Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion on the Frontlines of Education

Abstract

thought-ful commentary, research, and practice for teaching and learning that address diverse groups and marginalized populations. The perspectives commentary by James et al. (2022) raises the issue of the need for the health education field to increase representation of people with disabilities, a historically and frequently overlooked group. The authors suggest approaches for reducing systemic barriers and facilitating participation by people with disabilities, and they offer a number of concrete recommendations to promote inclusiveness in higher education and profes-sional organizations. Przybyla and Kruger (2022) describe a course they developed to introduce undergraduate students to the historical and social drivers behind another marginalized group, those experiencing mass incarceration. The authors provide detailed information on the design and implementation of their curriculum, which includes innovative experiential learning components such as visiting a local drug court and holding center and a panel discussion by previously incarcerated individuals. By considering mass incarceration as a social determinant of health, the course helps students understand how it affects the well-being of communities. Osiecki and Mejia (2022) discuss their campus’s response to racialized violence in their “backyard” in Minnesota, and explain how they redesigned an undergraduate curriculum, focused on the social determinants of health, to incorporate a syn-thesis of public health and intersectionality analysis. They describe a variety of learning approaches to help students comprehend upstream factors shaping life in poor, urban communities as well as community assets and strengths. The need to provide specific training to health professionals so they can deliver services to particular marginalized groups is addressed in the paper by Burt et al. (2022). The