Diversity and Equity Today: Meeting the Challenge

1. Diversity and Equity Today:Meeting the Challenge Chapter Thirteen Ch13

2. Society in the Classroom • Wider society influences what goes on in the classroom, for better or for worse • Racism and sexism present and often unchallenged in the structures of schooling • Jane Elliott’s Discrimination Day exercises • Members of a group identified as “superior” literally tend to act and feel superior; those identified as “inferior” also react accordingly Ch13

3. Theories of Social Inequality Genetic Inferiority Theory • argues that biologically some groups of people are inferior intellectually and socially • interpretations of IQ testing to support this theory continued to be offered and continue to be discredited (Jensen, Schockley, Herrnstein) Cultural Deficit Theory • inferior home environments explained low achievement rates of minority children • 1960s, 1970s compensatory education movement • beginning of Head Start • does not take children’s unfamiliarity with the dominant culture into account Critical theory • questions the whole social order and its power relations • looks at the relationship between the child and the school, rather than the child or school in isolation Ch13

4. Cultural Difference Theory • Respects the variety of different cultures and assesses the relationships among various cultural groups • Addresses “cultural mismatch”—differing ways of learning, demonstrating knowledge, behaviors and socialization patterns among students • Confronts the traditional role of schools as instruments of social policy that maintain the dominant culture Ch13

5. Cultural Subordination Theory • Examines social processes that lead to lower status for minority groups and structured inequalities in the system • Anyon’s study of elementary schools • Testing, tracking, and ability grouping • Schools, curriculum, and setting reflect white middle-class worldview Ch13

6. Resistance Theory • Students experiencing discrimination retreat • Adolescent girls submerge their intelligence • African American students caught between cultures • Other students give the impression they “don’t care” about schooling, and teachers can give up on them Ch13

7. The Impact of Language • What linguists agree on: • all languages can support complex cognitive processes and express whatever needs to be expressed • language prestige is attached to economic/military power of group using it • children learn better through use of native language • not all non-standard speakers have same language development • the way a child's primary language is valued affects self-concept • every language has variety of linguistic styles • reading failure is frequently caused by conflict between English-speaking teachers and non-English-speaking children Ch13

8. Bilingual and ESL Instruction as Bridges to English Proficiency • 42% of all public school teachers have at least one Limited English Proficiency (LEP) student in their classroom • Spanish-speaking more likely to receive bilingual instruction; others get ESL programs • Oakland School District’s controversial Ebonics instruction program • BEV: Language and cultural subordination Ch13

9. Pedagogical Approaches to Pluralism • Ignore differences and teach to single standard • Seek to eliminate differences by forcing compliance to a single standard • Balance sensitivity to group differences without being biased by group differences • “culturally responsive” pedagogy Ch13

10. Multicultural Education and Democratic Pluralism 1. Teaching the exceptional and culturally different • fitting students into existing structure with ESL, bilingual, remedial, special education programs • retains status quo 2. Human relations • promotion of unity, tolerance, and acceptance within existing structure among students • Doesn’t address institutional inequities 3. Single-group studies • singling out groups for study; foster acceptance, work towards social change on behalf of identified group • Doesn’t alter the main curriculum; more “add on” 4. Multicultural education • promotion of cultural pluralism, equal opportunity and respect in the school • critical thinking, bilingual instruction • debate over whether result is cohesion or fragmentation 5. Education that is multicultural and social reconstructionist • preparation for the “real world” Ch13

11. Multicultural and Social Reconstructionist Education • Practice of democracy • Analysis of one’s own life • Development of social action skills • Formation of social coalitions across boundaries of race, ethnicity, social class and gender Ch13

12. Diversity, Equity, and SpecialEducation • Multicultural education is the most equitable way to address educational needs of all students (Banks) • Special education as a form of tracking (Skrtic) • Labels may say more about the system than they do about the students Ch13

13. Concluding Remarks • Jane Elliott’s experiment reminds us of the social construction of what is judged superior or inferior • Slow progress from culturally deficient to culturally different explanations of differences • Sensitivity means asking “When is race or class or gender a relevant variable in this student’s performance, and when is it not?” Ch13