A spring semester diversity responsiveness colloquia series at Samford University concludes Wednesday, April 27, with a lecture on “Teaching Gender: Implications of Gender Socialization for the Classroom.” 

Assistant history professor Dr. LeeAnn Reynolds will discuss traditional understandings of gender difference, including implications for sex-segregated education, at 5:30 p.m. in Brock Forum, located in Dwight Beeson Hall.

The three-part spring semester series is part of a multiyear initiative undertaken by Samford’s Orlean Bullard Beeson School of Education and Professional Studies to provide resources and tools for diversity responsiveness.

According to program coordinator and education professor Dr. Angela Owusu-Ansah, diversity responsiveness means “reacting, acting, and interacting appropriately and effortlessly among or with groups of people or individuals who are different.”

These differences may be in areas of ethnicity, race, socioeconomic status, gender, exceptionalities, language, religion, sexual orientation or geographical area.

The upcoming focus on gender follows earlier lectures with themes of religion and geography led by Samford provost and executive vice president Dr. J. Bradley Creed and history professor Dr. Jim Brown, respectively.

The initiative will continue in the fall semester with programs on understanding and interacting with Hispanic immigrants, people of different socio-economic status and people with disabilities.

The intent is for teacher education and graduate studies faculty and students to engage in meaningful, reflective, structured conversations on diversity-responsiveness, said Owusu-Ansah.

“Our goal is to provide students with tools to use in diverse settings, and in making our graduates global citizens.”