Diversity Teachers Have a Responsibility to Promote

Diversity

Teachers have a responsibility to promote social justice in their classrooms. Classrooms should be treated as microcosms of the world, and the more diverse the room, the greater the opportunity for learning. Many students will come to class burdened with the biases and bigotry of their parents, peers, or culture. Teachers may struggle to re-educate students who have a hard time working with, or even simply coexisting with, people who are not like them or who challenge their core beliefs. In this case study, a teacher needs to deal with a full three students who are homophobic. The students are all mature enough to confront their bigotry, but the teacher will have a much harder time dealing with intolerance in a classroom of adults vs. A classroom of young students, whose minds are still flexible. It is a much greater challenge to encourage a change of mind and heart in adults whose belief systems are entrenched and potentially part of their identity. This is the case especially with students who claim that "religion" is the reason for their intolerance. Religion is a poor and invalid excuse of any type of bigoted belief or behavior, and yet the teacher must also remember to practice compassion and demonstrate a paradoxical tolerance.

It would be helpful to remember the learning opportunity this experience presents. As the document "Managing a Culturally Diverse Classroom" points out, the best response to prejudice is often getting it out in the open and using it as a springboard for discussion. "Turn the discussion of prejudice into a learning experience," it states ("Managing a Culturally Diverse Classroom" n.d., p. 2). One creative method that could be used in this case would be to enact a reverse role-play. Members of the classroom would voice biases against heterosexuals, targeting the homophobic members of the classroom. They could say things like, "I am uncomfortable working with a heterosexual person; somehow it seems wrong." Another student could say, "My beliefs prevent me from interacting with persons who are of the [Christian] persuasion." There are many ways to purposefully shame the bigoted students, to "go beyond mere tolerance," ("Understanding Diversity," n.d., p. 3). Tolerance is a cop-out; it means that the root cause of the problem is never being addressed. No learning is taking place when tolerance in the goal.