Equity, diversity, and Design Principles (HTH 205)
In this course I had the opportunity to engage in productive and important dialogue about diversity and equity in schools. Based on my personal background and my experience in this course, I feel strongly that diverse schools benefit students from all backgrounds. In order to provide an equitable learning environment, educators in diverse settings have a responsibility to understand the needs of all of students. Since the dominant culture of school often differs from a student's "home culture," schools need to find ways to understand and bridge these differences.
During this course, I began to wonder about effective ways teachers and school leaders can gain a better understanding of how cultural dynamics affect the educational experience of students of color and from working-class families. For my final product in this class I investigated this question: Are student interviews a useful way to learn about how students experience school? A second focus of my culminating project was to specifically learn more about the school experiences of boys of color at a diverse middle school in San Diego. Through the student interviews I conducted, several ideas stood out in terms of creating an equitable learning environment for boys of color:
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"On average, students' socioeconomic backgrounds have a huge effect on their academic outcomes. But so do the backgrounds of the peers who surround them. Poor students in mixed income schools do better than poor students in high poverty schools" (p. 39). |