Postsecondary Leaders’ Thoughts on Diversity and Inclusion: Now What?

Leaders of most postsecondary institutions in Canada have stated that their institutions are committed to diversity and inclusion. These commitments are situated in a complex educational climate in which leaders navigate drivers of change such as increased diversity in the student demographic and an increased demand for social justice issues to be addressed. Despite the public commitments to values of diversity and inclusivity, senior leadership in Canadian postsecondary institutions today lacks diversity. Interestingly, public statements of commitment to diversity and inclusivity are made by postsecondary leaders in response to allegations of racism. What do the concepts of diversity and inclusion mean to postsecondary leaders and how are they enacted?

To gain an in-depth understanding of how leaders make meaning of diversity and inclusivity, this book offers an integrated social justice leadership framework for diversity and inclusivity. This innovative framework provides a way for leaders to think through their and others’ understanding of diversity and inclusivity within the varying dimensions in which they practice leadership in postsecondary settings. With this understanding, leaders can broach the social justice issues of colonial knowledge systems, white Eurocentric ways of knowing, power, representation, and implicit bias in postsecondary contexts as they engage leadership practices in ways that tend to equity and decolonial thought.

＂This book is a must read for educators and educational leaders in postsecondary contexts who are working towards greater diversity and equity. It covers a wide range of issues and considerations for achieving workplace diversity and strategies that leaders can engage. It is substantive in both scope and content and provides insights into organizational structures as well as what the author sees as discursive limitations of diversity and inclusivity. The book also offers a social justice leadership framework that can support diversity and inclusivity. It is a timely contribution to the field.＂

Ann E Lopez, Professor of Educational Leadership and Policy, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto

＂Postsecondary Leaders’ Thoughts on Diversity and Inclusion: Now What? provides a timely discussion regarding how postsecondary leaders make meaning of diversity and inclusivity in educational settings. By tending to how leaders of postsecondary institutions in Alberta, who through policy, academic plans, mission and value statements, have committed to diversity and inclusion, Maroro Zinyemba offers key sensibilities for social justice praxis by revealing how these moments inform leadership practice in postsecondary contexts. This book ought to be requisite reading for those concerned with historical and contemporary questions regarding diversity and inclusion in the context of postsecondary education.＂

Marlon Simmons, Associate Dean of Graduate Programs, Werklund School of Education, University of Calgary

Maroro Zinyemba holds a Doctor of Education degree from the University of Calgary. She is a Faculty Dean. She is a recipient of the Carolyn Dieleman Award through the Alberta Teachers of English as a Second Language. She is also a recipient of the Stephens-Comas Bibliotherapy and Reading Educator Award of Excellence.