15th Dealing with Difference Institute
Tuesday & Wednesday, May 20 - 21, 2008
Western Illinois University, Macomb, IL
"Playing Games to Awaken Multicultural Consciousness" is the theme of the two-day Dealing with Difference Institute scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday, May 20 and May 21, 2008, at Western Illinois University in Macomb, Illinois. The theme was chosen because games and simulations can be exceptionally effective in helping individuals recognize the challenges and rewards of communicating and interacting with people across cultures. Whether simple five or ten-minute exercises or elaborate simulations that call for a commitment of several hours, play can make situations and issues "real" in ways that theoretical or directly didactic instruction does not. It readily engages participants affectively as well as intellectually.
Games and simulations can also help people develop habits of mind that make possible, and enjoyable, life-long learning: critical thinking, problem solving, sustained attention, strategic planning, and creativity. These are among the benefits Maurice Ashley, the first African American International Grandmaster of Chess, has identified with chess, the game that caught his attention as a teenager and has held it ever since. Mr. Ashley will share his insights into the value of games like chess when he addresses DWDI participants on Tuesday, May 20.
Dr. Garry Shirts, the founder of learning through experience and the creator of BaFá BaFá, will lead institute participants in that simulation on Wednesday, May 21. For the past 40 years, Dr. Shirts has been designing, researching, and publishing simulations to help people understand one another and to think creatively and critically about racism, sexism, creativity, cooperative behavior, and ethics. By focusing on cross-cultural interaction, BaFá BaFá helps participants understand the powerful impact culture has on people's lives.
Dr. Savario "Sam" Mungo, Professor Emeritus at Illinois State University, like Dr.Shirts, has had many years of experience with simulations and a variety of other classroom exercises that challenge students to consider cultural diversity issues on affective and intellectual levels. His courses in curriculum development, teaching strategies, and multicultural education and his development of ISU's Urban Field Experience program provided him with multiple opportunities to integrate such exercises into his teaching. He will share what he has learned about their use in "Classroom Strategies and Simulations That Engage and Provoke."
Dr. Timothy McMahon, faculty consultant in the Teaching Effectiveness Program at the University of Oregon, will also work from experience using interactive teaching strategies in his DWDI session. With Dr. Stephen Axley, Professor of Management at Western Illinois University and a longtime advocate and practitioner of hands-on classroom activities for graduate as well as undergraduate students, he will facilitate a workshop titled "Experiential Learning and Its Use in Teaching Diversity."
Additional presenters will be identified when the complete program is posted under Presenters.
The DWDI will provide educators in both P-12 schools and in colleges and universities with opportunities to participate in activities that have been particularly engaging and effective in deepening understanding of cultural diversity for adults as well as for adolescents and children. Given the variety of games and exercises they will explore, all participants should benefit by heightening their own understanding of the many facets of cultural diversity and/or by acquiring new tools and strategies they can use in their teaching.
Western Illinois University's Expanding Cultural Diversity Project is co-sponsoring the institute with the Illinois Association for Cultural Diversity (IACD). Registration and further program information will be available on this website as the program is finalized. J.Q. Adams, Professor of Educational and Interdisciplinary Studies at Western Illinois University (jq-adams@wiu.edu), and Janice R. Welsch, WIU Professor Emerita (jr-welsch@wiu.edu / 309-298-2057), are co-directing the institute and can respond to questions about the program.
