Ensuring the Race, Ethnicity, Social Class and Gender of Pupils - Essay Example

Critically examine the importance of ensuring the race, ethni social and gender of pupils are valued and supported within the education system. By Student’s Name Course + Code Class Institution Date Introduction Education serves an important role in all aspects of life. Many people depend on the foundation that education provides to advance their lives and careers. The quality of education that one receives determines the type of life that they will have. Lyndon Johnson quoted education as being the single most powerful tool for the correction of socioeconomic inequality. This led to the setting up of various programmes such as Chapter One, Upward bound among others during his administration. Such programmes led to a change of attitude towards the education system. This led to many dubbing education as the great equalizer. This is the reason why the government has put in place different measures to ensure that the education system is accessible to all in the country. The composition of the American population is ever changing. More people are coming to the country in search of their American Dream. This has significantly changed the composition of the population landscape. There is added diversity in classrooms today that was not there say twenty years ago. Therefore, there is an importance for the development of curricula, policies and teaching strategies that will assist the students in the learning process. Discourse Race and Education There is a rapid change in the demographic composition of most communities all over the country. This means that there is increased enrolment of students who are both linguistically and culturally different from the mainstream population. These students differ from the mainstream in terms of the language spoken, social values and social class. It is well documented that students who came from such diverse culture have not had a lot of academic success because their literacy demands were not considered during the development of the curriculum. They are forced to adapt and assimilate into the existing mainstream system. The Pygmalion Effect best captures the effect of the composition of race in the classroom. This was based on the works of Rosenthal and Jacobsen in 1968. They found out that the expectations of the teacher from the students influenced their performance. Positive expectations resulted into better performances and vice versa. This means that racial stereotypes have played a huge role in the performance of students. For example, those from the African-American community may not be expected to perform as well because the expectations are that they will end up in jail, get into the entertainment business as rappers or become athletes (Featherman, 95). These inequalities in the system suffered mainly by the minorities can be addressed in a number of ways. The first is better understanding of the cultures of these students. In order to address the literacy and cultural needs of the students, the teachers need to have an understanding of their students cultures. This knowledge can be self-gained by the teachers or through workshops and seminars. Training and support systems will enable the teachers to have the necessary skills to work with students from any type of background. It will also enable them to have access to materials that will recognise the importance and contributions of all the races in the development of the U.S. The second way is using the legal system. There can be programs formed through legislation that ensure training of teachers and curriculum development to ensure racial equality and such related issues is financed by the federal government. There can be laws that can be formulated in order to ensure that there are no racial prejudices against students in learning institutions. Guidelines can be put in place in order to ensure that this does not occur and if it does then there appropriate measures that are in place to deal with it. Thirdly, the educators can put pressure on the government to make changes on those factors that affect their students and in turn make their work harder. Racial conditions outside of the school have a significant impact on the performance of students (Parro, 80). These include the housing policies, wages and remuneration and the health care policies. It is hard for a student that coming from a housing project with high crime rates and poor amenities to perform at the same level with a suburban child. The advantages from racial equality in the education system will be evident in a number of ways. First, there will be increased enrolment of students from the minorities. This is because they will feel like they too can have an equal chance of succeeding as their counterparts from the mainstream races. The American education system has always been perceived as a ladder that children from diverse backgrounds can use in the attainment of better economic status and occupational success. Therefore, these students will use education as a gateway to a better life than the ones they are in currently. Second, there will be a greater completion rates in the education system. This is because the system will have tuned to attend to the needs of individual students. The different literacy needs of the students will have been addressed and students will have the added incentive for completing their education. Gender and Education. According to a survey conducted by NCES in the period 2009-2010 girls make up 49% of the total students in elementary and secondary institution of learning. They also make up 57% of postsecondary education. There were worries that girls were being under represented in the education system, but the above data shows that there have been changes to reverse the