Among participants of Centennial College’s Fundamentals of Indigenous Education and Anti-Racism pilot program, 75 per cent reported a deeper knowledge of racism and its impacts for Indigenous, Black and Asian community members.SUPPLIED
BY MICHAEL CHARLES
Associate Vice-President, Innovation, Inclusion, Reconciliation and Healing (IIRH)
A comprehensive approach to equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) is having a positive effect at Centennial College. It’s an approach involving governance, evidence-based programming and continuous monitoring. The impact comes as no surprise considering that where there are long-term investments and rigorous approaches, EDI shows strong promise.
Decades of research confirms inclusive organizations are generative, high-performing and prolific, bringing together contesting perspectives and experiences to disrupt groupthink – and problem-solve in sophisticated ways necessary for discovery. In higher education, the National Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada describes EDI as “essential to creating the innovative and impactful research necessary to advance knowledge and respond to local, national and global challenges.”
EDI offices within higher education institutions provide strategic advice on a sprawling array of issues, including curriculum, research, governance, student success, culture, institutional effectiveness, talent recruitment and retention, often without adequate resources or capacity to appropriately measure results. Where there is underinvestment and less methodical implementation, difficulties arise.
Not so at Centennial, which is leading the way by meaningfully supporting and tracking the impact of EDI work. It’s important to our effort to foster an inclusive and welcoming learning and working environment for everyone in our diverse community. When institutions fully commit to this approach, the evidence shows our people are capable of great things.
In its most powerful expression, EDI is a data-based inquiry into the most pressing economic, social, legal, health and education sector dynamics. The world’s greatest challenges will be met by those who engage across cultures, creating solutions from our myriad differences.
One such example is the recent launch of our Fundamentals of Indigenous Education and Anti-Racism program. In the pilot version, we incentivized managers to participate and saw nearly everyone in this cohort complete the training. Seventy-five per cent of participants reported a deeper knowledge of racism and its impacts for Indigenous, Black and Asian community members. The same proportion claimed growth in intercultural skills that improved their leadership capability. The program has now been rolled out to all employees, and uptake continues to be strong.
This builds on the success of our mandatory Global Citizenship Education program for all first-year students, which has been successfully delivered for over a decade. The program sees students complete a course covering the history, roots and impact of inequality and discrimination related to issues of social justice, energy, the environment and technology.
Over 80 per cent of our employees and 74 per cent of our students agree that understanding the histories, perspectives and experiences of diverse communities is important to their work or field of study. Progress. But there is still much to be done.
In its most powerful expression, EDI is a data-based inquiry into the most pressing economic, social, legal, health and education sector dynamics. The world’s greatest challenges will be met by those who engage across cultures, creating solutions from our myriad differences.
Centennial is committed to establishing the conditions to sustain an environment for this kind of intercultural learning, which is why our EDI work must continue. We invite you to join us.
Advertising feature produced by Randall Anthony Communications with Colleges and Institutes Canada. The Globe’s editorial department was not involved.