A Program for Change: Educating for Racial Diversity (original) (raw)
The six stages of the concerns-based adoption model (CBAM) (G. Hall, R. Wallace, and W. Dossett, 1973) are the context for examining how one school sought to implement an inclusive vision of diversity within a gifted school program. The CBAM model informed the leadership style of the principal, but was not actually articulated as the model that the school would follow. The six stages are: (1) informational; (2) personal; (3) management; (4) consequence; (5) collaboration; and (6) refocusing. The informational stage involves a general awareness of the issues. In the second stage the administration and faculty began a focused process of examining student needs. The management stage of organization and implementation developed over 2 years and resulted in a stage of "consequence," in which some results became evident. In stage 5, the culmination of the faculty's work meshed with a formal review of the school's progress during the 10 years of the entire progress. Refocusing then involved the application of recommendations and issues pertaining to all aspects of diversity. Over the CBAM life cycle of almost 10 years in this school, some lessons were evident. One is that misunderstandings are common. Another is that student experiences of racism, bias, and gender harassment are both real and imagined, but must be initially examined as though "real." The involvement of the middle third of the faculty, those with a "wait and see" disposition towards various diversity initiatives, was required to make any activity a success. The commitment of the middle third was enough to bring the more reticent third into the activity. Empirical data were needed to shape policy decisions, but the most important factor was always to keep the students' interests first. The implementation of the CBAM model in this school setting shows the real complexities of educating for student diversity. Four appendixes contain a list of the stages of concern about innovation, the report of the committee on cultural pluralism, and information about reports from the Standing Committee on Cultural Diversity and the Middle States Self Study. (Contains 33 references.) (SLD)
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