MISCONPCEPTIONS ON

MULTICULTURALISM

PREPARED BY: JENNILYN M. CADELIÑA, LPT

 EDUCATION AND THE PRODUCTION OF SOCIAL AND
ECONOMIC INEQUALITIES

• Social scientists have long argued that school outcomes,

whether achievement or attainment, are linked in large part to
student social‐ class background, usually measured by
parents’ level of education, occupation, and/or income
(Coleman et al., 1966; Gamoran, 1987, 2001, 2008; Gamoran
& Long, 2007; Jencks et al., 1972; Reardon, 2011, 2014).
• Despite the massification of the U.S. system of education
during the 20th century, differences by social class have
persisted at largely consistent levels (Arum, Gamoran, & Shavit,
2007).
Question #1:

• What model argued that the poor

and minority are not performing
well in academics because of their
social-class background?
Class Stratification

• Class stratification in families and

K‐ 12 educational institutions affect
three sets of educationally related
outcomes:
1. a c a d e m i c a c h i e v e m e n t a n d
attainment
2. postsecondary entrance and
graduation
3. short and long-term employment
opportunities and income
Social Stratification Defined

• Social Stratification - allocation of individuals and

groups according to various social hierarchies of
differing power, status, or prestige.
Class Stratification on Education

Privileged Privileged
Class-related
stratification
Denying Poor, working-class,
opportunity & lower middle class
• What would be your
message to the future
President of the
Philippines in relation to
the problem about class-
related stratification in
education?
Inequalities for the Discriminated Class

• Social and cultural capital

embedded within families and
the extent to which such
varying forms of capital are
differentially valued by What model suggests that culture is
schools different from the prevailing practices
of schools?
• Academic tracking
• Differential access to
academic knowledge in
elementary school
Inequality for the Discriminated Class

• D i ff e r e n t i a l a c c e s s t o
rigorous math and
science courses in
secondary school
• Dropout and push‐ out
patterns
• Increased segregation
and hypersegregation
resulting from the repeal of
desegregation court orders
 ABILITY GROUPING AND TRACKING
• Ray Rist (1970) observed a group of African American children through their
kindergarten.
• Group - separate reading characteristics typically associated with differential
social-class backgrounds (appearance, behavior, and language use).

Highest
Middle Low
Ability Reading
Ability Reading Ability Reading
(Middle class)

“smart” or “dumb”
Dress, grooming, Poorly dressed and speak in a based on table placement
and language neighborhood-based dialect
Ability Grouping

• This is in spite of the fact that the students’

IQ test scores in kindergarten reveal no
Low
Ability Reading
significant differences across the three
tables.
• Academic achievement - subjective
judgment and subsequent teacher
Clowns
behavior as related to assumed class
differences in academic ability.
• Self-Fulfilling Prophecy
• What is the one thing that
you think you want to do
but at the same time you
think you can’t do/
accomplish?
 Self-Fulfilling Prophecy

Process through which an

originally false expectation
le a d s t o i t s o w n
confirmation. In a self-
fulfilling prophecy an
individual’s expectations
about another person or
entity eventually result in the
other person or entity acting
in ways that confirm the
expectations.
Tracking - Oakes (1985)

• College tracks
Ø foster independence in students
Ø involve more time spent on classroom instruction
Ø White and middle to upper-middle-class student population
• Lower or noncollege tracks
Ø enforce conformity
Ø spend less time on classroom instruction
Ø higher levels of non-White and working-class students
• R e s e a rc h i s q u i t e c l e a r t h e n t h a t t r a c k p l a c e m e n t h a s
consequences in terms of the type of knowledge students are
exposed to and the college options available to such students
when they leave high school (Oakes, 1985; Rosenbaum, 1976).
• Unfortunately, recent research suggests that track structures are
difficult to alter because of the social, political, and economic
forces that work to maintain them (Fine, Weis, Powell, & Wong,
1997; Oakes & Wells, 1996).
• What is culture of poverty?
Research on Class Privilege

• Much scholarly work takes as its starting

point the exclusionary processes
through which poor, working-class,
and lower-middle-class students end
up in the same relative class position as
their parents.
• Educational institutions work
explicitly on behalf of the relatively
privileged as well as the ways in which
privileged groups themselves work to
maintain what Bourdieu (1984) calls
“distinction.”
• “Academic preparation is an important mechanism of
stratification at college entry, but even comparable
students (similar on many characteristics, including
preparation) have different degree completion chances
at different types of colleges” - Research by Stephan, Rosenbaum,
and Person (2009)
• Andersen, R. (2011, July 27). Social Stratification. Oxford
Bibliographies. Retrieved March 8, 2022, from
https://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/view/document/obo
-9780199756384/obo-9780199756384-0053.xml
• Banks, J., & Mcgee Banks, C. (2016). Multicultural
Education Issues and Perspective (Ninth Edition).
Lightning Source Inc.
• Jussim, L. (2022, February 27). self-fulfilling prophecy.
Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved March 8, 2022, from
https://www.britannica.com/topic/self-fulfilling-prophecy