semester with around 60 participants each session. In addition, Project EXCELL engages College of Education students as volunteers to assist with classes and serve as peer models.
As an NCATE-accredited program, the College of Education and its Professional Development Schools are held to the highest level of standards in the preparation of teacher candidates. The Professional Development School Network (PDS) includes the College of Education, the College of Arts and Sciences, and hundreds of teachers and administrators from schools in diverse districts across Kansas; furthermore, partner districts represent inner city, small-town, and rural learning environments ranging from elementary, middle, and high schools. These PDS partners have been engaged in collaborative and simultaneous K-16 reform, including efforts to address social justice and educational equity, since 1989.
The college's Military Initiatives began in 2012 to merge departmental and programmatic activities into a college-wide framework for preparing educators to serve military personnel, veterans and their families in educational settings. This initiative includes plans to:
- (1) provide professional development for faculty and graduate students
- (2) develop courses and/or pedagogical adaptations to address military/veteran/family issues; and
- (3) develop a research agenda to contribute to the knowledge base related to working with military personnel, veterans, and K-12 students and their families.
This is a critical need as military students and families tend to be highly diverse, transient, and from lower SES backgrounds that historically create unique challenges in schools. The college is committed to preparing educators and administrators to understand and address these challenges effectively. For example, 3 of the 4 schools on the nearby Ft. Riley military base are involved in the PDS partnership. Therefore, College of Education pre-service students have the opportunity to participate in field practicums on post, gaining rich experiences working with military connected students.
This guide and the resources provided with it exist to help K-State faculty engage in difficult and necessary conversations, to serve all of our students and to fully realize our Principles of Community.
Important Dates and Events
Exciting and educational events promoting diversity and inclusion are happening all around us! K-State and the College of Education lead the way celebrating these important occasions.
Tuesday, October 4, 2022 8:30 a.m. – 3:00 p.m. K-State Campus
Thursday, October 6, 2022 5:30 – 6:00 p.m. Beach Museum of Art
Monday, October 10, 2022 9:00 a.m. – 3:30 p.m. KSU Alumni Center
Tuesday, November 1, 2022 6:30 – 8:30 p.m. Virtual
Monday, November, 14-Wednesday, November 16, 2022 K-State Campus and Virtual
Monday, January 23-Friday, January 27, 2023 K-State Campus
Tuesday, January 24, 2023 3:30 – 5:00 p.m. Alumni Center Banquet Room
Thursday, January 26, 2023 11:30 a.m. – 1:00 p.m. Alumni Center Ballroom
Friday, January 27, 2023 11:30 a.m. – 1:00 p.m. K-State Student Union
Thursday, January 26 - Friday, January 27, 2023 1:30 p.m. Student Union/MLK Jr. Bust
Tuesday, February 7, 2023 9:00 a.m. – 2:30 p.m. K-State Student Union
Throughout entire school year On Campus & Virtual
Ongoing list of KSU Diversity Events
Visit the Diversity Calendar to see all important dates and events that are happening here at K-State, locally, nationally, and internationally! If you know of an important date or event that should be added to the calendar, please feel free to contact Diversity Point Person, Pedro Espinoza at pedro1@kstate.edu to have them added to the list!
Diversity Staff
Pedro Espinoza, Diversity Point Person – pedro1@k-state.edu
Pedro is currently a Teaching Assistant Professor in the College of Education. As the College of Education Diversity Point Person, Pedro is responsible for a number of duties related to the college’s strategic planning of diversity and inclusion initiatives. In this position, Pedro also acts as the liaison between the College and the President’s Commission on Multicultural Affairs, where he collaborates with Diversity Point People from across the University to set diversity goals and policies, under the guidance of the University’s Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer. Pedro has served as the College’s Diversity Point Person since 2018.
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William Hall, Graduate Diversity Coordinator – whall@ksu.edu
William is a Graduate Teaching Assistant serving as the Graduate Diversity Coordinator. He is a Manhattan native, and is a graduate of the undergraduate teacher training program at K-State. He has previously taught high school math in southwest and southeast Kansas. He is beginning work on a master’s degree in curriculum and instruction here at K-State, and plans to eventually earn a Ph.D.
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