Census Bureau Projects Tripling of Hispanic and Asian Populations in 50 Years; Non-Hispanic Whites May Drop To Half of Total Population
U.S. Census Bureau Release
The Census Bureau predicts that by the year 2066 half of all of the people living in the U.S. will trace their roots to places other than Western Europe. As the demographics of school districts change, school leaders are challenged to meet the needs of an increasingly diverse population. How well they do so is tied to how well they understand the social and cultural backgrounds of their faculty, students and administrators.
http://kmadiversity.com/expertise/schools/
• Hispanics increased their hold as the country’s largest minority group, at 14.5 percent of the population, compared with 12.8 percent for blacks.
• Hispanic is a term for people with ethnic backgrounds in Spanish- speaking countries. Hispanics can be of any race, and most in the U.S. are white. When demographers talk about the shrinking percentage of white people in America, generally they are talking about whites who are not Hispanic.
• Such whites are a minority in four states — Hawaii, New Mexico, California and Texas — and the District of Columbia. The share of white people fell below 60 percent in three other states — Maryland, Georgia and Nevada. Nationally, non-Hispanic whites make up about 67 percent of the population, down from 70 percent at the start of the decade.
• California, New York, Texas and Florida have the nation’s largest immigrant populations. The new data show that immigrants will travel beyond those states if there are jobs available.
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Make a case for why inclusion of diversity in aspects of teaching and learning is important despite the lower percentage of diverse groups in WV. End your post with a question. Include readings from your text. Try to be specific.
ReplyDeleteI think that teaching students about diversity, even when it is not present in the students in the classroom, is key to developing open minded students. If teachers do not teach about other cultures, than students will only have a stereotype in their mind rather than actual facts about that culture.
ReplyDeleteThe idea of ethnocentrism is the idea that one's own culture is superior to other cultures. (Sheets,131) This idea can be very damaging in the cognitive development of a student because it usually locks a single story into the minds of cultures other than the students’ own. Our students will more than likely leave West Virginia at some point, and they need to know what socially acceptable behavior is when it comes to other cultures. This is where the teacher comes into play by teaching students about diversity in the classroom. The classroom is one of the only places that most students will get this kind of information that will inform their interactions with people from different cultures in the future. Since WV has so little diversity in many of the schools, our students are more likely to have that single story about other cultures, rather than an appropriate and correct idea about culture.
Teaching diversity to an un-diverse classroom can be a challenge. In what ways can we make lessons about culture more engaging and fun students?
Devin,
ReplyDeleteI think it would be fun to bring in other elements, such as music, art, or even games in order for the students to want to learn more. By allowing the children to a chance to become more engrossed in these ways, we can also prime them to learn about something different if we teach it differently as well. Another really fun project would be to allow each of them to research their family trees in order to discover some of their own heritage, and that may make it more interesting to learn about the backgrounds of others. By sharing this information with the class, then, it would allow for more discussion about the differences between those in the classroom. Children (and parents) may discover that even though they look similar they come from very diverse places, and that could begin the process of changing their perception of others. One helpful resource suggested by Sheets is what is located in the community (Field trip? Guest speaker?) such as the tourism board, Chamber of Commerce, and the public or school library. Students can then begin to collect materials to compare, contrast, evaluate, and justify how their opinions may differ. As Sheets mentions, “children actively appropriate information from their environment” (2005, p.46-47), so ours must be inclusive from the beginning.
Reading the percentages of minorities mentioned was just a little surprising to me. I guess I did not realize there were already so many areas where the white population was a minority. Living in this region of West Virginia so close to both Maryland and Washington, D.C. also reminds me that I am lucky to have had some of the diverse experiences and encounters during my life. It would be helpful for us as teachers to have our students use a perspective-taking approach developed by Robert Selman or examine the moral dilemmas of Lawrence Kohlberg, in order to understand how others think and feel. In these methods students read short stories that illustrate moral dilemmas, and are asked to consider what decision they would make in that situation. Beginning to understand our own thinking helps us to then understand how others think as well. This will be a good approach in other parts of the state where the population is not so diverse because it will open up the doors for future discussions about race, class, sexual identity, etc., and help students begin to place themselves in others’ shoes. Sheets defines racism as “a preformed opinion or an irrational strong feeling, usually unfavorable, about someone or something” (2005, p. 39). By offering an alternative viewpoint to this population of students it may help them to reconsider certain opinions they may have of others, and to practice empathy later in their lives, when they may encounter new facets of groups.
