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Little Rock Nine

O n September 4, 1957 nine Afncan American stude nts attempted to attend school at theall-white Central High School in Little Rock. A rkansas. Unfortunately, they found theirway blocked by Arkansas National Guard Troops, who were ordered by the then gov -ernor Orval Faubus (Joiner. 2 07) .These nine brave students were attempting to desegregate CentralHigh School, in compliance with the histonc 1954 Brown V. Board of Education Supre me Court rulingthat all segregated schools were unconstitut iona l.The opening photo for this chapter is of a monument

found at the capital of Arkansas that was erected to honor the bravery of the "little Rock Nine."As the nine students again entered the school. enraged white students and p arents yelled racial slurs

and threatened lynching (Boyd, 2007). Fearful that the mob would get out of cont rol, school administ ration decided to remove the nine from school and return them home. In response to this incident.President Eisenhower federalized the Nat iona l Guard a nd sent in the U.s. Army's 10 I t Airbome Division

to escort the "Little Rock N ine " into Ce ntr al High Schoo l (Hendrickson , 1993 ).Even With the ir mi lita ry escort th e " Litt le Roc k N ine " experienced frequent psychologICal and

physical abuse.With o ut the m il itary p re se nce some wh ite students inten sified their assaults 10 an effortto drive them out of Ce ntral H igh . On e of the nine stu dents fought bac k and subsequently movedaway from the community. The rema ining eight st ayed t hrough the scho ol year. One o f the remain

ing eight, Ernest Green, became Centra ls' first blac k graduate. (See Box 4.3, D iscourse on Diversity,for more on Ernest Green.) U nfort unatel y, th e other se ven had to move elsewhere to attend other

schools the foHowing year , becau se citize ns voted to close all fo ur of Little Rock's H igh Schools rather

than desegregate them

What thoughts and feel ings doe s th is story p ro voke in yo u?To what extent do you think today 's p ublic schools are mo re or less integrated than they were in 19571

Lessons We Can Learn rom the Story Ch ildren are different from one another in a vanety ofways. It might seem that many of these way s, such a s how taU they are, how wealthy their parents are,what colors t hey like to wear; what color their skin is. and what country their ancestors came from.ought not to have very much to do w ith how the y learn or how they behave in school. However. theevidence suggests that these variab les have some dLect and indLrect e ffects on how children performIn school, and what schools children are perm itted to attend , as reflected in the story of the "LittleRock Nine". Other differences, such as how smart the y are, how much they have already learned,how they learn best. and how they feel about themselves and school. are more typically expected to

affect their school behavior and performance.This chapter will deal with some of the ways school children are different and. equally important.

how these differences are det e rmined .We Will pay particular attention to social class differences, ethnic

ity and culture, language, gender differences, divers ity in intelligence , ach ievement. and leaming style.Youwill want to focus on how you might minimize negative attitudes students have toward individuals whoare different and ways to support student interactJons that are enriched by differences. (Because testscores are used and interpreted in determintng some of these differences. the reader is also referred to

Chapters 13 and 14 on the appraisal of learning. )

Social Class Differences

- ' SOcial Clas -s =D: =f= - e nce-s Mrs. Coo per taught reading a nd math to third graders in a big city publi c eleme n

ta ry sc hool. She had student s of different genders , culture s, and elhniciti es whospok e d iffe rent lan guage s, but the o ne t hin g her stud ent s had in commo n was t ha tt h e ~~ e r ea ll childr en from familie s who were poor. It was hard for her to imaginethe ir hves and th e man y disad vantag es th ey faced, through no fault oflhei r ow n , in

r ~,.onI C S to kid s who lived in the su bu rbs. Mr s. Coope r wo rked very diligentl y

o n gIVIng her stud en ts tw o ver y important gifts. stab ility and acc e ptance. She triedto pro vide a caring supportive e nvironment w here thing s were based on mutua lrespe ct and su pport.

Social class or so ci oeco no m ic stat us (SES) is a fun ction of parents ' educationlevel and occupational sta tus wit h high er SES bein g associated with high e r incomelevel and prestige Based on th is definit io n, chi ldren wi th colle ge-educa ted parent s~h oare e n g~g ed in profe ss ional occ upatio ns have high er SES, hence grea te r pre s

tig e, th an chi ldr en w ith un edu cat ed parents who ar e e ngaged in unski lled job s ora re unemployed. Socia l class , beca use it is based entire ly on parental attainments , iswho lly beyo nd a child s controL

Of what conseq uen ce is socia l clas s to educa t ion? Re sea rch sho ws that high SES

pa re nts lend t ~ be act ivel y involv ed in th e education of th eir ch ildr en. not only inth e home environme nt (Hi ck man . G ree nwood . Miller , 1995 ) but also in th eirint erac tion s ~ it h their ch ild ren s sc hoo ls (Feuer stein , 2000 ). Low S ES pare n ts ma yva lue edu cation for th ei r child ren , but the y are less c omfortabl e than their highSES counte rparts in dealing with th e authority stru cture of he school s ( Feue rstein2000 ). It is n ~ tthaI low SES par e nts do not value edu cation a s much as high E ~

pa rent s. but Instead th ey have less access to schoo l invo lveme nt than higher SESpare nt s (Gorski, 2 008) .

Abo ut one out of five pe rson s in th e United Sla tes lives e ither on welfare o r o nan i: come that is be low the s ubs istence leveL An increas ingly h igh p e rcent age oflow-mcom e peop le are hom eless. t is hard for p eop le livin g w ith the disadvan

tage of po ver ty to provid e for th e ba sic nee ds of th eir children, mu ch less th eirsocia l and edu cat iona l needs. C hildr e n of po ve rty frequen tly lac k the educationa l

stimulation and oppo rtunity chara cteri stically pro vided t o childr en of higher soci alc as ~~ y thei r parent s. M o reove r, many poor childr e n ar e member s of Sing le -parentfamili es a nd that single parent wo rks. reducing eve n further the op portuniti es foredu ca tion al stim ula tion in the ho m e.

