wwp@yahoogroups.com:
Diversity thoughts
Keith Martin 2009-Mar-15 17:27:00
Just three days to go before the Diversity event kicks off. I've been
considering what I'm going to shoot, and this event's theme has been
prompting some interesting and personally relevant thoughts.
In the higher education (i.e. post-high school) sector in the UK the
phrase "widening participation" is well known. This is a big part of
government education policy, intended to increase the diversity of
people entering and progressing through higher education
(particularly lower-income, disability and minority groups, and ages
as well), as well as increasing the percentage of school leavers that
continue in education.
At the ground level, one result of this policy has done is produce
student groups with a greater mix of social, education and work
backgrounds, outlooks, physical abilities, and so on. This presents
challenges for teaching, but it is exactly these kinds of challenges
that help keep education thinking and approaches fresh and sharp. In
other words it keeps me personally challenged, which is good stuff.
Where I work at the London College of Communication (previously known
as the London College of Printing) the mix is pretty broad. A pano I
shot last year while people were waiting for a fire alarm to end
illustrates this in an interesting fashion:
http://www.panoramaphotographer.com/lcc/lccfirealarm.html
This particular set of 'the kids' happens to look predominately
white, but the less obvious detail is the fully global mix that these
students represent. As the page caption says, it is uncommonly
difficult to say where this college is by looking at the students.
I'm still considering shooting the rough-n-ready street market in
Whitechapel with the skyscrapers of the Canary Wharf financial
district in the background, but I'll also try something at college.
I'd want something a little more obviously varied and diverse to
simplify viewer understanding for this event, but it is an
interesting direction.
k