Education As A Social Institution Essay

Howard, T.G. (2010). Why Race and Culture Matter in Schools: Closing the Achievement Gap in

In the reading, Culture and Power in the Classroom: A Critical Foundation for Bicultural Education, Antonia Darder argues that education is a critical tool and necessity for the advancement of people of color. She highlights that education is tied to status, which in turn, then gives you power in society. She helps us see many of the flaws in the school system that prevents students of color from excelling in the academic world. She points to us, that although there are many things within the school institution itself that fail students of color over and over again, the blame is always placed on the individual. She also highlights that there are many myths about students of color that say that their failure is tied to coming from cultures and backgrounds that do not value education. Finally, Darder argues that conservative educators hurt bicultural student’s education, and liberal educators, although may seem the better option, still fail to attack the institutions that help foster failure in the education setting. They also end up alluding to student failure to individual failure.

Many cultural groups are entitled to maintain their traditional attitudes, values, and especially languages; the lack of educational achievement and improvement is sometimes caused by the problem of a different

An impressive 16.2% of students in the Federal Way public school system self-identify as Hispanic (U.S. Census, 2013) [primary]. Of these students, 23.9% are foreign born (U.S. Census, 2013) [primary]. These students are often multilingual, switching to Spanish when home. In fact, 32.4 percent of students speak a different language at home (U.S. Census, 2013) [primary]. It should not come as a surprise that language is a major component of one’s culture. Most American schools place a heavy emphasis on

In educational institutions they ignore certain students by being unaware of students’ funds of knowledge and their truth depth of knowledge. (Rios-Aguilar 164) Students have a wide understanding over a range of topics, but schools maintain a deficit perception of culture when it does not adhere to the dominant education system. If we were to bridge funds of knowledge and capital we would have the potential to have a better insight into students’ opportunities and experience in educational institutions. (Rios-Aguilar 163) Wolfram et a. clarifies how essential it is for students to attend a school that acknowledge distinct cultures and backgrounds, “When schools do not systematically accommodate different language varieties, some group of students do less well in the gate-keeping activates that determine program access, placement, and progress (Wolfram et a. 87) Program (such as AVID, honors, etc.) may have an essential role in college acceptance. Schools should allocate their resources and funding towards equipping teachers with imperative skills and knowledge to teach students from all socioeconomic backgrounds. Some of the qualities of a superior teacher are being academically prepared, knowledgeable about the subject they are teaching, and hold an interest in students’ needs. Having a good teacher is essential to a student’s success. (Watanabe

In the article, “What is a Culturally Responsive Educator?” the author makes a point that students at the age of eight already have a decreased desire to learn and low self-esteem. School is to blame for damaging their language, culture, and identity. The demographics of the population is changing. In the future, individuals that are born will be in the minority based on their ethnicity and race. This is not just happening in the cities, but especially in the rural communities. Teachers need to remember culture is not left at the door; it follows everyone into the classroom.

“Culturally relevant pedagogy rests on three criteria or propositions: (a) Students must experience academic success; (b) students must develop and/or maintain cultural competence; and (c) students must develop a critical consciousness through which they challenge the status quo of the current social order” (Ladson-Billings, 1995, p.161). For academic success, teachers have to teach the students in a way that gets students to choose academic success. For cultural competence, teachers need to utilize the student’s culture as a “vehicle for learning” (Bilings, 1995, p.162). Finally for critical consciousness, the teacher needs to promote the students to think critically about the world around them (Ladson-Billings, 1995).

For supervisors and teachers to promote a school culture that embraces and supports a diverse community, they should be culturally responsive. That is, they must believe that all students could potentially attain success in their academic endeavors. Students should also be provided with access to quality programs and services. Acknowledging their culture, language, and experiences can be helpful as well. These aforementioned factors must be utilized to facilitate the students’ learning and development. Glickman, Gordon, & Ross-Gordon (2014) made a powerful and profound statement about embracing and supporting culturally responsive schools. They said, “If we need to change schools and the way we teach to close the achievement gap, then addressing

