Black And White: Diversity Issues Between Professors

“Start Where You Are But Don’t Stay There” by Richard Milner is a book about dealing with diversity in the classroom in today’s day and age. It holds a focus on allowing all students to be successful academically and throughout their lives. Milner talks about several different case studies in which teachers must help students who are struggling. It goes through scenarios with Mr. Hall, Dr. Johnson, Mr. Jackson, and Ms. Shaw, who are all struggling with diversity in different ways. This book holds an importance in expressing ideas and concerns of equality in schools, and I believe it would be beneficial for all aspiring educators to read it.

Schools systematically subjugate minority and black students when a school’s enrollment contains a huge racial majority. If students have no exposure to persons of different ethnicities, cultures, races, and religions, then these students will experience culture shock when they confront “other” people. Even in our class, we talk about black and minority students as another group, one that differs from “us.” We think about the inequalities in school systems as problems we need to fix, not as problems that have influenced our thinking and affect us as prospective teachers. For example, a white graduate student with

Racial diversity is something that is often discussed on college campuses. As a student who self-identifies as a minority in more ways than one I often feel like I have a pretty good understanding of the subject of racism and race. However, often times when these issue are discussed I learn something new; this was the case when reading the articles this week. This week’s articles examined the issue of race from different perspectives. This allowed me to re-examine the issue in a fuller manner; it also allowed me to question some of my own notions that I hadn’t really challenged before.

INTRO: Prompt: What should “diversity on campus” mean and why? Hook: Does diversity help liberate narrow-mindedness? What exactly is diversity? To say that diversity is approached on school campuses is an understatement to the level of understanding in this increasingly globalized world. By its definition, “diversity” requires inclusion. Are school’s really working toward the inclusion of everyone? This means including color, national origin, socio-economic status, and sexual orientation. Looking at court cases and polls shown in the short articles, “Introduction from Place, Not Race: A New Vision of Opportunity in America” and “The Trouble with Diversity: How We Learned to Love Identity and Ignore Inequality,” their approach to strengthening

A conversation needs to be had regarding the effects of diversity. Diversity in practical terms is the inclusion of people from different walks of life whether it be color, race, or heritage. This topic is one that is sensitive for many people because of the history attached to this subject. In the past decade there has been instances where the supreme court has had to address the topic of “Diversity” to justify this ongoing debate. Like in the supreme court, college campuses have also discussed diversity in their college for a multitude of reasons. Additionally, they too have found many reoccurring problems relating to diversity, which will be addressed in this paper.

A.1. Demographic Changes One of the larger changes in our workforce is that the employee population is becoming more and more diverse. The U.S Bureau of Labor Statistics states that the workforce in 2014 was made up primarily by Caucasians coming in at 79%. African Americans, Asians, American Indians, Alaska Natives, and race list as “other” made up the additional working population (BLS Reports, 2014). Although when looking these different races individually you wouldn’t think that they are a large part of the population. But when you are talking about 21% of our workforce, that is a large number. Looking at the number of people by race actually work is also very interesting. Native Hawaiian 70%, Pacific Islanders 66%, Hispanics/Latinos, Asians 64.6%, Caucasians 63.5% , 63.3% of people descending from two or more races, African Americans 61.2%, and American Indian and Alaska Natives 59.6% (BLS Reports, 2014). Over the last three years our school as went from being a primarily caucasian school to a school with a diverse population. I believe this has made our school strong and offered more of an opportunity for the students and staff to emerge and understand the diverse culture we have all around us. Understand and teaching our students will make a student population that will themselves be more knowledgeable and understanding of the

Growing up as a minority in a close-knit small town with people of various other cultures around the world, diversity is a topic I am accustomed to. However, in the entirety of my eighteen years on this earth, I had never attended a university-level diversity lecture. Dr. Mindy West’s faculty lecture on Friday the twenty eighth of October at three in the afternoon, in the BAC building was my first university-level lecture on diversity. Dr. West’s lecture on diversity to the half-full room of anxious business students shocked and astonished me on multiple different levels.