ReplyDeleteWhat are some other tools that may help our students to develop empathy and awareness, while not necessarily ramming the information down their throats?
Yeah I was very surprised reading this section about whites slowly becoming the minority around the country. I can understand it with those states close to the border of Mexico and the immigration problems we've had.
ReplyDeleteIn schools children expereince an enculturation process(the way schools expect students to act and think) that often requires assimilation to cultural norms, cognitive patterns, communication styles,and belief systems(Sheets 126). Relating this to the low percentage of diverse groups in West Virgnia, students are going to conform to the white culture in WV. West Virginia like my town isn't a very diverse group and they get stuck in their "bubble" of reality. Once they go outside their bubble, they are going to need to know about other cultures and not just their single story opinion on what they think someones culture is. Teachers in WV need to educate their expose their children to other cultures so they don't have that ethnocentrism, thinking their culture is superior to others(Sheets 131).
Do you think ethnocentrism happens within other cultures?
Katie,
ReplyDeleteI think some ways to give un-diverse groups information about other cultures is to do it slowly. It might be a little over bearing if they try and throw all the information at the students at once. If maybe they do a few warm ups a week, with some diverse lessons, it'd be a good fit for students to soak up the material of other cultures. Like Devon said on another post, about the civil rights movement and other things we think our students need to be informed on that would benefit to have the knowlegde of other cultures.
After growing up in Philadelphia, my family moved to WV when I was starting high school. While my elementary school was private and very undiverse, my neighborhood was very diverse with many different ethnic backgrounds and cultures. I was very fortunate to be able to experience these differences and learn from them. I feel that while the schools in WV are primarily European Americans, that it is still important to teach our students about diversity. In chapter 8 of the Sheets text it says that we need to provide students with "skills needed to function freely and responsibly as young adults in a culturally pluralistic, democratic society" (2005, p. 123). OUr job is to prepare our students with skills they can carry through the rest of their lives. Many students go to college after high school. For college to be the only eye-opener to diversity would present the student with many missed opportunities.
ReplyDeleteIn what ways can we teach our students that are predomiminatly of European American descent that it is important for them to learn about other culture and diversity?
To respond to John's question: Of course I think that ethnocentrism happens in other cultures. I guess this is an assumption, but I think that many people no matter what culture are a little biased and proud of where they come from. We become comfortable in what we know and what we grew up in and believe it to be the right way because that is the way we know and the way we know to do things.
ReplyDeleteI do feel that it is okay to be biased a little of your own culture, but it is also important to be willing to accept ideas and points from other cultures.Sheets says that we need to be aware of ethnocentrism in our instructional materials (2005, p. 131). We need to be careful not to force or unintentional favor one group over another. All cultures have something different and good to offer.
In response to the question:
ReplyDeleteIn what ways can we teach our students that are predomiminatly of European American descent that it is important for them to learn about other culture and diversity?
I think that if we show students what other cultures have contributed to the world, then they may come to understand that being of European descent does not mean superiority. I found a website that displays what Muslim thinkers and inventors have contributed to the world. (Link: http://www.khwarzimic.org/contribution-muslim/facts.html )
I think that in this day and age it is important for students to understand different cultures rather than relying on the single story that most often predominates media. By incorporating true facts and dispelling fictitious ideas, teachers can broaden the mindset of our students.
