Bronfenbrenner's Ecological Systems Theory and My Diversity Wheel

 As a part of my class on Critical and Social Issues in Adult Education, we had to write an introduction that included a "diversity wheel." Now, I've never done a "diversity wheel" and I'm not sure how comfy I am sharing some of my diversity wheel characteristics with my class mates. Apparently, the inner parts of the wheel should include some fairly personal things.

Most of the diversity wheel templates/samples that I reviewed before I created my own, suggested that for the inner spokes of the wheel, the first "orbit" let's say, characteristics that should be included were: race, sex, gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, age, physical ability. And as I reviewed the diversity wheels that everyone posted there seemed to be the same level of sharing and personal information with some being a bit more open, and other less.

I decided to eschew some of the inner orbit characteristics in presenting my own diversity wheel. Was it because that's information that's a tad too personal for this forum? To a degree. But there's also the fact that I don't use many of those characteristics when defining myself or when looking for what is diverse about me. I remember hearing a story on NPR a few years back where a reporter was interviewing a police commander or captain about their response to something that was in the news, and for some reason, her answer was in the form of what defines her (I wish I could find it on the NPR site, but I couldn't) regardless, her answer resonated with me.

She responded by saying "First I'm an African-American. Second I'm a black woman. Third I'm a police captain." I feel quite confident that if I was to answer the same question (or any similar question), my first, second and third, would not be I'm white, a man, and a VP. Naturally, it depends on the question, but I don't think of my being a white man as a defining characteristic. Perhaps that's because I'm in the racial majority for the U.S. . . . although interestingly enough, that's not true for the city within which I live so maybe that isn't the reason. Still, there could be a host of other reasons why. But that NPR story hit me as I decided not to write some of those characteristics about race, sex, sexual orientation et al, in my diversity wheel. I'd prefer to allow my classmates to see my diversity through the lenses I shared and with other characteristics. 

Now Andrew had a typically Andrew response to my diversity wheel. He wrote: Great to see you in class again! I like how you constructed your diversity wheel… It’s a similar layout to Bronfenbrenner's Ecological Systems Theory. Starting with you—in the middle (individual), and branching out to the Microsystem, Mesosystem, Exosystem, and Macrosystem. Again, very cool creation! Looking forward to working with you.

I have no idea who Bronfenbrenner is, but having looked it up, he's exactly right!