Education and Diversity in School
Successful Strategies for Implementing Diversity in the Classroom
Teachers do more than teach; they model social behavior and expectations for hundreds of students every day.
All teachers have individual preferences for their favorite kinds of students. Individually, teachers may prefer boys over girls, students with spirit rather than quiet students, or they may feel particularly drawn to students who seem to need their skills; their tutoring skills, their listening skills, even their discipline. Generally, though, all teachers prefer bright, clean, well behaved students with educationally motivated parents.
At the same time, good teachers must set aside these preferences, and dissemble their skills for students with an extraordinary range of abilities, from many different backgrounds. How can they make all students feel welcome in their classrooms and consequently ready to learn?
There are three elements essential to implementing diversity in any classroom for any age level. These are:
Reverse Stereotyping
Teachers unwittingly employ stereotyping of students every single day in every single classroom. They do it when they ask the boys to move a heavy box. They do it when they assume that the parents of the poor kids are not going to show up for open house. They do it by assuming that the cheerleaders and the athletes are not too bright.
The students do it too. “Don’t ask her that; she don’t know,” they say when a teacher calls on a particular student. Yet the teacher must call on that failing or underachieving student to answer the hard questions. Students, of any age, have a way of rising to meet an adult’s expectations.
Include Families
Another way of celebrating diversity in the classroom is to enable families and their kids to shine in whatever way possible. Many parents don’t feel as bad about their children’s low percentile scores on standardized tests when they realize their children have other talents and they were infinitely capable of learning.
Eliminate the Word Special
In the classroom, teachers need to celebrate individual differences, but they also need to foster principles, which include the premise that all students are educated with an equal level of opportunity.
This includes everyone having the supplies they need. This includes everyone attending a field trip whether they’ve paid for it or not. This includes a reasonable dress code that every child can maintain. This includes extra tutoring for some who need it in certain subjects to maintain an equal grade point average with their classmates.
It means that everyone turns in their homework whether they had a game the night before or a week-long cruise to the Bahamas. It means that every single kid’s parents get a call and a teacher conference; not just the discipline problems. It means that every student who deserves it is disciplined and not just the ones whose parents won’t make a fuss.
All teachers must ensure that every student has the same opportunities to learn, to be respected, and to have boundaries set for them. It’s a hard thing to do because parents, other teachers and the school administration often fight it. They want special considerations or penalties or just a lukewarm across-the-board acquiescence. A teacher needs a lot of inner strength to implement diversity honestly. So do school principals and elected board officials.
