Ethnicity and Education

7/31/2019 Ethnicity and Education

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Ethnicity and Education


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Nature of an ethnic group

An ethnic group is a multicultural group with

several distinguishing characteristics.

It can be defined as a group that shares a

common ancestry, culture, history, tradition, and

sense of people hood.


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An ethnic group is primarily an involuntary

group, although identification with the group

may be optional.

The definition suggests that Anglos in the US

and Australia, and the British and French in

Canada, are ethnic groups.


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Pakistanis in the UK and Mexicans in the US are

ethnic minority groups, a specific type of ethnic

group.

Members of an ethnic minority group haveunique physical and/or cultural characteristics

that enable members of other groups to identify

its members easily, often for the purposes of

discrimination. (Banks, 2003)


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Types of Ethnic Groups

There are different types of ethnic groups

(Banks & Gay, 1978).

Each type is an involuntary group whose

members share a sense of people hood and

an interdependence of fate.


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A cultural ethnic group : is an ethnic group

that shares a common set of values,

experiences, behavioral characteristics, and

linguistic traits that differ substantially from

other ethnic groups within a society.

Individuals gain membership through birth

and early socialization.


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Individuals who are members of cultural

ethnic groups are likely to take collective and

organized actions to support public policies

that will enhance the survival of the groups

culture and ethnic institutions. The

individuals ethnic cultural heritage is a source

of pride and group identification.


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An economic ethnic group is an ethnic group

that shares a sense of group identity and sees

its economy fate tied together. Individual

members of the group feel that their

economic fate is intimately tied to the

economic future of other members of the

group.


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The members of an economic ethnic group

respond collectively to society issues they

perceive as critical to determining their

economic status, and they work together to

influence policies and programs that will

benefit the economic status of the group.


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A political ethnic group is an ethnic group that

has a sense of shared political interests and a

feeling of political interdependence. The

group responds to political issues collectively

and tries to promote those public policies and

programs that will enhance the interests of itsmembers as a group.


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Group that are political ethnic groups are also

usually economic ethnic groups because politics

and economics are tightly interwoven in a society.

Thus, we can refer to those economic ethnic

groups that work to influence political and

economic policies that will benefit their

collectivities as ecopolitical ethnic groups.


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A holistic ethnic group is an ethnic group that has

all of the characteristics of the various types of

ethnic groups in their purest forms. Thus, a

holistic ethnic group is an involuntary group ofindividuals who share a sense of people hood and

an interdependence of fate, a common sense of

identity, and common behavioural characteristics.


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Its members respond collectively to economic

and political issues and try to promote public

programs and policies that will further the

interests of the group as a whole. African

Americans and Mexican Americans come close

to being holistic ethnic groups.


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ETHNIC STUDIES

Ethnic studies can be defined as the scientific and

humanistic study of the histories, cultures and

experiences of ethnic groups within a society(Banks, 2003). It includes a study of ethnic

minority groups, such as Chinese Canadians,

Australian Aborigines, British Jamaicans, and

African Americans.


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Ethnic studies refers primarily to the objectives,

methods, and materials that make up the coursesof the study within schools and other educational

institutions. It constitutes one essential

component of multicultural education. Since the

1960s, many attempts have been made in

nations such as the US, Canada, the UK and

Australia to infuse ethnic studies into school,

college, and university curricula.


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The concept of ethnic studies suggests that a

wide variety of ethnic groups are studied

within a comparative framework. Students

are helped to develop concepts,

generalizations, and theories that they can use

to better understand a range of humanbehavior (Banks, 2003).


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Modernized ethnic studies programs are not only

comparative and conceptual but are also

interdisciplinary and cut across subject matter

lines. Thus, within a globally conceptualised

ethnic studies program, teachers of the

humanities, the communication arts, and the

sciences incorporate ethnic content into the total

curriculum.


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Most definitions of ethnicity focus on the

culture and race of immigrants and immigrant

descendant groups (Isajiw, 1974).

Both racial and cultural differences must be

reflected in educational programs designed to

reduce intergroup conflict and

misunderstanding (Gay, 2000).


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EDUCATION FOR ETHNIC AND RACIAL DIVERSITY


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Many of our efforts, however, must focus

directly on reducing institutional individual,

and cultural racism because racial differences

and not more generalized cultural differences,

are the causes of many of the psychological

problems that students of color experience in

the schools and in society (Jones, 1997;

Stephan & Vogt, 2004).


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The relationship between racism and the

rejection of the cultures of people of color by

dominant groups must also be considered

when formulating educational policy to

reduce interethnic conflict. Racism is a major

reason that many Whites perceive and

evaluate the cultures of people of color

negatively (Howard, 1999).


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Intergroup problems frequent arise, not

because of the nature of the cultural

differences between Whites and people of

color, but because of the race of the individual

or group who exhibits the specific cultural

characteristics (Frankenberg, 1993).


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The language of low-income people in the US is often

ridiculed, while the speech of White Boston Brahmins,

which is as much a dialect as Black English, is

frequently admired by Anglo-Americans. In the 1950s,

Mexican American children were often prohibited from

speaking Spanish in many schools in the Southwest

(Garcia, 2004). However when Spanish was spoken by

Whites, it was usually viewed as a useful and esteemed

language. This is called cultural racism.


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Because we need to focus our attention on

variables related to both race and culture, and

the complex interactions and relationships

between these two major variables, racism

must be an integral and essential part of

powerful multicultural education (Montagu,

1997; Omi & Winant, 1994).


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The insights and knowledge from critical race

theory can inform educators about the

complex and insiduous ways racism is

embedded in US institutions, including

schools, colleges, and universities (Crenshaw,

Gotanda, Peller & Thomas, 1995; Delgado,

1995; Sleeter & Bernal, 2004).


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Educational theorists such as Tate and Ladson-

Billings have used insights and analyses, and

findings from critical theory to inform

educational theory and practice (Ladson-

Billings, 1999; Ladson-Billings & Tate, 1995).


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REDUCING RACIAL CONFLICT

A number of basic issues and problems related

to race, ethnicity, and education warrant

immediate decisive action. A top priority

should be to implement programs and

practices designed to modify the negative

racial attitudes of students.


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Research indicates that children are aware of

racial differences at an early age and often

express negative racial attitudes (Aboud, 1988;

Ramsey, 1998). Research further suggests that

the racial attitudes of students tend to become

more negative and crystallized as they grow older

if deliberate efforts not made to influence them

(Aboud, 1988).


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To modify the racial attitudes of students

successfully, experiences designed to influence

the racial feelings and perceptions of teachers

must be implemented. The attitudes, behavior,

and the perceptions of classroom teachers have a

significant influence on the social atmosphere of

the school and the attitudes of students (Green,

2005).


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Teachers are even more important than the

materials they use because the ways in which

they present material greatly influence how

they are viewed by students. Teachers must

be strongly committed to a racially tolerant

school atmosphere before such a setting canbe created and maintained.


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Unfortunately research indicates that many

teachers display negative attitudes and

behavior toward low-income students and

students of color.


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Research indicates that many teachers, in both

subtle and overt ways, communicate negative

feelings to students of color and have a

disproportionate number of negative verbal

and non verbal interactions with them

(Haberman, 1996; Irvine, 1990; Valenzuela,1999; Zeichner & Hoeft, 1996).


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Reseach indicates that effective teacher in-

service is essential if we are going to reduce

institutional racism in the school setting

(Cochran-Smith, Davis, & Fries, 2004).

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Ethnicity and Education

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