Race And Ethnicity Reflection

Authors Glenn E. Singleton and Curtis Linton in Chapter Five of Courageous Conversations About Race broach the topic of race, by asking the reader to evaluate his or her own consciousness of race. According to the authors, in order to address the achievement gaps between African American students and White students, educators should shift their energy towards focusing on the factors that they have direct control of inside the classroom rather than on the factors that influence this achievement disparity between races outside the classroom.

This paper is intended to explore and report upon the topics posited by Tyrone C. Howard in his book, Why Race and Culture Matter in Schools: Closing the Achievement Gap in Americas Classrooms. Closely examining each and every chapter as they come and how the structure of this book gives a detailed framework and guidance system for novice and experienced teachers to take their pedagogical skills to more diverse and multicultural levels. Also, this paper will review a few lessons or projects that can be adapted and used within my personal educational institute in order to create

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.

Schools systematically subjugate minority and black students when a school’s enrollment contains a huge racial majority. If students have no exposure to persons of different ethnicities, cultures, races, and religions, then these students will experience culture shock when they confront “other” people. Even in our class, we talk about black and minority students as another group, one that differs from “us.” We think about the inequalities in school systems as problems we need to fix, not as problems that have influenced our thinking and affect us as prospective teachers. For example, a white graduate student with

It appears to be that the discussion of race and class in America has become amplified, especially in the last couple of years. For many, it is a touchy subject that hits close to home. With the presence of social media and news that feeds off of racial tension in America, the issues are polarizing and difficult to productively discuss. America’s handling of race and class relations is generally not something to be proud of, and there exists a long history of issues with race. It is clear that there is a lack of understanding and empathy of what others experience toward those who are oppressed. So often it is too easy to dismiss another human’s experiences as reality if one has had no prior encounter with the same challenges. Race is easy to sweep under the rug, but we must address the problem, and it is not a one size fits all solution. It is a problem that has been years in the making and continues to have an enormous impact on our human capital from an economic standpoint. And most of the time, there is a correlation between race and class.

How should society handle the perceived differences between races when it comes to education? The goal of both researchers is to narrow the academic gap between white and black students. Both authors attribute the gap between the academic scores of black and white students from opposite sides of racial identity. As Dr. Beverly Daniels Tatum, President of Spelman College and clinical psychologist has written an article entitled “Why are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?” Her approach is from the perspective of the student and how they perceive their role and upper limits while maintaining their place in their peer group's expectations of their race. Dr. Diane Ravitch, a research professor of education at New York University, has written an article entitled "The Facts about the Achievement Gap.” Her approach is from the perspective of how schools and society implicitly or explicitly cast students into achievement tracks based on their race. Both approach the same idea about racial identity, but they have different solutions, such as peer groups, the school board, and who is right about the solution.

Teaching in racially diverse classrooms often leaves educators feeling uncertain about how to proceed and how to respond to historically marginalized students. There is pressure to acknowledge and accept students of color with different perspectives, to diversify the syllabi, be more aware of classroom dynamics, and pay attention to how students of color experience the learning process.

The phrase “acting white” has plagued our schools and led students to believe that acting white meant conforming to the white dominant school culture. According to Prudence L. Carter “Black students equate speaking Standard English and other achievement oriented behavior…. with whites. And to avoid being labeled as white these students succumb to peer pressure not to do well in school”. This reading goes into understanding the achievement gap between black and white students by understanding the factors that are associated with student’s attachment to school. In addition, it goes on to identifying students based on how the forces of social satisfaction- race, ethnicity, poverty, and culture- really affect student’s lives both inside and outside

Some parents, such as Walter Fields, have said that “You can literally walk down the hallway...and look in a classroom and know whether it’s an upper-level class or a lower-level class based on the racial composition of the classroom” (Kohli 3). Despite the fact that some teachers claim they do not group their students based on race, some of them subconsciously play into the stereotypes presented in society today. When it comes to grouping, whether in class or between classes, the majority of the students placed in the more advanced track will either be white/asian or from a high-income family. Although black/latino students and students who come from a low-income family are just as intelligent as their counterparts, they aren’t given the opportunity to show it. Data compiled from the racial distribution in AP courses at Columbia High School show that the black student population exceeds the white student population by 13.1% (the black population being 51.5% and the white population being 38.4%), yet, when it comes to AP course takers, the white student population dominates over the black student population at 69.8% and 18.7%, respectively (Kohli 4).

