The Issues of Educational Inequalities

2682 Words6 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Educational equality

As I look back, we started our class with the module “the flat world”. This week’s reading addressed the issues of educational inequality. This module taught me how the score discrepancy is increasing between white and other ethnically diverse population. This is an alarming situation in the era of standardized testing. The article by Duffy (2013) from this week’s reading explores mental models and their ability to block or support school improvement. A mental model is a thought process that is completed entirely in the head. Mental model is a variation of what it represents. The thinker believes that it is true based on factual data. Each person’s experiences, knowledge base, and perceptions play a role in the formation of a mental model. The author provides sixteen strategies for unlearning and learning new models and also makes a point clear that teachers and administrators attitude really impact school improvement. The article points out the difference between compliance and commitment of educators and strategies to embrace new mental models for a better change. Compliance happens when the educator has a negative attitude about the new mental model and only behaves as expected when being observed. The goal is for educators to develop positive attitudes about the mental model so that they are committed and long-lasting change happens. I absolutely agree with this point that compliance and commitment are two different concepts, when we have commitment as educators; we are able to work as change agents. Compliance can only promote average professionals.

Another article I would like to mention is by Sleeter (2008) from the same module. I enjoyed reading this article as this piece recommend teachers to examine their own bac...

... middle of paper ...

...lture. Probably no framework is enough while conducting research with marginalized population/ teaching marginalized students. The question I keep on visiting are do the teachers really have resources (time, effort, material) to cultivate transformative pedagogy/audacious hope? Can we really foster emancipatory education in classroom when our lives are shaped by political forces?

Lastly I have taken this course material and pedagogy to my heart as I identify myself as a multicultural educator. I have been searching for articles and books related my interest that covers equity, social justice, diversity etc. Finally after this class I vouch to stand for what I believe in and teach my students that literacy is not just a set of cognitive skills, literacy is shaped by socio-cultural-political context as well.

Show More
Related

  • Analysis Of Mary Cowhey's Black Ants And Buddhists

    1338 Words  | 3 Pages

    Cowhey’s book is broken down by the major themes and concepts she teaches her first and second grade students. Each concept relates back to her personal pedagogy of implementing a Multicultural Education. These major themes include empathy, freedom, peace, activism, community, and social justice. Cowhey’s pedagogy uses “language and literacy to teach about the world with rigor, depth, and challenge in a way that engages and

    Read More

  • Anna Deveare Smith's Fires in the Mirror

    2659 Words  | 6 Pages

    Adams, Maurianne, Bell, Lee Anne, and Par Griffin. Teaching for Diversity and Social Justice: A Sourcebook. NY: Routledge, 1997.

    Read More

  • Inequality In Education Essay

    3194 Words  | 7 Pages

    The inequality in Australian education can be attributed to a history of low expectations and discrimination placed on Indigenous people by the government and society. Aboriginal children were denied the right to education until the 1970s due to the discrimitory views of the government and society. The Indigenous population were the sub-standard race of humanity with little to no chance of succeeding in life and these attitudes affected the educational choices offered to them (Ray & Poonwassie, 1992). As the superior race, the Anglo-Celtic Australians, considered themselves both intellectually and socio-culturally more advanced than their inferior Aboriginal neighbours (Foley, 2013). As a consequence of these racially and culturally motivated preconceptions, children of Aboriginal descent were considered unskilled outside of their own and were deemed incapable of excelling in ‘civilised’ white society (Foley, 2013). As a result, the Australian Government, in an effort to civilise and nurture politeness within the Aboriginal people, constructed “structured” (p 139) education training institutions in 1814. However, these problems only provided sufficient schooling for menial work: Aboriginal male children were prepared for agricultural employment, while girls were trained for domesticated services (Foley, 2013). Thus, as a direct consequence of low expectation for life success, Aboriginal children were offered minimal schooling ‘consistent with the perception about the limitations inherent in their race and their expected station in life at the lowest rung of white society’ (Beresford & Partington, 2003, p43). According to Foley (2013) this combination of low expectations and poor academic grounding meant that Indigenous children we...

