Sleeters review; The Academic and Social Value of Ethnic Studies, is arguing that students who are given opportunities to learn about their diverse backgrounds are evidently more interested and engaged in the classroom. She discusses her experience with a student named Carlos, who although didn't have great grades in high school was driven and enjoyed learning in the classes that were centered around his culture. After he discovered his love for learning about his culture, he was an avid reader of Mexican vaquero culture and completed two years of community college. Sleeter explained that the incorporation of Chicano studies had the same impact on many of her students as it did for Carlos.
The integration of Euro-American studies in schools is often overlooked by not only the education system but as well as parents. Many would assume that students would be able to connect themselves to material that was already required to be taught to them. However, many of the required courses disregarded that the dominating story lines consisted of white people and their history, that would in turn eliminate many students opportunities to learn individuality and culture. In the cases that had different cultures represented, there was a severe lack of history to be shared, focused on slavery, or only having very early and vague stories discussed.
It was discovered that in grades such as elementary schools, students were interested in materials that were similar to what they experienced themselves in their home and community. Middle schoolers started to feel a sense of separation and marginalization in the classroom, fueling anger that diverse backgrounds weren't being shared outside of certain months. There were some teachers that tried to create curriculums to respond and help to represent different social groups, but it was challenging for them to be educated enough themselves to meet the area of desire for students to be able to learn about their own cultures. High school students have their own established understanding on the diversity bias in the school system and acknowledge this as the main factor for classroom disengagement. As a result, many students turn away from textbook history and instead turn to their family and communities for education. Adults don't recognize this separation as much as students do, only living with an Eurocentric narrative. Some parents would dismiss the conversation of diversity and reply with statements such as 'we should all be Americans', devaluating cultures by trying to make everyone united as one.
The push to teacher diversity to students slipped through the cracks with the need to set curricular standpoints, initially creating schools as a way to have students take their place in the real world. As time has progressed, the need to build off of these standpoints are necessary as a way for everyone to feel they truly understand their identities. It is evident that incorporating diverse classes increases student engagement and gives a feeling of support to them, rather than feeling a pushback for not fitting into the dominant culture. I found this article to be motivating and interesting, seeing how the need for diversity is such an effective way to help students who feel pushed out. While there is still improvements to be made, the change from the idea of schools killing imagination and being a way for kids to live by schedules to some schools providing Euro-American studies is exciting to see the positive impact it has had already.
Here is a TedTalk from 9th grader Elijah Jones and his experiences in both private and public schooling when it came to diverse education.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K7TEslQCwTY
Additionally, here is a short article by Elena Stevens and her tips on how she included diversity in the history curriculums
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