THE IMPORTANCE OF DIVERSITY &

CULTURAL AWARENESS IN THE

CLASSROOM
Drexel University School of Education

Cultural diversity in the classroom is on the rise. In 2014, U.S. public schools hit
a minority majority milestone with Latino, African-American, and Asian students
having surpassed the number of white students. In 2044, the U.S. Census
predicts that over half of the nation’s population will be people of color, so this
trend will likely continue.

In our increasingly diverse and multicultural society, it’s more important than ever
for teachers to incorporate culturally responsive instruction in the classroom --
whether teaching elementary school, middle school or high school students. And
the increase of diversity doesn’t only relate to race and ethnicity; it can include
students of different religion, economic status, sexual orientation, gender identity,
and language background.

Interested in becoming a teacher? Learn more about Drexel’s Teacher

Certification program.

WHY IS IT IMPORTANT TO ENCOURAGE

DIVERSITY IN SCHOOLS AND WORKPLACES?
Fostering inclusion and awareness around multicultural education and taking a
culturally responsive approach to teaching benefits all students. Not only does
creating greater multicultural awareness and inclusion help students with
different backgrounds and needs succeed, but it encourages acceptance and
helps prepare students to thrive in an exponentially diverse world. Our Social,
Emotional, and Behavioral Wellness Certificate Program is a great
opportunity for teachers to learn how to create positive classroom environments
and can serve as a foundation for understanding how to promote diversity in your
classroom.

Diversity in and out of the classroom will continue to grow, so it’s essential we
prepare students to adapt to an evolving world and embrace those different from
themselves. Learn more how the programs at the Drexel School of Education are
helping to prepare more culturally-responsive educators today.
HOW DO YOU MANAGE DIVERSITY IN THE
CLASSROOM?
There are several ways teachers and administrators, such as principals and
coaches, can ensure that both the classroom environment and curriculum are
responsive to the increasing cultural diversity of our society. These strategies will
encourage all students’ cultural awareness, enhancing each student’s sense of
identity, and foster inclusion in the classroom community.

1. Get to Know Your Students

Ensuring that cultural awareness is promoted in the classroom starts with the teacher understanding
each individual student. Take the time to learn about each student’s cultural background, hobbies,
learning styles, and what makes them unique. Demonstrating a genuine interest in learning about each
student and their culture will help establish trust and allow you to form a bond with them so they feel
valued. If students feel appreciated by and comfortable with the teacher, there’s a better chance they’ll
feel comfortable talking with and respect their peers in the class – and communication is the core to a
culturally aware and inclusive classroom.
2. Maintain Consistent Communication
Aside from getting to know your students, teachers should also continue to maintain ongoing
communication throughout the semester or school year. Scheduling 1-on-1 meetings with students to
“check in” every so often will allow you to consistently improve how accessible the classroom is to
everyone. Students can talk about whether they felt included in the classroom culture. This can help
identify issues or ways to improve the overall experience. It’s also an opportunity to discuss their
progress in the class and offer guidance on how they can improve, based on their individual needs as a
student.
3. Acknowledge and Respect Every Student
It’s also important for students to celebrate and respect their own diverse backgrounds, as well as each
other’s. When appropriate, teachers should encourage students to research and learn about their own
ethnic and cultural backgrounds. This allows them to better understand their own culture as well as the
differences and nuances with their peers. As a bonus, this can be a great ice breaker assignment,
allowing students to give presentations about their family traditions and culture to help expose the class
to concepts outside of their own familiar comfort zone. Acknowledging these differences and creating a
safe space for discussion helps promote understanding in the classroom and beyond. Also, as you
encourage students to learn about their diverse backgrounds, remember to take the time to highlight
what’s offensive and the distinction between cultural celebration and appropriation. Learning how to talk
about other cultures in a respectful, mature way is essential for success in life outside the classroom.
4. Practice Cultural Sensitivity
While it’s important to keep an open dialogue amongst students, it’s equally as important to make sure
you’re being sensitive to everyone’s culture, beliefs, and language concerns. Take the time to understand
each student’s cultural nuances – from learning styles to the language they use – and use these insights
to design your lesson plans. For example, provide English language learners with appropriate and
relevant resources that help them improve their English comprehension skills. Rather than teach with a
traditional lecture style, create learning experiences that are more interactive and require collaboration.
These considerations will help ensure that every student feels included, is given the space to learn in
their own way and is given a chance to succeed.
5. Incorporate Diversity in the Lesson Plan
The classroom environment is important for fostering cultural awareness, but you also should ensure
diversity is represented in your actual lesson plan. For example, broaden history lessons so that they
encompass the world beyond United States history and culture. Or, use references and analogies to
other cultures in your lessons and assignments to help students with diverse backgrounds personally
connect. Another great strategy is bringing in diverse speakers to add varying points of view and real-life
context to different subjects.There are several ways you can ingrain cultural awareness and diversity into
your lesson plan, and it will vary depending on the cultures represented in your classroom and the course
 you’re teaching. Regardless of the subject, always try to present and connect lessons to real-world
issues. It’s easier to promote cultural awareness within your lessons when there’s a real example for
students to relate to.
6. Give Students Freedom and Flexibility
Teachers often feel like they need to take on a strict, authoritative approach when it comes to managing
their classroom. The most valuable lessons are often learned through a student’s own experiences, so
giving them some freedom in the course encourages more connection to the curriculum. Allow students
to read and present their own materials that relate to the fundamental lesson so they can approach the
topic from their own perspective. As a teacher, you can act as a facilitator and encourage conversation
and healthy debate between diverse opinions. Group assignments are also a great way to expose
students to diverse perspectives, allowing them to work together to explore and solve a problem. This will
also help prepare them for a diverse workforce where they’ll have to partner with a range of people to
accomplish their professional goals.

