Diversity in the U.S and Its Implications for Education
How is one person different from another? One might answer personality, gender, eye color, or height. When considering differences among people in the United States, the response broadens because “the continual influx of immigrants has helped shape its [transformation]” (Parillo,1994, p.538). Immigration continues to transform the U.S. as immigrants spread their unAmericanized values, customs, and language. These differences create diversity among the U.S and are observed in classrooms through culture and language. Other forms of diversity in education exist through gender differences and exceptionalities. When teachers encounter diversity, they must demonstrate appropriate responsiveness
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There are students in school whose first language might be Spanish, Chinese, or Vietnamese, among others. Students who do not understand English are considered English learners (ELs) and they “need help in learning to speak, read, and write in English” (Kauchak & Eggen, 2017, p. 84). There are four programs that teachers can incorporate in response to language diversity. One program is referred to as bilingual maintenance. In a bilingual maintenance program, students continue to use their primary language while “the emphasis on English …increases in each subsequent grade” (Kauchak & Eggen, 2017, p. 85). Another program is known as immersion, which consists of only using English in the classroom. Immersion is a program that requires students to pick up on English by eliminating their primary language. Transition programs allow for students to use their primary language “until students acquire sufficient English to succeed in English-only classrooms” (Kauchak & Eggen, 2017, p. 85). Lastly, English as a second language programs require English-only instruction while instruction is adapted into classroom content. Teachers must use their judgement to determine which programs are best for their …show more content…
Gender differences are seen daily when males are treated differently than females, and vice versa. For example, if boys hit each other, adults might disregard their behavior as hoarse play which fits into the common expression “boys will be boys”. On the contrast, it is more likely for adults to intervene if girls display aggressive behavior. Gender stereotypes influence students’ interests, specifically career choices. For example, Cavanagh (2008) argues “when mothers believe that math is a male domain…their daughters take fewer math classes, get lower grades in them, and are less likely to view math positively” (as cited in Kauchak & Eggen, 2017, p. 90). Regarding career choice, students often consider the common gender associated with specific careers. For example, males typically “remain a distinct minority” in nursing because of the generalization that most nurses are females (Kauchak & Eggen, 2017, p. 90). The issue with gender differences is inequality. Kauchak and Eggen (2017) recommend that teachers promote gender equality by openly communicating to students that they will work to treat both genders equally. Also, teachers should provide examples of men and women outside of stereotypical roles. Teachers can inform parents to avoid using stereotypes when speaking about education. Lastly, teachers should encourage students to pursue nontraditional gender-based fields (Kauchak &
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Show MoreThe structure of bilingual education programs differs depending on the school, but generally, they are either transitional or maintenance. Maintenance programs provide instruction in both languages to preserve a heritage language by giving proficiency in both languages to the students. Transitional programs eventually transition from both languages to English-only instruction. If one were to enter an English+Spanish program, one would have classes in both English and Spanish, with roughly equal distribution of both. If it were a transition program, the proportion of English would increase until it was English only.
Patrick Holt English 802 Joshua Lukin Temple University 1/25/16 The debate about how to help young boys perform better in school is anything but simple. There are many different views and opinions on the matter. Some believe that it is very feminine environment that boys are introduced to in the classroom and making the classroom more appealing to boys is the best solution. This view is championed by the article How Boys Learn, written by Michael Gurian and Kathy Stevens.
She describes how these gender role stereotypes start at young ages. For example, Reyes describes how it is okay for girls to call themselves tomboys, but when boys go anywhere outside of the masculine stereotype or show interest in feminine hobbies they get made fun of. She then goes on to discuss how the gender role stereotypes affect people beyond childhood by talking about gender diversity when choosing college majors. She explains how typical male majors are now getting taken over by women, but few men went to female dominant majors. Finally, Reyes points out that gender stereotypes have loosened over time; however, she states that things will never actually change until men feel like they can step outside of the gender norm, and do what they want without feeling
Gary R. Howard’s “We Can’t Teach What We Don’t Know” offers an insightful look into multicultural education and the ways in which white educators can, and should, consider the diversity within their classrooms as a necessary part of the learning process. Although an admittedly difficult topic, the author strives to help the reader understand the problem of diversity in our schools and the ways in which our approach to educating multiracial students can help or hinder students. This report seeks to provide an overall review of the book and a discussion of the positive and negative aspects of the opinions presented. Book Synopsis
Gender stereotype Do you know how negative stereotype impact on boys and girls? It is because the society has a stereotype about boys are more involved with drug crime and sexual harassment. Research has shown that teachers and parent’s expectation of student’s ability’s, achievement and behavior are influenced by gender role stereotyping. . In her writing “The War against Boys” Christina Hoff Sommers states that ““It is really clear that boys are Number One in this society and in most of the world,” says Patricia O’Reilly” (283). For this reason, the boys taking benefits of their position, as a result it leads the boys doing crimes, violence, and sexual harassment.