Whe n looking at dat a on student academi c achie ve me nt , the measure o f SES~ s u a l ly used is ~ l i g i b i l it y for free and reduced meal s in schooL Stude nts' elig ibili tyIS ba sed on the Income leve l o f their fam ily, hen ce tho se eligible re pre sent low SESand tho se in eligible , high SES. A com pari son of high and lo w SES s tud ent s basedon m eal elig ibility i s s hown in Table 4. 1. Th is d ata i s from the b eginni ng of thede cad e.

LearnIng O bjecti

Illustra te how soc iarelates to expe rie ncstud e nts may haveand discuss the impof sooaJ justic e prac~ k ecritJcal pedagoga teacher can emploinsure all students hopportunrty for a qu

education.

socioeco pm ic statussocial class;a functJon ofeducatIOn level and occup.,, '


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138 C H P T E R 4 Leamer Diversity

O N E P T R E V I E W TABLE 4 . 1Perc.ent of Students at or above Baste Level of Proficiency on the National Assessment of Educational

Progress (National Center for Education Statistics (2003}.Washington. DC: U.S. D epartment of Education,

Institute of Education Sciences.)

2003 4

2003 B'

2000 12'

critical pedagogyan approach to educatJC::on thiltemphaSizes the II11portM1Ceof gMng a voice to studentswho are typically pov.oerIess or-m inimized In the classroom dueto being a membe "of a minoritygroup or being from a essadvantaged background

M THEM TICS RE DING

DIFFEREN E

29 76 42 34

79 44 35 B2 54 28

69 37 32 76 58 IB

Results shown in Table 4.1 indi cate high SES students ("Not Free ) score conSiderably higher than their low SES count erpart s ("Free Lunch ") in both math andreading at all three tested grad e levels. It is intere sting to look at pattern s of dataover time. Table 4.2 show s more recent results from toward the end of the decade

revealing a similar achiev ement disparity b etween students from low and high SESfamilies.

What can be done to imp rove the plight of low SES child ren? While not th epanacea or iginally thought, early childhood enric hmen t programs for low incomechildren provide ma ny benefi ts, not the leas t of whic h are healt h and nutritionalbenefi ts such as good meal s (Lazar & Da rling, 1982). They can also help to offse tan y lack of early stimula tion in the home by providing the conversation, book s, andeducational toys that m ight otherw ise be miss ing (Hess, 1970). As a teacher . youcannot fix student poverty. You can , though . encourage students a s learner s andempower them to he lp them selves. Here we acquaint you with some action s youmight take to ac compli sh thi s.

r itica l Pedagogy

Critical pedagogy is an approa ch to edu cation that empha Sizes the impor

tance of giving a voice to s tudent s who are t ypicall y powerle ss or minimi zedin the cla ss room due to being a member of a minorit y group or bein g from aless advantaged background . Thi s approa ch empha Sizes innovative pra ctices tohelp empower student s. Specifi c pra c tices ma y tak e the form of askin g s tudent sto provide input into th e c urricu lum regard ing topi cs that a given clas s mightstudy, how that cont ent might b e examined , and how the lea rni ng sho uld beevalua ted.

Social Class Differences

O N E P T R E V I E W TABLE 4 2Percent of Students Eligible for Free /Reduced-Price Lunch on the National Assessment of Educatio

Progress (National Center for Education StatiStics. 2007;Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Educ

Institute of Education Sciences.)

ijP; .ONTENT

AREA ELIGIBLE FOR FREE/REDUCED PRICE SCHOOL LUNCH

EUGIBLE NOT ELIGIBLE

% of Average of Average

S uden ts Scale Sco re Students Scale Score

2007 4' Mathematics 46 227 53 249

2007 4" Reading 45 205 54 216

2007 8" MathematiCS 41 265 5B 291

2007 B Reading 40 247 58 271

Critical pedagogy's historical ba ckground come s from a critique of he banking concept of education . an approa ch to education that . leads students to mechanically memor ize the narrated con tent. Wor se yet . it turns them into 'containers: in to'receptacles' to be 'filled ' by the teacher. TIle more com pletely she fills the receptacles, the better teacher she i s. The more meek ly the receptacles permit themselvesto be filled, the better student s they ar e (Freire, 2000, p. 71- 72).

A central value of the critica l pedagogy approa ch is equality and democra cy.Critical pedagogy examin es the impa ct of a standard ized educational system ,paying particular attention to who and what political and economic intere sts areprotected (Kincheloe, 2008). The goal o f critical pedago gy is for future educator sto tran sform school s into places where stud ents are intrin sicall y motivated anddemocratically gUided. Publi c school s should empha size social change and socialjustice through empowerm ent of student s. Social justice is the fair distribution

of ad vantage s and benefit s across member s of a given society . For educator s to besuccessful in the t .enty -first centur y. the y mu st seriou sly c on sider how the r o leand purpo se of school s will be influ enced b y globalization , technolog y, and racialdi versity (Giroux, 1994).

A speCific example of critical pedagogy used in school and community setting sis cal led Theatre of he Oppressed , a d rama technique develo ped by Augusto Boal.It is intended to he lp people learn how to deal effectively w ith social problems,

Average ScaleDifference Betwe

and Not Eligible

22

26

24

social justicethe fair dlstnbutlon

and benefits acrossa grven s o c ~ y

Theatre of the Opa drama technique Inhelp people learn heffectively WIth socicombat Injustice.ansocia l change


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Paulo F eire s bookedagogy of the O p p ~

helps teachers look critic a lyat the experiences thatdisadvantaged students havein schoo l.

di ffe renti a ted in s tru ctio n

a method of eaching thatallows students attemate waysto understand concepts and toPfCMde evidence that they haveleamed

H P T R 4 Leamer Diversity

combat injustice , and encourage social change. One gifted and talented summerschool program used this teaching method in Cleve land. Ohio (Sande rs . 2004). The

stude nt s served by this program, ca lled Urban Odyssey , were primarily mi[10rity,inner dty students. In the prog ram . the stud ents were able to wri te and pe rform intheir own shor t pla ys that touc hed on various soda l ills. The student s we re given theopportunity to think about and discuss pote nti al sol ut ions to these social p r o l ~ s

Th e Urba n Odyssey project i s an exce llent example of critical pedagogy because Itsmethodologies empower students to think about concepts th ey are learning in areasoned way and also gives the stud en ts a voice as to wh at they will learn , how they

will learn, and how the l ea rning will be assesse d.

ifferentiat ed Instru ctionRathe r than expecting student s to adapt them selves to the instruction , why shoul dthe instruction not be flexible enough to be effective for all s tudent s? iff e re ntiat e d in stru ction is a method of teaching that allows stu dent s alternateways to unde rstan d conce pts an d to provide ev iden ce that the y have learned.

