TITLE:
Instructional Serendipity amid Diversity
AUTHORS:
Asa B. Wilson, Kyle J. Casler
KEYWORDS:
Diversity, Student Engagement, Academic Community
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Social Sciences,
Vol.9 No.1,
January
28,
2021
ABSTRACT: Colleges
and universities are faced with mission and instructional challenges. Society
is emphasizing respect for diversity and inclusion. Higher education is working to ensure that individual and student group
differences do not hinder academic progress or frustrate retention.
Unfortunately, diversity can atomize a campus environment making instructional engagement
difficult. A case-study approach to an in-class response describes an
engaging experience that arose unexpectedly from a diverse class. This event is
discussed as a serendipitous epiphenomenon anchored in class diversity yet
transcending these differences. It is also a
paradox since it cannot be instructionally scripted and will be overlooked if it is not considered a possibility. Equally unexpected gains in
class climate and course content are discussed. Methods for fostering the
probability of instructional serendipity are identified.