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Needs to have a presentation reflecting on the action project paper, the slides no need to be very long, only 6-7 slides, and adding some images. ( nees to have a sprate docs for 90 minutes transcipt, as I need to record it )
Action Project
Introduction
The education system is diverse, and it has tremendous attributes that equip the students
with the necessary life skills from the developmental stages to adulthood. In this case, equality is
an essential attribute in the education system, ensuring that every student gets the same access to
high-quality education without considering where they come from or their background life. In
addition, educational equality also ensures that every student is held to the same standards
regardless of their abilities, experiences and life circumstances. In turn, the students will be able
to nurture the knowledge and skills they will require to be actively engaged and grow to become
productive members of society. However, it is a utopia to say that education is entirely fair and
just. My main argument for this action project is that we cannot make education completely equal
as it is a political and an economic tool. In other words, political and economic factors contribute
to the existence of inequality within the education system.
Education inequality is influenced by economic factors. The education system is
perceived to provide equality among students, but that is not the case since educational
institutions such as the private offer more quality education and some public schools are
associated with offering less quality education (Di Carlo, 2022). In this case, the students who
attend private schools receive a better education than those who participate in public and
community schools. The reason is that their structure is different in terms of the resources
available for studying. The teacher-student ratio in private schools is relatively fair to that of
public schools, thus affecting their teaching and learning differently, which is unequal. Moreover,
private schools operate with more funds for providing teachers with teaching incentives than
public institutions where fewer funds are allocated, thus resulting in a lower turnout.
Therefore, it is evident that bringing equality to the education system is difficult because
of the already set economic incentives that limit students from receiving fair and just education.
Equal distribution of funds to public and private institutions will provide educators with adequate
teaching incentives for delivering quality education. The public schools will be able to arrange
their students into a formidable teacher-student ratio, enabling them to be more attentive, and the
teacher will be able to attend to every student’s needs with ease (Di Carlo, 2022). In the long run,
education equality will be achieved on a significant but not significant scale, resulting in the
economic status of an individual and later on improving the economy through a tremendous
education equality system.
Policymakers purport that the education system is a fair and just political tool, but when
proper attention is paid, it is evident that education equality is not upheld since there is class
inequality and segregation. Educational institutions were established for the minority group to
prevent them from mingling with the white supremacist students (Addo, n.d.). This was an act of
educational segregation based on race, thus depriving the minority students of having equal
education with the white students. Even though current educational institutions are teaching
students from all racial calibers through revision of educational policies, most white students
have more privileges of excelling and going to better schools, while the minority students greatly
depend on scholarships to get access to the prominent schools. There is a vast difference in what
is taught in schools and what ought to be taught in schools which circles back to the education
being not completely equal.
The history of the minority population is not taught in-depth compared to the history of
the white supremacist. The main motive of this kind of discrimination and segregation is to
reduce the information awareness to prevent them from being overthrown politically since
knowledge is power (Addo, n.d.). This shows that the education system has been politically
manipulated, which calls for a class capital redistribution to bring back equality. Equality will
also be obtained by ensuring that the lower social class individuals are not termed as having
restricted speech codes and low educational attainment through a homogenized educational
system. Even though equality will not be fully attained, there will be a significant reduction in
political inequality in the education system.
Educators should have a sense of morality and the mission of this profession. They need
to have a sense of ethics and a sense of mission, be clear about “bias, discrimination, prejudice”,
and be aware of their own “attribution error” at all times. Being biased or discriminative affects
the students, causing unequal education as some are favored. Bias is a tendency that directs one’s
judgment toward an individual or group according to the attitudes and beliefs that one already has
(Yu, 2006). Once the attitudes and beliefs are formed, they influence judgments and decisions.
The human brain is wired with automatic, unexamined responses to certain situations. They are
called “implicit” biases, which are derived from our personal experiences, or we learn how to
respond in a certain way during our lifetime (Yu, 2016). Some of these prejudices include sexism,
which determines women as weaker and inferior; racism, which tells African Americans that they
are not as competent or intelligent; and ageism (which deems older adults as incompetent).
Each person has personal biases, and they may not realize they are causing negative
behavior based on these biases. It is important to note that examining preferences is not meant to
indict educators. It can be argued that the discrimination against them (and against their subject)
is the cause of the dilemma. Education is a pillar in any society as it will determine if you will
lead or follow. It shapes lives, but that does not mean that every young person can follow your
ideals for them. Education touches on different types of areas where one can discriminate, such as
appearance, race, skin color and gender, to name a few. Educators have to make decisions that
may not necessarily be in all students’ best interests, resulting in unequal education (Yu, 2006).
The educational system is unfair as it favors some students over others, so biases need to be
acknowledged. If educators do not know about their biases, it will affect the whole classroom
causing unequal education. It is a teacher’s responsibility to recognize and examine their
preferences because they affect their decisions, resulting in unequal education for some students.
Teachers are supposed to be role models in the classroom, as being biased or discriminative
affects students’ attitudes and values.
Lack of knowledge about other cultures is another source of education inequality.
