Diversity in Today's Society

Diversity is very visible in the schools within the United States. When you enter most classrooms you see students from different nationalities. As the immigrant population continues to grow in the U.S., teachers need to make sure they take everyone’s culture into consideration when teaching. It is important for teachers to create an atmosphere where all cultures are recognized and respected. Teachers should ensure to use culturally responsive practices in order to be able to engage all the student and their families, despite where they come from.

Multilingual programs have the potential to segregate and disadvantage children; yet, they also can be a valuable tool for educators to address student’s needs. Proposition 58 puts the power of choice in the hands of parents and educators, who best know the students affected. Therefore, after thorough analysis, I am a supporter of this

The greatest concern of mandating “English only” schools in California for example is that 80 percent of the population of students is Latino. Miner further explains, “Good bilingual programs are about more than learning a language, it should be about respect for diversity and multiculturalism (Bilingual Education, 1999).”

According to Gleason and Ratner (2013), “In the United States, the proportion of children who are raised learning more than one language is estimated to be about 20 percent, with Spanish becoming the most common second language (Gleason & Ratner, 2013, p. 75). My interview this week was with a teacher, Mrs. T, who teaches young English learners. Mrs. T teaches children who are in the first grade. Because the school has a growing Hispanic population, the native language of the children she teaches is Spanish. The interview took place in her classroom during the last hour of the school day. I observed as she worked with one of her students in particular who seems to

This course has really enlightened my view of being able to learn the value of linguistic and cultural diversity and the influential learning opportunities it gives today’s classrooms and schools. We as teacher educators were allowed to examine our attitudes, beliefs, and preferences regarding linguistically and culturally diverse students, families, and communities and learn methods for working together to confirm high levels of learning for all students. Also, strategies for guaranteeing

Education in the New Latino Diaspora also discusses how language barriers can occur within the schools. Yolanda told me that she experienced language barriers here plenty of times. While her daughters have the advantage of being native English speakers, Yolanda does not. The reading states, “In some places, growth of the new Latino diaspora helps explain the proliferation of classroom trailers and the shortage of teachers, particularly those trained in TESOL (Teaching of English to Speakers of Other Languages)” (Hamann and Harklau, page 160)

“The multicultural training movement has indeed contributed to a greater and much needed understanding of the differences among various racial, ethnic, and cultural groups (Speight, Myers, Cox and Highlen, 1991).” In looking at this statement counselors will need to expand their thinking outside of the Western European contexts. There is a difference between Western culture and other cultures. Sue & Sue, 2012 states “ each cultural/racial group may have its own distinct interpretation of reality and offer a different perspective on the nature of people, the origin of disorders, standards for judging normality and abnormality, and therapeutic approaches. (p. 45).” As we are brought together with more cultures it is imperative to understand the differences, which will enable counselors to become culturally competent.

Diversity exists all across the United States. It is defined as the state of having people who are different races or who have different cultures in a group or organization, according to Merriam-Webster dictionary. Along with the ever-growing diversity in America, brings along intercultural communication. Intercultural communication can be defined as a situated communication between individuals or groups of different linguistic and cultural origins. Due to the limitless amounts of diversity and intercultural communication across the United States, misunderstandings and clashes between cultures are bound to occur. These clashes have been as extreme to be used to explain violence and crime not only in the United States, but also throughout our entire nation. On the other end, these cultural clashes can be so personal in our everyday lives because of our expectations of a certain behavior coming from our own cultural backgrounds, as many others have very different cultural backgrounds and expectations of us.

"As a Texan, I have known many immigrant's families, mainly from Mexico, and I've seen what they add to our country. They bring to America the values of faith in God, love of family, hard work, and self-reliance; the values that made us a great nation to begin with (Ortiz)". One of our great president, George W. Bush, said these enhancing words and it now concerns me in this day of time. That now the world wants to imprison the Hispanic culture all for varies stereotypes. With President Trump theory of the wall this will cause many more issues not only with Hispanic immigrates but within America itself. Without the construction of the wall, America wouldn’t be wasting money, it will keep generating diversity and wall wouldn’t go against our founding father's rules and regulations.

The United States population continues to increase in racial and ethnic diversity, therefore, it is pertinent that mental health professionals tailor their services to the needs of various cultural populations (Constantine, Kindaichi, Arorash, Donnelly, & Jung, 2002). The awareness that ethnic minorities experience negative consequences from being oppressed, resulted in the multicultural competence pedagogy and has helped counselors identify effective strategies to generate social change (Hage, 2003; Vera & Speight, 2003). Social norms that cause these injustices are identified, allowing for ethnic minorities to constitute and embrace empowerment. Moreover, this consciousness helps prevent therapists own bias’ from playing

I am currently at a placement site, where there is not much diversity when it comes to race. Many of my students consider themselves white or non hispanic with the exception of seven students. Out of those seven, two identify as African American, three identify as hispanic and the other two identify with two or more races. Besides race, I have diversity amongst gender, socioeconomic status, learning styles, accommodations, and modifications. My classes are comprised of more females than males who come from a variety of socioeconomic backgrounds. Some of the students come from well off families with occupations such as pastors, educators, military personnel, business owners, and doctors while others come from farmers, grocery store workers, restaurant employees and construction workers. Though there is nothing wrong with the occupations of the parents, it is obvious that there is a difference between the

From the data, one theme that was deduced from repeating data was discrimination. Marissa’s school sent a letter to her parent’s saying she needed to be evaluated for ESL, when English is the official language of her home country. Because she uses a dialect and pronounces her words differently from the mainstream American society, they assume she is English deficient, a language bias because she is an immigrant. As stated by P. Rudy Mattai in the article ‘Rethinking the Nature of Multicultural Education: Has it Lost its Focus or is it Being Misused?’ “…the affirmation of minority culture in various bilingual, bicultural and ethnic programs represent a direct challenge to the centrality of Anglo values in the school curriculum and the notion that minority culture and language are “naturally” deficient…” (p. 69).

In the USA one of the most diverse place on earth, one would think that cultural diversity would not be an issue that needed to be addressed or be an issue at all. Right? I mean this country is probably the only place on earth where you can find nearly any nationality, ethnicity and type of people living among each other. You have Blacks, Chinese, gays, lesbians, transgender people, whites, Europeans, Africans, Middle Eastern people, Asians, and Hispanics, all on one piece of land. How can cultural diversity be a problem when the land is made up of so many different types of people? Shouldn't cultural diversity be striving in America? Unfortunately, in many parts of the USA, cultural diversity is lacking. Some of the many places that cultural diversity is lacking in the US is television, movies, the workplace, and schools. If you ever watched a movie or a TV show you mostly see one type of group being represented. For example, let's look some TV shows that take place in NYC. Let's look at friends, Seinfeld, Will and Grace, Sex and The City and How I Meet Your Mother, these shows

The second classroom I observed was a first grade class of twenty-five students. Students in this class were all of Mexican descent and labeled as early intermediate English language learners. The

We live in a society where people come from different countries, they belong to different cultural, religion, ethnic groups, and races. All these factors come together and contributes to differences that make us unique from each other. Hence, a multicultural country with huge diversity. This reflection journal will cover what “human race” is and what role it plays in ones’ personal life and in a nursing profession. Moreover, what bias, assumptions and judgements are, and how to avoid them. Lastly, what caring is and what role does it play in nursing.