WHY IS IT IMPORTANT TO TEACH CULTURE IN

THE CLASSROOM?
It is important to remind ourselves why diversity and cultural awareness is so
crucial in the classroom and the benefits it can have on students now and in the
long-term. Teaching diversity exposes students to various cultural and social
groups, preparing students to become better citizens in their communities. These
culturally responsive teaching strategies will help you to promote diversity in the
classroom.

With these culturally responsive teaching strategies in mind, it’s important to

remind ourselves why diversity and cultural awareness is so crucial in the
classroom and the benefits it can have on students now and in the long-term.

Students Become More Empathetic

Promoting awareness and creating a personal connection with diverse cultures in
the classroom can prevent students from developing prejudices later in life. It
allows them to empathize with people different from themselves since they’re
more aware of the experiences someone of a different race or cultural group may
face.

Students Gain a Better Understanding of Lessons and People

When working and learning with people from a variety of backgrounds and
cultures present in the classroom, students gain a more comprehensive
understanding of the subject matter. It also teaches students how to use their
own strengths and points of view to contribute in a diverse working environment.

Students Become More Open-Minded

Naturally, by exposing students to a diverse range of opinions, thoughts, and
cultural backgrounds, you’re encouraging them to be more open-minded later in
life. This will make them open to new ideas and be able to attain a greater
comprehension on a topic by taking in different points of view.

Students Feel More Confident and Safe

Students who learn about different cultures during their education feel more
comfortable and safe with these differences later in life. This allows them to
interact in a wider range of social groups and feel more confident in themselves
as well as in their interactions with others.

Students Are Better Prepared for a Diverse Workplace

With the rise of globalization, it’s more important to be able to work with people
from different cultures and social groups. If students are exposed to diversity and
learn cultural awareness in the classroom, it sets them up to flourish in the
workforce.

The Importance of Diversity in the Classroom | Drexel University

Discrimination and marginalisation have lasting effects in that they take away human
dignity. Discrimination means to be treated in a negatively different way because of certain
real or perceived characteristics deemed undesirable. Discrimination causes
marginalisation, pushing the people that are discriminated against to the fringes of the
mainstream society. Discrimination could be on a socio-cultural, political and legal basis, as
follows:

 Socio-cultural: Discrimination occurs where the social norms and values deem
certain characteristics about someone, or some group,  as undesirable and opt to
treat them negatively. For example, a societal norm that attaches importance of an
individual’s standing due to their wealth only values contributions from wealthy
people and disregards ideas of the poor, who may actually have the best ideas. In
such cases, the suffering of the wealthy is considered more important than that of
the poor.
 Political: This is where holders of certain political ideals deem other political ideals
undesirable or unacceptable, and, therefore, people affiliated to or subscribing to
different or undesirable political ideals get treated negatively.
 Legal: This is where legal provisions disadvantage certain groups. For example, the
current constitution protects unfair treatment of women and girls under the
‘Protection of Customary Personal Law’ (article 23), which safeguards certain
cultural practices that undermine the dignity of women and girls, such as child
marriages under the Customary Marriages Act, whereby a girl who reaches puberty
is deemed as old enough to be married.
Marginalised groups get limited or no protection from crimes committed against them.
Treating people as lesser humans dehumanises them. Marginalised people are denied of
equality which is due to every human being, robbing them of their inherent dignity. The
underlying factors behind marginalisation include:

 Prejudice: making conclusions about people based on preconceived opinions about

someone in a similar situation. Oftentimes, prejudice is incorrect.
 Ignorance: making judgement based on inadequate or lack of understanding and/or
in-depth knowledge about a particular group of people.
 Fear: Being afraid of what you don’t know about a particular group.
 Opportunism:  (for example, politicians exploiting fear of marginalised groups, in
order to draw attention away from their own shortcomings during election
campaigns.
Marginalisation also perpetuates abuse by society, often promoted by hate speech. When a
particular group is marginalised, society finds it acceptable to abuse them with impunity. In
some cases, law enforcers have taken the law into their own hands to victimise the weak in
society when they see that the society marginalises them. For example, sex workers are
arrested for loitering, and police officers demand sex from them without pay, saying they
deserve it. This is a violation because sex workers are human beings who deserve to
consent to a sexual activity. 

