Chapter 3: Faculty Development for Interculturally Transformative Education

Whether online, crossing time zones and national borders, or on college campuses with increasingly diverse demographics, the population of students is changing drastically (Imbra & Rallis, 2002; Stanley, 2002; Warren, 2002). Accreditation bodies and institutions list commitment to diversity as a core value. However, it is frequently left to faculty and faculty developers to ascertain how to create learning spaces, both face to face and online, that welcome all individuals.

Many faculty still lack support, experience and training in intercultural education, and as a result may be uncomfortable teaching or facilitating in classrooms with diverse students (Gopal, 2011). In addition, colleges, medical schools, law schools, and other institutions express values about diversity and multiculturalism, but a look at mission statements of various colleges show many different definitions (or none at all) of what this means. Some define diversity primarily as racial or ethnic differences (Gurin, n.d., para 1).