Diversity: United Kingdom and Diversity Theories Diversity Essay

Submitted By Seauryakumar
Words: 1162
Pages: 5

“Racism is man's gravest threat to man - the maximum of hatred for a minimum of reason” - Abraham J Heschel

Diversity
Cases of Oxford and
Cambridge Universities
By Shaurya Kumar Gautam and Anthony Ekwe

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Introduction
Education has become accessible all around the world. The term ‘Diversity’ refers to the different ways in which individuals are different from one another in various aspects like cultural practices, beliefs, etc.
Over the years diversity has become a broader topic, new characteristics being added constantly.
As students travel to various parts of the world in pursuit of education, they carry with them their social and cultural practises.
Different groups have the opportunity of getting the good practices from other groups they socialize w ith during this period. These practices may have positive or negative influence on other people.

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Diversity Theories
Diversity can be categorized from two prospective, the fist one being moral-ethical prospective and the second one is organizational and economical prospective.
Moral-Ethical Prospective
I.

Primary and Secondary Characteristics

II. Variable and Invariable characteristics
III. Visible and Invisible characteristics

Organizational and Economical Prospective
A. Cultural differences
B. Functional differences
C. Historical Differences
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Moral-Ethical Prospective
I. Difference between primary and secondary characteristic is the way people perceive themselves and their environment. Primary dimensions include gender, age, ethnicity, sexual orientation, race and physical condition while secondary dimensions include education, religion, geographical origin, income, marital status and profession.
II. Variable characteristics would include race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, nationality and socio-economic background whereas age, function, education, marital status and physical conditions would be the characteristics of variable type of diversity.
III. Visible category would have characteristics that are observable for example age, race, ethnicity and gender are dimensions that are visual. Education, function, socio-economic class would be considered as invisible traits.

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Organizational and Economical Prospective
A. Cultural differences include religion, age, ethnicity and language ability
B. Functional differences are the differences in the way people think, learn, process information, deal with authority, etc
C. Historical differences refer to family make-up, political opinion, inter-group relationship, etc. More in-depth research in Organizational and Economical type of diversity leads to
Diversity Management.
A famous categorization of diversity is the five clusters by McGrath, Berdahl & Arrow,
1995. Part of Diversity management,
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Demographic characteristics example; age, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, physical status, religion and education

2. Task-related skills, capacity and knowledge
3. Values, views and attitudes
4. Personality, cognitive and attitudinal styles
5. Status in the organization for example; professional domain, departmental affiliation, hierarchical position and seniority.
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Cases of Oxford
A black student applied for admission along w ith his white friends. Later, all the students were admitted to the university with the exception of the black student.
The student followed up to try and find out what had conspired. As a heated confrontation arose, he was told to stop behaving like an ape. A student from Afro-caribbean culture had been a student of Oxford for 3 years. The student testified during his stay that he had tried to relate with white students, not many of them would accept him in their activities because he was black. In the same case, a white friend of his testified that