Transcript The Classroom as a Global Community:

Creating Classrooms
that Address Race and Ethnicity
Chapter Six
(c) 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Cushner/McClelland/Safford, Human Diversity in Education, 5/e
Lay versus Scientific Understanding
of Race and Ethnicity
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Pedagogies: Old and New
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Teachers do not shy away from the deep-seated
influence that race plays in people’s lives
Teachers understand the historical significance
of race
Teachers are aware that majority children may
not understand the role race plays in their lives
(c) 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Cushner/McClelland/Safford, Human Diversity in Education, 5/e
Roles: Old and New
Teachers understand their roles as active
agents of change
Teachers reach out to individuals and
community groups that represent various
ethnic and racial groups
Students interact with community groups
working to change the status quo
(c) 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Cushner/McClelland/Safford, Human Diversity in Education, 5/e
Place of Content Knowledge: Old and New
History of diversity in the United States a critical
element
Concept of “race” often used incorrectly
Genotype—shared genetic material
Phenotype—visible traits (e.g., skin color)
Textbooks often inaccurate and dated
Content materials often biased (intentionally
or unintentionally)
(c) 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Cushner/McClelland/Safford, Human Diversity in Education, 5/e
Assessment: Old and New
Assessment instruments may be
developed and normed with only one race
or ethnic group in mind
Assessments should consider the
sociocultural context of the learner
Biases and stereotypes
Prior experience of the learner
Assessments should be varied
(c) 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Cushner/McClelland/Safford, Human Diversity in Education, 5/e
Understanding Prejudice and
Racism
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Ethnocentrism leads people to believe that
their own “ways” are good and “natural”
Prejudice implies a lack of thought or care in
making a judgment about others
While racial and ethnic prejudice can be
expressed both positively and negatively, in
the United States it is most often negative
(c) 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Cushner/McClelland/Safford, Human Diversity in Education, 5/e
Prejudice Formation: The
Components of Prejudice
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The cognitive component refers to the process of
categorization
The affective component refers to the feelings that
accompany a person’s thoughts about members of a
particular group
The behavioral component refers to the
discriminatory behavior that people who harbor
prejudices direct toward others
(c) 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Cushner/McClelland/Safford, Human Diversity in Education, 5/e
The Functions of Prejudice
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Adjustment Function—prejudicial attitudes
may help one adjust to a complex world
Ego-Defensive Function—prejudicial
attitudes may protect one’s self-concept
Value-Expressive Function—prejudicial
attitudes may help demonstrate one’s own
self-concept to others
Knowledge Function—prejudicial attitudes
may reinforce the stereotypical knowledge of
one’s ingroup
(c) 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Cushner/McClelland/Safford, Human Diversity in Education, 5/e
How Children Learn Prejudice
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Observation and passive learning from
respected elders
Membership in a group that excludes others
The media, when it reinforces stereotypes
Religious fundamentalism that emphasizes
exclusive rights to “the truth”
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Extreme Cases of Prejudice
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Racism—the transformation of prejudicial attitudes
through the use of power directed toward those one
regards as inferior
Hate Groups—any organized body that denigrates
select groups of people based on ethnicity, race,
religion, or sexual orientation
White Privilege—the largely unconscious
acceptance by dominant groups of privileges denied
to oppressed groups
Racial Profiling—law enforcement practices aimed at
those who “fit” a particular profile—usually age,
ethnicity, and/or race
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Cushner/McClelland/Safford, Human Diversity in Education, 5/e
Curriculum Transformation:
Strategies for Prejudice Reduction
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Critical to reducing prejudice and establishing an
interculturally sensitive classroom is the
teacher’s understanding of, and ability to
integrate, intercultural awareness and prejudice
reduction activities into the curriculum
Intercultural sensitivity is not “natural”—crosscultural contact has historically been
accompanied by bloodshed, oppression, or
genocide
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Cushner/McClelland/Safford, Human Diversity in Education, 5/e
Educational Strategies to Reduce
Prejudice
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Improving social contact and intergroup
relations
Equal Status Contact: when those who are
brought together perceive they are of equal
status
 Superordinate Goals: when the purpose of
bringing people together cannot be
accomplished without the participation of all
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con’t.
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Cushner/McClelland/Safford, Human Diversity in Education, 5/e
Educational Strategies to Reduce
Prejudice
 Encouragement of Intergroup Interaction: all
involved in a school must actively encourage and
support efforts of teachers and students to
experiment with curricular and other innovations to
improve the school involvement with differences
Personal Familiarity: people must have the
opportunity to get to know the “other” person in
ways that render the stereotypic image clearly
inaccurate or inappropriate
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Some Cautions in Applying the
Contact Hypothesis
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Many schools are monocultural, providing
little opportunity for intergroup contact to
occur; in such cases it is best to stress the
diversity that is present (e.g., socioeconomic
or gender)
Equal status contact within the school may
conflict with that which occurs outside the
school
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Cushner/McClelland/Safford, Human Diversity in Education, 5/e
Increasing Cognitive
Sophistication
Improving students’ critical thinking
skills
Questioning
Analyzing
Suspending judgment until all
available information is collected and
studied
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Cushner/McClelland/Safford, Human Diversity in Education, 5/e
Improving Self-Confidence and
Self-Acceptance
A sense of self-worth and self-confidence
supports the reduction of prejudice
 Students feel secure and accepted
 Student participation is valued
 Students know the boundaries and limits
of behavior
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Cushner/McClelland/Safford, Human Diversity in Education, 5/e
Increasing Empathy for and
Understanding of Others
Long-term gains in prejudice reduction require
educational activity that actively engages the
emotions
 Writing stories or acting out dramatizations of
cross-cultural situations
 Any activity that enables students to “step
into the shoes” of another
 Classroom simulations that generate “culture
shock”
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Cushner/McClelland/Safford, Human Diversity in Education, 5/e
Comprehensive Programs That
Improve Intergroup Relations
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Anti-Bias Education for Young Children—a
curriculum published by the National Association
for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC)
Cooperative Learning—helping children work
together
A World of Difference—a curriculum developed
by the Anti-Defamation League
Facing History and Ourselves—focus on the
history of Nazi Germany and the Holocaust
(c) 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Cushner/McClelland/Safford, Human Diversity in Education, 5/e
Something to Think About
“…let’s think about the consequences of
silence. I think about Hitler. He got into power
by people around him were silent and didn’t
challenge him. When you are silent, you are
giving tacit approval of the messages you hear
around you… Your simple comments can go
quite far at making change.”
—John Gray
(c) 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Cushner/McClelland/Safford, Human Diversity in Education, 5/e