Subverting Resistance to Social Justice and Diversity Education: Constructive Approaches with Undergraduate Students

This compact book is constructed using psychological theory and research to empower university faculty to facilitate student engagement and address student resistance to diversity and social justice education more effectively.
University faculty teaching diversity and social justice have traditionally encountered various forms of student resistance. Recent cultural trends of political opposition to teaching critical race theory and other forms of increased polarization and scapegoating with decreased levels of social tolerance have exacerbated challenges in promoting student engagement in diversity and social justice education in universities and colleges.
In contrast to traditional models that tend to be confrontational in addressing student biases, the new Moving Towards Social Justice (MTSJ), Relational Partnership Development Model (RPDM) and process theoretical models seek to build on appropriate pre-existing strengths, interests, values, and the developmental readiness of students who might otherwise oppose learning about the contexts, lives, and predicaments of marginalized persons living in various intersections of gender, race, ethnicity, national origin, immigration status, sexual orientation, gender identity and ability/disability status. Emphasis is placed on the development of professional and life skills, such as wisdom and intercultural competence, which provide incentives and remove barriers to learning about social justice and diversity. Project-based learning approaches grounded in a developmental framework to foster the thriving and well-being of diverse students, collaborative partners in the community, and diverse persons served by the community partners are emphasized. The role of empirical assessment, feedback, and program refinement over time is also delineated within the models.
Subverting Resistance to Social Justice and Diversity Education: Constructive Approaches with Undergraduate Studentsis an indispensable and timely resource for university and college instructors who teach courses or have significant portions of a class that involve education around social justice, diversity, and intersectionality issues, such as cross-cultural psychology, multicultural psychology, social work, sociology, intercultural communication, and counseling or clinical practice with individuals or families from diverse social locations. University officers of diversity, faculty development providers, and other administrators interested in empowering university faculty to increase student engagement in social justice and diversity education also would find the book a useful reference.

Andy J. Johnson, PhD, Associate Professor of Psychological Sciences Emeritus, taught a variety of courses in the Department of Psychology at Bethel University in Saint Paul, Minnesota. His research interests center on the intersection of religion, ethnicity, national origin, immigration status, sexual orientation, gender identity, and ability/disability with interpersonal violence. A volume he edited, Religion and Men’s Violence Against Women; a volume he co-edited with Ruth Nelson and Emily Lund, Religion, Disability, and Interpersonal Violence; and a volume he co-edited with Emily Lund and Claire Burgess, Violence Against LGBTQ+ Persons, are published by Springer. He also currently serves as the Chair of the Peace and Justice Collective at All God’s Children Metropolitan Community Church in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Andy is a Past Board Member for the National Partnership to End Interpersonal Violence (NPEIV), where he served as Co-Chair of Action Team 2: Training and Mentoring. He is currently a member of American Psychological Association (APA) Division 44: Society for the Psychology of Sexual Orientation and Gender Diversity, APA Division 56: Trauma Psychology, and a former Member-at-Large for APA Division 36: Society for the Psychology of Religion and Spirituality. Andy has served as a member of the Olmstead Specialty Committee on Violence Against Persons with Disabilities for the State of Minnesota. He earned his MA and PhD in counseling psychology from the University of Notre Dame.

April Vinding, MFA, grew up deeply embedded in a midwestern American evangelical culture that fused political power, patriarchy and divinity, and prized certainty, suspected beauty, and avoided conflict. Naturally, she got an MFA, a divorce, and loves to dance. AV, as her students call her, teaches writing at all levels, facilitates faculty development, and develops curriculum. Her creative work includes an incisive spiritual memoir, Triptych, and various essays, poems, and multimedia work. She is wildly interested in embodied education and the intersections of creative and spiritual practice.