    Read More

  • Inequality of Education: No Child Left Behind Act

    687 Words  | 2 Pages

    In 2001 George W. Bush signed the No Child Left Behind Act and the act took effect in 2002. The United States, and President Bush, thought that the act would aid immigrant students and American students in education from the time they entered elementary throughout adulthood. The NCLB does just the opposite for most immigrated students and native students. Although the act was a good idea at the time in 2001, the lasting effects on students with their education now are appalling because of all the negative feedback that the act provides for most school districts because all the students’ different learning abilities show lower test scores in standardized testing. The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) was passed in 2001 for aiding the development of education from 2001-2014 by creating standardized testing in hopes of creating more intelligent children, but there are more children left behind now, supporting the opinion that the act fails.

    Read More

  • Educational Inequality

    1207 Words  | 3 Pages

    Many people believe that “having an economy that places a greater value on skills and education is a good thing” and that is the thing that is needed to improve people’s lives and futures (Baicker, Lazear). If what our economy is trying to do a good thing they why are so many students still suffering? The main issues are the low-income education that many students have. Many schools are getting money from the government but that is not enough to pay for everything students need. Educational standards have continued to increase throughout the years but that does not help the students who are unable to pay for the better education. These students who cannot pay for the better education are stuck barely getting by with a low education. A low-education can affect many areas of regular schooling. The students who are at low-income schools do not know what type of disadvantage they have compared to other students across the country. These students believe that they are getting the best education, but there are many students who are getting a better education at a school that has the funds to pay for everything their students need. Low-income students are suffering due to the environment they are in at school and they continue to suffer throughout their life due to it. These students will continue to suffer unless something is done about the low-income schools and improve them for the future. Improvement has to come from all areas, not just one aspect of schooling but from all aspects. Although education has improved along with technology many low-income students still suffer from the vast inequalities. These inequalities will take many years to find a way to fix and even more years to actually fix, until this happens the students will...

    Read More

  • What Are The Challenges Of Teaching For Social Justice

    1178 Words  | 3 Pages

    Through the courses that I have taken thus far, I have learned about and experienced many rewards of teaching for social justice. However, I have also learned about the challenges of teaching for social justice, such as mismatches, racial stigmas, and avoiding oppressive teaching, to name a few. From course readings, the dispositions, and real-life situations, I have been able to grasp the understanding of being a teacher for social justice.

    Read More

  • Addressing Racial Inequalities in Today's Education System

    2198 Words  | 5 Pages

    : In today’s society, the education system has been a prodigious concern. It has been a hot button issue on how the school system should be handled. There have been several racial inequalities in the schools and the students are the ones that are affected by it. In the New York Times newspaper, writer Motoko Rich has been following how the Federal system will be placed at schools. Rich’s article titled “New Federal Guidelines Aim to Rid Schools of Racial Inequality” talks about how the new Federal guidelines will aim to get rid of the racial inequalities that the schools and students face in everyday life. Rich’s view point on these new guidelines is that she is in favor of the Federal guidelines. She starts off by saying that racial minorities

    Read More

  • Racial Inequality In Education

    1470 Words  | 3 Pages

    Race and education are two very important topics that seem to have a very great effect on each other. We live in the land of opportunity, and this land provides “The American Dream”. However, the American Dream must come with equal quality education for all people regardless of their race. Education is one of the major obstacles today that stands in the way of giving everyone the same opportunity that they deserve.