To use this model effectively, teachers should be flexible enough to ad just thec urriculum and its presentation to stu de nt s, rather than the othe r way around.While diffe rent iation see m s to be so m e thing that an effective teacher cou ldhardly do without. there are often barriers to diffe rent iation that can limit howoften it is actually implemented in the classroom. Unfor tun ate ly, differ e ntiationis sometimes viewed as another bureau cr atic burden (Everest, 2003). In orderto learn ho w to effective ly differe nti ate teachi ng to meet the needs of diverse

Social Class Differe nces

learners. teachers need to be able to observe real teachers using diffe rent iationstrategie s effectively (Caro lan Guinn . 2007).

Tomlinson (2001) identifies three elements of the curricu lum that can be differentiated: (J) content by being aligned to learning goals, focused on concepts,and driven by principle s; (2) process by using flexible groupi ng and key strategiesfor class room and lesson o rganization and i nstr uctio nal delivery; and (3) productsby contin ually assessing student read iness and growth, challenging students to beact ive and responsible explo re rs, and varying expec tation s and requirements forstudent responses .

According to Tomlinson 2001 ), to use differentiation in your classroom youshould:

C larify key concept s and gene ralizations that serve as a foundation forlearning

Use assessmen t as a teaching tool to exte nd vers us merely to mea sureinstruction

Em phasize critical and creat ive thinking as a goal in lesso n design Develop lessons that are engaging and motivating for a diverse class of stude nt s;

that is, vary instruct ional activities

Provide a balan ce between teacher-a ssigned and stud e nt -selec ted tasks.

Tomlinson (2001) prOVides an excelle nt example of o ne way in whic h Mrs. Ri ley,

a third grade teacher, used differentiated ins tru ction effectively in her class. Mrs.Riley c reated two diffe rent areas where studen ts work on understanding the conce pt

of biography. The stud en ts in Mrs. Riley s class have the freedom to choose behveenthe two areas and they also have the choice of whether they prefer to work alone orwith o ther student s. In the first area, Mrs. Riley s st udents create a timeline of the

person they read about in the biograp hy and expla in that timeline by act ing it Ollt,draWing it, or creati ng a paper desc ribing it. In the second area, her stud ents demon

strate reoccurring themes involv ed in grow in g up that were presen ted in a biographythey read , a fictional story they read , and from written accounts of their own lifeexper ien ces. Mrs. Riley demonstrate d elements of different iated instruction in herclass by providing stud ents with the opportunity to master the concep t of biograph yby using different processes and by allowing them to create different products thatdemonstrate their learning.

Think Itver

IS ) LEARNER Have any of you r teachers ever djfferentiated the content , proc ess, or

products the y used to teach you? How d id they do this?

s I TEACHER What is one barrier to differentiated instruction that yo u anticipate in your class room ? How can you overcome it?


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Support hOlN studentsexperiences in school areInfluenced by their ethnicityand culture and tell someo the history o nat

Afncan American studentsVv efIt through dunng thedesegregatIOn movement

C H P T E R 4 leam e r Diversity

la ss SizeThere has been much discussion on the effect of class size o n studen t learning

and performance, particularly amo ng students with low socioeconom ic status. Inaddition to trying to improve student learning by using different forms of instruction (such as differentiated instruction described above), many have argued thatsimp ly reducing th e numb e r of stud ents in the class, th e reby g iving each student

more access to the teacher. will result in improved s tud e nt academic performance.Because a history of poor academic performa nce has bee n sho wn to be one of the

three lead in g school -relate d char ac teristics associated with dropp ing out (Na tio nalResearch Cou ncil , 200 1), it wou ld n ot be unr easo nable to suspec t th at sma lle r cla ss

size mi ght increase the po ss ibility of increased grad uation rate .To determine whether class size did indeed co ntribut e to graduation rate, Finn,

Ger ber, Boyd-Zaha rias (2005) stud ied stud ent s in the early grades, K - 3, who participa ted in Project STAR, Tennessee's class size experiment . They discovered thata relationship existed between g radu ating and K 3 ach ievement, and furthermorethat attending sma ll classes for three or more years increased stud ents ' likelihoodof graduating from high school. Of particular interest was the ir finding that the

relationship between attending small classes and likeliho od of graduation occur redespecially among students of low socioeconomic status, that is, studen ts who we re

eligible for free lunch. The se authors also report that the odds of graduati ng after

having attend in g smaU clas ses for four years we re increased by about 80% (p. 220).The earlier that learning prob lem s are identified, th e more likel y they are to

be overcome. Ma int aining a small class size ap pears to be a n exce lle nt st rategy to

accomplish this.

Differences in Ethnicity and CultureSES is no t ind epende nt of ethn icity. No t surprising ly, minority stud ents like Africa nAmericans and Hi spa nics are highly overrepresen ted among the group elig ible forfree lunches wh ile White students are highly ove rrepresen ted am ong those ineligible.

Moreove r, White s tudents are more likely than either African American or Hispanicstudents to (a) livewith both parents . (b ) have more educated parents, (c) attend privateor more advantaged school s, (d) and take more advanced courses (Byrnes, 2003 ), all ofwhich may be primarily a fun ction ofSES rathe r than ethnicity.

