The Importance Of Cultural Diversity

The primary goal of providing cultural diversity in the classroom is to help all students become respectful of the multitudes of cultures and people that they’ll interact with once they exit the educational setting. This can be an overwhelming job for the educator, given that the world at large is substantially more diverse than their immediate learning environment. In the typical educational setting, there is a tendency for students to exhibit classic behaviors relating to their own culture and upbringing.

Although I am middle-aged, I have never traveled outside of the United States nor have I had the privilege to experience a wide diversity of cultures. Other than research or articles that I have read throughout my life, I have little knowledge pertaining to other cultures. However, through my former employment and my daughter, I have some experience and knowledge of the Hispanic families that relocated to our area.

Diversity; America thrives in it. You could call us the most diverse country with all the cultures, religions and variations of races. Our population will be stepping into a crucial stage with our generations aging into record numbers thanks to modern medicine. Living longer and having less children is a recipe for an older population. Other counties are also heading towards this inexperienced phase in human history.

Diversity is known as having people who are different races or who have different cultures working in a group or organization. A diverse organization is one that values the difference in people. It is one that recognizes that people with different backgrounds, expertise, attitudes and experiences bring fresh ideas and perceptions to the organization.

Jeremy, I enjoyed reading your discussion piece and found myself agreeing with your perspective. I too fell as though society is commonly uninformed when it comes to other religions. One of my favorite quotes comes from Grace Murray Hopper (1906-1992) who stated that the most dangerous phrase in the language is “We’ve always done it this way”. I truly believe that education is the key to many aspects of life, including religion.

As a citizen of the United States our country consist of cultural diversity in the workplace, church, schools, and etc. It is very unique because people get the chance to meet other people learn interesting things such as food, beliefs, and their country. For instance, as a student there has been much insight learning various information on religions and their beliefs. Even if a person is a Christian and the other person is Buddhism, there should be an open mind to learn about a different religion, but not practicing unless a person is willing to do so. Having a diversity culture gives the opportunity for people to communicate and interact with one another, and also the chance to accept people’s nationality rather than discriminated. “A nation’s

For the most part I have not seen a whole lot of diversity in my community but I hear about diversity all the time on the news. I feel like we have benefited from the influence of people from different parts of the world because it helps us understand other people’s cultures and traditions. It helps us to understand the diversity in the world and to better accept it as a whole.

Cultural diversity is the understanding that within a given society, there are many cultures and backgrounds being represented in that society. Diversity can be represented by the different languages being spoken natively or by racial and ethnic orientation. The diversity of cultures is what allows for an exchange of ideas, goods and values from one culture to another. Such diversities within cultures can only exist if they are maintained and are seen as equally as important as any other. Cultural diversity is also ever changing the landscape of the United States as we are welcoming more immigrants.

Although employers generally feel justified in denying immigrants employment based on the needs of their businesses, immigrants have regularly filed discriminating lawsuits against these companies since the 1980’s under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which protects immigrants from being discriminated against based on their national origin (Texas Law Review, 20xx, p. 1496). Title VII has been used to litigate against employers who institute English-only rules as non-native English immigrants equate this to national origin discrimination (Texas Law review, 20XX, p. 1496). It seems that under the civil rights act of 1964, these individuals would have a legitimate claim of discrimination but despite the strong links, courts rarely rule in favor of the plaintiffs in these cases. The courts find that there is not significant harm caused to the plaintiff or sufficient business reasons were laid forth by the employer as reasons to justify its decision (Texas Law Review, 20xx, p. 1496)

Throughout the United States, cultural diversity is increasing each day. Cultural diversity consists of the traditions, beliefs, values, languages, customs, and other various factors that identifies with individuals, as well as the groups they belong to. When it comes to conceptualizing cultural diversity, there are three different models that were used historically when it comes to “dealing with” cultural diversity. These three models include assimilation, pluralism, and multiculturalism.

I was mainly raised by my mom and sisters, we did not have much but my mother always worked very hard go give us all we needed and tried her best to succeed so we could have more than what she ever had while growing up. I was raised with the same mentality, to work as hard as I could so I could have all that I wanted for myself and for my future children. Growing up my father was not a part of our lives, we had to work for all we wanted but, it did not mean that I had to do the same work as my mother, my job was to focus in school and get good grades so one day I could be someone important in life. My mother was not hard on us, we choose who we wanted to be, all it mattered was to be happy and stay together.

Culture and diversity are a huge part of our everyday lives. "Diversity refers to all of the ways in which people are different"(1) and culture refers to language, beliefs, and rules. There are many aspects of diversity that make up our personal identity. Four specific ones that come to mind for me personally are, that I was born and raised in the same place known as Kennewick WA, my whole family, immediate and extended live in the same region, I am a Christian and grew up in the church, and I was homeschooled when I was younger then put into public school. Those are all things that are unique to me and have influenced my personal diversity.

With an increase in cultural diversity in the United States, Social Workers are faced with the daily challenge of cultural competence. Cultural competence is more than just knowing about a culture. Cultural competence has been defined as “a set of congruent behaviors, attitudes, and policies that come together in a system or agency or among professionals and enable the system, agency, or professionals to work effectively in cross-cultural situations (Teasley M, 2014)."

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.

Cultural diversity is a subject that is being used a lot in organizations nowadays. People are starting to notice the difference in personality within each other, and how that is affecting their workplace. Age is not really a factor that matters in this topic of conversation, culture affects everyone in many ways of their day to day life. This can be seen very easily for a student. On campus the racial segregation/climate is very wide, you can find people from all over the world. This is sometimes good because it gives the institution an international feel to it, but for the students that are minority, this is something that cause then a lot of stress. According to Saenz (2010), “Racially diverse institutions of higher education have the potential to weaken the cycle of segregation that permeates society, being a rare opportunity for students to engage across racial/ethnic lines” (p. 7). If all institution and organizations were more inclined to expand cultural diversity, then students would not have to experience any hateful racial act against them. They would feel more at ease within the organization they are now calling home, and they would not be feeling awkward or out of place. Ancis, Sedlacek & Mohr J. (2000) found “Asian American and Latino/a students also reported experiences of stereotyping and prejudice in the form of limited respect and unfair treatment by faculty, teaching assistants, and students; and pressure to conform to stereotypes” (p. 187). This not only