Promoting Diversity in Education: An HR Perspective

Introduction: Shifting Demographics in Education

Today's learning community is changing rapidly, and one of the most significant shifts is the widely expanding diversity among school populations. As global and virtual learning increases, educators find themselves teaching groups with highly varied ethnic and cultural backgrounds, economic situations, and learning styles. Because this shift is likely to be fundamental and permanent, it is critical that educational administrators and HR professionals ensure that their faculty and staff support, encourage, and are representative of the diversity present in their classrooms and schools.

The education environment has changed drastically over recent decades. One of the biggest changes is the amount of ethnic and cultural diversity in the classroom. In the mid-1980s, roughly one out of four children in the public school system was classified as a minority. By some estimates, the ratio of minority students in public classrooms in 2026 is predicted to be roughly three out of four (Parker 2003). This rapid increase in multiculturalism has created growing pains for school systems as they struggle to integrate a variety of languages and backgrounds into their teaching methods and administration.

In addition to ethnic and cultural diversity, there has also been a sharp increase in religious diversity in the classroom over the last fifty years. This is especially true of college classrooms, as higher education in the United States has become more accessible and desirable to international students with a broader variety of religious backgrounds than the general American population. For example, both the Muslim population within the U.S. and the percentage of Muslim students in the American educational system nearly doubled in the last decade of the twentieth century (Cole & Ahmadi 2010). Not only has religious diversity increased, but its importance to students has grown as well, with several researchers finding that "religious identity and engagement have become more important to this generation of college students" than to the generations preceding them (Ibid). This means that teachers and administrators are increasingly responsible for guiding, regulating, and promoting appropriate religious discourse within academic arenas while maintaining the open and tolerant environment necessary for effective learning.

The Case for Diversity-Focused HR in Schools

Because of these changing demographics, the increasing presence of all types of diversity in today's classroom has created a pressing need for educational Human Resources professionals to develop appropriate support, training, and resources to assist teachers and staff with acknowledging and incorporating this diversity. Failure to do so will severely underserve the students and parents who rely on equal access to education, and will prevent teachers with the best intentions from having the tools necessary to create successful multicultural classrooms. It is for this reason that research on administrative strategies for diversity in education, and the incorporation of that research into the work of educational leaders, is so important.

The successful development and implementation of a diversity-focused Human Resources program requires careful consideration and leadership on the part of educational HR administrators. Effectively addressing diversity from an educational HR standpoint requires focus on two fronts: a conscientious recruiting program that seeks to develop a faculty and staff reflecting the variety of the student body, and an appropriate training and resources program to educate faculty and staff on current diversity regulations and best practices. Because of the complexities of both approaches, the educational administrator in charge of implementing these programs must possess a broad range of leadership skills in order to organize, inspire, and educate around diversity.

Recruiting a Diverse Faculty and Staff

Developing a hiring strategy to promote diversity within faculty and staff is a key component of creating a diversity-friendly educational organization, but it requires a great deal of knowledge and sound judgment on the part of administrators. The lack of diversity among faculty in K–12 public education is startling in comparison to the depth of diversity among students. As reported in a 2003 USA Today article, while public school students had grown much more diverse over the preceding decades, "schools still rely overwhelmingly on white women to teach them. And despite decades of efforts to attract more minorities and men, they simply aren't stepping into the frame" (qtd. in Smith 2009).

This dearth of diversity in the labor market leaves educational HR administrators in a difficult position when developing a diversity-based hiring initiative. However, ensuring diversity among teachers has been proven instrumental in student success and retention within diverse student bodies. Nicholas Shudak (2010) asserts that children "cannot give meaning to their lives when they do not see themselves represented in the institutions that comprise the larger cultural context that surrounds them," including their school environments. Therefore, an educational HR administrator must be both committed and creative when sourcing diverse labor. Fortunately, advocacy groups for minority populations are equally dedicated to placing minority employees in the teaching profession and offer a number of resources for HR professionals recruiting diverse educators.

Having the commitment and resources to hire a diverse teaching staff is only one of several skills the educational HR administrator must possess, however. They must also have a strong knowledge base of the federal, state, and local regulations involving equal employment opportunities and affirmative action policies. They must have a keen sense of judgment when hiring. Developing a hiring program that seeks to broaden the representation of diverse races, genders, religions, and ethnic backgrounds requires a delicate balance: recruiting potential employees based on these characteristics while being careful not to make hiring decisions based solely upon them. The HR administrator must tread this line with great care, always cognizant of the legal and ethical implications of the process.

Conclusion: Toward Equity Through HR Leadership

Because professional experience in public schools makes clear that the need for diversity promotion and training is deep while the HR resources available to administrators are few, continued research on diversity issues in the education field — especially regarding diversity training for public K–12 teachers and staff — is essential. While diversity is a prominent topic in higher education research and in human resources research broadly, it has not been developed and applied sufficiently to the K–12 public school setting. This gap is contributing to a cycle in which minorities are underserved by a school system with a largely homogenous teaching staff, and are consequently not inspired to become teachers themselves, making teacher diversity an even harder problem to address.

By developing sufficient HR tools — recruiting programs that promote diversity while still hiring on merit, and training programs that provide general principles that can be customized to local contexts — educational leaders can tackle the dual problem of minority underrepresentation in the education labor market and insufficient diversity literacy among practicing teachers. Ensuring that students receive the equal access to education to which they are entitled, and that they are prepared and empowered to succeed in a multicultural workplace, depends on this kind of sustained, strategic commitment to multicultural education from the HR level up.

References

Parker, W. (2003). Teaching democracy: Unity and diversity in public life. New York, NY: Columbia University Press.

Cole, D. and Ahmadi, S. (March/April 2010). Reconsidering campus diversity: An examination of Muslim students' experiences. The Journal of Higher Education, Vol. 81, No. 2, 121–139.

Shudak, N. (September 2010). Diversity in teacher education: A double helix. Academic Questions, Vol. 23, Issue 3, 348–355.

Lee, J. (June 2010). Students' perceptions of and satisfaction with faculty diversity. College Student Journal, Vol. 44, Issue 2.

Norton, M. S. (2008). Human resources administration for educational leaders. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

Educating teachers for diversity: Meeting the challenge. (2010). Report of the Centre for Educational Research and Innovation. London: OECD Press.

Rodriguez, V. (2000). Diversity training improves intercultural communication skills. SEDL Web site. Retrieved from