trend. However, the key area of focus is the performance of the different genders when it comes to different subjects (Featherman,81). There has been traditionally poor performance by girls in the sciences in comparison to their male counterparts. A number of factors have caused this. One of them is the lack of a mentor for girls in the field of sciences. There are many reknown male scientist who have achieved major milestones and won numerous accolades. It is therefore natural for numerous male students to have an interest in the sciences and consider a career in that area (Garrison, 357). However, the reverse is true when it comes to the female students. The lack of many visible role models in the industry leads to disinterest. This is reflected by the poor performance in the aforementioned subject. This can be corrected using mentorship programmes. Fellow female scientists can give talks to the girls on why they should choose a career in the field of science. Teachers’ attitudes and skills have also played a huge role in the imparities in performance. The teachers may be placing more emphasis and attention to the male students during the teaching process. Therefore, a change in the attitude of the teaching fraternity plays an important role in the reversal of fortunes in this particular area. The importance of gender equality in the education sector cannot be over emphasised because of its spill over effects. The number of female students that get quality education determines the number who will be available for employment in the workplaces. Therefore, the access to quality education by all gender determines the level of equality in the workplaces. In addition, the quality of education determines the amount of pay that these individuals will receive in the job market. It is therefore important that both the male and female students get the same level and quality of education in order to address to pay gap that exists in the country between men and women. Social class and education Class refers to the economic position of an individual within the society. It involves different aspects such as income levels, type of occupation and educational levels. Where one places in the social ladder of society has an important bearing on the performance and access to education. It is obvious that students from privileged backgrounds have access to better quality of education when compared to their counterparts from less privileged backgrounds. Those from privileged backgrounds have access to forms of education such as home schooling and private schools. Rich families can be able to pay for college tuition comfortably unlike poor households that face huge financial constraints. Most turn to the use of loans and other instruments in order to finance their education. The quality of education is therefore different in terms of the skills of the teachers that teach them, access to educational materials and the learning hours (Gallagher, 64). The social class of the students affects performance in terms of the quality of life. If a student has access to the basic needs, health care and social amenities then they are more likely to perform better in school. Research has shown that students who come from low-income households have slower development of academic skills that those coming from higher income households. This is because of the different environments and exposures of these two groups. For example, a child from a well to do family may be more technologically advanced that another from a low-income household. This is because this student is exposed to all the latest gadgets and other devices because the family can be able to afford them. Hence, the curriculum developed for these two students has to take into consideration their different backgrounds. The one for the under privileged student has to be detailed as the assumption made is there are things that the students has not been able to access and experience because of their social standing. Families that have low income are less likely to provide the necessary materials required in the learning process. For example, they may not be able to buy storybooks and therefore the literacy environment is poor resulting into low literacy levels. Therefore, when developing a syllabus such matters have to be taken into consideration in order to make sure that both the privileged and under privileged student get access to the same education making in the “Great Equalizer” once again. In conclusion, all the above areas have to be considered in the formulation of an educational policy to make sure that all that parties involved have adequate representation and no group is left behind in educational progression. Education is a basic human right and the least we can do is to make sure that it is accessible by all and that it is comprehensive enough for all parties involved. Bibliography Featherman, D. L., Hall, M., & Krislov, M. 2010. The next twenty-five years affirmative action in higher education in the United States and South Africa. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. Gallagher, C. A. 2009. Rethinking the colour line: readings in race and ethnicity (4th Ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill Higher Education. Schmidt, W. H., & McKnight, C. C. 2012. Inequality for all: the challenge of unequal opportunity in American schools. New York: Teachers College Press. Garrison, H. 2013. Underrepresentation by Race-Ethnicity across Stages of U.S. Science and Engineering Education. Cell biology education, 12(3), 357-363. Parro, F. 2012. A Supply-Demand Framework for Understanding the U.S. Gender Gap in Education. The B.E. Journal of Macroeconomics, 12(1), 50-95. http://www.nea.org/home/13054.htm http://www.ncrel.org/sdrs/areas/issues/content/cntareas/reading/li400.htm Read More