Chapter Six Creating Classrooms that Address Race and Ethnicity (c) 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Cushner/McClelland/Safford, Human Diversity in Education, 5/e

Lay versus Scientific Understanding of Race and Ethnicity  Pedagogies: Old and New  Teachers do not shy away from the deep-seated influence that race plays in people’s lives  Teachers understand the historical significance of race  Teachers are aware that majority children may not understand the role race plays in their lives (c) 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Cushner/McClelland/Safford, Human Diversity in Education, 5/e

Roles: Old and New  Teachers understand their roles as active agents of change  Teachers reach out to individuals and community groups that represent various ethnic and racial groups  Students interact with community groups working to change the status quo (c) 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Cushner/McClelland/Safford, Human Diversity in Education, 5/e

 History of diversity in the United States a critical element  Concept of “race” often used incorrectly  Genotype—shared genetic material  Phenotype—visible traits (e.g., skin color)  Textbooks often inaccurate and dated  Content materials often biased (intentionally or unintentionally) (c) 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Cushner/McClelland/Safford, Human Diversity in Education, 5/e Place of Content Knowledge: Old and New

Assessment: Old and New  Assessment instruments may be developed and normed with only one race or ethnic group in mind  Assessments should consider the sociocultural context of the learner  Biases and stereotypes  Prior experience of the learner  Assessments should be varied (c) 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Cushner/McClelland/Safford, Human Diversity in Education, 5/e

Understanding Prejudice and Racism  Ethnocentrism leads people to believe that their own “ways” are good and “natural”  Prejudice implies a lack of thought or care in making a judgment about others  While racial and ethnic prejudice can be expressed both positively and negatively, in the United States it is most often negative (c) 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Cushner/McClelland/Safford, Human Diversity in Education, 5/e

Prejudice Formation: The Components of Prejudice  The cognitive component refers to the process of categorization  The affective component refers to the feelings that accompany a person’s thoughts about members of a particular group  The behavioral component refers to the discriminatory behavior that people who harbor prejudices direct toward others (c) 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Cushner/McClelland/Safford, Human Diversity in Education, 5/e

The Functions of Prejudice  Adjustment Function—prejudicial attitudes may help one adjust to a complex world  Ego-Defensive Function—prejudicial attitudes may protect one’s self-concept  Value-Expressive Function—prejudicial attitudes may help demonstrate one’s own self-concept to others  Knowledge Function—prejudicial attitudes may reinforce the stereotypical knowledge of one’s ingroup (c) 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Cushner/McClelland/Safford, Human Diversity in Education, 5/e

How Children Learn Prejudice  Observation and passive learning from respected elders  Membership in a group that excludes others  The media, when it reinforces stereotypes  Religious fundamentalism that emphasizes exclusive rights to “the truth” (c) 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Cushner/McClelland/Safford, Human Diversity in Education, 5/e

Extreme Cases of Prejudice  Racism—the transformation of prejudicial attitudes through the use of power directed toward those one regards as inferior  Hate Groups—any organized body that denigrates select groups of people based on ethnicity, race, religion, or sexual orientation  White Privilege—the largely unconscious acceptance by dominant groups of privileges denied to oppressed groups  Racial Profiling—law enforcement practices aimed at those who “fit” a particular profile—usually age, ethnicity, and/or race (c) 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Cushner/McClelland/Safford, Human Diversity in Education, 5/e

Curriculum Transformation: Strategies for Prejudice Reduction  Critical to reducing prejudice and establishing an interculturally sensitive classroom is the teacher’s understanding of, and ability to integrate, intercultural awareness and prejudice reduction activities into the curriculum  Intercultural sensitivity is not “natural”—cross- cultural contact has historically been accompanied by bloodshed, oppression, or genocide (c) 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Cushner/McClelland/Safford, Human Diversity in Education, 5/e

Educational Strategies to Reduce Prejudice  Improving social contact and intergroup relations  Equal Status Contact: when those who are brought together perceive they are of equal status  Superordinate Goals: when the purpose of bringing people together cannot be accomplished without the participation of all con’t. (c) 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Cushner/McClelland/Safford, Human Diversity in Education, 5/e

 Encouragement of Intergroup Interaction: all involved in a school must actively encourage and support efforts of teachers and students to experiment with curricular and other innovations to improve the school involvement with differences  Personal Familiarity: people must have the opportunity to get to know the “other” person in ways that render the stereotypic image clearly inaccurate or inappropriate (c) 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Cushner/McClelland/Safford, Human Diversity in Education, 5/e Educational Strategies to Reduce Prejudice

Some Cautions in Applying the Contact Hypothesis  Many schools are monocultural, providing little opportunity for intergroup contact to occur; in such cases it is best to stress the diversity that is present (e.g., socioeconomic or gender)  Equal status contact within the school may conflict with that which occurs outside the school (c) 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Cushner/McClelland/Safford, Human Diversity in Education, 5/e

Increasing Cognitive Sophistication  Improving students’ critical thinking skills  Questioning  Analyzing  Suspending judgment until all available information is collected and studied (c) 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Cushner/McClelland/Safford, Human Diversity in Education, 5/e

Improving Self-Confidence and Self-Acceptance A sense of self-worth and self-confidence supports the reduction of prejudice  Students feel secure and accepted  Student participation is valued  Students know the boundaries and limits of behavior (c) 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Cushner/McClelland/Safford, Human Diversity in Education, 5/e

Increasing Empathy for and Understanding of Others Long-term gains in prejudice reduction require educational activity that actively engages the emotions  Writing stories or acting out dramatizations of cross-cultural situations  Any activity that enables students to “step into the shoes” of another  Classroom simulations that generate “culture shock” (c) 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Cushner/McClelland/Safford, Human Diversity in Education, 5/e

Comprehensive Programs That Improve Intergroup Relations  Anti-Bias Education for Young Children—a curriculum published by the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC)  Cooperative Learning—helping children work together  A World of Difference—a curriculum developed by the Anti-Defamation League  Facing History and Ourselves—focus on the history of Nazi Germany and the Holocaust (c) 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Cushner/McClelland/Safford, Human Diversity in Education, 5/e

Something to Think About “… let’s think about the consequences of silence. I think about Hitler. He got into power by people around him were silent and didn’t challenge him. When you are silent, you are giving tacit approval of the messages you hear around you… Your simple comments can go quite far at making change.” —John Gray (c) 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Cushner/McClelland/Safford, Human Diversity in Education, 5/e