Being mindful of our language is so important as educators and parents – I recently presented my research to a group of 30 + professionals and am embarrassed to admit I used the word ‘minorities’. As I said the word, I also recognized that it was not a good way of describing the ‘marginalized’ in our society – but I’m not comfortable with ‘marginalized’ either. One of the participants, a colleague and friend I have known for some years corrected me immediately – ‘under represented’ . Thank you David. I promise never to use the word again, and have replaced the ‘ m word’ with ‘under represented’ in all my work .
It’s great to be a presenter and national conferences, it’s even greater to learn from those participating.
noun, mi·nor·i·ty often attributive \mə-ˈnȯr-ə-tē, mī-, –ˈnär-\
: a number or amount that is less than half of a total
: the group that is the smaller part of a larger group
: a group of people who are different from the larger group in a country, area, etc., in some way (such as race or religion)
“Minority.” Merriam-Webster.com. Merriam-Webster, n.d. Web. 7 July 2015. <http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/minority>.
underrepresented
adjective un·der·rep·re·sent·ed \-ˌre-pri-ˈzen-təd\
Definition of UNDERREPRESENTED
: inadequately represented
“Underrepresented.” Merriam-Webster.com. Merriam-Webster, n.d. Web. 7 July 2015. <http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/underrepresented>.
#curapersonalis2015 #inclusionnottolerance
