Diversity and Equity in Planning and Design Pedagogy

I recently co-authored a commentary for the Journal of Planning Education and Research (under review) entitled, “Teaching Equity and Advocacy Planning in a 'Post-Racial' Multicultural World.”The paper brought together four scholars, including myself, who have taught courses in diversity and inequity in planning to reflect on the challenges of speaking to and about issues of race, ethnicity, and cultural difference in contemporary equity and advocacy planning. Using evidence gathered from over 45 years of collective teaching experience, the paper highlights students’ struggles with questions about racial inequality inside the classroom and working with marginalized communities outside the classroom. It offers pedagogical lessons for planning, highlighting strategies to help students and instructors navigate tough personal and professional questions about advocacy and equity planning in today’s multicultural, “post-racial” world.

This article was based on my teaching experiences at the University of California Berkeley and the University of Maryland. As I continue to teach courses related to diversity and equity in planning, I hope to also continue to write about pedagogy and practice as it relates to how future planning professionals engage with these issues inside and outside the classroom.