Anthropology: Cultural Issues in Public Schools - Research Paper Example

If we talk about the concept of culture in public schools, we can say that the culture of public schools depends largely on the overall culture of the society. If a society/country consists of people from different cultures, the overall culture of the public schools operating in that country will be diverse. Although there is one strong culture that directs the overall functioning of public schools, but if we explore the internal environment of such schools, we observe many children from different cultures.

Such cultural diversity in public schools gives rise to a number of cultural issues. In this paper, we will talk about some of the main cultural issues that occur in public schools of culturally diverse countries and the effects that those issues have on students studying in public schools. Different Types of cultural Issues Cultural issues in public schools mainly refer to such issues that crop up between students from different cultural and social backgrounds. In developed countries, there usually exist more than one ethnic or cultural group that have a strong influence on the overall culture of the host country.

For example, in Canada and America, a large number of people belonging to different cultures and societies live forming large communities. Such communities play a considerable role in influencing the culture of these countries. If we explore the school culture of these countries, we come to know about a number of cultural issues that take place due to various cultural differences. However, we cannot say that cultural differences only create problems for students studying in public schools. Children studying in such schools also get various benefits, such as, exposure to different cultures, exposure to different religions, personality development, and increase in confidence.

Along with these benefits, some critical cultural issues also occur that raise questions regarding the increasing trend of cultural diversity in public schools. Some of the most significant examples of cultural issues in public schools include discrimination, weak cultures, low level of understanding between students, and language proficiency. These are such examples of cultural issues that also relate to the study of cultural anthropology, which is the study of cultural differences that exist between people from different cultures.

Public schools are facing the challenge of dealing with these cultural issues in order to serve target populations properly (Pitts 499). Let us discuss these cultural issues in some detail in order to know how they influence group relations in today’s global world. Discrimination Socio-cultural anthropologists believe that discrimination against students is one of the main issues, which can occur in public schools. They believe that racial and religious discriminations are two main types of discrimination that can be observed widely in public schools.

Racial discrimination refers to discrimination based on difference in races of two or more ethnic groups. Racial imbalance in public schools is one of the most critical issues (Fiss 564). I personally believe that students belonging to one race always have some kind of bias in their minds regarding other racial groups and they show this bias while dealing with students of other racial groups. For example, we can observe racial conflicts between white and black students in the United Kingdom. They not only remain separate at schools in some cases but also get