{"title":"Perceptions of Diversity Among Faculty Members in Indian Higher Education Institutions: A Qualitative Investigation","authors":"Thaddeus Alfonso, S. Ganesan","doi":"10.1177/0973184919858180","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Diversity studies have mostly been done outside India and have largely focused on race, gender and ethnicity. The relevance of these studies to India remains less explored. Hence, faculties from various disciplines were interviewed across six states and a union territory. Diversity awareness was substantial regarding familiar social categories that have received socio-political attention so far like gender. However, faculty limited gender diversity to entry-level recruitment and they seldom mentioned the need for women at professorial and leadership levels. Awareness about diversity domains such as gender identity, sexual orientation and race was inadequate. While diversity was considered essential for student admissions, it was not so for faculty recruitment. Though the majority acknowledged disability and age as diversity domains, there was insufficient preparation for engagement with disabled people and members outside formal age-groups. There is a need for instilling global and country-specific diversity awareness in the faculty.","PeriodicalId":37486,"journal":{"name":"Contemporary Education Dialogue","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0000,"publicationDate":"2019-07-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/0973184919858180","citationCount":"2","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Contemporary Education Dialogue","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1177/0973184919858180","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q3","JCRName":"Social Sciences","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 2
Abstract
Diversity studies have mostly been done outside India and have largely focused on race, gender and ethnicity. The relevance of these studies to India remains less explored. Hence, faculties from various disciplines were interviewed across six states and a union territory. Diversity awareness was substantial regarding familiar social categories that have received socio-political attention so far like gender. However, faculty limited gender diversity to entry-level recruitment and they seldom mentioned the need for women at professorial and leadership levels. Awareness about diversity domains such as gender identity, sexual orientation and race was inadequate. While diversity was considered essential for student admissions, it was not so for faculty recruitment. Though the majority acknowledged disability and age as diversity domains, there was insufficient preparation for engagement with disabled people and members outside formal age-groups. There is a need for instilling global and country-specific diversity awareness in the faculty.
期刊介绍:
Contemporary Education Dialogue serves as an independent open forum for researchers and practitioners to sustain a critical engagement with issues in education by engendering a reflective space that nurtures the discipline and promotes inter-disciplinary perspectives. The peer-reviewed journal allows for a refinement of theoretical and practical basis for improving the quality of education, furthering the opportunity to directly create reflective classroom practices. It invites contributions by academicians, policy-makers and practitioners on various topics related to education, particularly elementary education. Discussions and responses to published articles are also welcome.