Introduction Transforming Understandings of Diversity in Higher Education: History and Context

• Published in: Transforming Understandings of Diversity in Higher Education Vol. 1; pp. 1 - 20
• Main Authors: Burkhardt, John C., Morton, Christina, Ting, Marie P., Pasque, Penny A., Ortega, Noe
• Format: Book Chapter
• Language: English
• Published: United Kingdom Routledge 2016; Taylor & Francis Group
• Edition: 1
• Subjects: Higher Education; PWI; Civil Rights Era; Public Community Colleges; anti-Semitic; HBCU; Black Male Student; Low Income Latin; LGBTQ Community Member; Color Blind Ideology; Catholic Higher Education; Black Male Student Athletes; Bakke Decision; Follow; LGBTQ; Asian American College Students; Young Men; Term Diversity; Power Analysis Frame; African American Female Faculty; Undocumented Students; Public Higher Education; Top Administrative Leaders; Admissions Profession
• ISBN: 9781620363751; 1620363763; 9781620363768; 1620363755
• DOI: 10.4324/9781003448372-1

Many terms and phrases in public discourse carry multiple meanings and lack specific definition. Diversity is certainly one such term. Because it has acquired an accepted connotation in popular use, it has received only occasional close examination in scholarship (Smith, 2009; Stulberg & Weinberg, 2011). In light of its contradictory meanings in the history of education and its rapidly expanding applications in educational research, policy, and rhetoric, there is an obvious threat of confusion that can jeopardize the desired ends associated with the use of this term. One of the intended contributions of this book is to further appreciation of diversity as text, in context, and within the many subtexts from which it derives its meanings.