However, there are questions as to whether or not teachers possess biases that would influence their teaching methods and curriculum. Taking a class in educational diversity is only a start in addressing those biases that may have been unconsciously created. It is the writer’s sincere hope that researching and writing a paper on multicultural education will be a stepping stone toward the critical examination of biases and practices in regards to diversity in the classroom that will continue to influence the readers throughout their educational

The first category, faculty attitudes and beliefs, includes but is not limited to the faculty’s expectations for the students of color and understanding of student’s educational, economic, personal background. The second category, faculty treatment and interaction with students of color, includes how the faculty member consciously and unconsciously interacts with the student both inside and outside the classroom. The third category, course pedagogy and curriculum, refers to the methods and theories used by the professor to instruct their class, as well as, the presence of diversity in the course material. Lastly, classroom climate and culture refers to the environment cultivated by the professor in the classroom. Creating an inclusive classroom environment is difficult because sometimes faculty members are not aware of the “forced” exclusion between peers that occurs in student grouping, conversations during breaks, and/or the ignoring or shutting down of a student of color in class discussions. Despite the difficulty that comes with identifying the covert or “invisible” dynamics present in the classroom, it is the faculty member’s responsibility to provide all students with the opportunity to engage meaningfully with course material,

Inclusive Leadership Cultural Competence One of the major problems of working in an ethnocentric environment is that when diversity knocks on our door we are not always prepared to meet it. Although I do believe that according to construct 2 (13.2) our administrators are competent enough to address diversity issues I feel that the lack of such sometimes causes us to not be adequately prepared. As Holme et al (2014) suggest, we must be culturally responsive to our students’ needs from the top down (p. 61). This is to say that our administrators should be well prepared to deal with issues of diversity and then be able to hand this down to their staff and ultimately express this sentiment to the student population.

Diversity in the workplace has been a topic of interest to many organizational leaders, policy makers and practitioners in the field of organizational psychology. According to Bell and Berry (2007), the report for workforce of 2000 was minority (i.e. Black, Hispanic etc.) women will make up most entrants to the workforce. The United States workforce did increase and became more diversified mostly in private sector (Pitts, 2006). This topic of diversity in the workplace is close to my heart because I am an African-American woman which happens to be mixed as well but since I am of darker complexion I am solely seen as Black which means I have experienced some racism within corporate America. My dilemma however; is because I love all people and happen to be of mixed race I know racism exist but believe it is not always the reason behind the behaviors many deem as prejudice.

Correcting extended years of discrimination and prejudice requires active efforts, and as such these efforts to elevate the marginalized are often viewed as discriminatory themselves. Workplace diversity programs are established with generally good intentions, but their implementation is often not the best means by which to accomplish the intended goal. Current efforts, perhaps ironically, attempt to legislate “one-size-fits-all” solutions by outlining a list of acceptable and unacceptable actions, creating an environment where discipline and blame are placed at the forefront. Human psychology, particularly cognitive biases, plays a vital role in diversity roadblocks and why current programs falter or fail. One study done in Stanford had presented

Once students and teachers are aware of cultural differences, they become aware of racism and can fight to eradiate it. Through their unbiased understanding of the differences between cultures and races, they are able to come to a point of acceptance of themselves and others. If you noticed in my previous paragraph, I mentioned the different types of diversity. Diversity emphasizes how different students and teachers are, but when explored in a classroom, can be used to reveal our similarities. Once students and teachers grasp the concept of diversity, displayed through everyday interactions with diverse groups of students and teachers, racism begins to disappear. In addition, positive sense of self can be developed once students and teachers have an understanding of their own uniqueness through experiences and understanding of diversity. Once teachers and students

Since I started this class, I have a learned a great deal about cultural diversity in the classroom and abroad. My perspective has changed slightly but my knowledge of this subject has improved. In my family, my father taught me about the civil rights movement and the evils

Sep 16, 2014 |By Katherine W. Phillips 0 The first thing to acknowledge about diversity is that it can be difficult. In the U.S., where the dialogue of inclusion is relatively advanced, even the mention of the word “diversity” can lead to anxiety and conflict. Supreme Court justices disagree on the virtues of diversity and the means for achieving it. Corporations spend billions of dollars to attract and manage diversity both internally and externally, yet they still face discrimination lawsuits, and the leadership ranks of the business world remain predominantly white and male.