1. 1111111 School & Society: Chapter 13 Diversity and Equity Today: Meeting the Challenge Chapter Thirteen Diversity and Equity Today: Meeting the Challenge (c) 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Tozer/Senese/Violas, School and Society, 5e

2. 2222222 School & Society: Chapter 13 Diversity and Equity Today: Meeting the Challenge Society in the Classroom Wider society influences what goes on in the classroom, for better or for worse Racism and sexism present and often unchallenged in the structures of schooling Jane Elliott’s Discrimination Day exercises  Members of a group identified as “superior” literally tend to act and feel superior; those identified as “inferior” also react accordingly (c) 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Tozer/Senese/Violas, School and Society, 5e

3. 3333333 School & Society: Chapter 13 Diversity and Equity Today: Meeting the Challenge Theories of Social Inequality Genetic Inferiority Theory  argues that biologically some groups of people are inferior intellectually and socially  interpretations of IQ testing to support this theory continued to be offered and continue to be discredited (Jensen, Schockley, Herrnstein) (c) 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Tozer/Senese/Violas, School and Society, 5e

4. 4444444 School & Society: Chapter 13 Diversity and Equity Today: Meeting the Challenge Theories of Social Inequality Cultural Deficit Theory  inferior home environments explained low achievement rates of minority children  1960s, 1970s compensatory education movement  beginning of Head Start  does not take children's unfamiliarity with the dominant culture into account (c) 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Tozer/Senese/Violas, School and Society, 5e

5. 5555555 School & Society: Chapter 13 Diversity and Equity Today: Meeting the Challenge Theories of Social Inequality Critical theory  questions the whole social order and its power relations  looks at the relationship between the child and the school, rather than the child or school in isolation (c) 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Tozer/Senese/Violas, School and Society, 5e

6. 6666666 School & Society: Chapter 13 Diversity and Equity Today: Meeting the Challenge Cultural Difference Theory Respects the variety of different cultures and assesses the relationships among various cultural groups Addresses “cultural mismatch”—differing ways of learning, demonstrating knowledge, behaviors and socialization patterns among students Confronts the traditional role of schools as instruments of social policy that maintain the dominant culture (c) 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Tozer/Senese/Violas, School and Society, 5e

7. 7777777 School & Society: Chapter 13 Diversity and Equity Today: Meeting the Challenge Cultural Subordination Theory Examines social processes that lead to lower status for minority groups and structured inequalities in the system Anyon’s study of elementary schools Testing, tracking, and ability grouping Schools, curriculum, and setting reflect white middle-class worldview (c) 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Tozer/Senese/Violas, School and Society, 5e

8. 8888888 School & Society: Chapter 13 Diversity and Equity Today: Meeting the Challenge Resistance Theory Students experiencing discrimination retreat  Adolescent girls submerge their intelligence  African American students caught between cultures  Other students give the impression they “don’t care” about schooling, and teachers can give up on them (c) 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Tozer/Senese/Violas, School and Society, 5e

9. 9999999 School & Society: Chapter 13 Diversity and Equity Today: Meeting the Challenge The Impact of Language What linguists agree on:  all languages can support complex cognitive processes and express whatever needs to be expressed  language prestige is attached to economic/military power of group using it  children learn better through use of native language  not all non-standard speakers have same language development  the way a child's primary language is valued affects self-concept  every language has variety of linguistic styles  reading failure is frequently caused by conflict between English- speaking teachers and non-English-speaking children (c) 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Tozer/Senese/Violas, School and Society, 5e

10. 10 School & Society: Chapter 13 Diversity and Equity Today: Meeting the Challenge Bilingual and ESL Instruction as Bridges to English Proficiency 42% of all public school teachers have at least one Limited English Proficiency (LEP) student in their classroom Spanish-speaking more likely to receive bilingual instruction; others get ESL programs Oakland School District’s controversial Ebonics instruction program BEV: Language and cultural subordination (c) 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Tozer/Senese/Violas, School and Society, 5e

11. 11 School & Society: Chapter 13 Diversity and Equity Today: Meeting the Challenge Pedagogical Approaches to Pluralism Ignore differences and teach to single standard Seek to eliminate differences by forcing compliance to a single standard Balance sensitivity to group differences without being biased by group differences  “culturally responsive” pedagogy (c) 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Tozer/Senese/Violas, School and Society, 5e

12. 12 School & Society: Chapter 13 Diversity and Equity Today: Meeting the Challenge Gender Theory: An Illustration of Sensitivity to Differences Feminist theory explored three possibilities with respect to gender issues –“Gender free” approach –Compensate/equalize effects of gender differences –Reconsider all the operational premises of education and society (c) 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Tozer/Senese/Violas, School and Society, 5e

13. 13 School & Society: Chapter 13 Diversity and Equity Today: Meeting the Challenge Multicultural Education and Democratic Pluralism—Five Approaches (Sleeter and Grant) Teaching the exceptional and culturally different  fitting students into existing structure with ESL, bilingual, remedial, special education programs  retains status quo Human relations  promotion of unity, tolerance, and acceptance within existing structure among students  Doesn’t address institutional inequities Single-group studies  singling out groups for study; foster acceptance, work towards social change on behalf of identified group  Doesn’t alter the main curriculum; more “add on” (c) 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Tozer/Senese/Violas, School and Society, 5e

14. 14 School & Society: Chapter 13 Diversity and Equity Today: Meeting the Challenge Multicultural Education and Democratic Pluralism—Five Approaches (Sleeter and Grant) Multicultural education  promotion of cultural pluralism, equal opportunity and respect in the school  critical thinking, bilingual instruction  debate over whether result is cohesion or fragmentation Education that is multicultural and social reconstructionist  preparation for the “real world” (c) 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Tozer/Senese/Violas, School and Society, 5e

15. 15 School & Society: Chapter 13 Diversity and Equity Today: Meeting the Challenge Multicultural and Social Reconstructionist Education Practice of democracy Analysis of one’s own life Development of social action skills Formation of social coalitions across boundaries of race, ethnicity, social class and gender (c) 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Tozer/Senese/Violas, School and Society, 5e

16. 16 School & Society: Chapter 13 Diversity and Equity Today: Meeting the Challenge Diversity, Equity, and Special Education Multicultural education is the most equitable way to address educational needs of all students (Banks) Special education as a form of tracking (Skrtic) Labels may say more about the system than they do about the students (c) 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Tozer/Senese/Violas, School and Society, 5e

17. 17 School & Society: Chapter 13 Diversity and Equity Today: Meeting the Challenge Concluding Remarks Jane Elliott’s experiment reminds us of the social construction of what is judged superior or inferior Slow progress from culturally deficient to culturally different explanations of differences Sensitivity means asking “When is race or class or gender a relevant variable in this student’s performance, and when is it not?” (c) 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Tozer/Senese/Violas, School and Society, 5e

18. 18 School & Society: Chapter 13 Diversity and Equity Today: Meeting the Challenge Developing Your Professional Vocabulary anti-racist education Black English Vernacular critical theory cultural deficit theory cultural subordination theory culturally relevant pedagogy Culturally responsive pedagogy democratic pluralism ESL instruction ethnic diversity gender sensitivity vs. gender bias genetic deficit theory Head Start Project multiculturalism pedagogy Plato’s myth of the metals resistance theory (c) 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Tozer/Senese/Violas, School and Society, 5e