Presently there are U.S. citizens living in Mexico that must cross the border every day to receive their formal education. Since, they are not Mexican citizens like their parents or other family members they don’t qualify for public education in Mexico. Therefore, Mexican-Americans must make the descent of crossing the border to receive an education. However, this legal migration for education has many problems. First off, different border regions have different rules and regulations when it comes to the migration of students Las Paloma’s-Columbus, Mexicali-Calexico, and
Because of this lack of English education, we fail to assimilate the students to be functioning members of the United States. The way we are able to assimilate students is to create better programs for students who are learning English; that way, when it is time to enter the workforce, they will be able to understand what it takes to move ahead in this country. The article states that “Good bilingual immersion programs provide such an environment by giving English speakers and English learners ample opportunities to interact in and out of the classroom.” Assimilation relies on the need to acquire the social and psychological features of a group. Most Latino students in schools today hold a very small grasp on our language and our social system, which is partly due to the rampant segregation.
Integration meaning, not excluding English learners from English speakers. Doing so can have detrimental effects on the English learners, because when they are excluded from the regular classroom, they more often than not fall behind the standard. Thomas and Collier state that their preferred method of language education is some sort of bilingual enrichment or immersion. Immersion is when children are taught in two languages, when they begin school, 90% of instruction is in the minority language. This method proved to make the students proficient in both languages.
Based on the studies in USA, there are some approach that apply in anti-bias classroom. One of the approach is, address gender diversity board in classroom all the time. For example, prepared the pictures of people in non- traditional gender roles such as male dancer and a female construction worker. Next approach is, aware of some gender – neutral terms such as “Fire fighters” and “police officers” instead of using “fireman”. (Farago, 2017 )
As Gay (2010) states, although cultural diversity is seen as a positive and valuable in theory, it is often seen as a threat and tried to be eliminated in real life; and because of this reason teachers mostly deal with aspects of cultural diversity that won’t cause trouble for them. However, I believe that if a person chooses to be a teacher he / she has to have some responsibility to the society to be genuinely sensitive about these issues and has to act to promote acceptance of cultural diversity both in the society and in the education area.
Although some people believe that nature affects the gender identity, others argue that, based on the education an individual receives, it is actually nurture. For example, John Moore, a teacher at a female-only school, says, “My findings suggest that, in some senses, the single-sex school is strongly feminist” (Moore, 2005). On the other hand, many societies teach the children gender stereotypes to try and limit them from becoming against what the society feels is appropriate. Gender roles or stereotypes are “a set of qualities, behaviors, and attitudes that are considered appropriate for males and females based on their biological sex” (Whalen & Maurer-Starks, 2008). Most of the time, these stereotypes are taught and explained to the children in the early stages of learning, since as mentioned above, gender identity is most likely detected after the child is two years old.
Gender roles, also known as gender stereotypes, are social and cultural norms on how females and males should conduct themselves within a society. Every culture has certain roles both genders are expected to follow. An example of this in traditional American culture is a man becoming a doctor while a female becomes a nurse or men being the hard workers and women being stay at home mothers. Gender development researchers, similar to other developmental researchers, focus on questions of change over time in gender related subjects (Ruble and Martin 1988). Research suggest that children are socialized to understand gender stereotypes at an early age.
Questions of abandoning or maintaining one’s home language affects education policy in all immigrant receiving nations. Because of the consequences of colonisation, migration, nation-formation, traditions of exogamy, and modernisation, some degree of bilingualism is typical of most people in the world.” Today the most advanced nations realise that they can no longer be ignorant of the languages and cultures of other people on this planet. This is why bilingual-multicultural education was initiated. It was believed that this approach will build closer ties between the students’ community, their language background, and the educational plan of the school.
Teachers need to establish fairness and equality early on in classrooms in order for students to be comfortable and
2.2.5. Cultural diversity in Classroom: There are various cultural differences that teachers are likely to come across culturally diverse classrooms including Gender, Age, Cognition, Norms, beliefs, Primary language, Exceptionality, Cultural heritage, Socio-economic status, Opinions, ideas, Attitudes, Expectations, Behavioral styles, Geography, Learning styles, Communication Styles, Decision making styles, Ways of Communicating Non-verbally, Ways of Learning, Ways of Dealing with Conflict, Ways of Using Symbols and Approaches to completing tasks etc. According to Pratt-Johnson (2005), there are six basic cultural differences that teachers are likely to encounter in the culturally diverse classroom. Familiarity with these differences will begin