To promote a working level of cultural competence in the school, we would need to address the fact that minorities aren’t always granted the opportunity to receive high standards of education. Providing quality education should be universal, but that’s not always the case. Minorities are categorized by their socioeconomic status in relation to misconceived ideas about race. Being culturally competent is importance because it allows leaders

Here we commence deconstructing our tapestry. Analyzing where we sit on the Cultural Proficiency Continuum of destructiveness, incapacity, blindness, pre-competence and competence. (Cultural Proficiency, A Manual for School Leaders, 2nd Ed. Lindsey, Robins, and Terrell, 2003.) We explore our emotional connections to cultural differences; we interpret how our beliefs affect our daily interactions and learning, we describe and classify our judgments. Once each thread is scrutinized, we actualize our new "fabric of community that learning, and living,

In the 1990's Multicultural education has started to address the educational guidelines to help society understand there are various ways to express cultural through education. Richard Rothstein found that during the immigration period from 1880 to 1915, few Americans succeeded in school, least of all immigrants; immigrants of all backgrounds did poorly. Instead, it was the children and grandchildren of European immigrants who fared well in school, but the myth that first-generation immigrants "made it," at least in terms of academics, is firmly established in the public psyche. (Nieto & Bode, 2012). At one time Immigrants used public schools just to fit in. Today protesters and other open-minded groups are trying to preserve native cultures. A lot of immigrant’s parents understand children will do well if the native language education protected the culture at home. But others felt their children's integration mandates teaching in English only.

In this qualitative study Bourdieu’s theoretical framework of social reproduction as it relates to social and cultural capital and the concepts of field and habitus, demonstrate issues related to academic language literacy among EL students in the public school English/language arts classroom setting. There is a cultural disconnect for students not of the dominant culture, therefore they “feel they must learn the codes of power or intentionally underachieve in order to maintain cultural integrity” (Howard, 2010). There has been much research regarding deficit thinking and the notion that particular groups of people performed academically lower than other groups due to lacking language development (Valencia & Black, 2002). In the 21st century of education, cultural deficit theory is prevalent in public schools across the state and country. Cultural deficit theory is defined as having eurocentric beliefs, ways of being, communicating (Howard, 2010, p.29), While Valencia (1997) further explain deficit thinking as EL families have internal deficits that contribute to why EL students are underperforming academically to

. According to John Dewey education plays a large role in the development of an individual and it is an element that separates humans from other animals. It is important to try to comprehend what Dewey means by this and in order to do so the following must be done. First, one must understand the role education plays in an individual and Dewey’s notions of education in the areas of growth, direction and social function. Second, after comprehending Dewey’s notions of education in the areas of growth, direction, and social function, one must be able to grasp the distinction between education as a social function and the simple notion of training and what sets these two apart. Third, after being able to comprehend the notions of education and the distinction between education as a social function and training, the idea of why education is distinctive of human life will be further developed.

Education is one of the most important factors in every person’s life regardless of where they’re from, their race, or their culture. Becoming educated not only makes life easier for us but also can help people become more successful in all things. However with so many people of various races, ethnicities and backgrounds in the United States it is difficult to create an education system that attends to each student’s individual culture. Ones own culture influences their actions and lifestyle, therefore this can create conflict if it is different from their schools cultural teaching style. Multicultural and multilingual classrooms have become the norm in many educational and professional settings throughout the U.S. because of changing immigration patterns caused by globalization (Institute for Educational Leadership, p. 2). For teachers today, it is essential to understand the role of culture and have the ability to interact interculturally in the classroom to create an effective learning environment. Analyzing cultural issues or differences can help teachers to understand some of the unconscious processes that shape individuals’ actions and interactions, as well as their language use and communication. “Teachers who understand cultural diversity…are more likely to be successful in their multicultural classrooms” (Samovar, Pg.2).

The education system has been a controversial issue among educators. Requirements of school do not let student choose what they want to study for their future. It’s a big issue to force student study specific curriculums, which don’t help them improve, and what they like to create something. Educators choose a general system for education to all students which based on general knowledge. Intelligent or genius students have to be in that system of education, which doesn’t let them improve their creativity. Educators attempt to change that system to make it better, but their changing was not that great to be an example for the world. Also, did that change qualify education system to compete other systems or not? In some examples and