Multiculturalism and Discrimination in the Classroom

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Recommended: Diversity in race, classroom and gender

The world was once made up of black and white nations. The color of one’s skin was an indication of where someone came from. This was most likely the scenario of the world, at the very least, a hundred years ago. Racism was rampant and very public throughout the world, but now racism is not as transparent especially in the United States. For this reason people must become more open and attuned to different attitudes held by individuals. One area where racism should be looked at is in classrooms. It is well documented that people have preferences or cognitive preferences without even realizing it. A teacher therefore, has extremely powerful ability to not only give certain children preferences but also treat students different with or without realizing it themselves. At an early age of six children of exposed to this and will likely in turn mimic these behaviors. Schools have rampant discrimination tendencies throughout The United States however this does not have to be the case there must be solutions for Teachers and students a like to become more aware of discriminatory actions and to at least limit these action by becoming aware of them.
An area of need is the knowledge students have of ethnicity before even starting school. Preferences of students such as male or female teachers, ethnicity or background have been little to never explored. Due to this, schools have little to no information on students biases created before entering a classroom. (Ouzad, Page) This in turn creates a series of dilemmas. For one a student with tendencies towards racist thoughts against Asians will probably not change his or her belief until someone convinces them to think otherwise. This could happen very early on in school or worst-case scenario...

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...niela, Deisy das Graças de Souza, and Romariz da Silva Barros.
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Frankenberg Erica, Siegel-Hawley Genevieve “Teachers’ Perceptions of School
Communities with Differing Student Racial & Socio-economic Contexts”. The Civil Rights Project Proyecto Derechos Civiles (2012):. Virgina CommonWealth University and Pennsylvania State University. Web. 21 Apr. 2014
Ouazad Amine, and Page Lionel “Students’ Perceptions of Teachers Biases:
Experimental Economics in Schools.” Phychological Record (2012):. The Center for the Economics of Education. Web. 21 Apr. 2014.
Miller Leta “Racial Segregation and the San Francisco Musicians’ Union” Journal of the
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