Minority students in higher education

¶ … empowering minority students with first language different from the language of instruction. The author maintains that despite the development or incorporation of various programs for minority students, it appears that there exists a significant achievement gap between majority and minority students indicating something inherently wrong with the measures adopted so far. The author rejects both the "inadequate exposure" and "linguistic mismatch" arguments because it appears that both have their fair share of merits and demerits. Cummins suggests that we incorporate his theoretical framework in educational programs and instruction methods so minority students can be empowered. His framework consists of four essential steps that he believes "contribute to the extent to which minority students, are empowered or disabled." Cummins suggests adoption of an additive approach rather than a subtractive approach. "Educators who see their role as adding a second language and cultural affiliation to their students' repertoire are likely to empower students more than those who see their role as replacing or subtracting students' primary language and culture." He further adds that educators must act like advocates of minority students so they would feel empowered and not part of some problem. This requires critical evaluation of "the societal and educational context within which the child has developed." Similarly instead of a transmission-oriented system, educators should focus more on interaction-orientated approaches. "Pedagogical approaches that empower students encourage them to assume greater control over setting their own learning goals and to collaborate actively with each other in achieving these goals"

The article offers a rare insight into the problem faced minority students and shows that it is not just the language of instruction that matters but instead the way in which they are treated and perceived that determines their performance in schools. I agree with Cummins' views and believe that his framework is quite practical and thus can be easily incorporated. However Cummins fails to understand that his framework doesn't eliminate the need for some kind of instruction program either based on linguistic mismatch or inadequate exposure assumption. This is because empowerment of minority students is a separate issue. It is to be incorporated within the existing education programs and the framework can prove effective if it works parallel to basic instructional approach. We can adopt an instruction method and also adopt the framework to develop an empowerment program for students. For this reason, rejecting the basic instructional approaches earlier is the article makes little sense. They have their merits and should be used along with Cummins' empowerment program in order to make them more effective and minimize their demerits.