Root Cause Analysis - Essay Example

Root Cause Analysis Root Cause Analysis American s such as schools have embraced multiculturalism. Elementary and secondary schools have implemented curricula that promote understanding of diversity in culture. This is through exposing students to traditions and customs of ethnic and racial groups. Government agencies support tolerance for many cultures through backing Asian American and Hispanic heritage weeks (Owen, 2005). However, multiculturalism continues to be a source of problems in American schools.

Approximately half of American population perceives that government agencies have directed efforts maintenance of separate ethnic and racial practices such as bilingual education. Textbooks and school activities that encourage destructive forms of multiculturalism are increasing in United States. American Textbook Council, a scholarly body that monitors textbook patterns, discovered that ten of most used books in senior and junior high schools books sanitized jihad. This depicts radical multiculturalism that has encroached public schools in America.

Competing racial, linguistic, and cultural claims poses a danger to American school curricula. Conservatisms view that multicultural education portrays America as a nation that lacks identity. Multiculturalism has been a challenge to most educational administrators. Educational administrators do not understand American policy of multiculturalism in schools. Although most of the teachers are aware of diverse cultures of students, they have limited cultural-base and skills. In addition, racism, discrimination, stereotyping, and prejudice are big challenges to achieve multiculturalism (Mwonga, 2005).

This paper will concentrate on this last challenge. Racism assumes many forms in American schools. For instance, teachers, peers, and administrators can discriminate students according to ethnic, sexual orientation, and socioeconomic status. Other forms of discrimination have basis in gender, abilities, and other perceived differences from many people. Victims of cultural favoritism can experience it inaction or action on the part of peers and schools workforce. Some of the actions, which may hurt minority cultures, comprise of academic segregation, harassment, verbal, and physical violence.

Inaction forms of prejudice in multicultural education include inadequate allocation of academic resources, prohibition of minority insights in curriculum, labeling, or name-calling, and lack of positive response from peers and teachers (Mwonga, 2005). The victims of racism feel that schools they enrolled are not accommodative. This has forced some of students to leave their cultures in order to embrace the dominant one. Other students fail to participate in academic and co-curricula activities, frequent absence from classes, and eventually dropping out of schools because of discrimination.

This is very ironical because many people perceive and expect schools to be avenues for fostering respect for diverse cultures (Martines, 2005). Lack of emphasis in the part of school administration exacerbates racial discrimination in multicultural communities. Administrators do not obtain the necessary feedback from communities and other stakeholders on the relevancy of the school’s curriculum. This means that the administrators and teachers do not understand and embrace varying beliefs and philosophies of different cultures.

Failure of school administrators to comprehend multicultural values affects their efforts in planning of educational programs that cater for all cultures (Mwonga, 2005). Educational curricula present a challenge in elimination of racism in schools. This is because public school represents and incorporates what their designers perceive as necessary and in accordance with overriding culture. For example, textbooks, which are crucial tools for devising curriculum, emphasize on the domineering culture.

This perpetuates discrimination of minority groups in a typical society. Educational curricula in many schools in America purporting to embrace multiculturalism defy principle of equitable education and opportunity (Henriksen and Nkels, 2005). To have deeper understanding and to solve racism in multicultural education, it is crucial for institution to have enough knowledge about the population of students they are working with. Most of elementary school children experience a cultural shock upon entrance into schools.

This is because they meet different people who have different cultural backgrounds. In addition, reading, exposure to ideas, and writing are very different from the ones they accustomed. Therefore, this is the best time for teachers to understand how racism sets in the education system. It is also the appropriate time to take prudent measures to tame racism before it gets out of the hand (Martines, 2005). It is sound to change structures such as curricula and personnel in order to eliminate racism and promote education in multicultural society.

The designing and implementation of curricula should include individuals from diverse cultural backgrounds. Insights from variety of people help to come up with curricula that accommodate all the needs of students regardless of their racial or ethnic attachment. Schoolteachers and counselors should embrace diversity in classrooms and outside the classes. This will helps students from varied background to appreciate each other. For instance, the teachers should encourage students to make drawings that about their individual cultures and share them with other students of different races.

This creates a feeling of inclusiveness and developing strong bonds among students. Collaboration teachers, counselors, and students assist in integration of new knowledge that upholds positive attitude towards different cultures (Henriksen and Nkels, 2005). This reduces prejudice in schools. Through working together, students and teachers can achieve great heights of academic excellence, which is free from racial discrimination. References Henriksen, R., and Nkels, H. (2005). Multicultural School Counseling With Children in Grades K-6.

Retrieved 5 June 2012, from: http://counselingoutfitters.com/vistas/vistas05/Vistas05.art30.pdf. Martines, D. (2005). Teacher Perceptions of Multicultural Issues in School Settings. Retrieved 5 June 2012, from: http://www.nova.edu/ssss/QR/QR10-1/martines.pdf. Mwonga, C. (2005). Multicultural Education: New Path Toward Democracy. Retrieved 5 June 2012, from: http://www.macalester.edu/educationreform/publicintellectualessay/CarolineM.pdf. Owen, D. (2005). American Identity, Citizenship, and Multiculturalism.

Retrieved 5 June 2012, from: http://www.civiced.org/pdfs/germanPaper0905/DianaOwen2005.pdf.