Teachers should promote greater integration, not separation, of students from different
educational backgrounds. I believe that in the process of teacher training, there should be more
multicultural education. This helps them embrace and accept other cultures that their students
belong to. It will improve their way of handling them and minimize the unequal education. They
may disagree with some beliefs or practices in specific cultures but separating students from one
another due to cultural differences is not a great option. However, it happens, and it exists. It is
challenging to eliminate it completely. People who have lived in the same society for a long time
will find it difficult to understand and accept those from different backgrounds (Juvonen et al.,
2019).
Racism in Urban Education
In the event that newcomers were to critically observe the modern state of urban
education with different grade schools and high schools across the United States, they would
realize that learners within the similar grade status are frequently grouped into various tracks.
This activity referred to as ‘tracking’ is as a result of the fact that learners within a specific grade
level mostly portray differing degrees of intelligence leading to some learners with higher
intelligence being grouped in higher categories while learners with lower grades are usually
grouped in lower tracks. A thorough observation of the tracking structure discloses that a large
percentage of learners in the higher level tracks are usually made up of Whites, or the
predominant class across the country whereas learners at the lower level tracks are often
comprised of minorities.
Although different learning institutions may point out that it is not discernment but rather due to
low grades, the fact is that the tracking model is, as a matter of fact, an indicator of
discrimination as it impels the notion that learners from different minorities are in truth not
intelligent and thus not in a position to handle higher level methods of education (Warren,
Chezare and Terah 370). The reason as to why those inequalities are in existence is because the
Caucasian learners or those who are the majority in the community are usually part of higher
income families who are in a position to offer a far higher degree of support in terms of finance
and education in comparison to children whose parent form the minority groups in the society.
The intrinsic challenge that most minorities encounter, specifically the Latin Americans
or Americans of Asian and Indian ancestry, was the conceptual barrier to effective
communication that existed as the language usually employed at home was not English, French
or the common language but instead the native language (Santiago 72). Even though it is true
that some learners of a specific prevalent ethnicity do in reality outpace several members of the
minority, this is solely because challenges in education like language and socio economic levels
are a reality actually puts off the growth of other learners. In situations where minorities were on
a similar footing with their colleagues from other races, minorities usually equaled or even
surpassed the abilities of the prevalent class. It is due to this fact that this research presents the
idea that success and intelligence in the United States system of urban education is usually
extended along the borders of ethnic groups.
Counterclaim and Rebuttal
Some claim that the education system fosters complete equality since students get to have
the same curriculum being taught to them. In addition, educational funds are also allocated to all
the institutions to provide necessary teaching incentives for educators to provide quality
education. The teachers are also conversant with morality in their teaching profession, which
allows them to apply ethical standards and practices while interacting with their students. The
educators can identify their attribution error, which enables them to be as fair as possible in
accordance with how they were ethically trained to be as completely reasonable. However, the
education system cannot be entirely equal because of the flaws of how it is structured. As a
political tool, education is formulated to discriminate against other students based on their
background but in an unobtrusive manner, affecting the value of education from an economic
perspective (Addo, n.d.). In this case, we cannot make education completely equal even though it
is a political and economic tool.
Critical Social Theory on Racism in Urban Education
Readings from the class have widened the knowledge of reform policies in school. A detailed
examination of the issue of ‘reform’ policies being actualized in different schools across the
country reveal that these reforms lead to a type of militarized educational structure whereby
learners are made to memorize, facts, figures and diverse elements in reference to the subjects
they are learning without emphasis to deeper introspective thinking and literally comprehending
how such notions were created in the first place (Morgan et al. 255). That is to say that this is
teaching model that allows the exact opposite of assisting learners to question, find out, work
together or debate on certain points but instead induces them into a type of thinking that stresses
on mind numbing memorization and mechanical exactness solving tests. As a matter of fact, this
mode of teaching promotes a type of non-reflective submission which practically damages the
eagerness to acquire knowledge and eventually leads to a specific resistance towards the learning
activity. Such a process will lead to a type of educational recidivism whereby education will be
the modern gap, additionally grouping the community between lines of social and ethnic groups.
What has to be understood is that this educational ‘reform’ usually impacts learners
within different inner-city learning institutions most of which are inhabited by economically
disadvantaged social groups which in addition happen to be composed by different minorities or
immigrants (Singh 291). As described, although this educational ‘reform’ focuses on the
performance of learning institutions, it fails to focus on factors towards the appropriate education
of learners since this type of ‘militarized’ educational administration utilized by the teachers so
as to memorize facts and figures into the brains of learners is insignificant in reference to
improving their academic capability and in reality develops a distinguished status of dislike
towards the notion of learning (Morgan et al. 255).
Structural inequality, actually, is an intrinsic bias within social organizations which can
establish more favorable opportunities to succeed to some individuals and at the same socially
exclude others (Singh 290). For instance, the recent policing focusing on illegal immigration
enacted by the state of Arizona has practically developed a type of discrimination against many
Mexicans staying in the United States and who are in fact in the country legally. The reality is
structural inequality is one of the major factors behind the prolonged restrictions in school
organizations and different careers in which minorities are actually discriminated against because
of connotations implicating their preference towards forbidden behavior. A distinct situation
whereby structural inequality advances discernment can be observed in the present United States
structure and their employment of tracking so as to separate performers from non-performers
(Warren, Chezare and Terah 370).
