A class offered at Texas Tech University last fall encouraged students pursuing a bachelor’s degree in human resources development to embrace critical race theory.
The course “Diversity and Cultural Competence in the Workplace” is an online class for the University Studies program, of which Human Resource Development is a listed minor.
According to the syllabus, the course encourages students to “explore multiple explanations for privilege relationships at different levels in the workplace … and examine how privilege in the workplace impacts the socioeconomic and cultural status of individuals and groups.”
The course describes its purpose as helping to “manage a 21st-century multicultural workforce” and “develop workplace policies that create an inclusive workplace … [and] emphasize the value of diversity in the human experience.”
A quick analysis of the course’s required readings further emphasizes the focus on themes related to critical theory, a field of study focused on dismantling power structures. In addition to critical race theory, the field includes other subfields like feminist theory and critical gender theory.
The reading list includes “Diversity Consciousness: Opening Our Minds to People, Cultures, and Opportunities,” written by Richard Bucher; “Understanding and Managing Diversity” by M. June Allard and Carol P. Harvey; and “Diversity in the Workplace” by Bärí A. Williams.
In its Amazon description, “Diversity in the Workplace” lists “Exploring intersectionality” as one of the key takeaways for readers.
“Learn about the diversity identities shaping disparity at work: Race, Gender, LGBTQ+, Age & Ability, and Religion & Culture,” reads the description.
Williams, the book’s author, also discussed critical theory and intersectionality extensively in a 2022 interview about the book.
“What’s important about that—intersectionality—is that we’re not all just one thing. Most people are several different things,” said Williams. “And dealing with workplace issues, sometimes you wonder … ‘Did I not get that promotion because I’m black? Or did I not get it because I’m a woman?’”
The class assignments help demonstrate how the critical theory methods outlined in these books inform with broader depth what students are expected to gain from the course.
A general overview of the course assessments states that students “will appraise privilege relationships at different levels (interpersonal, local, regional, national, and international) and explain how these relationships affect the socioeconomic and cultural status of individuals and groups.”
More specifically, students are expected to write a journal worth up to 17.5 percent of their final grade. This journal requires them to “critically assess the cultural and social aspects of the workplace, focusing on different theories of workplace dynamics.”
Another assignment, an essay worth 27.5 percent of the student’s grade, focused on the “Six Areas of Diversity Consciousness.” These are outlined in chapter four of Bucher’s book as:
- Examining ourselves and our worlds
- Expanding our knowledge of others and their worlds
- Stepping outside of ourselves
- Gauging the level of the playing field
- Checking up on ourselves
- Following through
Thoroughly analyzing each subchapter provides a better view of what Bucher means by the six.
Under “Gauging the level of the playing field,” for example, readers are asked to consider if “you see power and privilege as an all or nothing proposition” or if you are immersing “yourself in your own victimization” to the point where you cannot see how others are victimized.
The class schedule provides additional insight into the nature of the class.
During week three, students discuss “Understanding Issues of Diversity and Culture: Concepts of Privilege, Stereotyping and Bias.” Chapters from the required readings on the topic are listed.
Week four dives deeper into “privilege and stereotyping.” Week five talks about “race and ethnicity.” By week six, students discuss gender, which is further unpacked in the following weeks to discuss “sexual orientation and gender identity.”
News of this course at Texas Tech comes after the university was already found to offer at least two diversity, equity, and inclusion classes. One was found at the Davis College of Agricultural Sciences & Natural Resources, and the other at the Rawls College of Business.
The dean of Texas Tech University Studies is Dr. Patrick C. Hughes, who did not respond to a request for comment.
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