Multiculturalism and Discrimination in the Classroom

non-colored students. To obtain more details about these, I will be utilizing outside sources including, Gillian White’s article, “The Data are Damning: How Race Influences School Funding” and Seth Gershenson’s essay, “The Power of Teacher Expectations: How racial bias hinders student attainment”. These two sources directly correlate with the aspects of schools I want to focus upon. In fact, both of these are multi-modal as they have not only historical facts and personal testimonies, but also statistical data that illustrates how much racial bias is incorporated when deciding how much funds a school receives or how some faculty decide to treat certain groups of students. Referencing this data will definitely strengthen and give my claims a lot of credibility, leading me towards the end of my essay. To convince the remainder of audience who wants even more evidence than what I have presented, I will be ending my essay explaining the negative impact racial bias not only has upon lower grade public schools, but how it is affecting future college students as well. Jackie Kerstetter’s article “Racial bias hinder college degree attainment” extends upon my previous claims about teachers exhibiting racial bias has a negative impact upon colored students for the rest

As a teacher, it is important to know and understand the racial and cultural identities of both yourself, and your students. Knowing about your students’ backgrounds is a great way to make the classroom a safe and welcoming environment. Not all educational settings emit a feeling of safety to its students, and that needs to be changed. In this paper, I will discuss how my racial and cultural identity may be the same and may differ from my students, as well as some ways in which the institution of education can be changed to be more racially and culturally inclusive.

Research has been conducted and the study showed that, "Latino students perceived that teachers' actions escalated disciplinary problems and believed that administrators used unfair and discriminatory practices"(90). Educators will never be able to teach students if the students perceive them as being racist. The degree to which education for cultural diversity is realized depends on the teacher's attitudes, knowledge, and behavior. They make the mistake of mismatching their own life experiences and professional training. Le Roux realizes that an increasing diverse school population encounters a mostly middle-class teaching force that is inadequately prepared to manage the reality of diversity in schools, and that is due to lack of knowledge of diversity (46). He also states that some teachers make the mistake of generalizing about particular ethnic groups and cultural groups, as a result of being exposed during training to information about culture; that is very dangerous in itself. Educators also focus mostly on general characteristics of a group instead in a single individual, and this is wrong because each individual is unique and should not be generalized by culture (Le Roux 46).

Due to the mismatch of race from teachers to students in schools, the minority students have a harder time receiving a higher education.“When minority students see someone at the blackboard that looks like you, it helps you reconceive what’s possible for you,” said Thomas S. Dee, a professor of education at Stanford University. By having a teacher with the same race as the student, creates a bond in knowledge of the barriers that minorities have to jump through. It also lets students see that even though they might be in a tough situation, they are able to receive a high level of education and may be able to reach their dreams. In an article in the Nea Today titled When Implicit Bias Shapes Teacher Expectations, they explain that the opinion

In a school, there are many students from various societies and all come from various cultural backgrounds that need to be respected although most of the time this is not the case. Racism is one of the multicultural issues that mostly affect students from cultural backgrounds that seem to be diverse from other community in which people are living. Most students that are from the different cultural background from other students normally face racism as multicultural education issues. This also

This discrimination affects many students throughout the United States. Many have witnessed or experienced this issue whether from their peers or even the instructors at the institution. This issue can occur at all levels of schooling and can essentially determine one’s future. According to the article, “How Racism Affects Black and Brown Students in Public Schools” written by Nadra Kareem Nittle, the U.S. Department of Education states, “Black students are three times more likely to be suspended or expelled than their white peers and in the American South, racial disparities in punitive discipline are even greater”(Nittle, ThoughtCo.). This truly shows the difference in how people are treated in the school system according to their race. Although race may not always solely be the cause for this variation many times it is. However, the treatment of those based on their race does not always cause a negative effect on those in the school system. Currently in some schooling institutions many minority groups are more likely to get admitted as a way for the institution to appear more diverse. They do this as a way to combat against the racial discriminations but it also brings up the question of “reverse racism”. Many believe this concept to be a myth however, I believe that it is true and actively present in many schooling institutions throughout the modern United States. Within competitive institutions

In the United States, there is a long history of unequal treatment among ethnic minority groups, particularly for African Americans. Unfortunately, this injustice also appears in education. Sociologists have affirmed the importance of education in shaping the economic and social prospects of individuals. As all communities in the United States have been diversified, it becomes crucial to recognize and properly deal with diversity within the classroom. All students should be guaranteed to have equal opportunities for quality education at school. However, racism is still prevalent in many schools today (Beswick, 4, 1990, Pennino, 2007). Racism now has different forms, like the individual instructions student can get from their teachers, and the acceptance of students among their classmates. These can have negative and lasting effects on students even when they leave school. Students must not experience any type of stereotyping, ethnic prejudice or racial violence in schools. Asante (2003) said: "Racism in education can not be overcome by the expression of goodwill, it must be constantly confronted in all conscious ways" (p.223).