Byrnes (2003) ha s propo sed tha t the three factors most responsible for the

enhancement of academic skill s a re xposur to opportunities to enhance the seski lls, motivation to take advantage of these oppo rtunities , and having the initia lskill l v l to take advantage. He found that up to ha lf of the va riation in 12th -grademath performa nce was accounte d for by these three factors, re presented b y specificvariables such as pa re nt education , high schoo l program, coursework, and perceptions of o ne s ow n ab ility i n m at h. Among high sco rers in math, ethn ic d ifferen ceswere not a fac tor when s tud ent s we re matched on var iable s s uch as th ose listedabove. This suggests that SES may be more influent ial than ethnicity in affec tin g

Differences in Ehnicity and Culture

acade mic grow th . On th e other hand . Ogbu (2003 ) has obse rved t ha t Af ricanAmeric:n studen ts continually fa Ube low Wh ite student s academica lly, even whe ncompansons are made within socia l classes.

Ano th er aspect of ethnicity that relate s to academic performance is culture.Ogbu (2003) distinguishe s between the caste- like culture of people who t hro ugh

slave ry, conques t, o r co lo nization have been involunta rily incor po rated in to a soci

ety, .and co nseq uently view major cha nges in po liti cal po wer a nd econom ic op po rtu m ty as necessary ingredients for improvement, and imm igran ts who have ente reda new cultural milieu and view ed ucation as the ro ute to political and economic

advancement. African A m er icans fit the first group and Hispanics the second.A third aspect of ethnicity that relates to academic performance is called

ste reo ty pe thre at , the effec t of a ste reotype abo ut one's ethn icity on one's ownb e h v i ~ ra nd performance (Stee le, 1997; Steele A ronso n, 1995). The person neednot believe the stereotype is true , only that it ex ists. an d feel some concern th at heor she may se lf-fu lfill it, that is ac t as if t were t rue. A n examp le would be the et hn ic

ste reotype that Af rican A m erica ns are inte llect ua lly inferior to Wh ites, a belief hatmay cause Afr ican Ame rican student s to perform more poo rly on academ ic tasksthan com parab le Wh ite student s.

Steele and Aro nson (199 5) compa red the performan ce of African Ame ricanand W h ite students with comparab le SAT score s on a subset of high ly diffi cultitems from the Graduate Reco rd Exam (GRE) . Half of each group of student s wastold the GRE i tems represented a te st of intellectual ability ; th e other half weretold it was a laboratory problem -solving task unrelated to ability. When told it was

a test of intellect ual ability , Afr ican America n stud en ts scored Significan tly lowerth a n W hit es. W hen told it wa s a problem -solving task unrela ted to abili ty, bothgroups sco red t he same. The same pattern of results was obtained whe n participants recorded their race on a form p rio r to taki ng th e test, nam ely reduced per fo rman ce by African America ns relative to Whit es.

Steele (I997 ) advocates w ise schooli ng. That is, you can e mplo y si tuat iona lchanges to reduce th e influe nce of ste reotype threat. For examp le,

You might prOVide cha llenge rather than remediatio n because remed ia tionreinforces the ste reotype w hile cha llenge mitigate s it;

You can offe r statemen ts that reflect a be lief in a student 's potential when providing critica l feedback on their work ;

You can offer the kind of men toring and encouragement that help s student s lea rn to believe in them selv es ( see the di scu ss ion of self-efficac y inCha p ter 10);

You m ight provide ro le mod els; that is, people of that ethnicity who have beensucce ssful and whose succes s help s dispro ve th e stereotype and reduce itsthreat.

Etllni c Identity D eve lop m e t

There is a special focus for g roups a nd c ultures w ho live in societies where they arepoo rly represented politic ally a nd eco nomic all y and are, at wors t, d iscrim in ate d

stereotype threatthe effect of a stereotones ethnicit) on onebehav ior and perform


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ethnic identitythe sense of assoC tJOO andcoonectton an individual has withan ethnIC group

acculturationassim ilation with a dom inan tculture

C PT ER Leamer i v rs ~

against (Phi nney, 1990). The re lationshi p of such group membe rs with theirown g roup and in relation to the White mainstream group has been labeled

ethnic identity . and has become of ncreasing interest and importance as the num-ber an d size of ethnic mi norities in the United States grows and more ethnic m ino r

ity children enter the public schools.o Chapter 3 Box 3.4. we talked about racial identity development. In the next

several pages . we will examine an identity mode l that is representative of differentways of unders tanding the developme nt of identity from the perspective of cultu re.

While not possib le in the scope of this book to examine all ethnic cultu res sepa

rately, the models can be adapted to fit diffe rent non -majority groups.Ph in ney (1993) developed a model of e th n ic identity, for g roups sha ring a com

mon and distinctive cu ltu re that proposes a sequence of the following three distin

guishable stages:

1 Unexamined Ethnic Iden tity - in t h is stage, individua ls do not probe i nto theconcept of ethnicity. Rather . they tend to accept the values and attitudes of the

majority cultu re.2 Ethnic Identity Search/Moratorium - in this stage, indivi d ua ls are faced with a

situation that compe ls an ind ividual to beg in to think about and search for an

ethnic identity.3 Ethnic Identity Achievement - in thiS stage. individuals develop a dear and

confident sense of thei r ethn icity.

A Model of Lalino/Hispanic Ethnic IdentityUsing Phinney's mode l as a framework, Torres (1999) validated what he calle d

the Biwltural Orientation Model (BOM) . This model is focused on identifyingthe choices that His pan ic students make betwee n their culture of origin (Latino /Hispanic) and the major ity culture (Anglo ). In the Torres model, the follow ing fou r

cultu ral orien tations distinguish the Hispanic student s:

l Bicultural Orientation which in dica tes a co m fort level w ith both c ultures.2 Latino / Hispanic Orientation . which indicates grea ter comfo rt with the cu ltu re

of origin.3. Anglo Orientation wh ich indicates a greate r comfort with the major ity c ulture.4 Marginal Orientation whi ch i ndicates discomfort with both cultures and may

indicate conflict within the individual.

