RUNNING HEADER: Diversity: The Ultimate goal

Diversity: The Ultimate goal

My personal Higher Education
Philosophy Statement

Chris MacMartin
Northern Illinois University
Fall 2018
Diversity: The Ultimate goal

Introduction: Philosophy Statement

There is a constant question that comes up in higher education, who is it for? There are a

lot of people on both sides of the fence, with one side believing in the benefit of higher education

while the other side does not. This paper looks to examine in detail my own personal higher

education philosophy, which will be guided by answering a few questions. One being one of the

most important questions, which is always asked, “who is higher education for?” Is higher

education just for a certain class or race? Is higher education only for a select group of people?

The next question will be “Who does higher education serve?” Who should benefit from higher

education? More importantly “What role should higher education play in society?” All these

questions will look to create a foundation to answer the ultimate question of “What is the large

goal of higher education and why is it important?” This paper will dive into some of the issues

the society is dealing with as well as looking at ways to fix current issues that society and

education is dealing with.

Purpose: Who is higher education for?

To begin with, the basic answer to this question is everyone. There is not a certain class,

sex, race orientation or gender that higher education is for. Higher education is a platform for

individuals to grow both academically, financially, spiritually and personally throughout the

education process. Academically, individuals who excel in school should be allowed to

continue their education, they should be allowed to challenge themselves even further.

Financially, education often times gives individuals platforms to better themselves, to get

themselves out of certain situations. Spiritually, education can help individuals grow, they can

be allowed to study specific subjects that interest them. Last but not least, personally

individuals should be allowed to grow. Education can help with self-esteem and provide

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Diversity: The Ultimate goal

individual with a purpose. The most important part about this question is that affordability

should not be the reason why someone does not take part in higher education. If there is a way,

there needs to be a way financially to attend a college, university or a trade school depending on

the need of the student. Success in higher education often times depends on affordability.

According to a noteworthy news journal “Completion is an affordability issue, Success is an

affordability issue. ” (p 13, Pennamon) This quote can be interpreted a couple of different ways,

one being that someone who is forced to work 40-60 hours a week on top of a full class load

often times struggles in school, which is what the context of this quote was written in. The

federal government should be able to provide relief to students who are trying to grow with

higher education. Another way that this quote can be interpreted is that often times student who

cannot afford higher education over the span of four years will turn to dropping out. This only

leaves them in dept and without a college education. In the end, higher education is for

everyone, not one single person should be excluded. If someone works hard enough they should

be able to live the American dream.

Who does higher education serve?

This is often times debated, due to the fact that higher education is a “cash cow”,

meaning that higher education produces a lot of money. Sustainability is a key to the success of

higher education institutions as a whole so my belief that higher education should serve the

consumer is a hard argument to make. The saying money is what makes the world go around

stands true in higher education as well. At the end of the day higher education cost, but there

should be ways for individuals to afford as well as higher education to sustain. Overall, ones

who have an associate’s degree of higher make more money and have a lower unemployment

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Diversity: The Ultimate goal

rate to those who just have a high school diploma (pg 7, Scholastic Choices) Not only should

higher education should serve the people who are paying, who are working hard to receive a

degree but they should also serve the communities that they are in as well. This not only helps

the communities but also provides experience. For example, a student who is looking to work in

nonprofit management, going out in the community to help put on an event not only helps the

overall community that the event is trying to reach but also provide important experience. This

also helps the university with sustainability, the connections with the community is one of the

most important pieces to financially sustainability moving forward. “In order to succeed,

universities must focus on fully developing all three educational missions – teaching and

learning, scientific research and community service. ” All in all, higher education should the

consumer first and foremost, but also the community.

What role should higher education play in society?

This is the start of the most important part to higher education. In terms of society, the

world is dealing with a lot of issues, most of these issues stem from diversity issues. From cop

shooting, riots and hate crimes, the world is dealing with a lot of issues that at the roots starts

with race, gender, orientation and ultimately not being okay with different people. Higher

education is a place where diversity can start to be taught. The people who are graduating from

higher education are our next doctors, police officers, financial advisors, and politicians. These

are the people who will in prominent positions moving forward so the idea of exposing them to

different types of people, the idea of making them work with different groups is the most

important piece of higher education. People from all over the world attend higher education.

These people are different, these experiences are often times not given to those in high school.

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Diversity: The Ultimate goal

High school communities are much smaller, and often times are that of the same class. Higher

education is a great platform to teach the following key points:

• “a recognition of the symbolic and material value of hegemonic identities, such as

whiteness, heterosexuality, masculinity, ablebodied- ness, etc.;

• analytic skill at unpacking how these systems of oppression inter- sect, interlock, co-

construct and constitute each other;

• the definition of oppressive systems such as racism as current social problems rather than

a historical legacy;

• an understanding that social identities are learned and an outcome of social practices;

• the possession of a diversity grammar and a vocabulary that facilitates a discussion of

race, racism, and antiracism, and the parallel concepts employed in the analysis of other

forms of oppression;

• the ability to translate (interpret) coded hegemonic practices;

• an analysis of the ways that diversity hierarchies and institutionalized oppressions are

mediated by class inequality;

• And an engagement with issues of transformation of these oppres-sive systems towards

deepening democracy in all levels of social organization.” (p. 165 Reddy)

Each and every person who attends higher education should be exposed to these main points, it is

important that higher education helps to create a better society moving forward.

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Diversity: The Ultimate goal

What is the larger goal of higher education?

In addition to creating a more diverse society there are many personal goals that higher

education can have on individuals. Most of these goals are steamed from the notion of lifelong

learning but is started from the ground up. Goal number one is to provide students with jobs,

there should be a pathway from higher education into the working world. Individually students

should be able learn how to problem solve, learn how to work with others, student should learn

about the important of reaching deadlines, as well as learning how to think critically. All of

these are what employers are looking for in terms of characteristics. In my eyes, learning these

skills is at the utmost importance after diversity. The idea of these students growing up into

adults due to higher education because of the platform and process that goes along with

education is the ultimate goal. Higher education should not only look to change the world one

student at a time but also look to grow all of these students individually into well rounded

citizens of the world.

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Diversity: The Ultimate goal

Reference

PENNAMON, T. (2018). Higher Ed Policy Forum Encourages Action on Access,

Affordability, Accountability. Diverse: Issues in Higher Education, 35(8), 12–13.
Retrieved from http://search. ebscohost. com/login.
aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=129669555&site=ehost-live&scope=site

Reddy, S. (2018). Diversifying the Higher-Education Curriculum. Journal of Feminist

Studies in Religion (Indiana University Press), 34(1), 161–169. https://doi. org/10.
2979/jfemistudreli. 34. 1. 25

Owens, T. L. (2017). Higher education in the sustainable development goals

framework. European Journal of Education, 52(4), 414–420. https://doi. org/10.
1111/ejed. 12237

What You Want to Be (And How to Get There). (2017). Scholastic Choices, 7. Retrieved
from http://search. ebscohost. com/login.
aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=125425828&site=ehost-live&scope=site