ARCHIVED EPISODES

Episode 3
Janet Tedesco, Joann Mitchell and Ellie DeLapi – Inclusive Schooling:
Educating the Next Generation
of Employees
Friday, April 14, 2006; 9AM (Eastern)

While many corporate diversity efforts have gained momentum in the last decade, schools across the U.S. have been struggling to address diversity since  Brown vs. The Board of Education mandated school desegregation fifty years ago.  Today, business leaders understand that if schools are able to educate students about the value of diversity and teach them the skills for supporting inclusiveness, the workplace will benefit.  How successful have schools been in educating students about inclusiveness?  Many adults today believe young people are diversity experts who live with and thrive on the differences and similarities among their peers – is this true?  What challenges do young people face with regard to diversity today that our workplace will undoubtedly inherit?  These and many other questions are addressed on this episode of Diversity Matters.


Co-hosts Judy Seidenstein and Richard Friend discuss the role of schools in education about diversity and inclusiveness.  Janet Tedesco, Director of the Office of Educational Equity for the School District of Philadelphia, Joann Mitchell Vice President and Chief of Staff of the University of Pennsylvania and Ellie DiLapi, Director of the University of Pennsylvania’s Women’s Center discuss the history of their efforts to promote inclusiveness in schools over the past 25.  Garth Sweredoski, a high school teacher from North Carolina also discusses his groundbreaking class “Conversations About Diversity” as one approach for addressing diversity in schools. Our guests also answer questions about partnerships between schools and businesses in building inclusiveness into the fabric of both work and school.