Cultural Diversity

Social justice courses are suppose to challenge mainstream ideologies; however when students are not prepared to hear this, they will shut it out and may lead them to question their place in society. This occurs when privilege, “isms”- racism, sexism, sexism- and the inequality that tends to be involved. This may also lead to students viewing themselves as “bad” because they are using a mainstream binary framework of good and bad. Though, using reaction to understand the material is very useful. One way that Sensoy and DiAngelo suggest changing these frameworks is through recognizing ones positionality and acknowledging the the dominant cultures knowledge is not the only truth.

Reynolds illustrates how there are a variety of different ways social justice can be taught, and explains how each teacher has a different way of implementing the same ideas. She provides examples of lessons a child might learn and the biases behind it teaching social justice. Reynolds is concerned with the age range of teaching social justice and when is considered the appropriate time. New teachers are now getting taught how to teach social justice within the class room, and the curriculum is changing to include aspects of social justice. Reynolds states how social justice is a branch off the bigger question of “who gets to decide the best

options in addressing conflict situations. The first part of the book helps the educator understand

Organizations are made up of man & woman, many cultures & races, and multiple generations. Some of the organizations are also comprised of disable employees. This is what we called diversity. Diversity is something that has been around in the organizations for decades. Diversity in Collins Dictionary means, the state or quality of being different or varied and range of different things. It is synonyms to variety, mixture, range, and multiplicity. According to Queensborough Community College in its website define diversity as “Understanding that each individual is unique, and recognizing our individual differences. These can be along the dimensions of race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, socio-economic status, age, physical abilities, religious beliefs, political beliefs, or other ideologies.” Diversity is the mixture of people, culture, race, ethnicity, and more. Diversity can somehow affect the employees and can be challenges to the managers.

In today’s modernized world, it is crucial to be able to comprehend and recognize conflicts dealing with racial tensions due to the increased growth of diversity in nations all over the world. Countries like North America are inhabited by people of different backgrounds, cultures, and colors. Since there is intermingling among everyone, the differences between the diverse ethnic backgrounds could stir up trouble which can lead to serious skirmishes like Watts Rebellion in 1965. To prevent and weaken the strength of racial tension, the citizens of the United States must be educated about racial problems before being released into the real world. The best approach towards racial equity begins in the classroom and through

Throughout history there has been a cluster of tension and conflict between police and minority communities within the United States. The job of a police officer is to enforce the law and protect all citizens regardless of their race, gender, or sexual preferences; however, more and more police departments across the United States are being accused of targeting and harassing those who are different. State and local police departments have been left to their own devices on how to police minority communities and improve cultural differences among their officers by seeking out a reform recruitment and adjusting policies in hopes to attract a significant improvement of minority applicants, all while training other officers in understanding

What is social justice and what is a justifiable social justice movement that is a clear representation of the definition of social justice? According to Bussinessdictionary.com Social Justice is “The fair and proper administration of laws conforming to the natural law that all persons, irrespective of ethnic origin, gender, possessions, race, religion, etc., are to be treated equally and without prejudice” (BusinessDictionary.com). Dictionary.com defines it as “a group of diffusely organized people or organizations striving toward a common goal relating to human society or social change, or the organized activities of such a group” ( In my own words

The term social justice is normally used when referring to the ideas of equality and providing equal opportunities to pupils within school, regardless of their background, history or circumstances. Views of social justice can change depending on who is discussing the topic.

Social justice comes in a multitude of definitions. In my opinion, I think social justice can be described using three key ideas. The first subject I would like to talk about refers to the inclusion of people from a wide array of backgrounds. Whether that may be different ethnicities, cultural views, societal opinions, or personal beliefs, it is important to consider all of these varying perspectives in order to persuade the ideas of social justice with a diverse and open mind. Second, social justice must come to be with the use of teamwork. Collaboration is very important to social justice because in order for social justice to include everyone, the guidelines of it must have been produced by a large variety of people. Social justice also

In order to achieve ‘social justice’ we need to strive for equity rather than equality. Equity is based on the idea of moral equality, the principle that people should be treated as equals. According to Jones (2009) this is the idea that, despite many differences, all people share a common humanity or human dignity. The difference between equity and equality is that equality means treating everyone equally

I can grow in terms of social justice through my understanding of different social justice issues. I know quite a bit of information about the injustices that surround my identity, such as Racial Profiling or Disability Discrimination, but I need to look into the problems that don't surround me such as Culture Appropriation, or the use of Native American Reservations for Businesses. I can also grow through my understanding of other people's problems. Although I can not have empathy for everyone, I can try to understand their struggles and at the very least sympathize with them and their situation. Finally, I can grow in terms of social justice by speaking up when it not only happens towards me, but when an injustice is committed upon others.

If the quote above is to be believed, then the strength of a classroom resides in the differences rather than the similarities of its students. In my Pedagogy course (PEDG 5367) concerning diversity and multi-culturalism, I was able to realize first-hand how diverse a classroom of learners can be. I was instructed to create a unit plan (see Appendix A- Manners Across Cultures Unit Plan) that comprised approximately five hours of instruction time. In the unit plan I had to reflect on diverse learners and include instruction which met the needs of several different populations of students including special

My advice to evoke the notion of “preparing prospective educators” for dealing with social justice in the classrooms, is to educate them on the diversity paradox that occurs throughout students’ lives in the real world. I believe that if prospective teachers are able to retain some form of knowledge regarding the types of students they will potentially deal with, they will began to produce strategies and tactics that aligns with their lifestyle needs. It is important as an educator to be able to connect with students on multiple levels. Reason being is that as educators, we would want to reach our students in a way that will motivate them learn. If current and prospective teachers are able to familiarize themselves with the society in which

Over the last eight weeks, we have visited and deeply discussed many topics that surround social justice in the classroom. These topics have ranged from social justice in the world to how to create a socially just classroom and everything in between. In class, there has been a few times where it has been uncomfortable because the topics can bring out many opinions in the room. Many people in the room shared their opinions, including me, which brought up many other discussions. In this essay, I will be discussing our navigations through the social justice issues that classrooms face by talking about the key points of our class throughout the last eight weeks.

Since I started this class, I have a learned a great deal about cultural diversity in the classroom and abroad. My perspective has changed slightly but my knowledge of this subject has improved. In my family, my father taught me about the civil rights movement and the evils of segregation in the U.S. My parents taught me to be tolerant of all humans, no matter what they look like, how they dress, or their sexual orientation. My family has always been liberal thinkers who taught me the dark history of racism and bigotry in this country. As an educator I would be accepting to all race, creeds, and religious peoples.