Cultural Diversity and Education

¶ … Educational Inequality Along Racial Lines

The role of education in the American society cannot be overemphasized. Education plays an important role in equipping students with knowledge and skills for transforming their life and the society at large. Also, the education system instills appropriate values, behaviors, and attitudes in students, making them useful members of the society. Nonetheless, while education is important, it tends to reinforce the existing social inequality, particularly along racial lines. Funding inequalities and learning outcomes between schools from privileged backgrounds and those from unprivileged backgrounds attest to this. This paper examines inequality in education along racial lines. The paper specifically focuses on four aspects: the role of education from two sociological perspectives; the role of funding in producing educational inequality along racial lines; America's cultural diversity (in terms of race, gender, ethnicity and class) and the educator's role in promoting cultural diversity; as well as an anti-racist tool that can be used to teach students tolerance for racial and cultural diversity.

The Role of Education: Two Contrasting Views

The role of education in the American society can be viewed from two contrasting sociological perspectives. The traditional perspective, also known as the functionalist perspective, argues that education is crucial for social mobility (Farley, 2012). Simply, education provides one an opportunity to advance in the society. By providing individuals with training, education enables people to pursue professions. Employers in turn reward workers for their knowledge and performance, consequently enabling people to fulfill their needs such as housing, food, and clothing. In essence, education is an important tool for socioeconomic empowerment. It is through education that individuals acquire the means to thrive in the society.

While education is essential for social mobility, a differing view asserts this may not always be true. Indeed, this view has increasingly gained support amongst sociologists. The conflicting view argues that the nature of the education system does not provide much opportunity for social mobility to disadvantaged populations, particularly the poor (Farley, 2012). Instead, education tends to compound the existing social inequality. It is quite unrealistic to expect education to address equality when the broader socioeconomic system is founded upon inequality. For social equality in the society to be achieved, the answer lies not in education for everyone, but in changing the socioeconomic system to ensure income equality. This view, however, does not necessarily imply that education for everyone is not important. The fundamental argument is that economic privilege for all is more essential than just access to education. More importantly, education for all may not necessarily eliminate the underlying forces that create economic inequality, underscoring the need for changing the larger socioeconomic system.

The argument that education mainly serves the interests of the economically advantaged is particularly true for the American society. In spite of tremendous progress in increasing access to education, Whites and the rich tend to benefit more from education compared to minorities and the poor (Farley, 2012). Education for students from economically advantaged backgrounds serves to transmit to them the same advantages their parents have. Ultimately, the status quo remains unchanged or worsens -- the poor remain poor, and the privileged become more privileged.

Funding and Educational Inequality

One way through which the education system contributes to inequality is funding. In the U.S., schools with predominantly minority populations (African America, Latin America, or Indian-American) have historically been underfunded compared to schools with predominantly White (majority) populations (Farley, 2012). While this trend has reduced over the years, it still remains. Underfunding has much to do with the manner in which school funding in the country is done. Generally, schools get approximately 50% of their funding from the statement government, while much of the remaining portion is funded through the local property tax (Farley, 2012). The amount of local property tax varies significantly from one state to another since different states tend to have different property values. Accordingly, wealthier states or communities get more revenue from local property tax compared to poorer states or communities. This means that schools in wealthier states or communities receive greater funding for education compared to their counterparts in poorer states or communities. Minority communities in the U.S. are generally poorer than White communities, meaning that students from minority backgrounds are more affected by underfunding. This problem is further compounded by the comparatively high cost of education in poor backgrounds (Farley, 2012). The higher cost of education in schools in poor or minority backgrounds often stems from the numerous issues and problems these schools have to deal with, further exacerbating the underfunding problem.

Some of the problems schools in minority communities have to deal with relate to or stem from culture and behavior. Indeed, whereas underfunding is a major problem in minority communities, the influence of cultural and behavioral factors cannot be ignored. Cultural background has actually been found to be closely associated with learning in the U.S. As per the cultural deprivation theory, the poor and minorities tend to have certain characteristics that place them at a disadvantage in terms of performance at school (Farley, 2012). They experience relatively limited access to television and other similar items at home as well as reading materials such as daily newspapers, books, and magazines. Also, minority communities are often characterized by somewhat broken family structures and little parental interest in children's education. These aspects can hinder learning as they tend to influence the attitudes and behaviors of children while in school (Farley, 2012). They may result in a poor self-image, reduced interest in school, and little determination to succeed.

From the cultural bias perspective, however, the problem lies not in the characteristics of minority populations but in the schools, themselves. This perspective holds that low achievement amongst minority students stems from the fact that schools expect students to conform to certain habits, values, and attitudes (Farley, 2012). Accordingly, those who do not conform are punished. In most cases, it is minority students who are subject to punishment as they come from backgrounds where those values and behaviors are not norms.

Cultural Diversity in America

Even as minorities continue being disadvantaged by the education system, America continues to experience greater cultural diversity in terms of race, ethnicity, social class, and gender. Due to increased immigration, among other factors, the American population has become increasingly diverse (Parrillo, 2009). Indeed, projections indicate that people of color will account for over half of the total U.S. population in the next three decades or so (Farley, 2012). Increased cultural diversity means that learning institutions and workplaces are ever more becoming diverse. Indeed, cultural diversity has become an important topic today, with learning institutions and organizations having an important role to play in forging cultural diversity.

With the American society becoming more culturally diverse, more needs to be done to prevent further advancement of the prevailing racial, ethnic, and social class inequalities. Educators have a particularly vital role to play in this regard (Duncan & Murnane, 2014). They have an obligation to inspire and reach out to students from privileged backgrounds. Educators can promote cultural diversity in the classroom by deploying culturally-responsive teaching methods and creating an atmosphere of respect for everyone regardless of cultural background (Gay, 2010). This encompasses teaching students to value their cultural heritage and that all people are equal regardless of cultural differences, incorporating classroom activities aimed at acknowledging cultural differences, and even displaying on classroom walls posters showing cultural differences. Such an atmosphere teaches students that cultural differences are to be appreciated, not judged and/or feared.