Understanding Diversity: A Learning-as-Practice Primer

This powerful book addresses the issues of diversity from the perspective of individual differences rather than stereotypes. Part I deals with development of self-awareness--from the inside out--and Part II deals with development of awareness of others--from the outside in. The authors make no assumptions about the cultural, racial, or ethnic background of their readers. The perspective of the book is that all people are strongly shaped by culture, including white, able-bodied, heterosexual persons of European ancestry who consider themselves to be the dominant culture in North America and Western Europe. The authors offer information and exercises that help readers learn to assess cross-cultural situations and interact personally and professionally with others who are likely, because of their cultural backgrounds, to have different values, perceptions, behaviors, and expectations of how people should act towards them. Throughout the book, readers will find examples that will help them see how cultural expectations may shape their own reactions to common situations. For example, readers may have experienced feeling offended when someone asks what they consider to be an intrusive question, or they may have felt anxious when alone in an elevator with a person of another race or a disheveled, unkempt person. As readers learn about their own ingrained assumptions, they will begin to develop an appreciation of others' values and beliefs. This primer provides a learning-as-practice model where readers, through the use of exercises, strategies , and conceptual material, first recognize and develop their own communication styles and then work on how they interact with others.