Individuals are classified into one of the four stages of the Torres model by

determining thei r degree of acculturation . based on the judgments they makeabout the major ity culture, and their degree of ethnic identity . ba sed on the judgments they make about the maintenance of heir cu lture of origin. While the Torresmodel was developed to desc ribe ethnic developmen t among students living andgoing to school in the United States whose cu lture of orig in is Latino /Hispanic, itwould seem applicab le to American students with other culture s of origin (e.g

Russian , Somal i. Vie tnamese).

Diffe rences in E hnicity an d C ulture

To app ly his model, Torre s (2003) studied ethn ic identity development amongs tu de nts w hose c ulture of o rigin was Lat ino/Hisp anic and w ho were e n ro lled inthei r fir st two years of college in the United States. The two major categories thatemerged during the first two years of college to explain the ethnic developmentprocess of t he students he st udie d we re as follows: Sit uating Ide nt ity t he s tarti ng

po int of ident ity development in co llege) and Influences on Change in ide ntitydevelopment. In terms of s ituating identity , Torres' data revea led the followingth ree conditio ns tha t i nfluenced the diffe rent starting points of the students hestudie d and he lp ed expla in t heir et hni c identity sta tus an d developmen t: ( I ) the

environment where they grew up. (2) family influences and generation in theUnited States, and (3) self-perception of stat us in SOciety.

Environmen t where they grew up The makeup of the enviro nment w here the st u

dents came from influenced both how they ethnically self-identified and the ir cultura l orientation. The most influential feature of he environment where the studentsgrew up is th e degree to w h ic h it reflected eth n ic dive rsity. To rr es (2003) fo und thatstudent s coming from areas where Latinos are a critical mass d id not see the m

selves as in the minority until they arrived on the p redominantly White campus.Th is cha nge in their enviro n me nt prompted a stronge r tie to their eth n icity ra th e rthan a ssimilation. On the othe r end of the dimension are those who came fromenvironments where there was mainly a White European influence. These studentstended to define their et hn icity as where they are from - us ing a geograph ic defini

tion (p. 537) . In ot her words. they labe led themselves as Texans or America ns

rather than as Mexicans or Latinos :' They tended to associate with the major

ity cu lture and found the dive rsity in the college environment as presenting somecon fl ict for them.

Famil y influen ce and generation in the United States. The most obvious dimensionthat eme rged is that students identified themse lves using the same te rms and language

the ir parents used:' I n addit ion, the mo re pare nts par t icipate d in c ultura lly releva ntactivities . such as speaking Spanish at home and attending Latino socia l funct ion s, themore students identified with their eth n ic identity (Tor res. 2003 . p. 538).

The second dimension th at emerged is th e generat ional status of the studen tsan d their pa rents. Students who are the first generation in t he Un ited States strug

gled with the unknown expectations of the co llege environment. Tho ugh all students make some adjustments, fi rst generation in the United States students alsostruggled to bala nce the co llege expecta t ions with those of the ir pa re nts (Tor res,

2003 . p. 538 ). Torres (2003) found two consequences tha t resulted from this balancing of acculturat ion levels . First, s tuden ts who tried to please their parents ended

lip feeling a lit tle a lie nated from t heir peers, because they would not tell them wh atthey were dealing with. One stude nt, for example, tr ied to plea se her parents bybeing in her room eve ry night when they called. The second consequence was thatst udents ke pt things from their parents. They felt caug ht betwee n the two cultures,not completely fitting in with either culture. These students are caught betweenthe expectations , tradit ion s, and know ledge from the majority cultu re and their

culture of origin. At the o ther end of the array i n th is dime nsion are the stu de nts

situ at in g idcntit) 'the starting poIfl t ordevelopment colleg


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ide ntity develop menttwo subprocesses or culturaldissonance and change nrelatJonshlps W1thln theenvironment emerged as relevantcond itions that nnuenced changeIn the students' ethnic iden bty

C H P T E R 4 Leamer Diversity

who are secon d and third generation in the Unite d States who ass um e the min glin gof the two cult ur es. These stud ents tend to have less conflict with parents and are

comfortable with the role their parents play in their identification (Torres . 2003,

p.539 ).Self perception o status in society. This condi tion is often associated with socio

economic status, such as wealth and ed ucat ion leveL But in Torres' study, it ismore generally described as students perceivi ng some advantage or privilege incomparison to others. The basic dimen sion of thi s condition is the perception ornon-perception of privilege. While those who cam e from privileged backgrounds

recognized the negativ e stereotypes about Latino s, th ey did not see th e ste reotypesas applying to them. Tho se from non -privi leged backgrounds, on the other hand,

per ce ived the stereotypes as racism.In te rms of influences on chan ge in id e ntit y devel o pment , two subpro cesses

of cultu ral di ssona nc e and c ha ng e in relat ion ships within the environmenteme rged as relevant condit ion s that influenced change in the students ethnic

identity.Cultural dissonance The behavior s that are expressed within thi s condition refer

to the experience of di sso nan ce or confli ct between one's own sense of culture andwhat others expect. For the students who came from first generation in the UnitedStates families, conflicts with parent s cultural expec tation s led them to desire more

association with the majority culture (Torre s, 2003, p. 540).Change in relationships within the envi ronment The prominent dimension of

thi s condition is the peer gro up that the individual s tudent seeks out while in co l

lege. Stude nts who came from diverse environments se lf-selected the des criptionsassociated with the B icultural or Latino Orientations (Torres, 1999). Th e st ud entswho found the co llege environment as not accepting of diversity would identifywith a Latino Orientation wanting to focus their orientation toward those who

share their intere st in diversity. The other stu dent s who acknowledged t he lack ofdiverSity, but were not as criti cal of th e e nvironment, wOltld self-select the bicul

tural descr iption of the ir orientation (Torres , 2003, p. 544).It appeared that students who came from e nvi ronme nt s where they had been

the majority may come to college wi th out eve r going through Phinne y's st ages ofUnexamined Ethnic Identit y or Ethnic Identity Search. because they had developed their ethni c identity very ear ly in life as the natural result of their cultureof origin. The students from majorit y-W hit e environments, on the other hand.

