The Association for the Betterment of Culturally Diverse Educators

When Cescily Turner, President of ABCDE and senior secondary education major, first found the organization, it was just a name in a folder.  There was no description or constitution; it was just a name. 

“This organization was started with Pablo Mendoza as the original advisor.  The charter was inactive, and we reactivated it about 3 years ago,” Neville said. 

Originally, the executive members of ABCDE just wanted a safe place for minorities to congregate and talk about education topics. However, the goals of the group have changed since its inception. 

“We want to inform others about the importance of diversity and the importance of that in the classroom and how to incorporate those students and how to make it a safe place for everybody and how to teach people,” Turner said. 

There are educational students who are concerned about how to handle diversity issues in the classroom. At an ABCDE meeting last year, the board passed out pieces of paper and asked attendees to write down what they wanted from the organization. An overwhelming majority responded that they wanted to know what they could do for their minority students. They wanted to know how to make a class culturally friendly for all the students. 

“That is something that a lot of people going into education worry about – like not knowing how to deal with the black student or the Hispanic student, which maybe you don’t have a lot of background in yourself,” Turner said. 

New teachers will be teaching the most diverse classrooms yet, and ABCDE is trying to prepare them for it. The group is not tied with any particular content area and is open to anyone who has any affiliation with education. They want to bridge the gap between the teacher’s world and the students’ world. 

“It is estimated that by 2024 one half of all students will be children of color, currently roughly 42% of all students receive free and reduced lunch,” Neville said. “Students graduating from our program will teach one of the most diverse groups of students in history. This group provides support and information to better prepare our pre-service teachers to be successful in this environment.”

To address these issues, the group is determined to be as informative as possible. If they cannot answer a question themselves, they will find someone who can. ABCDE will ask someone more knowledgeable to come in and speak to the group. 

Last semester ABCDE invited Representative Judy Baker to speak about her views on education. Another time, they invited area principals to talk about their experiences in Columbia schools. 

A cultural disconnect often exists between teachers, predominantly white, female and middle class, and their students, increasingly more minority and suffering from effects of the economy.  “We have a different generation, communication style, identity, taste in music, ideal of life, liberty and pursuit of happiness, manner of demonstrating respect, and not to mention the historical, legal and political experiences of the various sects based off of race, ethnicity, gender,  etc.,” Neville said. 

One way Neville recommends improving this situation is to try to produce curriculums that are culturally relevant and then follow that with teaching and assessment that are equally relevant. 

The group is also interested in participating in community service. ABCDE plans on hosting service opportunities throughout the semester.  “We are always looking for help, and we are gladly accepting people who want to do that,” Turner said. 

ABCDE was started by a group of students a couple years ago, and most of those executive board members are about to graduate or have already. They are looking for dedicated people to fill their spots. 

“We don’t want to see our work stop with us. We know that once we graduate that doesn’t mean that what our organization is doing doesn’t need to be done,” Turner said.