This article outlines the authors’ ongoing study of diversity, focusing particularly on the AQAL model as a linchpin in an evolving theory of “diversity maturity.” Recognizing the limitations of non-integral approaches to understanding and negotiating diversity dynamics, the authors explain how an integral perspectives come to inform their postconventional understanding. The authors share their preliminary theory of the diversity maturity process in which the integral vision/theory that unites diversity, complexity, and creativity is the dynamic relationship among and between quadrants, levels, lines, states, and types. The article concludes with an agenda for further theoretical and empirical inquiry.
Michael Raffanti
Michael Raffanti has a varied professional background in education and social justice. A California native, he completed his Juris Doctor at Boston College Law School. He also holds a Master’s in Teaching from The Evergreen State College, where he specialized in multicultural education. He earned his Doctor of Education from Fielding Graduate University, where he focused on studying organizational change. Michael has published articles on leadership, organizational change, and research methods in Grounded Theory Review, World Futures, and the Journal of Ethnographic and Qualitative Research. He is on the faculty of Union Institute and University’s Ed.D. program and also teaches courses at California Institute of Integral Studies and Fielding Graduate University.