Running head: DIVERSITY STATEMENT OF INFORMED BELIEFS

Diversity Statement of Informed Beliefs

Corissa Johns
Professor LueLinda Egbert
EDUC 204 Families, Community & Culture
Spring 2014

DIVERSITY STATEMENT OF INFORMED BELIEFS

Abstract
This paper reports informed beliefs on the diversity of students' backgrounds, as well as
students' different instructional needs. The paper discusses the elements of all students
being able to learn, the impact of each student's social ecology, discrimination's impact on
learning, and providing equitable education for all students.
Keywords: diversity, informed beliefs, social ecology, discrimination, equitable
education

DIVERSITY STATEMENT OF INFORMED BELIEFS

Diversity Statement of Informed Beliefs
America has long been called the melting pot because of the diversity in its
population. Teachers are adapting and finding creative ways to teach all students
regardless of the students' past experiences, ethnicity, and social ecology. While
providing an equitable education for all, teachers must also be aware of the impacts of
discrimination, family life and social economic status on each student's emotional and
cognitive learning process. This paper supports a wide range of concepts such as
professional responsibilities, the social ecological theory, strategies to decrease
discrimination, educational goals and learning outcomes, and equitable education for all
students.
All Students Can Learn
Each and every human being on this planet has the capability of learning. Not
everyone is the same, nor should they be expected to be. There are students who are
hindered by their ethnic background, their home life, or by a medical problem.
The professional duties of a teacher are to ensure a friendly environment for their
classroom that will facilitate learning. A professional teacher will know that not everyone
will progress at the same rate and teach each student based on their zone of proximal
development. This is the space between what a learner can do independently and what he
or she can do while participating with more capable others. Vygotsky's theory was that
students engaging in apprenticeship activities [would] advance [their own] level of
development and that the teacher should allow time for individual exploration and
discovery (as cited in Berns, 2013, p.261). Thus, the student has guided practice and can

DIVERSITY STATEMENT OF INFORMED BELIEFS

be guided by someone more experienced but still be allowed to make their own mistakes
in a safe environment.
This type of learning can also produce self-efficacy, the belief that one can master
any given situation and produce positive effects, because succeeding in a learner-directed
activity produces a positive reinforcement, a reward, or pleasant experience, and
increases the student's learning abilities. A professional teacher will set achievable
educational goals and expectations for the students to follow and will monitor progress
and make changes, as necessary.
Goals not only challenge the student to meet a set standard, but they also
encourage the student to succeed. Educational goals are also a part of ensuring that all
students learn by providing benchmarks to track progress. The teacher should also
include as many different learning styles as possible so that all learners can be included
in a lesson. Learning styles are consistent patterns of behavior and performance by which
an individual approaches educational experiences.
Student's Social Ecology
Students' learning is the total sum of their life experiences which are based on the
ecology of their social system. Just like a food chain, a student's life is effected by a
multiplicity of activities and relationships. Parents have a significant impact on their
child's growth and development. Competent parents provide a safe physical environment
where children can explore and discover things on their own, give access to interesting
things for children to manipulate, set limits and are consistent with discipline, makes sure
that they are available to share their child's discoveries. Incompetent parents are often

DIVERSITY STATEMENT OF INFORMED BELIEFS

abusive and/or neglectful to their child and that can stunt their potentiality in success.
Bronfenbrenner's systems theory shows the 'whole picture' of the developing
child that encourages discovery and development in all areas of one's life, not just in the
classroom (as cited in Berns, 2013, p. 16). Brofenbrenner's theory looks at five basic
structures of socialization in an environmental context. The student's microsystem,
activities and relationships with significant others experienced by a developing person in
a particular small setting such as family, school, peer group, or community, has the
largest impact on their life and consequently has the most determine power over how a
person will develop. The developing student's exosystem, settings in which children do
not actually participate but which affect them in one of their microsystems (for example,
parent's jobs, the school board, the city council) is more about their parents than the
student, but the student is still affected by the decisions made by others. The
macrosystem or society and subculture to which the developing person belongs, with
particular reference to the belief systems, lifestyles, patterns of social interaction and life
changes, and chronosystems, temporal changes in ecological systems producing new
conditions that affect the developing person, tend to not have direct impacts on the
student's life, but are mainly a part of their lifestyle and values. The developing
individual's mesosystem, linkages and interrelationships between two or more of a
person's microsystems (for example, home and school, school and community), form the
very foundation upon which a students' learning takes place and students become the
active producers of their own development (as cited in Berns, 2010). If all of the
systems complement one another and provide a stable base for exploration and discovery,

DIVERSITY STATEMENT OF INFORMED BELIEFS

the child can grow and develop exponentially in all areas.
Discrimination and Learning
Teachers must acknowledge the life histories and experiences of each student's
ethnic background. The easiest way to do this is to gather information from parents at
parent-teacher conferences. Teachers should also be culturally aware of each student and
should aim to celebrate the individual uniqueness of each student.
A culturally aware teacher will understand that not all of his/her students come
from the same background and there will be differences in instructional needs from
culture to culture. America is implementing the idea of Cultural Pluralism; which is the
philosophy of embracing the ideals of mutual appreciation, understanding of various
cultures within a group, and coexistence with others that are different. A teacher must
encourage individualism, the emphasis on personal fulfillment of choice, by giving each
an individualistic education that will suit their needs and will allow them to be educated
alongside others that are different.
Although, each student will be given an individualized education, all students will
be assimilated, mentally adapting to one's environment by incorporating experiences, by
being taught the same lessons in terms of reading, writing, and math. Most American
immigrants are coming from a collectivist culture, a culture emphasizing interdependent
relationships and social responsibility for the well-being of the group, and must be taught
with special curriculum and different instructional models than students from
individualistic cultures, a culture focusing on the achievement of the individual, so that
all students can reach their potential.

DIVERSITY STATEMENT OF INFORMED BELIEFS

Equitable Education for All Students
Education should be fair and impartial for all students but, unfortunately, life is
not fair. Discrimination, divorce, dual income families, and poverty all impact social,
behavioral, emotional and cognitive learning outcome in students. Students from
divorced families are affected in many ways. Children from these families are affected in
a multiplicity of ways, but all of them suffer from the diminishing of healthy family
functions. Students from dual income families may suffer from lack of attention received
by parents and may even not fully trust others or, on the other hand, form bonds with
peers that are detrimental to the student's growth and development. Poverty also impacts
student because it limits the amount of creative materials that the student can interact
with, the quality of their education, what their community environment is and even what
instruction their parents can give them.
Teachers must strive to make up for the differences in each student's background
and present circumstances. Teachers must provide caring classroom communities to make
all students comfortable and welcome. Teachers must also be equitable, fair and
unbiased, by providing basic expectations for all students and not allowing discrimination
to be a part of the classroom environment.
Conclusion
There are many challenges that teachers face in teaching. It is a high calling in
that the impact of an effective teacher is far-reaching. All of the interactions between
Bronfenbrenner's systems work together to form each and every individual's social,
behavioral, emotional and cognitive being. When those systems are not in balance in an

DIVERSITY STATEMENT OF INFORMED BELIEFS

individual's life, then discrimination occurs. An equitable education does not mean that
everybody is the same, but rather that all students are helped to attain the same access and
opportunities for learning.

DIVERSITY STATEMENT OF INFORMED BELIEFS

Reference
Berns, R.M. (2013). Child, family, school, community: Socialization and support (9th
ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth/Cengage Learning, Publishing.