The Importance Of Equity And Diversity In Education

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

The follow assessment will have a brief description of the importance of inclusion and inclusive practices in work with children and young people. And it also contains an exploration of how our own attitudes, values and behaviour may lead to that inclusive practice, how to challenge discrimination and how to promote some important anti-discriminatory and inclusive practices.

Students have their own best way in effectively learning the lesson. With the diversity of students, the problem is each student has a preferred learning style. It becomes undeniably one of the reasons that make it difficult to achieve the best expected outcome out of teachers’ effort. However, teachers try to incorporate various teaching techniques to make every learning opportunity become productive, meaningful, and relevant for the learners.

According to the 2014 Public School Review Diversity Report, the state of Maryland is rated the third most diverse public school system in the nation, with 43% White students, 37% African American students, 11% Hispanic students, 6% Asian students, and 3% Unknown. With a significantly higher population of African American students compared to the state average, the Baltimore City School District is a far less diverse agency than the state school system as a whole. Collectively, the Baltimore City Public School District is comprised of 85% African American students, 8% White students, 5% Hispanic, 1% Asian/Pacific Islander, and less than 1% American Indian, Multiracial, Native Hawiian/other (Baltimore City Public Schools, 2013a). Considering

Additionally, the transgender population at community colleges, which are social institutions, is an invisible minority on college campuses throughout the United States (Ivory, 2005). The systematic marginalization of transgender students begins with the application process (Seelman, 2014). The community colleges only recognize two gender identities on their applications, which reinforces the societal norm of gender identities (2014). Additionally, there is limited training on the needs of transgender students for faculty and staff (2014). Hence, there are none or few support services specifically for transgender people on many community college campuses (2014). Therefore, the community college perpetuates the marginalization of transgender

Teachers should understand the diversity spectrum that is in a classroom; there are cultures, races, languages, and socioeconomic backgrounds in classroom during the 21st century educational realm. Students need to acknowledge student’s diverse background specially when they arrive late in the school year.

When it comes to the law, everyone’s voices should be heard. There should be diversity within the law schools if everyone’s voice is going to be taken into consideration. Diversity can be defined as “[…] acceptance and respect.  It means understanding that everyone is unique, and recognizing our individual differences.  These can be along the dimensions of race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, socio-economic status, age, physical abilities, religious beliefs, political beliefs, or other ideologies.” Lawyers are advocates for the people. The legal system does not work if only one person’s voice is heard. One system that is in place to ensure diversity in the law schools is affirmative action. Affirmative action was established on September

I am currently working in a Title 1 school. In the community I work in, diversity is extremely apparent. One of our largest diverse populations is found in the Haitian and Hispanic community. Being raised part Haitian, has created not only empathy and fair-mindedness for my students, but has brought awareness to their resilience in life. One major issue I think students of diverse populations face is the culture shock. As I previous mention, the Haitian community is well apparent in my school. Most people know that Haiti is not one of the richest places on earth, so therefore a student who is entering an American school for the first time can find it to be a bit overwhelming due to the culture changes. I know in my classroom, I pride myself in modifying my classroom for all students. I display this by presenting more visuals, Rosetta Stone program, Haitian-English or Spanish-English

Diversity and inclusion within STEM has become a challenge for institutions of higher education and industry employers. Issues with recruitment and retention of underrepresented minorities are illustrated in workforce hiring and enrollment in higher education institutions. In particular, Colleges of Agriculture and related industries have shown to lag behind other fields in metrics related to diversity, equality, and inclusion. For example, in Purdue University’s College of Agriculture of the 2,736 students currently enrolled only 193 students were underrepresented minorities. This is alarming as the national demographics illustrate a shift in population proportions of underrepresented minorities and subsequently

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 tax dollars are at work, but for whom, when it comes to education. Some can say, they do not think that their child is getting the best education, they can get from their school district. There is inequity in education because we are still divided, we have various advisory boards for the different races at school such as ELA (English learner Advisory) AAPA (African American Parent Advisory). It should be just a parent advisory in order for everybody to have the same learning achievement. As for inequality in education that is depending on the area, the school is located, I do not see the schools in the upper-class neighborhood complaining that their kids are not getting the best education. The negative consequences of this social problem are that there are children being left behind, retention in grades, suspension, and expulsion (Musu-Gillette, Robinson, McFarland, KewalRamani, Zhang, & Wilkinson-Flicker, 2016). The importance of changing this problem is so we can make sure our children are ready to lead the country when the time comes and make the best decision for us all as it relates our nation and politics. The equity in education is a problem and it needs to be changed through prevention measures, society, and reform.

As a teacher it is important to make sure the classroom atmosphere is comfortable in order to ensure productivity. Teaching students that differences are a good thing and those differences can be learned from and valued is a way to help ensure a positive classroom environment. As a teacher I will help my students understand biases, and I will help them be able to accept differences and treat people fairly by educating them about the differences of the people around them. I believe there are many ways a teacher can incorporate diversity lessons into the classroom. Overall, I believe that teaching students to respect each other despite their differences will benefit the students, the teachers, and the rest of the world. Diversity is an important topic today because everyone is different and unique; as a teacher I understand that I will never be in a school that is not a diverse teaching environment. I think that by taking this diversity class, it has helped me to realize and understand the importance diversity in the classroom and the community has to

It is clear from the above quote, that the ever changing diversity in our society, creates many challenges for an education system based on an ideology of hegemony based on the dominant discourse of white pedagogy. While not the official policy, the distribution of wealth in Ontario, and the tendency for immigrant populations and ethnic groups to live in the same neighbourhoods, segregation has occurred dividing classes by factors such as race and economic status. Although not a mirror image of the Canadian model, in the United States, similarly, bell hooks points out

Like it or not, there has always been diversity among students in the classroom. It is the fact that each and every student is unique. From every circumstance, students bring a varying set of values, perspectives, and beliefs to the learning environment. Understanding the character of students is important in order to become a competent teacher. In fact, teachers should be aware and recognize students, as unique individuals, all acquire information differently than others. Some of these differences are due to developmental variations in cognitive, physical, intellectual, moral, emotional, and social changes caused by maturation and experience. And this reality of classroom conditions makes instruction much more challenging for teachers and