In recent years, racial segregation has been significantly employed by whites to ensure superiority over other populations through social and legal color bars. Racial discrimination in schools was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in the 1954 Brown V. Board of Education ruling. However, the United States does not live up to this law, and school segregation in America is on the rise. Over 50% of students are in racially concentrated districts (Paul & Jeremy, 2017). According to Paul and Jeremy (2017), segregation in schools is caused by intentional federal policies such as discriminatory school district mapping, funding allocations, and housing policies. My placement on the cultural competence continuum is on the red stage of the cultural competence continuum. At this stage, the practices, values, attitudes, and behavior of schools with regards to racial discrimination are destructive to non-white school districts. Schools that are concentrated with non-white students receive $2.226 less government funding per student every year than white concentrated school districts.
Factors in my life that have resulted in my place on the continuum include poverty levels on non-white populations, socioeconomic disadvantages and illiterate parents. Non-white children, such as the black and Hispanic communities in America, have been economically and socially disadvantaged. Such families often have less access to preventive and routine health care. As a result, they have higher absenteeism in school. Besides, poverty makes them disadvantaged. Non-white students have less literate parents who rarely read to them in their childhood (Paul & Jeremy, 2017). Therefore, they are not exposed to more complex language in their homes. With inadequate housing, these kids do not have adequate housing which makes them lack a quiet place to study. With less enriching opportunities for summer activities and after school, the organizational skills and background knowledge of students are underdeveloped. Accumulating these disadvantaged children in one school lowers their average achievement. The disadvantage of this is that it leads to a system in which all students receive low-quality education since they miss the experience of diverse environments. The practices and beliefs of schools today destroy students by concentrating on racial isolation and poverty.
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As an educator who wants to encourage respect for diverse cultures and teach in an integrated environment, the first step is to talk about equity and racial segregation within the school. In this way, students will develop a mindset that appreciates different cultures. Consequently, this will move me to the green stage of the cultural competence continuum since i will be aware of their strengths in terms of diverse cultures and grow a mind that responds positively to other cultural populations. School segregation is a sensitive talk for teachers and students in the USA. For educational equity to be achieved, all school dimensions should be transformed, including educators, school culture, the curriculum, systems, and policies. Secondly, I should use culturally responsive teaching techniques in class to help students to accept the cultural background of other students. Culturally sensitive teaching involves using past experiences, cultural knowledge, ethnically diverse students, reference frames and performance styles to ensure the learning process is adequate and relevant to culturally diverse students (Odis, 2014). Students should be taught on elements that make up different cultures and the benefits of integration.
With the rising levels of racial segregation in schools, both teachers and students are disadvantaged. It is difficult for teachers to talk about it with their students. Exclusion leads to inadequate resources in non-white schools (Odis, 2014). Therefore, teaching pupils becomes difficult. School districts that are isolated have high students who are socioeconomically disadvantaged. Such students have challenges of absenteeism and depression. Therefore, school performance is low. In white school districts, teachers have resources. However, it is challenging to teach and encourage integration and employ culturally responsive teaching. The country can achieve integration if only the educational resources are distributed equally, and the most vulnerable pupils are considered when designing the school pedagogy, policies, and curriculum.
References
Odis, J. J. (2014). Still Separate, Still Unequal: The Relation of Segregation in Neighborhoods and Schools to Education Inequality. The Journal of Negro Education, 83 (3), 199.
Paul, H & Jeremy, E. F. (2017). School Opportunity Hoarding? Racial Segregation and Access to High Growth Schools, 95 (3), 1077–1104.