Marginalisation, inequalities, abuse and other challenges force marginalised people to fear
being part of the mainstream society, let alone to effectively and fairly compete for
resources. This leads to extreme deprivation, impoverishment and social exclusion. In
some instances, society perpetuates exclusion by failing to create opportunities for
marginalised people to get involved, for example,  the failure to include sign language or
braille in HIV/AIDS education programmes excludes those who cannot use the conventional
kind of communication.
This limits their opportunities to access productive activities and leads to extreme poverty
and growing inequalities and pulls down the profile of the whole society.

This is the motivation for Panos Institute Southern Africa (PSAf) to work towards creation of
platforms for the extreme poor and marginalised populations of our society to ensure that
the voices of the poor people are heard in order to reduce their marginalisation and
address inequalities.

In conclusion, it is therefore critical to be conscious of marginalisation in society in order to

effectively address the prejudices behind it. It is important to understand that
marginalisation of one group affects the welfare of the whole society.  We all have a role to
play in making lives of marginalised people better. Marginalisation should not be tolerated,
whatever circumstance. It is our calling to end marginalisation.

Addressing discrimination, marginalisation will reduce poverty and suffering (comminit.com)

5.1 Alternative/Option 1

The Indigenous Peoples Rights Act defines “Indigenous Peoples” as a group of people or
homogenous societies identified by self-ascription and ascription by others; who have continuously lived
as an organized community on communally bounded and defined territory and who have, under claims
of ownership since time immemorial, occupied, possessed and utilized such territories, sharing common
bonds of language, customs, traditions and other distinctive cultural traits, or who have, through
resistance to political, social and cultural inroads of colonization, non-indigenous religions and cultures,
became historically differentiated from the majority of Filipinos.

Indigenous Cultural Communities/ Indigenous Peoples shall likewise include peoples who are regarded
as indigenous on account of their descent from the populations which inhabited the country, at the time
of conquest or colonization, or at the time of inroads of non-indigenous religions and cultures, or the
establishment of present state boundaries, who retain some or all of their own social, economic, cultural
and political institutions, but who may have been displaced from their traditional domains or who may
have resettled outside their ancestral lands (Sec. 3 (h) Republic Act 8731, or the Indigenous Peoples
Rights Act IPRA 1997).

5.2 Alternative/Option 2

The concept of bullying at school is not new; however, it has been increasing in recent years. Bullying in
schools is an issue that continues to receive attention from researchers, educators, parents, and
students. Despite the common assumption that bullying is a normal part of childhood and encompasses
minor teasing and harassment, researchers increasingly find that bullying is a problem that can be
detrimental to students' well-being (Linsley, 2016).

Indigenous children around the world have long been denied the right to celebrate their roots while
getting a comprehensive education. They're up against major inequalities, from structural racism
embedded in school systems to inaccurate retellings of history. One of the main barriers for Indigenous
children both in schooling and beyond is overwhelming racism and bias. Because global societies have
largely been built through violently claiming Indigenous lands, this bias is embedded into the foundation
of non-Indigenous education (Dupere, 2016).

There are an estimated 14 million indigenous people in the country, subdivided into around 110
linguistic groups or tribes. Most are based in the northern part of the main island, Luzon, and in the
southern island of Mindanao. Among the prominent groups are the Badjao, B'laan, Bagobo, Mangyan,
Manobo, T'boli, and Teduray. The indigenous peoples in the Philippines also face many challenges in the
context of development, peace and security, and human rights. Although there are quite a number of
indigenous tribes or ethnic groups in the country, they remain some of the most poor, least privileged
and impeded members of society. Additionally, Hirai (2015) stated that there are five tribes that could
be in Agusan Del Sur namely: Aeta, Mamanwa, Bagobo, Banwaon and Manobo (Cañete, Achas, &
Cañete, 2021).
5.3 Alternative/Option 3

