Literary Review

TED 690
Johnny Segovia

This essay is a literary review of the impacts that the impacts of cultural diversity,
multiculturalism, and inclusion have on education. These elements are essential to making the
subject matter comprehensible to students.

The approach to achieving the goal of education has been and continues to be fashioned
and formed by many events in our nations history. In exploring social foundations approaches
to difference and inclusion in education different themes arise. In this essay I will explore the
impacts of cultural diversity, multiculturalism, and inclusion in education. I will also relate what
implications these themes have in my own teaching philosophy. By exploring this discussion of
cultural diversity, multiculturalism, and inclusion a better understanding of how not only they
have shaped our educational system can be achieved but also provide insight to how we can
continue to evolve and improve our system to make subject matter comprehensible to students.
Cultural diversity refers to the different languages and cultures that attend American
schools. In recent times, the spectrum of diversity has been growing due to many legislative
battles won by various ethnic groups within the last 100 years of American history. One of the
major victories was the Immigration Act of 1965. The Immigration Act of 1965 resulted in
increasing the diversity of the U.S. student population. This is supported by Spring, he states
the greatest influx of recent immigrants into the United States resulted from the U.S
Immigration Act of 1965 (Spring, 2014, p. 132). The educational attainment of foreign-born
Americans is less than that of native-born American (Spring, 2014, pp. 147-148). One of the
major contributors of this disparity is the language barrier that is present with foreign-born
students. The impact that this will have on my teaching philosophy is in the recognition of the
language barrier. It will be my responsibility to exhaust every resource at my disposal to ensure
the equality of opportunity. The implication that cultural diversity will have on my teaching
philosophy is that it is my responsibility to identify and support students who have be restricted
from the equality of opportunity because of their cultural differences.

The growing diversity of American schools leads to the next theme in this discussion:
multiculturalism. Multiculturalism in this context refers to raised issues in national school
systems regarding multicultural and multilingual student populations (Spring, 2014, p. 157).
The intended goal of having a multicultural curriculum is in the empowerment of the students.
Empowermentwithin this contextmeans providing the intellectual tools for creating a just
society (Spring, 2014, p. 165). I believe that the empowerment of students through a
multicultural curriculum is advantageous for society. I will carry that believe in my teaching
philosophy throughout my career. Where the debate lies, in my opinion, is in the face of this
curriculum. Multiculturalism should not mean separate. That is to say, the creation of a
multicultural curriculum should not lead to the addition of courses. I believe a multicultural
approach can be achieved by an inclusion of multiculturalism into the current curriculum. An
example of this would be role of Native Americans during the War of 1812. By adding
multiculturalism to existing lesson plans, it would not be seen as radical, and be better received
by its opponents. This is how I intend to incorporate multiculturalism into my teaching
philosophy.
The last theme in my discussion is inclusion. Inclusion refers to the inclusion of all
children with disabilities (Spring, 2014, p. 122). The separation of children with disabilities in
the classroom is viewed as another form of segregation. The isolation of children with
disabilities often deprives them of contact with other students and denies them access to
equipment found in regular classrooms (Spring, 2014, p. 122). The idea of inclusion is one that
I struggle with in my teaching philosophy. On one hand, I understand and agree with the
premise of why these children should be included and have access to all the recourses that their
peers with no disabilities do. But one the other hand, I see school as a reflection of society. In

that reflection of society, those who have disabilities are not treated or received equally. Adding
to my conflict are my personal experiences in this matter. I have a friend who was born deaf; she
has never heard a word in her life. Yet, this friend is able to function normally in society. She is
a college graduate and has a career in social work. It was her elementary and high school
experience that enabled her to do this. She did go to a special school for those who are deaf, and
spent countless hours in speech therapy. Because of this she is able to speak clearly and lip read
so effectively that I can have a normal conversation with her. I understand that is the exception,
not the norm. I dont expect for public schools to provide this type of care for all deaf students.
But, what if they did? And the road to possible having this type of education system for those
with disabilities begins with inclusion. In my teaching philosophy, the ability and desire to give
a voice to those who are disenfranchised. Included in that voice are those with disabilities.
In this essay I have explored social foundations approaches to difference and inclusion in
education through the lens of different themes. The themes of cultural diversity,
multiculturalism, and inclusion will always be present in my teaching philosophy. As I learn and
gain a greater understanding of these themes, my philosophy will evolve with that understanding.
The education system as we know it today is not perfect, nor is it finished. It will always reflect
how society presents itself. As we strive more a more just society, those ideals will be reinforced
in the classroom. And that reinforcement will facilitate change in the school curriculum to make
the subject matter more comprehensible to students.

Reference
Spring, J. (2013). American Education (16th ed.) New York: McGraw Hill Higher Education