Before taking this class I had always thought that I wasn’t racist, and that I didn’t have any biases. Shortly into this course I realized that I had a lot more to work on than I thought. I had learned that I didn’t need to be personally racist to support racist institutions that favored my race only. I have learned that we are all the same species, and that this thing we call race is something that we have created. Upon reflecting from the beginning of this semester, I believed and still do believe that culturally competent educators acknowledge their students differences, and learn to value and respect these differences in the classroom. Educators must model positive behavior by respecting and valuing where their students come from. When educators value differences in the classroom, it creates a culture in which everyone can be himself or herself. In order to create this culture in my future classroom I need to acknowledge all of my student’s differences, and I must learn to value and respect these differences.

The United States of America is known for being a country filled with people of many different ethnic backgrounds. Likewise, the student population in schools is just as diverse as it continues to grow. Lynch (2015) notes that schools are expected to teach their students “how to synthesize cultural differences into their knowledge base” as this will help “facilitate students’ personal and professional success in a diverse world” (para. 8). Educators must be able to provide for the diverse needs of students and are expected to equip students with skills that can lead to healthy development as it can affect higher levels of student achievement and students have more opportunities of success in their future. Providing students with tools and skills requires an awareness and acceptance of their ethnic identity. Once students have developed self-acceptance about their ethnic identity, they can begin to feel empowered and motivated to do well. Through cultural empowerment, students of color can develop intrinsic motivation and achieve academic success.

]A second way that this class has challenged me was through the social justice project. For our social justice project, we had to pick a group that was underrepresented and seek to learn more information about them and share the new information with our classmates. My group chose to learn more about learning disability. One part of our project was to interview someone that represent this group. Finding someone that was opening to share their story with a class of stranger was very hard. They had to be able to trust in us that will would share their story in the right way and bring notice to something that society tends stray away from. This project was very hard for me at first. I want to be respectful of the issue and also show that I was

Racism and discrimination directly and indirectly affect me because I come from a poor, uneducated Muslim family, all of which puts me into the minority category. As a minority upward mobility seems like an impossible dream. My mother was never able to attend school, and my father only studied up to the 10th grade. After moving to the United States in 2006, my parents' relied on my siblings and me to take care of many tasks that required understanding English, which forced my siblings and me to maneuver the adult world on our own. We are obliged to help with tasks such as paying bills, completing legal paperwork, and even taking my parents to the doctor and grocery stores. My family responsibility requires me to be mindful of my parents’ income, how we live, and our health. My father, who works as a cook in a restaurant, earns scarcely enough income to make ends meet. Many times these worries pressure me and I feel it is necessary for me to work and help out my family. If I do choose to take that route, I wouldn’t get my education and therefore would have a low paying job and be back in the same position as my parents and still remain poor. This is how upward mobility becomes impossible for many minority groups like me. Luckily, coming to America gave my siblings and me the opportunity to attend college. I am even more

I took the time today to read the article titled “What is Race” by Victor M. Fernandez, RN, BSN and found myself agreeably intrigued and in admiration of his thoughts regarding race. Victor touched on an extremely insightful and significant topic; one that most people have sturdy opinions about. Race – what is it? What does this mean to you? What does it mean to our upcoming careers in the nursing field? I trust that how we characterize and assess our awareness of race is due exclusively to how we were raised. I do not mean merely what we were taught from our family or culture about race, but to a certain extent how we have lived it, and how it has lived around us. “Race is a modern idea. Ancient societies, like the Greeks, did not divide

The education of our youth is, by far, the most important thing that the older generations must do to ensure their future. Fundamentals are taught based upon the desired and acceptable standards of today's society. Those standards, however, fall severely short in cultural understanding and acceptance as cultural differences were not designed into the education system. Though schools are diversified that does not mean a student will find acceptance within. Sherman Alexie stated, “Sharing dark skin doesn’t necessarily make two men brothers.” Alexie’s statement was written to show the commonality of racial/ethnic division among social groups and between similar minorities. Alexie’s description of his educational experience in reference to his ethnicity mirrors similar aspects in my own experience as well.