The stereotype threats that these minorities, including women, black and other minority indigenous groups, face diminish the level of achievement the students can obtain. For example, Gordon and Bridgall examine the challenges students of color must manage while in school (Gordon et al, 122). While in environments dominated by ethnically white individuals, students of color seem to receive a lower quality of education because of academic isolation and expectations originating from their stereotype threat. Rather then studying with others, students of color would study alone, losing the chance to gain insight or different perspectives from other students. Then the students of color would fall victim to poor expectations deriving from anxiety, such as fear of disapproval, negative environments, and limited access to academic models (Gordon et al, 126). Eric Wargo touches on socioeconomic status and how it challenges giftedness, specifically in intelligence and IQ scores. He examines the differences in IQ scores and explains that the disparity comes from the wide gap in socioeconomic status, or SES, which leads to to different bringing up of children. While families in a high SES have educated conversations with their children, lower SES families may only yell and curse to their children. Other differences include

Teachers must have a full understanding of their student’s cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds in order to become socially conscious of the power relations among their students. In order for teachers to learn to lose their own biases, I will host after school teacher trainings where I will facilitate discussions about race and class. This is important because according to author Gilda Ochoa, if teachers hold on to cultural assumptions they run the risk of sending racialized messages to their students, who then internalize them (Ochoa 165). In her book, Academic Profiling, she provides examples of how students pick up on such messages. For instance April Lee, reveals how she is aware of her teachers’ expectations of Asian Americans when she states, “When a teacher looks at you and your face, [they think,] “oh, you’re Asian.” She must be really smart, or she must be really good at math” (Ochoa 165). These stereotyped messages or “ideological assaults” often translate into the differential ways teachers treat their students and is known to create resentment in the students treated inferiorly (Ochoa 172). Clearly, in order for

The racial and ethnic demographics of public school children generally stay the same through the course of their twelve years of grade school thus implementing a program where ethnic and racial diversity is encouraged and researched can help bring students together in Democratic beliefs of cultural, racial and ethnic acceptance. Through grade school Department of Defense (DOD) students have opportunity to make social connections with diverse race and ethnicities. Static social interactions give way to (in-group) (out-group) phenomena where the in-group perceives members of its group as more favorable than that of the out-group. Research has shown that biases can increase within the groups (Smith & Ho, 2002). For example, a child who attends

This week we compare two interesting articles which address the topic of race and ethnicity. The first article, The Politics of Achievement Gaps: U.S. Public Opinion on Race-Based and Wealth-Based Differences in Test Scores (Valant & Newark, 2016) compares three different demographic groups and finds American’s options on achievement gaps in the United States. One set of groups that this study compared were students from poor financial backgrounds to students with wealthy financial backgrounds, it was discovered that most Americans wanted to see changes in these students test scores because most Americans can relate to being from a different economic class compare to relating to a different race. Another set of groups that was compared where black students and white students, the study found that amongst the African Americans surveyed this was the most important gap to close but it was not the most important in the surveys overall. The last sets of groups to be compared were students from Hispanic backgrounds to students of white backgrounds. According to the study, “Respondents said that closing the wealth-based test score gaps is a substantially higher priority than closing the race- or ethnicity-based gaps” (Valant & Newark, 2016, p.335). The second article Pygmalion in the Classroom (Rosenthal, Jacobson, 1968) looked at the effect that telling teachers random children had done well on a test effected the children’s achievement. Roshenthal and Jacobson study was

In the article “Ethnic in schools: we are all part of the problem” by Ron B. Voxxi, the author points out how majority of ethnic groups is stereotyped into categories based on standardized test scores. Many of those stereotype are from tests that measures one's intelligence, but not everyone has the same intelligence as the next person, especially while considering ethnicity. Due to stereotypes of this nature the standard for achievements in schools are set lower for African Americans and Hispanics, which supposedly are lower achieving groups. While on the other hand Asian are considered smart and superior in mathematics but women do not ever compare in the science and mathematics department. Due to stereotype threat, students are affected

Educator must decide between two racist impulses. The first racist impulse is “to treat all people as human beings rather than race group members” and the second impulse is “to recognize people’s real experience as race group members in order to assist them and treat them equitably” (Everyday Antiracism in Education, M. Pallock Ph.D,

Racial discrimination is something that has always happened in the world and also the school system. In history everyone knows the infamous story of Ruby Bridges a 6 year old girl from Louisiana who was the first to integrate schools in the south. She was faced with much discrimination from white protestors who would often yell at her throw slurs. Things were so bad during this time period she had to be escorted into school by policemen and parents went as far as to not sending their kids to school because they knew she attended the school. (Boyd, 1) I believe there are several factors that contribute to racism such as zoning policies, the outside community, classroom set ups, and even some teachers within the system. This topic is very controversial and often times over looked because many people believe that the education system is fine and that racism does not go on within the system. But it is also not just within the system some factors come from the outside world. When discussing the education system the most important thing to remember that there are young adults and children going to school every day to be educated and better themselves. School should be a place where everyone feels comfortable to go and can go without judgement or uncomfortable feelings. When an environment is created where a student may feel judged simply because there skin color they

There are many factors that play a role in the learning process for every human being. Race, religion, language, socioeconomics, gender, family structure, and disabilities can all affect the ways in which we learn. Educators must take special measures in the delivery of classroom instruction to celebrate the learning and cultural differences of each of their students. As communities and schools continue to grow in diversity, teachers are searching for effective educational programs to accommodate the various learning styles of each student while promoting acceptance of cultural differences throughout the classroom. It no longer suffices to plan educational experiences only for middle-or upper class white learners and then