Diversity and Social Justice Requirement
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About the Diversity and Social Justice (DSJ) Requirement
In fall 2021, LWTech implemented a new academic requirement for all new students. This requirement focuses on diversity, equity, inclusion, and social justice, with a special emphasis on antiracism, and it applies to all programs of the college.
The requirement reinforces the college's commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion while aligning our standards with many other colleges in Washington State.
The LWTech Diversity and Social Justice (DSJ) requirement dives deeper into diversity and social justice in either an entire course dedicated to or contextualized around diversity and social justice. The DSJ content may be contextualized to Prof-Tech or General Education courses.
Every degree or certificate of proficiency-seeking student is expected to take, at least, one DSJ-designated course. This requirement doesn’t add costs to degree requirements and no additional time to meet required degree pathways.
Students taking DSJ classes, would be invited to choose from a variety of DSJ-designated classes. The entire course will be dedicated to or contextualized around diversity and social justice. Some of the DSJ designated classes are technical, program-specific classes, while others are General Education courses.
The goal of social justice education is full and equitable participation of all individuals
and social groups. The process for social justice education should also be equitable,
participatory, respectful, and inclusive. As social justice educators, our goal is to affirm, model, and sustain socially just
learning environments for all participants. So that what the participants are learning
and how they are learning it are aligned. The DSJ Learning Outcomes To be approved and designated as a Diversity and Social Justice course, student learning
outcomes and course content must satisfy 4 outcomes from the following three categories.
DSJ Instructors choose the learning outcomes that align with their course contents: Communication Outcomes Difference Outcomes Power, Privilege, and Inequity Outcomes All DSJ instructors are part of the LWTech DSJ faculty learning community. This is
a community of educators, who learn together and develop their self-awareness to issues
of diversity, inclusion, and equity. Before teaching a DSJ-designated course, faculty are required to complete a quarter
long in-house LWTech training that focuses on DSJ concepts and pedagogy. The Faculty
Training sets the foundations of our learning community and provides knowledge, resources,
and tools. Each new DSJ instructor is also assigned with a mentor. In addition, all DSJ faculty participate in an ongoing collaborative DSJ Professional
Learning Community that provides mentoring, support, and resources for DSJ courses.
Registering to DSJ Courses
To find a DSJ course, students can use the online class schedule and follow these instructions:
- Search for the course you want.
- Look for the D designation in the class Section.
Approved DSJ Courses 2024-2025
Below are lists of approved DSJ courses in general education and professional programs, as of the 2024-2025 academic year.
Please note that not all the sections of these courses meet the Diversity Requirement. To choose sections that meet the diversity requirement, please use the “Diversity and Social Justice” course attribute value in the Class Schedule.
Department | Course, Instructor |
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English |
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Humanities |
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Math |
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Science |
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Social Science |
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Department | Course, Instructor |
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Business Technology |
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Human Resource Management |
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Department | Course, Instructor |
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Architectural Technology |
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Baking Arts |
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Design |
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Digital Gaming & Interactive Media |
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Department | Course, Instructor |
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Early Childhood Education |
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Department | Course, Instructor |
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Mechanical Design |
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Welding Technology |
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Department | Course, Instructor |
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Behavioral Health |
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Dental Hygeine |
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Nursing |
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Occupational Therapy Assistant |
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Physical Therapy Assistant |
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Public Health |
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Department | Course, Instructor |
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Computer Software Design |
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Computer Security and Network Technology |
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Department | Course, Instructor |
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High School |
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