tended to identify with an Ang lo orientation o r Bicultural Orientation (Torr es.1999) and seemed to fit the de sc ription of Phinne y's first stage , Unexamined

Ethnic Id entity.Although student s who are first generation in the United States may have astronger tie to their country of origin, they are also the ones that tend to experiencemore dis sonance with their culture of or igin . This is because of the acculturationlevel of their parents and their desire to balance their parents' expectation s withtheir own. Moreove r, stud en ts who were first generation in the United States found

it d ifficult to talk to non -Hispanics about the pre ssure the y feel from their parent s.

Differences in Ethnicity and Culture

The level of stress can be an underl ying issue for students with academic or socialproblems. Tea chers are encouraged to have se nsitivity to the se issues when deal

h ~WIt Ispanic students.

Asian American Identity and Culture in the Classroom~ r are. over one and a half miUion Asian American student s in publi c schoolsIn th e Umted States (Fr y, 2007 ). The se students include individuals whose familieshave been here for numerou s generations as well as tho se who are recent immig r ~ n t~ While you may think that ther e a re o nly a few countries on the continent ofASia, In fact it is actually composed of over 40 countries. and contai ns about half ofthe world's population.

It is important to know so met hin g about the cultur e of the st udents we teach,but regardless ~ fwhat we know about a spe cific culture , it is ju st as important forteachers to believe that all cu ltur es have important cha racteri stics ab o ut which weand our classes can learn. KelJey (2008 ) argues that reading literature about ditfer nt cultures s one of he best ways of preparing students to participate in globali zatIon. One thing that multi cultural lit erature can t eac h us i s the defining valu es that

other cu lture s hold. For examp le, Kelley (2008) says that c ritical a spects of Japane seculture, such as harmon y and patience , are demonstrated in children's books like

TIre Way We Do t in Japan wr itten by Geneva Cobb lijima and illustrated b y PaigeBillin -Fr ye.

On e way to under stand Asian American culture is look at its belief s about

learning, intelligence . pla y, and family invo lvement. For examp le, Li (2003) con

du c ted a s tu ~ ythat compa red U.S. and Chinese beliefs about the nature and pro~ s sof learning. When detailing the pro cess of learning , western students did nothst effort or persi stence as often as did Chinese students, and Chinese studen ts

To work effectivelywith other cultures iimportant for a teachunderstand the uniqueneand diversity within town culture.


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segregationthe separattorl of t ~ into


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152 C H P T ER 4

C O N C E P T RE V I E W T B L E 4 . 3

A Brief Int egratio n Timeline

r-==- - .

Leam e r D iversity

1896

Ore< Scott Case Abraham Uncaln 14th amendmentratlfied grantingequal protectionto all

Plessy v. f ergusonCase. U.S ..S. Supreme signed the 13th

Court denied U.S. Amendmentcit izenship to \ abolishing slavery 1_ -1

Supreme CourtlC(ja lizessegrC(jation andnd ividuals of

color -se parate butequal policy

Mendez v.Westminis terfederal court caseeliminates5e9l'e(Jated schoolsfor MexicanAmerican studentsIn Califomia

Brown v. Boa rdU. S . Supreme

1 '-1 Court outlawssegregatedsc h ools

Civil Rights ActIn troduced byJohn F . KennedyoutlawedsegrC(jation atwor1c , publicfadlitles and

, 001

Ameri cacelebrates the

11--1 50thanniversary

of Brown v. Board

des ignating the blue -eyed s tudent s as sup e rio r and the br own-eyed s tud ents i n ferior. At th e concl usion of the exercise. Mrs. Elliott s s tudent s ex pr essed a n increase d

und erstandi ng of wha t it 's like to be di sc rimin ate d against. Without having bee ndi scrimina ted ag ai nst, it is diffi cult to a ppreciate the impa ct of the experie nce.

African -American st uden ts a re more likely to be placed in ge ne ral educat ion an d

vocatio nally-foc used t racks and a re underrepre se n ted in cha llenging, college pr e

parator y, courses (Sa ddl er, 2005). To help reduce the ach ievement gap, teachers can

look at their curriculum material s and activit ies to ensure that African Amer icans

are included and they ca n also help mat ch student s with same race and ge nd er role

model s to help in c rea se the stude nts moti vation (Zirke l. 2005).

It is important to note that African Ame ricans were not the only indi vi dual sinvolved in a st ru ggle for eq ualit y in America s public sc hools. Eight years earlier.

an impo rtant case occurred in Orange County. Ca lifornia. This case was ca lled

Mendez v. Westminste r (19 46 ), and was the fi rst s uccess ful case against seg regation

and was filed on behalf of 5,000 Mexican Ame r ican s tudents (Valencia. 2005).Because of the cou rt sys tem s Sign ificant us e of scien t ific evidence in inform

ing th eir deci sio ns in the Brow n v. Board of Educat ion o f Topeka case (A nc heta,

20 06 ) and in the Mendez v. Wes tm in ster case (Valencia, 2005) , it highlight s fo r

the future edu cator the critical role of ed uca tion al research to ci v il ri ghts and

social justice.

Differences in Ethn idty and Cu lture

Think It Over

as a LEARNER Does segregation still exist? What evidence can yo u provide to

sup port you r answe r?

IS a TEACHER How might the classroom exper ie nces of African American and

Caucasian students be similar and differen t? How could yo ubring more racial integration to yo ur classroom?

