Running Head: Diversity in Education 1

Diversity in Education
Jennifer A. Blease
Wesleyan College











Diversity in Education 2
Introduction
Diversity: an essential factor of life. It is one of the core elements of what makes up this
world and how it functions. The entire human population is full of diverse individuals, for no two
people are just alike. In education, diversity is something that must be recognized as a very
valuable factor of life. Though diversity can be interpreted in many different ways, each form of
this is important to education. Through this paper, I will describe the importance of diversity and
how it should be valued. I will begin with giving a brief history of how diversity has played a
role in education. I will then go into detail of my own personal experiences to provide reasoning
for my beliefs in diversity. After this, I will provide an elaborate description of different aspects
of respecting diversity within the classroom. To me, diversity is something that should be
recognized and held to a certain degree of importance within the classroom. People of different
races, cultures, learning styles, appearances, and economic backgrounds, should all be valued
and respected for who they are. Throughout this paper, I hope to demonstrate just how important
this subject is to the learning environment.

History and Personal Experiences
Throughout history, diversity has played a major role in the education system. Through
different laws that have been passed over the years, diversity within the school has been
recognized in various ways. Though various civil rights acts, such as the Civil Rights Act of
1964, have allowed students, despite their race, religious beliefs, gender, or cultural background,
to have equal rights. Through laws such as the Individuals with Disabilities Act (IDEA), students
with disabilities are able to receive an education at any school. Through each law that has been
passed over the years, students have been able to attend school without the concern of being
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discriminated against within legal boundaries (Webb, Metha, & Jordan, 2010, p 270). These acts
have become more significant in this century, because diversity has become such a prominent
aspect to our society. Because various forms of diversity have increased significantly over the
past few years, there has been a need to understand and focus on this diversity so that we may
understand each individual and how they are unique.
While taking the Foundations of Education course here at Wesleyan, I was given the
opportunity to focus on different aspects of diversity in several ways. One of these aspects of
diversity involved studying students with learning disabilities. In a project, I was to research the
different advantages and disadvantages of including these students within a regular classroom.
Through research, I was able to truly understand the importance of valuing the education of these
students. Even if a student has been diagnosed with a learning disability, they are still a student.
They still have the capabilities of learning just like any other student within a classroom. Though
these students may struggle with learning, they still have the ability to learn as much as they
possibly can, if given the right instruction.
According to Darrell Meece and Kimberly Wingate in the article, Providing Early
Childhood Teachers With Opportunities To Understand Diversity And The Achievement Gap
(2009), it is especially important for teachers to stress the importance of embracing diversity
within the classroom to students at a young age. This is because young children are more prone
to being influenced for prejudices or acceptance of issues by other people at this time (Meese &
Wingate, p. 36). This means that teachers of this age group must make it a point to ensure that
the students learn to understand and develop in a way that accepts everyone, despite their
backgrounds. A teacher can show that he or she values and respects diversity within the
classroom by recognizing the unique traits of each student. The teacher must not just see the
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students as mere students and not recognize their differences. From a lesson of diversity in my
Foundations of Education course, we were taught the phases of understanding diversity. As
individuals, as well as teachers, we are to not live in fear of those who are different from us.
Instead, we are to eventually accept each diverse character of every person and respect him or
her for who they are. The diversity of every student should be embraced to the fullest (Wilcox,
2013). Something that the teachers must be able to do is be able to cross the boundaries of
understanding diversity themselves before teaching others how to do the same (Waddell, 2011,
pp.24-25).

Dynamics and Strengths of a Diverse Classroom
Within a diverse classroom, students are able to learn from each other in many ways.
Students that are from different cultures and backgrounds have unique experiences from one
another. Through this, students can be more exposed to these other cultures. From this exposure,
the students are able to become well rounded and accepting of other people. Within the
classroom, the students may tend to drift towards the students that are most similar to them, but,
if exposed to one another properly, the students will still be accepting of the different students.
Diversity strengthens the learning environment by exposing the students to various
backgrounds. The students that are from different backgrounds are able to provide an extended
amount of input on the things that they were raised with. The students within the classroom may
be able to provide examples from their first-hand experiences so that the other students in the
classroom are able to fully understand from a personal perspective how the other students in the
class live and grow differently from how they do.

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The Importance of Embracing Diversity
It is extremely important to embrace diversity in the classroom. Diversity must be
recognized; it must not be ignored. This is because we must recognize the differences among the
students so that they may see that they are all unique and special in their own way. According to
the article, Diversity Initiatives in Higher Education: Just How Important Is Diversity in Higher
Education? by Christine Clark (2011), many schools have not embraced diversity in the ways
that they should. Students attend schools with certain races as the majority. Most of the students
come from similar socio-economic backgrounds. When the schools receive funding to encourage
students from different backgrounds to come into the schools, those students do not receive the
services that they need in order to receive a proper education. This is because some of these
students may require additional help in understanding material in the classroom (Clark, p.58). If
this is not provided to them, then they are not learning all that they can learn. The minority
students fall behind and are not able to achieve academically. This, in a way, shows that students
are not recognized for their differences in a positive manner.
The different characteristics of each student determine who he or she is and what makes
them their own unique individual. If diversity is embraced in the classroom, then students are
able to feel more accepted for who they are. Recognizing and valuing this also lets the students
know that there is nothing wrong with whom they are, for their backgrounds are what make them
unique. Students cannot help what lifestyle they were born into. To foster the diversity of these
students is to let them know that they are truly special and important for who they are and where
they come from.

