Diversity Consciousness : Opening Our Minds to People, Cultures, and Opportunities

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This empowering study on human diversity helps readers develop the ability to understand, respect, and value diversity–and demonstrates how opening one's mind to the views of other peoples and cultures is central for a quality education and successful career.

Personalizing the learning experience by integrating a variety of real-life student experiences and perspectives, it discusses topics in a style that promotes self-reflection and dialogue that is inclusive and not condescending.

Complete with self-reflective journal questions, case studies, and interactive exercises, it discusses diversity and workplace issues–such as teamwork, conflict management, leadership, racism, prejudice, and communication; and zeroes in on the relationship between an employee's success and his/her ability to develop flexible thinking to positively and effectively deal with a variety of diversity issues.

"Diversity Consciousness is impressive because it is not a mere diatribe on the need for diversity. Bucher extensively incorporates and cites classic and empirical research, plus works by well known writers, to better help the reader understand what he means by diversity and its growth locally and globally." - Matthew Oware, DePauw University (from Teaching Sociology)

“Diversity Consciousness is user friendly, that is, the students find it easy to read and yet it does not achieve this by “dumbing down” the content. Also, the organization of the book seems to help the student move through what can be a very difficult and troubling subject.” - John Rushing, Barry University

"Diversity Consciousness can provide an inclusive roadmap for understanding and dialoguing about differences. I wish that this book had been available to me as an undergraduate. What I value in this book are the stories, the exercises and opportunities to listen through others about their experiences on various topics. The tools in this book and the dialogue are essential to having an understanding of how to navigate through our diverse society." - Brenda Thompson, Principal Consultant for Diversity, MGM Mirage

Dr. Richard Bucher is a Professor of Sociology at Baltimore City Community College (BCCC).  He has been nationally recognized for his teaching excellence and teaches a variety of courses, including Introductory Sociology, Cultural Diversity in the Workplace, and Race and Ethnic Relations.  The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and the Council for Advancement and Support of Education recently honored him for teaching excellence.  He served as the first Director of BCCC's Institute for Intercultural Understanding (IIU).  Under his leadership, the IIU gained national recognition as an innovative diversity education program.  Dr. Bucher received his Ph.D. in Sociology from Howard University, with a concentration in race and ethnic relations.  He is also the author of Building Cultural Intelligence (CQ): Nine Megaskills (Prentice Hall, 2008).  We encourage you to visit his website at http://www.diversityconsciousness.com and this Blog on the subject of diversity consciousness/cultural intelligence at www.diversityconsciousness.com/blog  The author driven Blog is for faculty and educators who want to learn more about diversity and how it impacts their institutions, their communities, and their teaching.