Embrace Diversity Classroom

The United States population is filled with diverse individuals. It is important for educators to understand that diversity in classrooms is not just based on race but ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender, economic status, learning disabilities, and etc. It may not affect your student directly but it can be a part of their family background. Educators may assume that students have the same social or educational status of each other which in some cases is not true. If they assume that every student is on the same academic level, the students may suffer educationally or emotionally. Teachers need to understand that all students grow and progress at different times and it is up to an educator to help start their growth in the right direction and to make each child feel accepted. Yale University () discussed how it can affect teachers if they do not understand how to assess diversity, “teachers may themselves feel out of place based on their own ascriptive traits (i.e. differences based on class, privilege, etc.).” Diversity in classrooms is becoming more frequent and educators need to understand how to properly assess their student’s based on their educational needs and how to teach other students how each of them are different individually. There is no right choice to teach diversity but it is something that needs to implemented in classrooms.

Poverty is a serious issue which our society and children faces every day. It is a constant struggle that shouldn’t be ignored. UNICEF states “The study of OECD countries in 2007, over fourteen percent of Australian children under the age of eighteen are currently living in households who are defined as poor or with incomes less than half of the median national income”. The increase in the number and percentage of children living in poverty within our society has contributed to making today's classrooms more diverse than ever it has been. This highlights and makes both teaching and learning more challenging. Diversity exists in the students who are living in poverty and the education assistant and teachers must provide the concept of diversity

I grew up in an city that is home to five top tier private colleges and has a higher than national average household income. As a city that has banned fast food within its limits, prohibits overnight street parking, and is referred to as, “The City of Trees and PhDs,” the sheer description of Claremont, California offers a generic picture of elitism. Claremont, however, is a different type of southern California town. Spending 18 years in this small suburban town, I came to appreciate Claremont as a strong community that consistently used its privilege to exhibit the most altruism. I found my first passion for volunteering with the Prison Library Project, a group with the mission of providing inmates around the nation with educational and self-healing reading

Diversity is understanding that everyone is unique and recognizing everyone’s individual characteristics. These can be along the lines of so many things including race and ethnicity. It is about understanding each and every person and moving apart from resistance to embracing and performing the easy elements of diversity incorporated with each individual. Multiculturalism is thought of as the teaching that no other culture is naturally exceptional to another. It is meant to teach tolerance and understanding of people who share different sights, and participate in different traditions. Diversity and Multiculturalism should be taught in schools so students can understand the differences and similarities of all the different cultures.

Brisbane Catholic Education ensures that schools are an inclusive, supportive and engaging environment for all students, staff and caregivers. It strives to build a community that values, celebrates and responds to diversity (Brisbane Catholic Education, 2015). Catholic schools cater for students who have a diverse range of personal characteristics and experiences. These characteristics and experience include various physical, religious, cultural, personal health or wellbeing, intellectual, psychological, socio-economic or life experiences (Queensland Catholic Education Commission, ______). This diversity provides an opportunity to embellish the communal life of the school (Brisbane Catholic Education, 2015). This essay will

Diversity in the classroom can come in many forms, these include but are not limited to differences in language, culture, social status, religion, and learning styles. As educators, it will be our job to make sure that we are able to support our diverse students in their learning, and it is also essential that we make our classroom a place where diversity is accepted and all students feel safe engaging in the learning. Not all students that we encounter will have been exposed to diversity and it is our job to help them recognize that underneath all the differences, there are so many important similarities. The best way to do this according to Matthew Lynch “is to provide students with ample evidence that people that don’t look like them are, at the core, people just like them. Such a viewpoint can be taught by promoting a culture of learning from one another rather than a culture of passing judgment on differences in values and beliefs” (2012). By teaching our students to embrace diversity, we are creating an environment where all our students can thrive.

Additionally, teachers need to promote diversity in the classroom by teaching children that everyone is different and special in a unique way. Addressing cultural diversity in school will prepare students for the real world, as it provides the chance to experience different opportunities outside of what they normally used to. According to the article in figure 1and 2 Zhou illustrate the Asian youth generation achieve higher level of education compared to other groups such as Hispanic because the Asian child population is less dominant in metropolitan areas, which allows them to experience many different cultures and many opportunities are available to them. That relates to a class I observed, a teacher make sure his class reflects diversity

No one can deny the fact that the United States is rapidly becoming a more culturally and ethnically diverse nation. If the information from The Census Bureau, which projects that by the year 2100, the U.S. minority population will become the majority with non-Hispanic whites making up only 40% of the U.S. population is anything to go by, it is clear beyond any reasonable doubt that we need to prepare the coming generations to comfortably embrace this change (Great Schools Staff, 2015). The subject of social diversity can therefore no longer be ignored since as a matter of fact, its impacts are already here with us. Public schools are becoming more diverse, and both the teachers and the students are feeling the impact. Teachers should therefore be actively involved in preparing their students to be tolerant to this change and teaching them how to interact in a diverse environment.

There is a strong importance that diversity brings to the classroom. School systems need it and should welcome diversity. Problems only occur when teachers reject the idea of diversity or fail to understand the classroom or group. Students should be understood before teaching can be effective. There are both strengths and weakness’ that diversity brings so it must be understood.

Identity, race, and ethnicity are important qualities that create the diversity within a classroom. They must be acknowledged and understood by teachers in order to provide students with the tools they need to succeed in the science content area. “Teachers need to be open to the fact that racism still operates in structural and interpersonal ways” (Ullucci & Battey, 2011, p. 1196). By being open to the fact that students within classrooms are diverse in more ways than just race, teachers have the ability to use that diversity to enhance engagement and interest in the learning environment and science content. Interest is key in making sure that students become life long learners of the content and potentially pursue a science related career

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 of segregation in the U.S. My parents taught me to be tolerant of all humans, no matter what they look like, how they dress, or their sexual orientation. My family has always been liberal thinkers who taught me the dark history of racism and bigotry in this country. As an educator I would be accepting to all race, creeds, and religious peoples.

Within the core of many educational institutions, diversity is a commercial tacit. While every institution cannot offer the same kind of diversity, the endorsement of such exists through various definitions. The Western Association of Schools and Colleges define diversity through the various classes: race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, gender, disability, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, and age (“Statement on Diversity”)

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

School leaders strive to create the best learning environment within the school they operate; however, the teachers are the ones to implement the grand educational plan. In their journey to achieve excellence, the teachers must consider multiple factors that will have an effect on students’ psychological and social development. In addition, the issue of minorities is changing the dynamics of education. While student populations were never really homogeneous, the past couple of decades of exceptional growth in student diversity, plus the widening economic gap among students have produced even larger and increasing academic and cultural differences among students. Often times, diversity is being neglected and even looked down upon. “Teachers must be prepared to assist culturally and economically diverse students to ensure their academic and social success” (Ormond, 2006, p.16). One of the goals of education is to provide all children with equality of opportunity.

My first field experiment was very necessary for me to observe the ways of a successful teacher. It contributed to me learning how to deal with diversity, classroom control, and accommodation for different learning styles. In my field experiment, I focused on diversity and how it plays a huge part in how the students interact and learn within the classroom. Diversity simply put, is to have variety or differences inside of a group. Diversity in the classroom may include: exceptionalities, culture, language, learning style and gender. Different types of diversities in a classroom can if not recognized, and accommodated for hinder the learning environment. As a successful teacher, it is necessary to demonstrate an understanding for diversity