(The Center Square) – A Louisiana university updated a required diversity, equity and inclusion course after a revealing report from a litigation organization, but the revised syllabus for the course still contains DEI material.
The University of Louisiana Monroe changed the description of its course entitled “CURR 2001: Educational Foundations for Diverse Learning Environments” that is mandatory for Elementary Education majors after a Goldwater Institute report showing several Louisiana schools that required DEI courses was published, as The Center Square previously reported.
The Goldwater Institute is a “free-market public policy research and litigation organization,” according to its website.
University of Louisiana Monroe (ULM) officials verified to The Center Square that the syllabus and reading list for CURR 2001 have likewise been changed.
“The course still focuses on preparing future teachers to work with students from varied backgrounds and with varied learning styles,” ULM officials told The Center Square.
“Those who are teachers and who train teachers understand that the gaps in a learning environment are some of the most challenging aspects of classroom management and teaching,” the officials told The Center Square.
A review of a sample of the revised syllabus shared with The Center Square by ULM officials, as requested, shows some DEI material still remains present in CURR 2001.
One topic on the course schedule in the new syllabus is called “Understanding Equity: Bias vs. Equity, Maslow and Bloom’s, Differentiation.”
The assignment for this topic is “Equity Vocab Map” and the SA Connections are “Academic Environment: Diversity and Inclusivity Factors; Curriculum Planning: Differentiation.”
Additionally, two key research journals in the course’s bibliography are “About Making Connections: Interdisciplinary Approaches to Cultural Diversity” and “Journal of Cultural Diversity.”
The bibliography is “the knowledge base that supports course content and procedures,” according to the syllabus.
CURR 2001’s original course description ran: “this course provides an orientation to teaching that includes legal and organizational aspects of public education; history and philosophy of education; and provides multicultural insight to support the educational needs of diverse students in their learning environment,” according to a screenshot from the Goldwater Institute.
The new description reads relatively the same except for the last phrase which now says the course: “provides the knowledge and understanding of different values and insights to support the educational needs of all students.”
When reached for comment on the change in CURR 2001’s description, the Goldwater Institute’s senior constitutionalism fellow and author of the report Tim Minella told The Center Square that “helping ‘all students’ should have been the goal all along.”
“The new course description suddenly claims that students will gain ‘insights to support the educational needs of all students,’” Minella said.
“This stealth revision indicates that officials at ULM are unable to justify a mandatory DEI course that focuses on ‘multicultural insight,’” Minella said.
Minella additionally told The Center Square that “this revision is yet another example of universities attempting to avoid scrutiny by changing the names of DEI programs and continuing to engage in unjustifiable DEI practices.”
“These diversionary tactics make it all the more vital for states to pass policies that precisely target wasteful and discriminatory DEI programs at public universities,” Minella said.