Also, by learning about other cultures and diversity, students are better able to understand the world around them. Why one country is fighting with another, why different languages are spoken in different areas of the world, etc... This knowledge allows students to be better global citizens, which is something we all should strive to be. In order to make informed decisions, we must be knowledgeable about the world around us, and this starts by teaching culture and diversity in school.
This topic is important to me because I received all my schooling (literally) in West Virginia and, until college, in a nearly homogenous racial setting. Speaking from personal experience, I feel there are two reasons why diversity is just as important in homogenous classrooms. First, racially-homogenous students are still divided culturally by socioeconomic status like Bethany mentioned in last week’s postings. And second, we can’t send any student (regardless of background) into the real world without authentic exposure to multiculturalism.
ReplyDeleteTeachers should still be careful to respond appropriately to social class as a type of cultural diversity (e.g. not assuming that everyone has Internet access at home). Sheets (2005) speaks about socioeconomic status as a facet of diversity, highlighting the facts that the values of America’s poor are starkly different than that of the middle class, and that stereotypes about the typical white American family often influence a teacher’s anticipation of students’ ability and behavior (32). The activities we completed in class during week one about poverty and wealth really highlighted the contrasting lifestyles for me.
Secondly, school doesn’t always reflect society despite the fact that school is the nation’s primary agent of socialization. Schools often mirror the local population, but what happens when students leave their hometowns to go to college or start a career? In Chapter 6, Sheets (2005) discusses using the classroom environment to help your students develop self-regulation, and to give them opportunities to practice this self-regulated learning; this way, they are able to create accountability and become aware of their cultural and social behavior (91).
Sheets, R.H. (2005). Diversity pedagogy: Examining the role of culture in the teaching-learning process. Boston: Allyn and Bacon.
Because of my limited exposure to various cultures throughout childhood, I experienced “culture shock” many times in adolescence and early adulthood (mostly through travel). Has anyone else had this experience? What was it like? What cultural factors were most striking to you?
One of the central tenants in popular educational theory is that school is where students go to learn to be productive citizens and reach their full potential as human beings (Charles, 2008). We do students a grave disservice if we only teach the cultural relevance or contributions of the actual student body served. While it is true, West Virginia is not a widely diverse state, it is also true that it does not exist in isolation. As educators we have an obligation to ensure that our content areas reflect culturally rich lessons to provide students a broad and more inclusive worldview. I think the importance of an inclusive curriculum is actually heightened in regions where there is little diversity and the earlier we start it the better. It never ceases to amaze me how open the very youngest of students can be to differences especially in people – whether it’s ethnic, socioeconomic, gender or ability. Then again I am painfully reminded of my window of opportunity as noted by Sheets (p. 75) and captured in the 1949 show tune by Rodgers and Hammerstein’s South Pacific You Have to be Carefully Taught…
ReplyDeleteYou’ve got to be taught
To hate and fear,
You’ve got to be taught
From year to year,
It’s got to be drummed
In your dear little ear
You’ve got to be carefully taught.
You’ve got to be taught to be afraid
Of people whose eyes are oddly made,
And people whose skin is a diff'rent shade,
You’ve got to be carefully taught.
You’ve got to be taught before it’s too late,
Before you are six or seven or eight,
To hate all the people your relatives hate,
You’ve got to be carefully taught!
Charles, C.M. (2008). Building classroom discipline, ninth edition. Boston: Allyn and Bacon.
Sheets, R. H. (2005). Diversity Pedagogy: Examining the role of culture in the teaching-learning process. Boston: Pearson Education, Inc.
Andrea Most, "‘You’ve Got to Be Carefully Taught’: The Politics of Race in Rodgers and Hammerstein’s South Pacific" Theater Journal 52, no. 3 (October 2000), 306.
Question: As a youngster growing up, did you have a favorite “diversity lesson” that may have shaped your current perspective on inclusion of diversity in teaching and learning? I’ll never forget my elementary school's class trip to the Shinnecock Native American Reservation on Long Island. It changed my life!
I think one of the most important things school does for a student is to prepare them for what lies beyond the confines of the community they have grown up in. Diversity pedagogy is especially important for students who are growing up in areas that are not as diverse and who might not otherwise have contacts with diverse groups.
