“In my philosophy class this semester I have a group of about 30 students, and at least half the class has English as a second language and the United States as a second culture –or third even. As a group, they lack a shared experience in terms of dialects, languages, and cultural experiences. For me, the challenge is to create that shared experience, to accept that they may not have read similar kinds of texts or read a certain book. When I design my philosophy classes I try to think about questions that are philosophical and that have a connection to students no matter where they’re coming from in terms of ethnicity, economic class or age. Philosophical questions like, ‘what are the qualities you usually associate with love?’ Or ‘how do you determine what’s right and wrong?’ Even with these kinds of questions, sometimes language can still become an issue. In my own teaching, I keep trying to find films, texts and materials that have enough broad range but at the same time they contain something shared I’d like all students to experience. The initial activities I create in my class are designed so that I can find out what students are bringing to the experience that will affect their learning in philosophy. The fact that we have a core curriculum of abilities, that we are talking to each other about them and that students use the language of the abilities with us, is something we have to our advantage. For me, another challenge continues to be what do these abilities look like today? How do we ensure access to them for all our students? I think this is what we need to continue to explore as faculty.”