The Diversity Of Student Populations

The College of Arts and Sciences is comprised of four divisions: Fine Arts, Humanities, Natural Sciences, and Social Sciences. The curriculum of the College is designed to meet the needs and interests of a diverse, multicultural student body. Explain what interests you in the Arts or Sciences, and how studying at Howard University will help you achieve your overall goals?

Multicultural education refers to applying various aspects of different learning styles and techniques to reach children of different racial, cultural and linguistic backgrounds. Because the extent of these variations is so diverse, educationists have begun to integrate material within the classroom to ensure each child is efficiently and equally benefitting scholastically. There are some Americans however, who disagree with multicultural education; these people think that multicultural education designs would strike down what it means to be an “American” country. Fortunately, for the sake of innocent children, this discriminative ideology is kept away from classrooms. In order to propel multicultural education in the classroom; I on

Teachers can begin by incorporating Banks’ five dimensions of multicultural education. In addition teachers must take into consideration DuPraw and Axner’s six fundamental patterns of cultural differences. Then, parents and the community will need to be educated on the cultural differences. However, the parents will need their voice to be heard in order to decrease cross cultural miscommunication. As our country’s population diversifies, it will be our responsibility to not only educate ourselves but our students as well as our parents in order to have a successful

Achieving a goal could be such a strenuous task especially if you weren’t born with any talents at all. Some people asked me “How come you choose this particular sport?” Tall or built were crucial to be outstanding but it didn’t divert my thoughts. Coming to America is where basketball caught my attention. I was impressed due to the diversity the school had although making friends were one of my biggest struggles. Moreover, I was shocked there was walking skyscrapers as I walked down the halls. Socializing myself with people who played basketball wasn’t the best idea during that time where prompted me to be a solely stranger. Weekends were my favorite days since my older cousin would bring me to the playground to play basketball. Things were less tense as I went to high school and found comfortable friends having similar interests.

1. There are two main issues that point out why multicultural education is important. One important issue that Banks and Grant make for the case of multicultural education is that in a population that’s as diverse in other races and ethnicities as America, it is necessary to bring up awareness of other cultures, experiences and perspectives because if the perspectives of racial and ethnic minorities are ignored by teachers when they teach students, students are going to be miseducated and prejudicial towards people of color (Grant 332). Another issue that Banks and Grant make for the case of multicultural education is the fact that multicultural education allows teachers to reach students of diverse racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic statuses.

100 years ago, the student population in colleges and universities consisted of privileged males (Kinzie, 2015). The demographics of the student population in higher education have changed drastically over the past few decades, shifting the majority to non-traditional students. This population will continually increase in the coming decades (Scott & Lewis, 2012). A non-traditional student will possess one or more of the following characteristics: enrolled part-time, financially independent, full-time worker, enrollment delay of greater than one year past high school graduation, having dependents, single parent, or no high school diploma or GED (Kazis, R., Callahan, A., Davidson, C., McLeod, A., Bosworth, B., Choitz, V., & Hoops,

Classrooms are getting more and more diverse. The most significant student diversities include: cultural, linguistic, that involving exceptionalities, and socioeconomic status. Because of these diversities in the classroom, students are on different academic, social and physical levels. In order for teachers to make a lesson more responsive for all students in their classroom, it is important for the teacher to take the time to learn the culture, history, backgrounds, and traditions of all the represented groups in their classroom. Teachers can teach students to understand and appreciate their own and others’ cultural heritages by incorporating such content in their lessons. Also, by understanding students’ strengths and contributions of individuals

Teachers need to acquire a knowledge base about ethnic and cultural diversity also, teachers need to learn how to convert this information into culturally responsive curriculum. Different opportunities for teaching cultural diversity can come up during the course of a student’s day.

There has been a clear notion on what is needed in today’s education and that is diversity in the classroom to include material in the curriculum that openly addresses diversity. Teachers need to be aware that being multicultural is important, adaptation is required and ability to provide students with a safe environment. Meanwhile, also understanding the student’s interest, culture, and background is vital in the student’s learning. For example, according to Karmeen (2013), “21st Century Teacher Educator” and “Teachers as “Healers”: 21 Century Possibility? Or Necessity?” by authors Whitfield and Klug (2004); both promote the ideas of including multicultural materials in the curriculum. They both agree that the reduction of prejudice and promotion of social justice is key. One should obtain the knowledge to understand and recognize what is unique among different groups that each student represent.

The student is part of a girl-talk group, which she reports is supportive. She also has an outside therapist that she has been seeing for a while for her issues related to her mother. For this current concern she has only had one individual counseling session.

Having never left the confines of New York City for more than a week or two at a time, there is a certain fear I have of leaving this comfort for college. There are aspects of life away from home that I can prepare for: new friends, a new city, new culture, etc. But, there are certain things no amount of preparation can get me ready for. One such aspect that I was concerned about was diversity of the college community, both on and off campus. Coming from a “cultural melting pot,” would I be able to adjust to little diversity elsewhere?

The world is filled different cultures, races and ethnicities, and it is crucial that our higher education institutions reflect this diversity. Representation matters. We are a country filled with diverse cultures all of which whom need to be represented. The purpose of this literature review is to explain why and how diversity in a higher education setting is important. Students learn better in such an environment and are better prepared to become active participants in our pluralistic, democratic society once they leave school Diversity is not only important among the student population but also within college curriculum. It is an important issue regardless of the setting. However, when it is applied it to a place where people come to learn,

Historically, many teachers took courses in multicultural education that was aimed at teaching preservice teachers about diversity in the classroom. However these courses did not have an impact on the teaching practices of pre-service teachers as they entered schools and classrooms. Furthermore teachers were asked to reconsider their own assumptions and work towards a better understanding of values and practices of cultures different than their own. It was through this type of reflective activity of their own beliefs compared to others could they begin to construct practices that aimed at making diversity apart of the curriculum. One goal of multicultural education was to shed light on oppression and social inequality based on race, social class, gender and disability.

This article is written by a group of recognized experts in the hope of providing education policy makers and educators help towards achieving the goal of a “democratic and pluralistic society” (Banks, et al., 2001). The findings of the Multicultural Education Consensus Panel all seem to be geared towards guiding practitioners towards the shared goal of increased student achievement through diversity. They offer 12 essential principles which have been divided into 5 separate categories: 1) teacher learning; 2) student learning; 3) intergroup relations; 4) school governance; 5) assessment.

According to (Beal & Bolick, 2012), “Each day’s wave of current events reinforces our awareness that our globally interdependent world is a mélange of people of different colors, religions, languages, and customs” (p. 55). Similar to the global world, classrooms across American today are beginning to look the same, raising awareness for teaching that is all-inclusive. Social studies teachers today are facing increasing difficulties with creating curriculums that meet their state’s mandated requirements and each individual learner, learning needs. A typical classroom will consist of students that may not speak English as a second language, a mixture of male and female students, and more important, children coming from several different backgrounds, having varying life experiences. Thus, the cultural differences resulted in a greater demand for today’s social studies teacher to practice culturally relevant teaching by using multicultural teaching dimensions, so that all children can achieve.