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Ethnicity and Education

Nature of an ethnic group


An ethnic group is a multicultural group with several distinguishing characteristics. It can be defined as a group that shares a common ancestry, culture, history, tradition, and sense of people hood.

An ethnic group is primarily an involuntary

group, although identification with the group


may be optional.

The definition suggests that Anglos in the US


and Australia, and the British and French in Canada, are ethnic groups.

Pakistanis in the UK and Mexicans in the US are

ethnic minority groups, a specific type of ethnic


group.

Members of an ethnic minority group have


unique physical and/or cultural characteristics that enable members of other groups to identify its members easily, often for the purposes of discrimination. (Banks, 2003)

Types of Ethnic Groups


There are different types of ethnic groups (Banks & Gay, 1978). Each type is an involuntary group whose members share a sense of people hood and an interdependence of fate.

A cultural ethnic group : is an ethnic group


that shares a common set of values,

experiences, behavioral characteristics, and


linguistic traits that differ substantially from

other ethnic groups within a society.


Individuals gain membership through birth

and early socialization.

Individuals who are members of cultural ethnic groups are likely to take collective and organized actions to support public policies that will enhance the survival of the groups culture and ethnic institutions. The individuals ethnic cultural heritage is a source of pride and group identification.

An economic ethnic group is an ethnic group


that shares a sense of group identity and sees

its economy fate tied together. Individual


members of the group feel that their

economic fate is intimately tied to the


economic future of other members of the

group.

The members of an economic ethnic group


respond collectively to society issues they

perceive as critical to determining their


economic status, and they work together to

influence policies and programs that will


benefit the economic status of the group.

A political ethnic group is an ethnic group that has a sense of shared political interests and a feeling of political interdependence. The group responds to political issues collectively and tries to promote those public policies and programs that will enhance the interests of its members as a group.

Group that are political ethnic groups are also


usually economic ethnic groups because politics

and economics are tightly interwoven in a society.


Thus, we can refer to those economic ethnic

groups that work to influence political and


economic policies that will benefit their collectivities as ecopolitical ethnic groups.

A holistic ethnic group is an ethnic group that has

all of the characteristics of the various types of


ethnic groups in their purest forms. Thus, a

holistic ethnic group is an involuntary group of


individuals who share a sense of people hood and

an interdependence of fate, a common sense of


identity, and common behavioural characteristics.

Its members respond collectively to economic and political issues and try to promote public programs and policies that will further the interests of the group as a whole. African Americans and Mexican Americans come close to being holistic ethnic groups.

ETHNIC STUDIES
Ethnic studies can be defined as the scientific and humanistic study of the histories, cultures and experiences of ethnic groups within a society

(Banks, 2003). It includes a study of ethnic


minority groups, such as Chinese Canadians, Australian Aborigines, British Jamaicans, and African Americans.

Ethnic studies refers primarily to the objectives,

methods, and materials that make up the courses


of the study within schools and other educational institutions. It constitutes one essential component of multicultural education. Since the 1960s, many attempts have been made in

nations such as the US, Canada, the UK and


Australia to infuse ethnic studies into school, college, and university curricula.

The concept of ethnic studies suggests that a wide variety of ethnic groups are studied within a comparative framework. Students are helped to develop concepts, generalizations, and theories that they can use to better understand a range of human behavior (Banks, 2003).

Modernized ethnic studies programs are not only

comparative and conceptual but are also


interdisciplinary and cut across subject matter

lines. Thus, within a globally conceptualised


ethnic studies program, teachers of the humanities, the communication arts, and the sciences incorporate ethnic content into the total curriculum.

Most definitions of ethnicity focus on the


culture and race of immigrants and immigrant

descendant groups (Isajiw, 1974).


Both racial and cultural differences must be

reflected in educational programs designed to


reduce intergroup conflict and

misunderstanding (Gay, 2000).

EDUCATION FOR ETHNIC AND RACIAL DIVERSITY

Many of our efforts, however, must focus directly on reducing institutional individual,

and cultural racism because racial differences


and not more generalized cultural differences,

are the causes of many of the psychological


problems that students of color experience in

the schools and in society (Jones, 1997;


Stephan & Vogt, 2004).

The relationship between racism and the

rejection of the cultures of people of color by


dominant groups must also be considered

when formulating educational policy to


reduce interethnic conflict. Racism is a major reason that many Whites perceive and evaluate the cultures of people of color negatively (Howard, 1999).

Intergroup problems frequent arise, not because of the nature of the cultural differences between Whites and people of color, but because of the race of the individual or group who exhibits the specific cultural characteristics (Frankenberg, 1993).

The language of low-income people in the US is often


ridiculed, while the speech of White Boston Brahmins, which is as much a dialect as Black English, is frequently admired by Anglo-Americans. In the 1950s, Mexican American children were often prohibited from

speaking Spanish in many schools in the Southwest


(Garcia, 2004). However when Spanish was spoken by Whites, it was usually viewed as a useful and esteemed language. This is called cultural racism.

Because we need to focus our attention on


variables related to both race and culture, and

the complex interactions and relationships


between these two major variables, racism

must be an integral and essential part of


powerful multicultural education (Montagu,

1997; Omi & Winant, 1994).

The insights and knowledge from critical race theory can inform educators about the complex and insiduous ways racism is embedded in US institutions, including schools, colleges, and universities (Crenshaw, Gotanda, Peller & Thomas, 1995; Delgado, 1995; Sleeter & Bernal, 2004).

Educational theorists such as Tate and LadsonBillings have used insights and analyses, and

findings from critical theory to inform


educational theory and practice (Ladson-

Billings, 1999; Ladson-Billings & Tate, 1995).

REDUCING RACIAL CONFLICT


A number of basic issues and problems related to race, ethnicity, and education warrant immediate decisive action. A top priority should be to implement programs and practices designed to modify the negative racial attitudes of students.

Research indicates that children are aware of

racial differences at an early age and often


express negative racial attitudes (Aboud, 1988;

Ramsey, 1998). Research further suggests that


the racial attitudes of students tend to become more negative and crystallized as they grow older if deliberate efforts not made to influence them (Aboud, 1988).

To modify the racial attitudes of students

successfully, experiences designed to influence


the racial feelings and perceptions of teachers

must be implemented. The attitudes, behavior,


and the perceptions of classroom teachers have a significant influence on the social atmosphere of the school and the attitudes of students (Green, 2005).

Teachers are even more important than the materials they use because the ways in which they present material greatly influence how they are viewed by students. Teachers must be strongly committed to a racially tolerant school atmosphere before such a setting can be created and maintained.

Unfortunately research indicates that many teachers display negative attitudes and behavior toward low-income students and students of color.

Research indicates that many teachers, in both

subtle and overt ways, communicate negative


feelings to students of color and have a

disproportionate number of negative verbal


and non verbal interactions with them

(Haberman, 1996; Irvine, 1990; Valenzuela,


1999; Zeichner & Hoeft, 1996).

Reseach indicates that effective teacher inservice is essential if we are going to reduce institutional racism in the school setting (Cochran-Smith, Davis, & Fries, 2004).

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