ReplyDeleteSheets talks a great deal of ethnocentrism, which is one of the most dangerous things that can happen in a culture. It is important not to suggest anything superior about the majority group's culture, even if that is the only culture that is present. If our students do decide to leave the comfortable confines of the schools and communities they grow up in, there is an almost 100% chance that they will find themselves in a community more diverse than their own where they will be forced to work and live among the diverse cultures that make up the greater part of the United States. If they have come from a school community that only enforced the values of the white, mainstream culture, they will find it even more difficult to communicate with their diverse peers.
The world our students will grow up in is going to be even smaller than the one we live in. Diversity should be an automatic "yes" in all curriculums, regardless of the school's diversity breakdowns.
Question: We know that each step forward in the world of technology brings all nations, and therefore all cultures, closer together. How can we use advances in technology, be it the Internet or otherwise, to help students learn more about and interact with other cultures in their quest for more understandings of diversity?
In response to John,
ReplyDeleteDo you think ethnocentrism happens within other cultures?
I think ethnocentrism is so prevalent because it is so easy to let happen. I don't necessarily think that the teaching of one's culture is entirely malicious. It's easy to focus on your own culture in your teaching because you know it. I was born a U.S. citizen into the majority culture. There's nothing I can do about it, and because of enculturation, what's the culture I know the most about. It is easy to teach and only teach about what we know. It is when we blatantly disregard the thousands upon thousands of other cultures in the world when this becomes a problem. So, is it a problem in other cultures? I don't see why it wouldn't be. It is the responsibility of all cultures to learn a little bit more about each other.
mprasc01 asked...
ReplyDeleteIn what ways can we teach our students that are predomiminatly of European American descent that it is important for them to learn about other culture and diversity?
First and foremost we can teach through example. By submerging children in learning environments that reflect and recognize the contributions of others provides them an important window on the world. If we emphasize that the global village has already arrived and our students will encounter tougher competition for employment and broader opportunities for international exchanges, perhaps they will pursue because it in their own self-interest at first. If we can convey that we’re all different yet inter-connected maybe they will begin to embrace for themselves that in today’s world the universal language is indeed diversity.
Dawn,
ReplyDeleteYour question, “As a youngster growing up, did you have a favorite “diversity lesson” that may have shaped your current perspective on inclusion of diversity in teaching and learning,” leads me to a story that I like to think about now that I’m older. I didn’t get any lessons on diversity in my public education, but my mom has a huge love of history and passed that on to me. When I was little, the American Girl book series was introduced. There were five stories that represented girls from different periods: colonial, westward expansion, slavery, Victorian, and post-WWII. Addy Walker was the only girl of color – a fugitive slave.
I read all the books; there were six in each series. The American Girl book series eventually became marketed by the dolls most people are familiar with today. For my birthday one year, my parents said I could get a doll and I picked Addy. I wanted Addy because I liked her story the best; she was courageous and brave and her life was so different than the other girls. My parents thought it was interesting that I wanted a black doll, and when they ordered it they got me an African-American cookbook and a traditional slavery-era marble game to go with her. I immersed myself in slave culture through books and food mostly (there was no such thing as the Internet yet), and I learned so much about a culture I was unfamiliar just because I was interested. As I grew up, I maintained my interest in and curiosity about slavery as an ideological and human struggle of the world. American Slavery, American Freedom by Edmund Morgan is one of the best books I’ve ever read that explains slavery in America for what it really was, not for what our history books have taught us for so long. It won’t be everyone’s pick for leisure reading, but it would be worth your time.
Since its inception, American Girl has added many new girls to the line-up to represent different cultures – there is an American Indian, a Mexican, a Jewish girl, and a Chinese immigrant now. I applaud their efforts as a company at expanding what an “American girl” really is. And I think it’s okay to be a little bit pleased with myself for being color blind when I was little and choosing Addy because I thought she was special, not because she was like me.
http://www.americangirl.com/index.php
American girl. (n.d.). Retrieved June 19, 2010 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_girl.