Obstacles: What they are and how they can be overcome
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There are several different obstacles that may be faced while trying to keep diversity
within the classroom. One of these challenges may be that the students are unwilling to accept
students that are different from them. An example of this would be from the book, To Teach, by
Bill Ayers (2010). In one chapter of this book, there was a new school established that brought
together two different races: a Hispanic neighborhood and an African American neighborhood.
These two completely different backgrounds of culture, which had been facing much tension
between one another, began to attend the same school system. At first, these students struggled to
be able to work together and attend school in a calm manner. This is because the two races were
not willing to accept one another for who they were, for they only wished to keep the tension
between the groups (Ayers, 2010, p. 108). Another obstacle within the classroom may be a
language barrier. If a student in the classroom does not speak the mainly accepted language at
the school fluently, then they may struggle with communicating with the other students in the
classroom. These students may begin to feel isolated and left out if they are not able to
communicate well with the other students. The feeling of being isolated may come with each
type of diversity. Students with learning disabilities, students who come from a lower socio-
economic status, students who look different from everyone else, and students from a different
race, may all experience this feeling of being left out. If it is apparent that they are the minority
in the group, then they are at risk for being ignored by the other students. These students will
realize they are different from the other students, and they may feel like their unique traits are not
something to be proud of. Obstacles like these may be very hard to overcome.
However, these challenges of maintaining diversity in the classroom may be strenuous,
but they are possible to overcome. By introducing curriculum that requires students from
different backgrounds to work together on projects, the students may become exposed to the
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differences of the other students. This, in a way, forces the students to interact with one another,
but it provides a push that is needed in order for the students to see and respect the unique
qualities of the people around them. Another way to overcome these obstacles within the
classroom is to introduce the differences among the people within the classroom as a sort of
additional lesson. For example, if there are students from distinct cultures in the classroom, then
the teacher may set up a celebration for a holiday that is celebrated in that culture. An example of
this would be if there were Chinese students in a classroom mixed with several other ethnicities.
If the teacher were to have a Chinese New Year party, she would be able to teach the students in
the classroom about this culture, as well as allow the students that grew up with this culture to
feel more involved and accepted. Another example of incorporating the diversity within the
lesson could be taken back to the example from Ayers To Teach. The students that originally
would not accept one another for their race were instructed within the classroom to read books
from one anothers culture. Through this, the races were able to better understand one another
and eliminate that racial tension that had been there for so long (Ayers, 2010, p. 108). If there is
a language barrier among students, then the teacher may include additional lessons within the
curriculum to teach the other students in the class basic words or phrases from that language.
This barrier may also be overcome by allowing the students in the classroom to work with that
student so the student who is facing the language barrier may learn from his or her peers. This
allows both the students to understand one another as well as allow the student from the minority
to feel involved and accepted by his or her classmates.
Another example of exposing the students to diversity can be related to something that
happened during one of my field experience visits. During this particular visit, the students were
given a lesson about bullying. It was explained to the students what bullying is and how it affects
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each student. The teacher then paused for a moment, looked at the class, and addressed to them
all how one of the students in the class had been treated harshly. The other students had bullied
this particular student, who has a severe learning disability, for some time now. The students had
picked on the student, treating him as if he was diseased. The teacher explained to them that he is
a student just like they are. Even if he has a learning disability, he was still a person. The
students seemed to understand what the teacher was explaining to them. The following week, I
visited the classroom again. I noticed a drastic change among the students at this point. Because
of the lesson that their teacher gave them, they had begun to understand the differences of this
other student. The students started including this student in their activities, because they had
learned to accept him for who he is.

Conclusion
Diversity is an important issue that must be addressed within the classroom. Students and
teachers both must learn to respect those who come from different backgrounds and embrace the
things that make one another unique. In this century, diversity is more widespread than ever.
People are coming in from different cultures, socio-economic backgrounds, and racial
backgrounds. Others have developed different learning abilities or disabilities. The uniqueness of
each student, even if it is merely on the level of appearances, has changed drastically over the
years. However, despite these differences, teachers and students must learn to value these aspects
of diversity. There may be challenges along the way that may inhibit this integration, but these
challenges may be overcome with the right lessons and awareness.

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Bibliography
Ayers, William (2010). To Teach: the journey, in comics. New York, NY: Teacher College
Press.
Clarke, Christine (2011). Diversity Initiatives in Higher Education: Just How Important Is
Diversity in Higher Education? Multicultural Education, 19(3), 57-59. Retrieved from
http://ehis.ebscohost.com/eds/detail?vid=3&sid=f3dc7386-2260-4311-829b-
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Meece, Darrell, and Kimberly OKelley Wingate (2009). Providing Early Childhood Teachers
With Opportunities To Understand Diversity And The Achievement Gap. STRATE
Journal, 19(1), 36-43. Retrieved from
http://ehis.ebscohost.com/eds/detail?vid=7&sid=ff53cabf-62af-447c-a181-
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Waddell, Jennifer (2011). Crossing Borders without Leaving Town: The Impact of Cultural
Immersion on the Perceptions of Teacher Education Candidates. Issues in Teacher
Education, 20(2), 23-36. Retrieved from
http://ehis.ebscohost.com/eds/detail?vid=6&sid=ff53cabf-62af-447c-a181-
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Webb, L. Dean, Arlene Metha, & K. Forbs Jordan (2010). Foundations of American Education.
Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc.
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Wilcox, Virginia (2013). Diversity 201 [PowerPoint slides]. Retrieved from
https://wesportal.wesleyancollege.edu/ICS/LMS/EDU/EDU__201/2013_SP-EDU__201-
01/Main_Page.jnz?portlet=Handouts