Think back to the problem you chose in Week 3. Now imagine that you are a member of the diversity committee of your educational institution. If you are not working in education, it is fine to imagine a plausible scenario in education that covers all the prompts.

You have been asked to make a presentation to the top-ranking administrator (principal, superintendent, university president, or board of directors) regarding how your problem intersects with the issue of diversity.

By doing this assignment, you will apply the human resources and political frames to your problem in a diverse educational setting.

First, you need to provide some definitions for the audience.

Start by defining diversity. Next, consider that some individuals and organizations are moving toward the phrase equity and inclusion. Define equity and inclusion. Instead of offering dictionary definitions, describe what those words mean to you. Are equity and inclusion equivalent in meaning to diversity? Why or why not? Why might someone prefer the words equity and inclusion over the word diversity? Is equity the same thing as equality? Give a reason for your answer.

Now think about your problem. Describe to the top-ranking administrator the steps you are taking to contemplate the problem through the lenses of equity and inclusion.

How would the concepts of equity and inclusion change the way you would evaluate possible solutions to the problem you identified in Week 3?

Finally, how would equity and inclusion change your decision to recommend or reject possible solutions to the problem?

Incorporate appropriate animations, transitions, and graphics as well as speaker notes for each slide. The speaker notes may be comprised of brief paragraphs or bulleted lists.

Length: 12-15 slides with short bullet points of text per slide and in-text citations. Make speakers notes in full sentence format explaining each slide. The final slide should be a references list in APA style.

Notes Length: 100-150 words for each slide

References: Include a minimum of five credible resources appropriate to your specialization of which at least one should be from a scholarly journal.

Rearrangement of Your Problem and Evaluation of Solutions Through the Human Resources and Political Perspectives

An important task of a leader in a diverse educational setting is to promote equity and inclusion for students, faculty, staff, and community members. The role of the HR department is to align the employees goals and need to belong to the organizations goals. In the graphic of the four-frame model, the metaphor for human resources is the organization as family.

Just as a specific relative may not receive an invitation to Thanksgiving, so do employees find themselves members of the in group at work or on the outside looking in at the favored team members. The absence of equity and inclusion leads to powerlessness and ostracism from the human resources family for the marginalized group. No workplace is immune from office politics. All organizations must deal with opposing factions who seek power and resources in a competitive rather than cooperative manner. Status within a group may boil down to issues of favoritism; but there may also be ill-will against certain members due to gender, race, sexual orientation, disability, or other reasons.

Equity and inclusion in education have been controversial topics since Brown v. Board of Education in 1954. Instead of segregated schools, stakeholders in 2018 are more likely debating whether students with disabilities are best served in the general education classroom, whether minority students are overrepresented in special education, and underrepresented in gifted programs, and how schools with mens and womens sports teams should ensure compliance with Title IX.

Bolman and Deals (1999) work has us view a problem through different lenses as if we were holding a kaleidoscope. With each twist of the device the picture changes. The new lens brings clarity where there was previously just a blur. Each new lens (human resources, political, symbolic, or structural) is equally valid, but one or two lenses may be better than others for a given situation. There are also more perspectives than just the four mentioned in the article. Although technology is part of the structural perspective in Bolman and Deal (1999), it is important enough to merit its own week later in our course.

In this weeks assignment, you will start learning how to reframe a problem using two of Bolman and Deals four framesthe human resources perspective and the political perspective. To use these frames successfully, you must ask yourself questions about your problem. How would your problem look different if you thought about it from the perspective of the human resources department? How would it look to members of the in- group at work? How would it look to people at work who self-identify as being female, African American, transgender, or hearing impaired?

Be sure to review this week’s resources carefully. You are expected to apply the information from these resources when you prepare your assignments.

Complete the following Spotlight on Skills if you need assistance with the tools used to complete your assignments.

Spotlight on Skills: Developing a PowerPoint Presentation
For this assignment, you will prepare a PowerPoint presentation.