Diversity deception
Do schools truly value diversity?
Originally published in the Moultrie News.
My child’s school district in its belief statements says it values diversity in all areas of education. What, exactly, does that mean and will it help my child?
“Diversity” is a term that has, unfortunately, become politically tinged in recent years. As in all things educational, I’ll avoid the politics and define the term using its basic, denotative meaning, which, according to Merriam-Webster, is, “being composed of differing elements; variety.”
The definition is important because many educational leaders interpret diversity only by its narrower contemporary connotation: “The inclusion of people of different races, cultures, etc. in a group or organization.”
That is a good thing to value, but it is difficult to achieve, simply because of the scarcity of minorities entering the educational field. According to the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, despite increased recruiting efforts, only 20 percent of K-12 teachers are from underrepresented racial-ethnic groups. This contrasts to 51 percent of students.
ASCD points out that teachers of color are leaving the profession at very high rates with a key reason being the lack of autonomy in their classrooms. This is crucial to our discussion because true educational diversity requires that students learn under a variety of approaches. Why bring in teachers from diverse backgrounds if you don’t allow them to utilize those backgrounds in their teaching?
And schools, as a rule, certainly do not. Thus their failure to embrace conventional diversity is nullifying any benefits of the more contemporary kind. Indeed, as ASCD shows, that failure is actively pushing out the very minorities states are spending millions to recruit.
Modern education may desire a diverse range of skin hues in their teachers, but they have little tolerance for a diverse range of ideas. The order of the day is “fidelity” to high-priced curricula that tell teachers how to teach. Pacing guides tell them when to teach it. The demand for uniform procedures and communal assessments discourages individuality. High-volume classroom observations ensure that resistors are identified and redressed. The result is every teacher doing the same thing every day in every class.
This is conformity, not diversity. This is turning a genuine art form into a pseudo-science. If Mrs. Smith does better with group instruction than consultant-approved collaborative learning, it doesn’t hurt children to encounter both. Schools want every teacher to be a mothering nurturer, but many kids thrive under a hard-driving task master. If I wish to teach characterization using Flannery O’Connor instead of whatever writer Scholastic Books is pushing that year, it does not diminish student learning.
Such variations represent diversity in its purest form, and students are its direct beneficiaries. With the freedom to innovate and adapt, teachers can better tailor instruction to their strengths. Why constrain a chef within the borders of an arbitrary cookie-cutter?
Maybe I’m crazy, but if I were an educational leader, I would want my faculties to look like dog pounds, not the Westminster Kennel Club. Yes, I’d want a variety of ages, races, and experiences, but I would also seek a blend of ideas, methods and mentalities, provided, of course, they were all committed to educating their students.
Obviously, there are aspects of education where standardization is positive and even necessary. While teaching styles and strategies should be diverse, what kids learn in each course (the “standards” we call them) should be uniform. Likewise, certain rules and routines should be consistent across the school. In many cases, it benefits kids to know what’s coming and what behaviors are expected. But within that secure, predictable structure, they should be exposed to a diverse range of learning experiences. Finding this balance is critical to utilizing diversity’s power.
When education values diversity in this way, students have more room to grow. To accomplish it, schools must become communities that value what poet Robert Francis described as, “Freedom that flows in form and still is free.”
Jody Stallings has been an award-winning teacher in Charleston since 1992 and is director of the Charleston Teacher Alliance. To submit a question, order his books, or follow him on social media, please visit JodyStallings.com.