Multicultural EducationHow will yo u approach differen ce in yo ur classroo m ? Modern teac hers wo rk wit hs tudents who speak different language s, have d ifferent cu ltur es an d e thn icit ies,come from advantage d and d isa dvantaged backgro und s, h ave di ffere nt gender and

sex ua l identiti es and or ientations, and co me from urban, rur al, and suburban se t

t ings. This presen ts a Sign ificant cha llenge to a new teacher, bu t whe n approached

from a perspective of knowledge and understanding, the diver sity that you r stu

den ts come to you with is a Sign ifica nt opportunity and will help yo u make th e

classroom an exciting and motivating lea rning environment. O ne way to effec

tively work with diver se s tudent s is an approach called multicultural education.

Mult ic ultur a l edu ca tion is an approac h to teaching that asks st udents to examine

conce pt s and skil l s that are be in g taught from diver se perspectives. Banks (1995)

has proposed the following five dimens ions of multicultura l ed ucation: Co nt ent integration - tea chers using examp les and conte n t from a variety o f

cultur es to illu str at e key co nce pt s and iss ues w ithin their su bjec t m atter;

Know ledge const ru ctio n process - teac hers helping s tud ent s to un de rst and and

dete rmine how the frame s of reference and biases within a discipline influence

the way it co nst ruc ts know ledge;

Prej ud ice reduction - teacher s using les so ns and activi ties to he lp stude nt s

deve lop positive att itud es toward differe llt ethn ic and racial groups;

Equity pedagogy - Teache rs modifying the ir teaching to facilitate academic

achievement of students from diver se racial, cu ltu ra l and ethnic grou ps;

Empowering school culture and soc ial str ucture - Teachers and administratorstransforming the culture and organization of the school to enable students from

diverse racial, cultural, and ethnic groups to expe rience equality and equal statu s.

Banks (1995) is c rit ical of th e Contr ibution s pproach whereby teachersin tegrate racia l, ethnic, and cult ural co nt e nt into the curric ulum by merely ce l

ebrating eth nic holidays. and the dditive pproach of add ing isolate d u nit sabout racial or e thn ic c u lture or hi s to r y to th e cu r ricu lum. H e recommends

t he Transformation pproach in which the perspectives of the curric ulum a rech anged to all ow students to v iew events and infor m atio n from a variety of eth

nic and c ultural perspectives, not ju st th ei r own. Exam pl es of th is wou ld be

viewing th e h is tory of America n wes twar d ex pansion d uring th e latter half of the

mult icultur al edan approach to teacstudet1ts to examineand skills tha t are befrom diverse perspec


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In classrooms that valuemulticultural education,students look at events andcontent from numerouscultural perspectives.

H P T E R 4 Leamer Diversity

nineteenth and early twentieth century not only from the perspective of Whites,but from American Indian cultu re as well, and of he history of American industrialization during thi s same period from the perspective of African Americans

as well as Wh ites.To further enable student s of minority ethnic and cultural groups to achieve

the benefits of education, Tharpe ( 1989) has proposed the cultural compatibilityhypothesis, namel y when ins truction is compat ible with natal -c ulture patterns,imp rovemen ts in learning. including basic sk ills can be expected (p. 350). Fo r themajority culture, com patible instruction stru cture i s whole class with r n k~a n d -

file seating and a teacher who ins tructs the whole g roup. followed by indi vid ualpractice and t e a c h e r o r g a n i z e dindividual assessmen t. For non-majority cultures,

compatible instruction feature s collaboration, cooperation, and assis ted p e r f o r

mance using small -group organization , where the teacher wo rks intenSively with

one small group at a time while the others work in small groups utilizing peerteaching-learning intera c tion. Tharp e ( 1989 ) reports considerable success in u si ngthe n o n m a j o r i t yco mpatible model with classes of ethnic and cultural minority

students.Educators who adopt the idea of multicultural educat ion advocate for the d u

ca lional empowerment of a ll of the ir students. Unfortunate ly not a U indi vidu als

training to become tea chers va lu e multicultural education or see how the co ncepts can help mot ivate their students to learn. H i I I J a c k s o nV. Sewe ll, K. L. andWaters, C. (2007) s tudi ed the be lief systems of individuals training to be t e a c h~

ers and found that they tend to e ither be advocates of multicultural education o rresisters of multicultural education. They found that the advocates of multiculturaleducation in thei r st ud y tended to have more nuance d thinking abou t diversity

Differences in Ethnicity and Culture

,-

,t. . A. .

-

T eV

a c h Si d e 0

o u r c ea s e

ulturally Responsive Teaching:A Multicultural Lesson for Elementary Students

In this video segment you'll see how Dr. Francis Hurley models a cult

resp onsive approach to teaching a classical topic, th e f Ve paragraph ess

th is video you will see seamlessly integrates multicult uralism into her litelesson.

After viewing the Video Case. consider what you have just watchedclassroom management and answer the questions below.

I. What teaChing strategies demonstrated by Dr. Hurley in th is Videowould help you wor with students from differe nt cultures?

2. In the Video Case , Dr. Hurley shared her own culture and how sheto America then she asked the students to share. Do you think this weffective approach? Why?

You can VIew he video case on he Premium WebSIte . Go to:'WWIN.cengage.com/login

issues, tried to look a t issues from numerou s perspect ives, were empathic and e thical, and believed that they could help all of their students learn .

If yo u as a teache r make the de cision to val ue multicultural educat io n, what ar esome conc rete s teps you could take in you r class room? It is highly recommendedthat yo u incorporate as many as you can o f the ins tructiona l techniques c o mp a t~

ib le with your students from non -major ity cu ltures. For example, you can include

Think It ver

U I LEARNER What experiences have you bad that illustrate one or more ofBanks ' five dimen s ion s of multicultural education, and what

experiences have yo u had that illustrate Tharpe's cultural c o m ~patibility hypothe s is. and how would you evaluate those experience s?

~ a LEARNER In what ways would you tea ch in order to provide students with

the opportunity to view things from a cultural perspective otherthan their own?


