The Human Development and Family Science (HDFS) Department at the University of Georgia aims to promote social justice, disrupt systems of oppression and marginalization, and advocate for the well-being of diverse individuals and families through teaching, research, and outreach. This is central to promoting optimal individual and family development.
The HDFS Department commits to:
- Diversify our faculty, staff and student body
- Create opportunities and venues for continued faculty, staff and student learning, accountability, and discussion about issues of diversity, equity, inclusion, and social justice
- Utilize critical pedagogical practices in our curriculum that promote diversity, equity, inclusion, and social justice in undergraduate, graduate, and extension education
- Generate and disseminate socially relevant research and scholarship
- Engage with diverse communities through culturally responsive, decolonizing[1] service and outreach
- Create a climate of social justice learning within the HDFS community by examining and challenging institutional structural inequalities
- Annually assess our individual and collective progress toward these commitments
[1] Decolonization is the process of deconstructing colonial ideologies of the superiority and privilege of Western thought and approaches. (Source: opentextbc.ca/indigenizationfrontlineworkers/back-matter/glossary-of-terms/#decolonization)