Diversity in Education Diversity Aspects

Diversity in Education

Diversity

Aspects that shape personal experience of college students.

The personal experiences of a college student may be shaped by their culture or ethnicity in that their parents have certain ways of disciplining and teaching. Standards differ in many cultures and each culture has certain expectations of their youth. While, on one hand, the Moslem youth is expected to be respectful and quiet during a worship time, the Spanish child may be allowed to sing and dance during their worship experience. This overflows into the school experience, with children being able to utilize internal discipline if it is there, or to learn how to be quiet in a time when others also are quiet. Reading to oneself is a quiet activity and this is an activity that may be cultivated in school, whereas it is not encouraged in some homes.

It is up to the teacher to discover how the student is used to behaving and work with the student to adapt to the classroom.

Class may be a big problem for a person who has been raised in a poverty situation. The cultural advantages may not have been available to this student, but that does not mean that the student is any less intelligent or able to learn. Class differences are only visible on the surface, but if the student is willing to adapt to the environment of the classroom and learn, it may not make any difference at all. The first article that was read (below) demonstrates that it is not economics that make the difference in learning abilities.

Race is often pointed out as a difference between students, but unless their cultures are also quite different, race may not play any part in the learning skills of a student. The color of ones skin does not determine how smart or able a student is, and teachers learn this early when they have a racially diverse classroom.

Gender is important when one has to deal with both boys and girls in the classroom. Girls may have their tendencies to be better behaved and to learn quicker in the early years, but boys also have their strengths and encouraging all the different abilities of each student is the safest way to teach both genders.

Language is a difficulty which teachers in culturally diverse classrooms have to deal, but students who are learning a second language may be just as able and motivated as those who use English as their first language. It is up to the teacher to make sure the students feel comfortable and are able to find learning experiences, no matter what language they have as their primary one.

Religion is a way that students may differ. In a country where various religions clash, it is important to teach students that everyone is valuable as an individual and that people of differing religions are just as valuable as the other students. Religion may not be mentioned in the classroom, but the students may be aware of it. In this case, teachers must emphasize the learning and the lessons, rather than the differences between individuals.

Learning style and exceptional students bring challenges to the best of teachers. When a student is different in the way they learn, or they learn more quickly than other students, the teacher may have to take more time to work with that individual and help them to find satisfaction in the learning environment. This is a skill that teachers must learn, but it is easy if teachers value individuals, rather than thinking of the classroom as a group.

2) Four ways in which the following four articles deepen understanding with issues related to diversity:

In the first article, children from middle class, economically disadvantaged and disorganized homes were analyzed by language researchers as to how well they could create a narrative (Peterson, p. 251). This would show how well they observed, organized their thoughts and read (or were read to). "Overall, children from both middle-class and economically disadvantaged homes produced reasonably long narratives, but children from disorganized families did not.... Follow-up... showed that the first two groups did not differ from each other" (Peterson, p. 258). All the children were Caucasian, from English or Irish ethnic backgrounds, whose families had been in Newfoundland, Canada for generations, However, the children from disorganized home were distinctly disadvantaged in story-telling ability. All seemed to be much alike in intelligence; what made the difference was the kind of home life they had, whether middle class or economically disadvantaged, if their home life was disorganized and confusing, they experienced foster care, poor parenting skills and a disorganized family life, they were at a disadvantage in learning skills.

Students come to school from many different ethnic backgrounds. They speak different languages and are raised in different cultures. Teachers must learn to incorporate all the students in the environment with collaborative, cooperative activities to help all the students to read and write and learn the English language. The 1986 Task Force on Racism and Bias in the Teaching of English found that children learn many different ways, but a common factor is the teachers' interest in the student's experience. If teachers try to understand and accept second-language development, students can learn a second language (1986, para. 34).

The third article is about how students in community college are a diverse group. Teachers in community colleges must honor the variety of viewpoints that students bring with them to college, work with non-traditional learners and accommodate different learning styles and skill levels, create a safe place for students to share with each other in the classroom and in teams of other students, learn to appreciate the deep values that reside in various cultural upbringings and try to bring out the best in each individual (NSF, Module 1)