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156 C H P T E R 4 Leamer Divers ity

C O N C E P T RE V I W T B L E 4 4

W hy a student s ethnicity /cu lture might place them at risk and what a teacher can

CONCEPT

5


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two -way bilin g ualeducationstudents receive contentinstruction and language artsInstr\.ICtIOn in two languages

imm e rsionthe nglsh language

e ~ is taught only in English

Propo sition 22 7r e q U ~that a l publk schoolIflstrvctKm be in nglsh andthat Enghsh language learningstudents be given up to a year ofadditional support before beingtrans it ned into a mainstream

nglish speaking classroom

C H P T E R 4 le am er Diversity

lan guage and ove r tim e shifting to teaching the students in English. Ano thertype of inno vat ive ap proach to bilingual educat ion is called two-way bilin gualeducation. In two -way bilingual education , s tudents receive content i nst ru cti on and language a rt s in structio n in two languages. Parent eva luations ofEnglish /Spanish two -way bilin gua l education program s have been quite po sitive (Ramos, 2007).

Anot her approach to teac hin g English la nguage learners is terme d imme rsion. mmersion is when th e English language learner is taught only in Englis h.There is disagreement as to wh ich instru ctional method is more successfu l.However, th e ev idence see ms to suggest that the quality of the in stru c tio nthe student s receive is actua lly mor e imp ortant t ha n whether they receive thebilingual o r immersion instru ction (Hamilton , 2 006). In 1998 , propon ents ofthe imm ers ion approa ch fou nd support when Proposition 227 was passed by amajorit y of Ca li fornia voters. Pr o position 227 requir es th at aU publi c sc hoo linstruct ion be in Eng lish an d that English language learn ing studen ts be givenup to a year of add itiona l su pport before being transitioned into a main streamEnglish speakin g classroom. While imm ersion c hamp ions were plea se d wi ththe resul ts of Propo sition 227 , su pp orte rs of b ilin gual e ducat ion argue that ifchil dr en are taught a ll of their conte nt using a language the y do not spea k, theyrisk falling further behind.

Think It ver

as a LEARNER What do you thi nk it wou ld be like to tr y to learn a new s ubj ec tin a classroom whe re th e teacher and student s spoke a languagethat you did not?

u a TEACHER How might you help an Eng lish Language Learner be success fu lin a class that you teach?

ccommo dating English Language Learners

Learners who come to the Uni ted States from othe r countri es and who speak onlytheir native language , are at a major disadvantage when the y ente r school s in theUn ited States where instructio n is offe red on ly in English. Ideally , the trans itionto Engli sh should be gradual , but for the mo st part , that is unlikel y to be the case.Even knowledge of conversationa l Englis h is not sufficient for reading textbook s

and understanding lectures, which has been know n to require from five to sevenyea rs (C umm ins, 2004). A small sampling of the fifty st rategies proposed b y Herre ll

Jordan (2008) to help Englis h -speaking teacher s teach English language learnersare listed below. In your classroo m, you ca n

use visual aids and realistic exampl es that students can see an d manipulat e invo lve stud ents active ly in the learning process using kine sthetics and games

(like Sim on Says )

Gender Differences

use bili ngual textbook s when possible and, when not po ssible , use material sou tside the textbook

use the du al-metho d of giv ing both ora l and wr itten direction s use modes of teaching that do not rely so heavily on language to convey infor

mation (e.g ., graphic organizers. Ubuddy reading , role playing, cooperativelearning, working in pai rs)

prov ide dir ect teacher modelin g speak slowly and clear ly and repeat instru ction s as often as needed use prompts for clarifi cation (see more on prompting in Chapter 6) crea te op portunit ies for stude nt s to present and celebrate their c ultur es in

schoo l focus on what stud ents can do rather th an what they cannot do.

- ' Gender DifferencesGende r d iffe rences in schoo l achievemen t have been clo se ly examined ove rthe yea rs. In read ing, consistent differe nc es favo rin g gi rls ove r boys ha ve beenfound. Girls tend to display h igher reading scores on the National ssessmentof Educational Progress from seve n scale point s on average in 4th grade to 16

sca le po int s in 12 th g rade. G irl s also receive high er school grades in readingthroughout elementar y school and into the ado lesce nt years (Dwyer Johnson,

1997). In addition , there are a Signifi cant ly higher numberof

boys than gi rls inremedial reading classes (Allowa y Gi lbe rt , 1997).While bo ys still outpe rform g irls in the mathematic s portion of the National

Assess ment of Educational Pro gress, the differe nce isq uite small. However, girls stilltend to feel less confidence in themselves t han boys in math (Ve rm eer, Boeka erts.Seege rs, 2000 ), suggestin g that girls ma y still believe the long-standing stereotypethat they are less able than boys in math.

Ach ieveme nt d iffere nces betwee n th e ge nd ers may be in part the resu lts o fge nd er d ifferen ces in socialization . Tannenbaum Leeper (2003) found thatparent s were more lik ely to be lieve that science, for exam ple, was less interesti ng and more difficult for th eir daught ers than their so ns, and used morecog niti ve ly demanding language when teaching it to the ir so ns tha n to theirdaug hter s. This wou ld be likel y to lead gi rls to beli eve that ca ree rs in sciencema y not ne cessa ril y be fo r th em. The in nu ence of teac hers on th ese sel f-perception s mu st be consid ered as well. Alter matt . Javonovic, Perry ( 1998 ) repo rtth at sci ence teac hers in their stud y ca lled on male student s more frequ entl y toanswe r questio ns than female studen ts. This tend ency ma y be responsible fortheir fi ndin g that ma le stud ents were mo re likel y tha n fe male stud ent s to answerquest ions in scie nce.

That some of th e gende r differen ces in scho ol achieveme nt are acco mpani ed bydifferences in be hav ior i s sugges ted by the fact that the ratio of boys to girls is 4: I infavor of boys in learni ng disab led prog ram s (Vogel, 1990), and 2: I in favor of boys

Explain how schocan be biased towstudents based onand onentatlon amethods a teacherImplement to insuequitable and safeerlVlronmenl


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ge nd e r biasthe different treatment of girls

boy

tuckman - highlightable

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