Research Paper on "Diversity Issues in Education"

Research Paper 9 pages (3211 words) Sources: 10

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Secondly, considering personal and family histories of each culturally diverse student would provide to be a source of learning for the whole class as well as a means of adjustment within the international class for the foreign students. Third, teachers must promote an environment of belongingness to different groups, such as White and Blacks with each other, so that racial or color differences could be eliminated. The teachers can make groups of diverse students so that they learn to work together and accept as they are. They can learn from each others' skills and knowledge and would be better able to cope with each other by knowing their strengths and weaknesses; this would foster helpfulness as well. Fourth, acknowledging diversity and varied opinions from culturally diverse students since the textbooks might not always provide instructions materials that are suitable for the class lesson; much can be learnt from real life examples and best would be those given by the diverse students themselves. Fifth, nurturing equity and mutual respect in the class is the best way the teachers can show acceptance for the diversity. Along with that, teachers must validate cultural identities of the students so that other students learn from their experiences in the class and would be able to think in different directions.

The educational system has to be designed in order to fill the gap between the culturally diverse student and the achievement of academics goals. The school administration should structure their classrooms in a way that are conducive to a fostering environment for diversity and the students. The school policies and procedures should be equal for all the students, even those that are culturally diverse so that all the services are provided to every student without any discrimination. The communities should be involved with the school so that these connections help in decreasing the gaps.

Module 5: Consolidate, Edit, and Provide an Abstract or Executive Summary

There are several concerns for diversity in the classrooms. They are discussed as below:

Language: It is one of the main concerns of diversity in the classroom since students from China, for example, cannot communicate well with the American students. There are numerous language barriers that the teachers have to deal with, sometimes, those that involve hearing impaired students as well. The foreign students have to learn language of the host country where they go for higher studies.

Religion: Students from varying cultural identities face religion discrimination in class since the main religion of the other country is not the same as that of their homeland. They find it difficult to express themselves clearly as their comments might reflect their lifestyles and religious preferences and the fellow students might find them absurd.

Socio-economic status: The students who come to unfamiliar countries for the purpose of their studies completion have to face social and economic status disparities as well. For example, some students are bold and confident in the class while presenting their opinions but students who come from a reserve background do not participate that well. Moreover, those who do not meet a certain level of wealth and economic statuses of the other students feel self-complex and prefer staying silent in the class.

Race and ethnicity: Businesses as well as educational institutes are trying to cater to the diversity related to race and ethnicity so that all individuals are treated with equality. Though, this might not be the case in classrooms as students try to degrade others who do not belong to their race.

Age: In certain classroom, students are from different age groups; some are older and some are younger either due to late starting of their studies or being top performers who have been promoted to classes earlier. The ones who feel left out in classroom are either the eldest ones or the youngest one as they do not fit into the age group and level of the class pupils.

Gender: Despite the global efforts of the most advanced nations of the world, like America, gender discrimination is still visible in various aspects of life. Men are still paid higher than women and students are still distinguished based on their gender. Another emerging issues regarding diversity based on gender in the classrooms is the inclusion of gender-variant students (Glavinic, 2010).

The teachers need to have optimum learning styles for the students so that each student belonging to certain diversity concern, mentioned above, could be fully accommodated. It should be understood that cultural diversity promotes creative thinking among the students and enhances their self-awareness. Diversity should be promoted and the teachers should encourage the students to discuss with their foreign fellow students inside and outside the class so that they could gain knowledge from them. The multiple perspectives would empower the students and amplify their thinking abilities so that when in future, they work in a multi-national company, they do not feel alienated. The students would know how to encounter new problems each day, either related to work or other colleagues. By learning from the differing life experiences of the foreign students who belong to diverse cultures would be beneficial for the other students in order to gain excellence in their future professional careers. This would also give an added benefit for the student to think in various angles rather than through a single-focus lens, since that would allow them to consider multiple options especially in decision making; this capability would help in their professional paths as well.

