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Dmitry takes the forgotten lunchbox from his mother and silently rebukes her for calling after him so conspicuously on the street; he wants his friends to think of him as a real American. Adela walks her little sister to her kindergarten class, chatting about the birthday surprise they're planning for grandfather, when the principal passes by and sternly reminds them to speak English. They stop talking. Lloyd slides into his seat in homeroom, wondering why people are so concerned about the hat he wears in class, but so unconcerned about his future.
Diversity is hardly a new concept. Throughout history, different groups of people have had their own ways of making sense of the world and of representing their own values and beliefs. The people of the United States have a long political tradition of struggling with particular issues of diversity, while embracing the general principle of diversity within unity: e pluribus unum. What is unprecedented, however, is the active effort to transform educational perspectives from seeing the nation as a melting pot to seeing a rich interaction among many distinct people: male and female, from diverse racial, ethnic, social, and economic groups. This view of the nation enables all students to find their own experiences represented in the curriculum; to interpret the curriculum through the lens of their experience; to profit from the kinds of learning opportunities offered both inside and outside the classroom; and to have equal opportunity to experience educational success and mobility.
In my district we have 47 different languages and 20 different dialects, and we need to have everything translated into at least five languages to even begin to communicate with our public. We need more research focused on how we can train teachers to work in classrooms with youngsters who come from such a wide variety of not only languages, but of cultures as well.
Mary Frances Callan
Superintendent
Milpitas Unified School District
California
The growing consensus across the nation that educational endeavors of all kinds need to respect and reflect diversity stems, in part, from the belief that cultural differences affect children's and adults' ways of knowing about the world. Studies in many fields substantiate this belief. Psychologists studying how people think in different cultures have shown that perception (how we take in information about the world) is shaped by the way that experience is modeled in a particular social and cultural setting.38 For example, children raised in a culture whose stories are meant to capture the cycles of nature may have difficulty following a teacher's instructions to write a narrative with a beginning, a middle, and an end. And children brought up in a culture that considers direct eye contact to be disrespectful may have difficulty understanding their teachers' desire for the direct attention.
This focus on the impact of culture is intensifying as the enrollment of minority populations in U.S. schools grows. In 1993-94, one in three elementary and secondary students was a member of a minority racial-ethnic group.39 In the two decades between 1973 and 1993, the black enrollment in grades 1 through 12 rose from 14.8 percent to 16.7 percent, and Hispanic enrollments more than doubled from 5.7 percent to 11.9 percent. Hispanic students now account for one-fifth of the enrollments in central city public schools and will constitute the nation's largest single minority group early in the coming century.40
Language diversity is another factor that distinguishes learners from one another and affects the capacity of some children and adults to benefit from available educational opportunities. Although almost inseparable from culture, language diversity is a distinct challenge whose importance is growing as the makeup of the nation's school population changes. Nearly four million elementary and secondary students who attend public and private schools come to school each year unable to speak or understand English.41 These children represent more than 100 language group come to school with markedly different educational backgrounds and experiences. Most of these children learn English quickly, acquiring basic proficiency in two to three years. But many learners at all levels of education need substantially more time to master their new language well enough to learn easily in it and to experience academic success.42 For too many of the nation's language minorities, the twin goals of bilingual education (learning English as rapidly as possible while maintaining academic progress) have proved elusive under current education practice.
Culture and language are not the only factors that set children apart from the life of the school. Socioeconomic status is an equally powerful, if not more powerful, force. Poor children, no matter what their race or ethnicity, are unlikely to fare well in America's schools.43 These are the children for whom traditional schooling has provided the most limited opportunities to succeed. Little is expected of them and they are treated accordingly. Of all American students, poor children are the most likely to be placed in low academic tracks, the most likely to be retained in the same grade for more than 1 year, and the most likely to leave school without graduating.44 Studies have shown clear differences in expectations that teachers hold for students in low-income (compared with middle-income) schools, as well as differences in instructional strategies and coaching on how to behave in school.45 These differences appear to take hold in the earliest years of schooling.
Diversity cannot be an "add-on" to a school's culture or curriculum; it cannot be an afterthought by well-meaning educators. Effectively educating diverse learners means basing policy and practice, consistently and continuously, on the principle that no matter what their circumstances, all learners have strengths on which to build, and that if these strengths are understood and nurtured, all students can meet high academic standards.
