Discrimination and Intolerable Acts Within the Primary Classroom

In this essay, I am going to explain the main ways of promoting anti-discriminatory practice, which are; implementing government policies and guidelines at local level by managers and employees, staff training and development, challenging work colleagues who demonstrate discriminatory behaviour and telling a higher authority when rules are broken. I am also going to give examples of these strategies being used in a setting, give difficulties to each strategy and also justify ways of overcoming the difficulties.

My first awareness of racial identity and diversity occurred when I was in Year 3. Having being raised acknowledging acceptance of people of racial or cultural difference my thoughts of children of colour were positive and impartial. However, one day a boy in my class of Sri Lankan descent got into trouble with another student, but only the Sri Lankan boy was asked to go to the principal’s office. During our lunch break he came over to a group of us and told us that he thought he was the one that got into trouble ‘because he was ‘black’’. I remember thinking to myself, ‘why would he get into trouble just because he was black?’ It was in fact that both boys

It is paramount to protect the child from any form of discrimination, and witnessing any display of discrimination cannot be ignored or the child will think that the way they have just been treated is normal? They may in some way feel inferior, and they may also feel let down that their rights were not protected. It is important to know the correct policy and procedure when faced with a case of discrimination.

“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.

Children and young people can experience prejudice and discrimination from their earliest social encounters with others. Prejudice is an unreasonable or unfair dislike or preconceived negative view of individuals belonging to a particular group. Discrimination is the bigoted behaviour of singling out a particular person or group for different treatment than the others. Both of these unacceptable responses usually arise as a result of ignorance of the benefits of diversity and a primal impulse of ‘group mentality’.

We can promote anti-discriminatory practice by: being a good role model in everything we do; promoting children diversity and individuality; given equal opportunities to all; promoting children participation in the learning process; being aware that “every child matters” as an individual; having good expectations (and not prejudice or discrimination) of all children; supporting a positive ethos within the school; giving pupils the confidence and skills to

Discrimination and prejudice interfere with people’s rights to have access to equality of opportunity and hinder the promotion of diversity, and they should have no place in a children’s setting.

How to minimize the hurts of non-white children once their belief on the theory of a society is fair and equality is completely collapsed when the reality is happening in the opposite. In the reading “Why the Myth of Meritocracy Hurts Kids of Color” Mildred Boveda, an assistant education professor at Arizona State University, said: “I will admit that it sometimes felt risky to tackle these difficult conversations, but this [research] underscores why we cannot equivocate when it comes to preparing our children to face injustices.” I agree with her opinion. Because finding the proper solutions to fully empower and equipping the best knowledge that can help children cope better is not easy, but it is the responsibility of the family, the school, and society. The three elements need to act and work together in an effort to dare to speak about the truths mentioned above.

The UN Convention on the rights of the child article 28 says that ''Every child has the right to an education'' article 2 says'' The convention applies to every child whatever their ethnicity, gender, religion, abilities, whatever they think or say, no matter what type of family they come from''. Schools have a duty to adhere to this legislation, they way that they do this is by adopting anti-discriminatory and inclusive practices. In order for us to promote these practices we must firstly understand how they impact on children and young people and what would happen if we did not promote them.

The setting needs to make children fully aware of the impact that discrimination has on others. In early care and education, the school follows an anti-bias curriculum this ensures that the end result is creating secure, respectful and mutual relationships that value diversity amongst other people. From an early age children and young people begin to build a sense of self, gender and racial identity. Practitioners need to develop children’s identities and self-esteem, help children to feel comfortable if they are different to others, create awareness of bias and stereotypes also provide children with the tools to react appropriately to bias. Anti-bias is an effective approach to the identification and challenging prejudicial and discriminatory practices in relationships between others. The following reasons are why anti-discriminatory are so important in the setting: It sets a good example, it creates and good and comfortable atmosphere, encourages children to see themselves and others as individuals, helps boost a child’s self-esteem, ensures equal opportunities for all children and makes sure that all children are included and nobody is every left

Anti-bias education is important for young children because children begin to recognize differences early on in life. (Derman-Sparks) My current understanding of anti-bias education for young children is to teach the children how to accept diversity and respect the differences between each other. I believe an anti-bias education provides the children with the opportunity to gain a sense of self along with feeling reassurance with other differences. As a future educator of young children, I need to be mindful that children create their attitudes and identities through interactions related to different experiences, such as their bodies, cognitive developmental stage, and their social environment. (Derman-Sparks) The variety of biases that exist in the children’s world need to be addressed in order to teach the children how to think critically about fairness; therefore, the children can learn how to oppose the bias. (Derman-Sparks) Likewise, my views about anti-bias education have changed because of the innovative information presented to me. I knew an anti-bias curriculum was essential for young children, but I did not know how important it truly was. My views of an anti-bias education mainly focused on holidays because I knew it would not be appropriate to only celebrate the holidays from one culture or religion. My views about anti-bias education grew because I understand that the overall goals of an anti-bias education are to enable the children to think

Oppression and discrimination has plagued our society since early times. As a collective society one would think that over time oppression and discrimination would turn into acceptance and equality. Conversely, our society has taken sluggish steps towards diversity, acceptance and equality. Our society is focused on labeling people and putting them into limiting boxes. Oppression occurs across various groups of people based on gender, sex, race, religion, and disability. Members of these diverse groups are discriminated among work places, schools, and other places. Work places and schools promote diversity and non-discrimination, however little seems to be practiced. Oppression across generation leaves damaging consequences hindering society in the growth towards a more accepting environment.

Markedly, there is a huge difference between a want and a need; therefore, teachers the distinctive concept of equality and fairness is not synonymous. For instance, if a student needs to put on glasses when in class to see the board clearly, equality would suggest that all student in the classroom are given glasses, on the other hand, fairness would be to ensure that the child is in a position to where his or her glasses. In essence, teachers must foster and create an opening and nurturing classroom environment for their students in order for them to successfully distinguish the teacher’s definition of fairness and the child’s definition of fairness. Arguably, this is one of the biggest challenges faced by teachers in ensuring that teaching strategies are appropriate for children who are culturally diverse. In conclusion, a teacher cannot effectively teach students to his or her fullest potential without having a fundamental understanding of a child’s disability or ethnic and cultural background. Therefore, it should be every teacher’s goal for all students in his or her class to exceed

I am a woman who believes that all people should be equal. This could mean that they get the same opportunities to succeed. This could also be interpreted that I would want racial, sexuality, and or gender barriers to be challenged.

I saw it as an effective exercise in transpection that enables that participants to experience how discrimination affects motivation, performance, perceptive. Do I believe it is necessary to teach the children about prejudice, racism, discrimination in a classroom setting? Yes, but only if it involves teaching their parents and only if it involves capitalizing on the resilience and strength that diversity has to offer by teaching them about the benefits of diversity.