Education's Role in Racism, Segregation, and Multiculturalism

Historical Roots of Discrimination in American Education

Discrimination exists on many different levels and is both conscious and unconscious. It has also existed from the time the first colonists arrived in America and decided to make it their own. They did so through conquering and oppression. The European culture of the colonists became the mainstream culture almost immediately. This included the "Protestant ethic," which emphasizes hard work and the accumulation of property, as well as the use of discipline and authority in child rearing (chapter one, p. 9). These values stood in total disagreement with Native American practices and became a focal point for conflict when the education system began to engage with Native peoples. The need to force non-mainstream cultures to conform to the established mainstream is the primary means by which education has contributed to the development and preservation of bigotry and prejudice.

The education system in the United States has a long history of ethnic segregation, both formal (adjudicated by law) and informal. It has been argued that segregated programs are based on the idea of deculturizing the student, rather than incorporating the student's culture into the learning experience. This process is carried out through programs designed to eliminate native language and culture.

Deculturalization and Ethnic Segregation in Schools

For instance, there have been times when the education system eliminated or simply ignored laws concerning attendance, especially in the case of Mexican-American farm workers' children who were needed to work in agriculture during planting and harvest seasons (Spring, 2003). Part of the educational program also includes observance of national holidays and certain celebrations. Another way the education system has contributed to bigotry has been to exclude, dismiss, and, on occasion, denounce holidays and celebrations particular to minority cultures.

Schools have also tended to use textbooks, examples, and standards of conduct based on mainstream American (white) culture, excluding material and information pertinent to the child's own cultural experience and background. Joel Spring has provided a list of the methods used in deculturalization that includes: segregation and isolation; forced change of language; curriculum content mirroring mainstream culture; prohibition of alternative cultural expression; and the use of teachers exclusively from the mainstream culture (p. 90).

Teacher Bias and Its Effects on Student Performance

It can also be argued that racial bias exists in teachers' assessments of students' academic abilities and that, in a "catch-22" ironic twist, the negative perceptions of teachers adversely influence students' academic performance. Teachers — especially those who do not share the same cultural background as their students, or who have not received relevant training — bring their own perspectives, biases, and prejudices into the classroom. Difference is often defined as a shortcoming or impediment to learning rather than as a tool for greater understanding.

Without intending to do so, a teacher may hold expectations of minority students that are grounded in mainstream cultural norms. Paulo Freire (2000) suggests that teachers have taken a "narrative" role in the education process — that is, the teacher provides information that the student must somehow absorb, interpret, and integrate into their own knowledge base. Students are then expected to "prove" that knowledge has been achieved by narrating it back to the teacher in some form. This model leaves little room for the student's own cultural knowledge and lived experience.

References

Freire, Paulo (2000). Pedagogy of the Oppressed. Trans. M. B. Ramos; Ed. Valentine. New York, NY: Continuum.

Spring, Joel (2003). Deculturalization and the Struggle for Equality. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.