About the Education Program

Mission of the Education Program

The OED Education Program helps learners develop awareness and skills necessary for advancing equity and diversity in all aspects of their personal and professional lives.

Workshop and Dialogue Expectations

The OED Education Program workshops and dialogues are highly participatory. All learners are expected to adhere to the Grounding Assumptions for Equity, Diversity, and Social Justice:

Grounding Assumptions for Equity, Diversity, and Social Justice

Below is a list of grounding assumptions generated by numerous, well-known scholars and activists. We encourage learners to read through these carefully and consider how they relate to you in your learning around equity, diversity, and social justice. They are helpful assumptions to carry with you into conversations with others, in your own self-reflection, and in general as a tool for your equity and diversity learning journey.

The work of equity and diversity is about creating community, which involves building trust through careful listening, respectful disagreement, and taking risks.
Speak from your own story and refrain from sharing the stories of others.
It’s not all our fault, but it is our responsibility.
Growth and learning can be uncomfortable, practice self-awareness.
Show what you’re learning, not what you already know.
Leave room for both/and/all.
Just because you are, doesn’t mean you know everything. Just because you’re not, doesn’t mean you don’t know anything. We can all contribute.
Individuals and organizations DO grow and change. There is HOPE.
There are no quick fixes, and we need to expect and accept non-closure.
Self-work, healing, and self-love are necessary for the acceptance of others.
Social justice work must happen at the individual, socio-cultural, and institutional levels.

Sources: Most of the grounding assumptions are adapted from Jamie Washington (washingtonconsultinggroup.net) and Kathy OBear (drkathyobear.com). Others are from Autumn Brown (iambrown.org)*

More Information on Education Program Workshop and Dialogue Spaces

In order to ensure accessibility across the system campuses, all of the OED Education Program offerings are hosted remotely via zoom.
To prevent inequitable educative labor, the OED Education Program refrains from using small group breakout spaces in the ECHO Foundations program dialogue sections.
The OED Education Program does not tolerate harmful and disruptive behaviors. Learners who exhibit such behaviors will be removed from the workshop/dialogue space.
While we provide open access to our course materials, we ask that learners credit the OED Education Program when sharing materials and content. If you have any questions, please email [email protected].

Access & Accommodations

The OED Education Program is committed to fostering accessibility within and across our learning environments. Rather than a logistical “to-do” list, we understand meaningful access as an on-going community practice and an essential part of educational equity.

Up-to-date information about our current accessibility practices can be viewed at, z.umn.edu/OEDED_Accessibility. Please email [email protected] to request accommodations and/or discuss additional access measures that would support your full engagement in our learning community.

Mission of the Education Program

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