Morgan, E.S. (1975). American slavery, American freedom. New York: W.W. Norton & Company.
In WV the lower percntage of diversity creates a higher need for inclusion of diversity in aspects of teaching. When a student body is diverse the students learn alot about other cultures by just interacting with one another on a day to day basis. The teacher can also tap into the childrens culture by doing assignments/activities that deal with home life. However if the student body is not diverse then the students have to research on thier own and have to learn from a distance. This makes the teachers job more difficult because it makes it less real for the students. Sheets says that teachers are the most important resource in the classroom. I believe that the students are a very close second. And when it comes to teaching diversity, if the class is diverse in culture they may be an even more important resource than the teacher. But when the class is not diverse as is the case for most of WV The teacher must include diversity education to get the students ready for society around the country and the world.
ReplyDeleteDawn,
ReplyDeleteI went to elementary school at waverly in frederick MD we had a very diverse population with lots of hispanics and blacks. I remember an assignment from the second grade (only because I found it the other day) where we had to do a project called "my life". It was a note book that consisted of your family tree and you had to reasearch your ancestors country of origin, what your favorite foods and activities were. I dont remember everything from that but I am sure it was a good learning expierence for diversity. I think this would work in a all white school because alot of "white" people come form alot of differnt countries. This could make for a good lesson for learning about differnt coultures around the world.
My question is what role does folk stories have on teaching diversity to children?
I think teaching students about diversity is a very important aspect of teaching even in an area of a low percentage of diverse groups. As educators it is our responsibility to teach content, but we are also teaching our students information and skills to take with them when they leave the high school setting. Therefore, this is very relevant information because in the “real-world” setting there will be many times students will be working with diverse groups.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was in high school, which was in West Virginia about 11 years ago, the only diverse groups I can remember are whites and African Americans. How quickly things change! Now teaching in the same county I have students from many diverse groups!
This country is a melting pot of many different groups of people and we must prepare our students to enter this melting pot even if their current setting does not reflect our actual country. We need to open their eyes. By thinking critically about multiple worldviews might promote discussion and solutions to issues our students will face in today’s society (Sheets, p. 144).
Sheets, R.H. (2005). Diversity pedagogy: Examining the role of culture in the teaching-learning process. Boston: Allyn and Bacon.
Question: Parental support is important for all classroom learning. What are some strategies for gaining parental support for promoting diversity in the classroom?
In response to Bethany’s question: How can we use advances in technology to help students learn more about and interact with other cultures in their quest for more understandings of diversity?
ReplyDeleteWhat about an online classroom pen-pal? A school could contact another school in a more diverse setting and schedule times classes could interact with one another. Students could communicate through online chat rooms and email. Teachers could even teach lessons to the different classes by online cameras. The classes could interact with one another and get immediate feed back. I think it would be very beneficial to use the technology we have available to us to help promote diversity in the classrooms.
One consistent theme throughout our text is exposing students to diversity. Sheets (2005) states that teachers “Encourage, facilitates, and provides opportunities for students to interact socially with others in multiple diverse settings.” In the pluralistic society that we live in it is difficult not to interact with someone outside our own culture. As others have mentioned it is very unlikely that any of our students never leave West Virginia. If we as educators do not teach students how to interact with others, then we are setting our students up for failure.
ReplyDeleteOver the course of this semester we have talked about the damaging effects of only having knowledge of a “single story”. The “single story” can be overcome through education. The more we learn, the better we can form our own beliefs.
Working at the jail has exposed me to many individuals who have fallen victim to the “single story”. They have formed opinions about a whole group of people based on stories they have heard passed down from generation to generation. I truly believe that this is caused by lack of education. Most of our “clientele” have less than a high school education. Many cannot read and write, or have limited abilities to do so.
Question: What role does television programming play in teaching diversity to today’s children? Do you think that it is beneficial or detrimental?