    Read More

  • Wealth Inequalities In Education

    868 Words  | 2 Pages

    To feel the pain of the tightening connection between education and wealth inequalities, one need look no further than state-level higher education reforms. In particular, the Michigan Education Trust (MET) college savings account policy reveals how the ongoing tragedy of exorbitant higher education costs prevents the poor from saving for college. Thousands of financially disadvantaged Michigan students have already attended college thanks to the MET, yet thousands still have not. However, families who have few marketable assets have little money and, consequently, little incentive to deposit money in MET savings accounts. Lacking objects of monetary value such as homes and cars, sellable for profit, and liquid assets like saveable wages, impoverished

    Read More

  • Social Inequality In Education Essay

    1193 Words  | 3 Pages

    This paper explores the way social inequality affects schooling. In a classroom setting, one student can be treated unequally just because of their race, ethnic background or religion. Taking notes from Purcell- Gates and Boykin, A.W. & Noguera, P., the topics of ethnicity and the achievement gap will be discussed in the event that all students should be treated equal. Also bringing in the topic of the “No Child Left Behind Act” introduced by former president George W. Bush in 2001 and was signed into law in 2002. For a long time, social inequality places a negative effect on schools around the country. The common urban verse suburban educational battle has been going on for way to long and there is a fix that needs to be made.

    Read More

  • Educational Equity

    1191 Words  | 3 Pages

    Develop an argument on or some ideas of understanding about curriculum as multicultural text by relating the works of Darling-Hammond, French, & Garcia-Lopez, Delpit, Duarte & Smith, Greene, Nieto and Sletter to your experience of curriculum, teaching, and learning as affirming diversity. You could think specifically about the following questions: Is there a need for diversity in curriculum studies and designs? Why? What measures do you think will be effective in incorporating such a need into curriculum studies and designs? What is the relevance of diversity to your career goal, to education in your family, community, and school, to education in Georgia, and to education in general? In which way can you develop a curriculum which helps cultivate empathy, compassion, passion, and hope for citizens of the world, and which fosters social justice?

    Read More

  • Universal Design for Learning

    1107 Words  | 3 Pages

    ...Elkins, J. (2008). Education for Inclusion and Diversity Third Edition. Frenchs Forest, NSW: Pearson Education Australia.

    Read More

  • Essay On Multicultural Education

    1439 Words  | 3 Pages

    The cultural diversity in society, which is reflected in schools, is forcing schools not to solely rely on content-centered curriculum, but to also incorporate student-centered lesson plans based on critique and inquiry. This requires multicultural education to a dominant part of the school system, not just an extra course or unit. Further, it demands that learning itself no longer be seen as obtaining knowledge but rather, education be seen as creating knowledge. Multicultural education should be seen as affirming the diversity of students and communities, promoting the multicultural ideas of the United States, and building the knowledge and behaviors needed for students to be a positive and contributing member of society and the global community as a whole.

    Read More

  • Inequality In Education Essay

    1002 Words  | 3 Pages

    Obtaining a good education is probably one of the most sought out dreams in America. Although education is free for all American citizens, there are several obstacles that impact the population from receiving equal education benefits. Two groups that experience a difference when receiving an education are the rich and the poor. Inequality among different social classes in America can make it extremely difficult for the poor to receive the same type of education as the wealthy. These inequalities can lower the chance of individuals living in poverty stricken communities from receiving a reasonable education. Education can be impacted by location, wealth, and state funding. Each factor plays an important part in the education citizens across

    Read More

  • Equality of Opportunities in Education

    1424 Words  | 3 Pages

    ...the pressure of keeping up with other students. Here, they can work at their own pace and figure out a solution that best works for them to understand or solve a problem. One last idea school reform should address in creating an equality of opportunity in public schools would be to set standards and spend more time in the classroom on these important tasks. These standards are put into place to help evaluate one’s progress. It’s important to have some standards in place, but they need to be feasible. To make such standards feasible, the teacher will be able to tailor it so that the standard can be met by the student. Spending a decent amount of time to get students to reach these standards is imperative. Without a sufficient amount of time, students may not be able to grasp and fully understand what is being taught to them resulting in standards not being met.

    Read More

More about The Issues of Educational Inequalities

Open Document