In theory, it can be observed as a possible method of offering a suitable form of education
where it is required the most. However, the fact is that the tracking model has actually led to
racial lines being formed with the Caucasian Americans being grouped into the upper rank of the
tracking model and the minorities being segregated in the lower rank of the model (DeMatthews
28). Even though it might be true that some minorities experience some challenges in learning
because of their ancestry, the reality remains that such a model promotes the idea of societal
inequality where it has come to be assumed that the Caucasians are more predilected towards
academic success whereas minorities are inclining towards marginal professional occupations at
best.
Structural Intervention for The Inequality
What this research has demonstrated in the examined aspects is that the tracking model,
the ‘militarized’ method of knowledge acquisition and the intrinsic discrimination against
minorities within the present structure of education are part of the major challenges that affect it
currently. Further scrutiny on the issue indicated that instructors had some type of discrimination
against students from minority groups while others easily admitted that during their teaching
career, they had come to have a belief that minorities performed poorly but also acknowledged
that this was probably as a result of the intrinsic inequalities to the degree of exposure to
educational resources (Robinson 645). The only way through which this challenge can be solved
is by removing the requirement for standardized examinations and to encourage more open
learning circumstances so that learners can comprehend a lesson in a better way rather than be
forced to mesmerize facts or figures (DeMatthews 28).
Conclusion
The urban education system in the United States of America has been observed to be
geared towards boundaries of ethnicity whereby a learner’s capability to achieve a certain social
rank is usually determined by his or her skin color. There is a distinctive indication that the
model of education utilized in the country is characterized by something wrong because it does
not only appear that the minorities have challenges catching up but the model itself which leads
to a substandard mode of education is usually making them to stagnate in their social and
economic ranks because the entry to a better lifestyle via a suitable education is clearly shut to
them.
Even though education is often referred to as equal in the expression of social
reproduction, some attributes say otherwise about it, which makes it not to be completely equal.
The education system has significantly been politicized, thus leading to discrimination and
segregation. In addition, it also affects the economic status of an individual since there are those
students who get more quality education than others. Educators should have a sense of morality
and ethics while practicing their profession, which could be brought about by regular
multicultural training. In this case, it will enable them to be as fair as possible and increase
educational equality by a significant margin.
References
Addo, J. (n.d.). Education as a Political Tool, Assessment and Criterion-Referenced
Assessments. Retrieved from
https://www.academia.edu/14208472/Education_as_a_Political_Tool_Assessment_and_Criter
ion_Referenced_Assessment
Di Carlo, M. (2022). School Funding and Equal Educational Opportunity. Albert Shanker Institute.
Retrieved from
https://www.shankerinstitute.org/blog/school-funding-and-equal-educational-opportunity
Juvonen, J., Lessard, L. M., Rastogi, R., Schacter, H. L., & Smith, D. S. (2019). Promoting
social inclusion in educational settings: Challenges and opportunities. Educational
Psychologist, 54(4), 250-270.
Yu, T. (2006). Challenging the politics of the “model minority” stereotype: A case for
educational equality. Equity & Excellence in Education, 39(4), 325-333.
Francis, Dania V., and William A. Darity. “Separate and unequal under one roof: How the
legacy of racialized tracking perpetuates within-school segregation.” RSF: The Russell
Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences 7.1 (2021): 187-202.
Morgan, Paul L., et al. “Are schools in the US South using special education to segregate
students by race?.” Exceptional Children 86.3 (2020): 255-275.
Singh, Michael V. “Resisting the neoliberal role model: Latino male mentors’ perspectives on the
intersectional politics of role modeling.” American Educational Research Journal 58.2
(2021): 283-314.
Robinson, Ashley N. “How Does Whiteness” Show Up” in Responses to Racist Harm? A
Selective Literature Analysis and Framework for Practice.” Journal of College Student
Development 62.6 (2021): 643-657.
Santiago, Maribel. “A framework for an interdisciplinary understanding of Mexican American
school segregation.” Multicultural Education Review 11.2 (2019): 69-78.
Warren, Chezare A., and Terah T. Venzant Chambers. “The imperative of social foundations to
(urban) education research and practice.” Educational Researcher 49.5 (2020):
369-375.
Action project: raising awareness
Education as a Political Tool
– Education has been used as a political tool throughout the ages and across the
whole world to define national identity and underlie the political rartionale.
-According to LEGISCAN website, there are more than 7 thousands bills pending
at US Congress House regarding with education and Labor committee.
Perfection of education system? No
Educators should have a sense of morality and the mission of this
profession. They need to have a sense of ethics and a sense of mission, be
clear about “ Bias, discrimination, prejudice”, and be aware of their”
attribution error”
-Each person has personal biases, and they may not realize they are causing
negative behavior based on these biases.
