Introduction
Diversity is any unique characteristics that differentiate a person from the other. Understanding that every person and individual is unique and different in his or her ways is one of the significant steps in understanding diversity. Respecting people and their differences is important and allows people to be able to grow and live in harmony with one another. These differences can be in the line of race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, social, economic status, age, and generation. Diversity in education systems in schools and different countries around the globe is one of the essential topics in discussion today. Schools through globalization now receive students from all over the world and now have to cope with different cultures that exist among different students. This means that diversity has now become an issue that cannot be ignored in our school system. Ethnicity is an example of how different not only students but also teachers and employees at large are in the school system. The following essay will try to touch on how ethnicity has grown in schools and the impacts it has on the system.
Ethnicity
Ethnicity can be described as the social group that individual exists in; this shows that a particular group shares the same distinctive culture, religion, language and in some cases color (Geertz, 2017a) . Globalization was one of the factors that led to ethnicity in the modern world, as people travel to different places to search for either a good and better educational experience or some just to try something new. In the contemporary world, the school allows students to travel to different countries and even continents to gain additional skills through exchange programs this has led to various people being found in classes.
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Ethnicity in the Education System
Ethnicity in the education system represents the broad range of ideas and the steps taken to include different culture in the system (Perso, 2012) . The goal of creating a safe learning environment that is free from discrimination is always paramount in these cases. The system should strive to be inclusive and equitable for the many varieties of students and staff members present in their organizations. Recognizing, developing and fostering the sensitivity to the need of the different people enjoying the services of the institution are the primary goals of most education systems. Despite these efforts problems still, exist in the education and leadership of most organization thus needing intervention as people seek to find new and better solutions.
Ethnicity has very many benefits which most members can enjoy (Thompson, 2012) . It is always essential to interact with different people at different times; it is known that in a school, setting communication is vital and it is amongst the top areas where interactions are rampant. This means that the presence of different types of people with different backgrounds prepares students to be able to go out into the world and exist well in the new global nation. Ethnicity pushes students towards awareness, satisfaction with the education systems and fosters racial understanding thus helps in shaping the future generations.
Factors Leading to Ethnic Profiling
Many factors can make a student and staff members unique according to ethnicity and origin in the educational aspect (OECD, 2012) . One of these factors is their social class and material power; this is the class in which each person exists. People may either be in the upper class or lower class ethnic groups due to their levels of income. The minority students in the classrooms may be those that live in poor and low income getting households. This means that these students may face challenges in their respective classes and they need to be respected protected and treated in unique ways. This is because these students may lack their primary need and also lack learning materials which should be availed to them.
The other factor is the country of origin and the language used (Perso, 2012) . One of the factors that also group students in different ethnic groups is the language that they use. Most ethnically diverse students may be using, for example, English as their second language. This means that English may not have been their native language thus some may have an accent when talking or even writing. This should apparently be respected, and even teachers should be able to give them time to adapt and not put them in awkward situations, for example, reading texts aloud-in class to avoid embarrassing them. Some people may confuse their poor language skills to being unintelligent; this could be false, meaning that bright students might lack proper opportunity and scholarships due to this and their potential become lost.
The Impacts of Ethnicity
Achievements within the classroom and in the education system vary within different cultures (Eden, 2017) . Some say that many students from the Chinese and the Indian ethnicity are prone to do well in an academic setting than the African, Caribbean and Pakistani students performing well below average. This type of understanding can be well traced to the different ethnic groups; this has led to constant disrespect and stereotypic of students in the school premises leading to high levels of discrimination. This does not usually mean that all students from the African origin are more athletic than those of the Asian or American descent, or those from the Indian descent are more advanced academically than those from Pakistani origin are. Ethnicity is one of the primary sources of discrimination of the students in the education system and posing enormous negative consequences. Judging people due to their ethnic origin is very wrong and needs to be discouraged every student needs to be treated equally keeping in mind their background and respecting their culture.
People of the different ethnic group may suffer problems when studying in new environments. Some schools have incredibly ethnocentric curriculums that are rigid and not welcoming (Eden, 2017) . These schools have curriculums that cannot house or be dynamic to students that are not from that particular group or country. This problem can be seen in the British curriculum, their culture is very different from others, and their schools are set such as that those who benefit fully are the natives and it is not prone to changes. This makes it difficult for students to gain access to education in this environment. Another reason that may hinder the development of students from the different ethnicity is such curriculum is that students that are of the British descent are mostly seen to be superior as they can thrive as they have a better understanding of the curriculum. This problem dramatically affects the self-esteem of most students, and it goes a great mile to damage it.
Mitigation Steps In Curbing Ethnic Discrimination
Rapid changes in the demographic content that exists in the education changes are due to occur in trying to mitigate some problems that arise with this trend (Geertz, 2017) . One of the ways that most countries are trying to do is put measures that will work and combat the problem of ethnicity that exists in schools. One of these ways is putting cultural days in the curriculum to try to celebrate different cultures and enjoy their knowledge. Cultural days helps people from different ethnicity to display their differences and respect the uniqueness of each person. This gesture also removes ignorance from most students and try to eliminate stereotypes, even appreciating the other person will eventually lead to the feeling of love and closeness. Cultural days have proved to work, and people respect the way of living of each and try as much as possible to learn their cultures. People know more about a person origin their way of living also makes that person familiarize themselves with the struggles that these students face and even try to make their lives better and comfortable.
Another way of dealing with ethnicity is the multicultural education (Thompson, 2012) . The multicultural training is a series of materials in school that is developed to help teachers be able to respond to changes in their student's ethnic backgrounds. This aims to ensure that the teacher tries to incorporate and add every student interest in the classroom day-to-day activities. Multicultural education assumes that the education system is pluralistic and covers every individual. It adds on insights from some different areas and field, including ethnic studies and women studies and put the contents forwards from the academic discipline of each course. Multicultural education encourages students to be self-searching and to continually bring out the aspects of their culture into the classrooms thus enabling teachers to support them, socially and emotionally.
Conclusion
Conclusively, ethnicity is inevitable in this world as people are not equal and the same and advancements that pushed to the world globalization has enabled it to exist in our schools. At a particular time, every individual will come across a different person, and he or she will learn a thing or two from them, this information will, later on, help people to be dynamic and be able to co-exist and live with other people comfortably. Although ethnicity is a good thing, high measures need to be put in place to help in the creation of a safe environment that will enable people and students in school to live in harmony with each other.
References
Eden, C. (2017). Gender, Education and Work: Inequalities and Intersectionality . Taylor & Francis.
Geertz, C. (2017a). The Interpretation of Cultures . Basic Books.
Geertz, C. (2017b). The Interpretation of Cultures . Basic Books.
OECD. (2012). Equity and Quality in Education Supporting Disadvantaged Students and Schools: Supporting Disadvantaged Students and Schools . OECD Publishing.
Perso, T. F. (2012). Cultural Responsiveness and School Education with Particular Focus on Australia’s First Peoples: A Review & Synthesis of the Literature . Menzies School of Health Research.
Thompson, D. R. (2012). Professional School Counseling: Best Practices for Working in the Schools, Third Edition . Taylor & Francis.
