For Competency 7, “Develop and Enact a Social Justice Orientation Toward Teaching and Learning”, I have chosen my Multicultural Teaching Reflection from EDCI 55800 for both sub-competencies – “Develop a critical understanding of changing demographics and the diversity of students, schools, and communities” and “Advocate for the values of diversity, inclusivity, and social justice”. In this reflection, I discuss the various people that come through my program. We have students who come from all over the world, speaking different languages, with different cultures and backgrounds. We also have participants from the Houston area with special needs. We have worked with the Deaf and Hard of Hearing community and we work with Title 1 schools.  We also have students come with other special needs, such as Attention Deficit Hypoactive/Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD) and Autism. All these differences affect the way students manage time, interact with peers and instructors, and advocate for what they need.
 

There are several ways I advocate for the different needs of my students. Over the last year, I have worked with my team to put our print materials and presentations into different platforms that include Artificial Intelligence (AI) translation capabilities for additional language comprehension. One of these platforms keeps a record of what language the students used, so I can see there have been participants using a language other than English. For participants that need other accommodations, I work with our Accessibility and Inclusion Specialist. We had special training and interpreters when we had the Deaf and Hard of Hearing students. One aspect I reflect on in my paper is developing biographies of different people who have helped contribute to various aspects of space exploration from different backgrounds so that when students learn about someone new, hopefully they can see themselves represented. That is something I have taken steps to initiate, with rollout plans by the end of the year.