The Importance of ContextThese were the key questions that Shirley Brice Heath set for herself some 20 years ago as she embarked on a study of Trackton and Roadville, two culturally different communities in the Piedmont Carolinas. Trackton was a black working class community whose older generations had been brought up on the land, farming their own land or working for landowners. Roadville was a white working-class community whose residents had been part of mill life for four generations. An ethnographer of communication and a teacher educator, Heath wanted to know how children in these communities learn to use language in their homes and their communities, and how teachers' knowledge of children's ways with words allowed them to bring these ways into their classrooms. Her research is contained in Ways with Words: Language, Life, and Work in Communities and Classrooms, published in 1983. Heath found that to understand the children's literacy needs and strengths, and the kinds of instruction and curriculum that might be needed to fortify their language skills, she needed to understand fully all of the face-to-face interactions the children have in their homes and communities. What does it mean that residents of one town speak of children "comin' up," while adults in the other talk of 'bringin' up" their children? How do children in each town come to know which kinds of talk are for inside the house and which for outside? And what happens when they reach school and are flooded by discontinuities in the way people talk and the values they hold? How do children learn "code switching"? Heath made an exhaustive study of the language-learning habits of the children of the two towns, accounting for the context in which this learning took place: "the ways of living, eating, sleeping, worshiping, using space, and filling time which surrounded these language learners." She studied the towns' oral traditions, recording the babbling of an 18 month-old in his crib, and listening to children tell each other stories in a sandbox. She looked at parents' notes excusing their children for school absences. She analyzed worship services and notes left for the mailman. Heath went beyond description to suggest how insight into different oral and written traditions can help teachers strengthen their students' literacy skills. Many other researchers have followed her lead, producing studies that focus not only on what children know, but on how, in their homes and communities, they have come to know it. They have demonstrated the crucial importance that context plays in education and in the research that supports it. |
Helping diverse learners succeed means taking seriously the results of research on resilience--the ability to adapt to changing circumstances to survive. Children who live in poverty can succeed in school if they receive sustained attention from individuals and institutions committed to their success and from programs designed to meet their unique needs. Children do best when they have the personal involvement and material support of their parents. But those who have difficult or stressful home lives can thrive if they have guidance and emotional support from other important adults in their extended families or their communities, or if they take part in adult-led community groups.46 Every learner must receive the clear message that demography is not destiny; that the keys to a bright future are hard work, effective teaching, and strong relationships with caring adults, not the circumstances one is born into or the abilities one is born with.
Research shows that virtually all parents, regardless of their circumstances, share high aspirations for their children.47 But competing pressures and uncertainty make it difficult for many parents to act on these aspirations and participate in their children's education. For many parents, schools are intimidating places where no one would be likely to understand or act on their concerns. Cultural and linguistic factors can make participation in schools difficult. Many parents feel ill at ease, because they lack knowledge of school protocol, remember their own unhappy past school experiences, or just feel unwelcome. However, research shows that parental involvement in the education of their children is another key to success. How then, do we deal with these conflicting facts?
Effectively educating diverse learners means building these findings into all educational reform efforts, particularly the movement to raise the nation's expectations for all students. Underlying the push for high standards is the belief that all students are capable of achieving them. If we are to make this belief a reality, we must find ways to take full advantage of learners' unique and inherent strengths. We must gather information and build knowledge that lead to instructional practice that is both demanding of students and responsive to their diversity. We must gather information and build knowledge that enable educators and policy makers to make the school a more inviting place for students and parents alike. And, we must gather information and build knowledge that provide for greater access to the kinds of educational advances and opportunities that all of us want our children to enjoy.
To build on what we know, we need research addressing such questions as:
How can we help teachers gain insight into the ways that diverse students learn?
How can insight into the ways that diverse students use language and other symbolic systems to create meaning, help teachers build on students' strengths and improve their achievement? What are the classroom dynamics that influence learning in schools with ethnic and language diversity? What interventions hold promise for promoting learning in such schools?
How can parents and community members be engaged more effectively in their children's education, particularly in the area of literacy?
How can schools more effectively reach out to diverse parents, including recent immigrants? What kinds of family literacy programs appear to be effective? What are the obstacles to parent and community engagement in local schools, and how can they be overcome?
How can schools ensure equity while setting high standards for all learners?
How can we ensure that the standards set or adapted by schools or sdhool districts reflect the values and concerns of their communities? How can we ensure that diverse learners receive the instruction and support they need to meet high standards?
How can schools ensure that language-minority students meet high standards?
How does the English language proficiency of students influence the learning of content areas, such as mathematics, science, and history? What changes need to occur so that language minority children are included in high-stakes assessments? How can evaluation of programs for limited English proficient students be improved?
To what degree does current research on student achievement distinguish between issues of ethnicity and issues of economics?
How can research delineate, the effects of socioeconomic status on racial or ethnic groups?
How can technologies be used to assess and meet the needs, and enhance the strengths, of diverse learners?
How can we ensure that all learners including those from all ethnic and racial groups, all language backgrounds, and all socioeconomic levels have equal access to educational technologies at school? What kinds of community efforts can expand the access of low-income learners to technology during the out-of-school hours?
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[Learning Beyond the Classroom]