Leading Across Cultures: Crafting a Curriculum to Improve Inclusiveness — A Service Academy Case Study

Abstract

This case study details the evolution of the U.S. Naval Academy’s “Leading Across Cultures” Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion curriculum initiative, from conception to execution. University leaders initiated the program during the racially fueled national tumult of 2020, in an effort to develop in students an ability to build inclusive teams while leading across different cultures. The university studied many commercially available diversity and inclusion educational programs but deemed them unsuitable for a military academy setting, and instead, developed its own. The Naval Academy’s Stockdale Center for Ethical Leadership led this endeavor. Its leaders started by compiling learning outcomes drawn partly from the U.S. Navy’s broader diversity and inclusion efforts and partly from the leaders’ belief that an ability to work across cultures represented an integral part of learning how to lead. The learning outcomes included all three domains of learning: cognitive, behavioral, and affective.