Abstract
Education is one of the most important sectors in a country. The state of a country’s education system determines how prepared the population would be for changes, both positive and negative, that may happen in the future, regardless of the timeframe. It would be safe to suggest, therefore, that a robust education system is essential to successful nation building. In this paper, the author reviews related literatures on the educational problem that Hispanic youths and students face, particular discrimination. The results of the review suggest that some of the reasons why they are being discriminated include the lack of culturally relevant and sensitive instructions and practices within the education sector. These problems must be solved eventually because otherwise, the educational crisis on Hispanic youths and students would only get worse. Discrimination should definitely be stopped because it affects the level of motivation of the students, which is an important factor that affects their education outcomes.
Literature Review
Causes of Hispanic and Latin American Educational Difficulties and Discrimination
Discrimination often occurs when a larger majority of individuals see differences between themselves and a small minority of individuals. In such cases the victims would often emerge as the members of the minority. Putting that into context, the Hispanics and Latin Americans are represented as a minority in the United States and therefore, they are the ones who would often emerge as the victims of discrimination in the education system. There are various reasons that could explain this phenomenon and some of them include their unique writing and oral styles and levels of proficiency, the way how they deduct and use critical thinking.
Hispanics and Latin Americans are discriminated in the education system because of their unique use of critical thinking
Hispanics and Latin Americans are discriminated in the education system because of their unique way of putting thoughts into writing
Hispanics and Latin Americans are discriminated in the education system because of their unique way of speaking (e.g. accent)
When it comes to educating or improving the literacy rate for Hispanics, it would seem that there is an educational crisis. According to a report published in the National Education Association, there is indeed a Latino Education Crisis . The said crisis can be dissected and doing so would only expose the different challenges that educators face when it comes to addressing this issue. One of the biggest problems so far is that the Hispanics and Latinos (although these two terms are often used interchangeably) are among the largest and fastest growing ethnic minority populations in the country. Because of this, the effects of any education-related problem that previous administrations may have failed to fully address could have easily multiplied. Consistently, Hispanics have lagged behind non-Hispanic people’s educational performance. For example, it was found in Gandara’s (2015) report that “upon entering kindergarten, 42% of Latino children are found in the lowest quartile of performance on reading readiness compared to just 18% of White children; and by 4th grade, 16% of Latino students are proficient in reading according to the 2005 NAEP, compared to 41% of White students”. This can be perceived as an outcome of the combination of three factors that were discussed earlier; because they are being discriminated and mistreated, Hispanics and Latin Americans are finding it harder to integrate themselves into the broader educational system and to actually get something out of their schooling.
One of the main reasons behind the lower than usual literacy rate for Hispanic youths is the fact that most instructors who are employed in both private and public educational institutions still lack the cultural competence and expertise needed to handle a culturally diverse group of students . Hispanics and Latin Americans have a unique way of studying. They write, think, and speak differently so it would be harder for them to study and learn the way White people do. Students tend to have different learning and communication styles. These two can have a direct impact on the way how they learn and on the actual extent of their learning. Unfortunately, most instructors only know how to address the learning and communication needs of a small percentage of the student population and this is why there is an ongoing disparity between the literacy rates Hispanics and non-Hispanic youths. The first avenue that policy makers should therefore check and address should be the cultural competence and expertise of the instructors. It all starts inside the classroom and because of this; this can arguably be considered as the root cause of the so called Hispanic educational crisis.
Outdated instructional practices also appear to be a drag in the country’s ongoing efforts to improve the literacy rate for Hispanic youths. According to a study published in the Center for Research on Education, Diversity and Excellence (2002), “effective instructional practices are crucial to addressing the educational crisis facing many Hispanic students in the United States” ; which makes sense considering how a significant portion of Hispanic students within the country live in marginalized conditions. It has long been established that people from different culture have different ways of learning and tackling things, yet the education sector in the country still remains favorable only to the members of the White culture. Most classroom discussions are still centered on their culture, oral and writing proficiency, as well as use of critical thinking and so the ones who have their unique way of using these variables are left out. The education sector should never be treated as a statically because it is more adaptive to changes than what policymakers can imagine. Slowly but surely, this perception has been changing and this can be evidenced by the fact that more and more educational institutions are now embracing the changes that technology and other modern innovations can bring in to the sector. Online learning systems, for example, are beginning to play a bigger role in educating students, both Hispanics and non-Hispanics alike, who live in remote areas where classroom and traditional learning settings may not yet be available. Just like the previous study about the ongoing Hispanic educational crisis concluded, culturally relevant and sensitive instructions are crucial to addressing the problem. However, Padron, Waxman, and Rivera (2002) specifically identified culturally responsive teaching, cooperative learning, cognitively-guided and conservational instructions, and technology-enriched instructions as the preferred tools to address the said problem.
And lastly, in a study authored by Rosenbloom (2004), he discussed the experiences of discrimination among African American, Asian American, and Latino Adolescents in an Urban High School institution. In the study, it was ruled in that one of the causes of the ongoing problem pertaining to lower Hispanic youth students’ educational outcomes is the discrimination that they experience in various educational institutions. The fact that certain levels of discrimination occurs within the urban high school reviewed in Rosenbloom’s (2004) study suggest that it also exists in other high school and non-high school educational institutions within the country. It would certainly be harder for a population of students to be encouraged and motivated to learn if they are battling the effects of discrimination at the same time and if this problem is going to be solved ultimately, issues related to discrimination should be addressed first.
Conclusions
Aside from their accent, critical thinking, and writing proficiency, there are a lot of other ways how Hispanics and Latin Americans are different from the White population and the only way to address these differences is to promote and improve cultural awareness and competency of both the teachers and students. This way, the uniqueness of each culture and their respective accent, writing proficiency and critical thinking can be recognized and addressed. Improving the education system where a large population relies on can be a tough challenge. The same can only be true when the same challenge gets upgraded to the national level. This is essentially the same one that presidents and chiefs of state government educational departments have to overcome before the end of their respective term. They have to make sure that before the end of their respective terms, the educational system within their jurisdiction has significantly improved. This is one of the outcomes that they could use to easily determine whether they did a good job as a public servant or not; or in this case, whether they were able to address one of the social justice issues or otherwise. Some of the meaningful takeaways from the review conducted suggest that cultural competence and expertise, among other related variables, remain to be barriers to a successful integration of the Hispanic youths to the pool of academic achievers which are mainly composed of Whites and other members of the cultural majority. Fortunately, all that is needed is to start upgrading the teachers’ awareness and knowledge about the importance of culture in education along with other cutting-edge tools such as technology to slowly but surely address the problem on how to ensure that schools are meeting the needs of Hispanic students at high school level institutions and how they can reduce discrimination towards Hispanic students.
References
Gandara, P. (2015). The Crisis in the Education of Latino Students. National Education Association, http://www.nea.org/home/17404.htm.
Mora, P. (2009). Learning about your students' backgrounds. Colorin Colorado.
Padron, Y., Waxman, H., & Rivera, H. (2002). Educating Hispanic Students: Effective Instructional Practices. Center for Research on Education, Diversity and Excellence, http://crede.berkeley.edu/products/print/pract_briefs/pb5.shtml.
Rosenbloom, S. (2004). Experiences of Discrimination among African American, Asian American, and Latino Adolescents in an Urban High School. Youth and Society, 420-451.