All of these benefits depend upon how teacher promotes diversity in the educational institutes within their classrooms so that the beginning should be made by taking a small initial step. From classroom to global business environment, it is necessary for the students to understand that diversity does not always provide a negative aspect of the world. Positive things can be learnt from a challenging issue that would help their own selves in future.

The cultural bias that exists in the classroom persists outside the classroom as well since the biased students have to stay away from those who do not belong to their culture. The other students might want to exclude them due to their difference in language and thinking abilities, and the same perceived dominance is seen in learning and performing within the class. It is, therefore, recommended that teachers, top management, and government support should be used for better accommodation of the culturally diverse students so that diversity remains a topic that should be positively perceived by the student in and out of the class. The teachers can help by incorporating the culturally diverse students' learning, knowledge and experiences into the course by letting them share their learnings with the other class fellows. This would help the students in learning more about them, their countries, their religion and cultures and would provide a way in which they would respect them as well. For that, the teachers would have to create and maintain an environment within the class that would be followed by other students as well, not only within the class in front of the teacher but outside as well.

The top management can help in creating a structure ands system within the school that would create a setting in which culturally variant students would not feel left out, the policies and procedures would be applied to all equally and the services, such as seating places in the cafeteria or the medical services would be delivered to the Black and White students without partiality. In addition to that, the gender variant students have separate schools for their own kind but if any such student is identified, he or she should not be excluded altogether. The teachers and management should firstly, talk to his parents about changing the school, of if they cannot afford any other school, then the management and teachers should work collaboratively to sport the issue out.

Overall, diversity is a worth learning experience that should be fostered and cherished in the educational institutes. The culturally diverse pupils should be respected for what they are so that local students and teachers could gain from them and apply the understanding to the real life and educational goals. It is the responsibility of the management and government individuals to encourage diversity both at school and organizational level so that schooling could be designed on the pattern of achieving from diversity and learning from it in order to be successful in future companies.

References

Akinkugbe, M.O. (2013). The impacts of studying in a different cultural environment: Graduate international students' perceptions (A Graduation Thesis). Retrieved from https://etd.ohiolink.edu/rws_etd/document/get/bgsu1372069477/inline

Bode, P. (2009, December 23). Multicultural education. Retrieved from http://www.education.com/reference/article/multicultural-education/

Glavinic, T. (2010). Research shows lack of support for transgender and gender-nonconforming youth in U.S. school systems. Student Pulse, 2.… READ MORE

How to Reference "Diversity Issues in Education" Research Paper in a Bibliography

Related Research Papers:

Diversity Issues in Schools That Effect Teacher Staff Performance Evaluation Term Paper

Diversity Issues in Schools that Affect Teacher-Staff Performance Evaluation

The United States has been transformed from its previous "melting pot" where immigrants quickly assimilated into the mainstream American society into… read more

Term Paper 12 pages (3345 words) Sources: 12 Style: APA Topic: Education / Teaching / Learning

---

Diversity in Adult Education Thesis

Diversity in Adult Education

The issue of adult education that I found most personally engaging is the issue of student diversity, especially as it corresponds to and affects learning styles… read more

Thesis 2 pages (488 words) Sources: 0 Topic: Education / Teaching / Learning

---

Education for Diversity Thesis

Education for Diversity

Were you surprised at the categories he chose to ground his discussion of diversity?

No, not really, the categories Spenser chose seem to be some of the… read more

Thesis 2 pages (648 words) Sources: 0 Topic: Education / Teaching / Learning

---

Diversity Specific Studies in Education Term Paper

Diversity-Specific Studies in Education

Re-examining diversity issues in childhood education: An introduction" examines our ability to provide suitable multicultural training for pre-service teachers. According to Sleeter (2001), educators do not… read more

Term Paper 3 pages (1102 words) Sources: 5 Style: APA Topic: Education / Teaching / Learning

---

Character Education Term Paper

Diversity and Character Education

Character Education and Diversity: An ongoing debate in today's schools and workplace

That young man has character." "That young lady is going on a camping expedition.… read more

Term Paper 5 pages (1787 words) Sources: 5 Style: APA Topic: Education / Teaching / Learning

---

View 100+ more related papers  >>