The Philippine government has the legal obligation to combat discrimination of all forms. Despite several
efforts at engaging the government, no concrete action has been done to resolve discrimination against
indigenous peoples. The Department of Education (DepEd) has issued “Guidelines on Protecting Children
in School from Abuse, Violence, Exploitation, Discrimination, Bullying and Other Forms of Abuse,2 and
yet indigenous children still experience discrimination and prejudice within and outside their
community. Some children of the minority group are often reported to bullied and verbally abused by
students and in some cases by teachers and staff in school. Indigenous children are stereotyped as being
ignorant, smelly, lacking in manners, etc. Indigenous children end up denying their ethnicity. Resulting to
children of the ethnic minority to not speak the native tongue, do not wear traditional garments, and
deny being indigenous. Discrimination was revealed in the study and yet there is a lack of information as
to whether these are reported to the appropriate authorities. Based on the study, aside from dropping
out of school, the effect of discrimination is psychosocial in nature (UNISEF, 2019).
THEORY

The Application of Social Efficacy Theory In order to determine the contributing factors of the
Indigenous students towards dropout behavior the Social Efficacy Theory has been applied. This theory
has been used to build up the framework in identifying the most influencing factor on Indigenous
students drop out from school. Self-efficacy is “beliefs in one’s capabilities to organize and execute the
courses of action required to produce given attainments” (Bandura, 1997). Self-efficacy serves as a
model to better understand the factors influencing students to drop out of school. Through the
Bandura’s self-efficacy theory, student’s perception of their own abilities towards dropout from school
behavior was examined. The social efficacy theory determined that an individual holds his or her ability
and outcome on his or her effort influencing how he or she will behave. According to Bandura (1997),
efficacy beliefs depend mostly on early experience at home. In this context, self-system is believed to
provide an individual with the capacity to adjust his environment and give influenced to his subsequent
performances. For example, feeling efficacious helps an individual to put more effort and act in an
appropriate manner which becomes necessary to maintain high achievement. In relation to this,
student’s motivation belief may affect his or her approach in learning activities and the academic
outcomes (Schunk, 1996). Thus, for this study, two elements were adopted from Bandura’s Self-Efficacy
Theory that could influence the dropout issues among indigenous students in Melaka. First is the
personal factor that consists of level of income and parents’ education background. Second element is
the environmental factor that consists of infrastructure and basic amenities. Further discussion will be
highlighted in the next session.

Article (uitm.edu.my)

RECOMMENDATION REFERENCE

As the psychiatrist Erik Erikson has pointed out, positive identity formation is an ongoing, cumulative
process that starts in the home with a trusting relationship established between mother and child and
develops through the child's interaction with other children and adults. To build a strong positive
identity, new adults that the child interacts with need to reinforce and build on the cultural messages
that the child has previously received. However, too often in schools today teachers are not reinforcing
what Native parents show and tell their children producing cultural discontinuity between home and
school and forcing Native children to choose between their Native heritage and school success with
disastrous results. Many of the problems faced by students such as drug and alcohol abuse are
symptoms of the poor self concepts of Native students who have unresolved internal conflicts resulting
from educators asking students to give up their Native culture. Teaching methods and school curriculum
need to be changed to reduce cultural conflict between home and school. In addition, the underlying
causal factor of internal identity conflict in many Native teenagers needs to be treated at a community
as well as an individual level through community-based counseling programs.

In order to help Native students form positive, mature identities and to reduce the number of Native
dropouts large schools need to be restructured to allow teachers to get to know and interact with their
students, caring teachers (especially Native teachers) need to be recruited who will spend the time and
effort to learn from as well as teach their students, these caring teachers need to use active teaching
strategies with their students to keep their students motivated, Native curriculum needs to be
developed and used in Native schools to reduce cultural discontinuity, testing needs to be used in
schools to help students learn rather than to track them into non-academic programs, and parents need
to have the power to demand schools give their children an education that will strengthen Native
families rather than separate Native children from their parents. Academic student advocacy programs
such as the ones sponsored by the American Indian Science and Engineering Society and by tribal
colleges need to be encouraged.

Both on and off reservations many schools are not providing an appropriate education for Native
students. They are denied teachers who have special training to teach Native students, they are denied
a curriculum that includes their heritage, and culturally biased tests are used to push them out of
academic programs. The supplemental add-on programs such as Indian Education Act, Johnson O'Malley
(JOM), Bilingual Education, Special Education, and other federal programs of the last two decades have
had a limited success in improving the education of Indian children. However, add-on programs are only
a first step to making schooling appropriate for Native children. Native education must be viewed
holistically rather than fragmented with basic skills, Native studies, and other classes taught in isolation
from one another. In addition to treating the curriculum holistically, dropout prevention needs to be
treated holistically. Students do not drop out of school just because of academic failure, drug and
alcohol abuse, or any other single problem. Too often well meaning add-on remedial programs focus on
finding the reason for failure in students and their homes, "blaming the victims." These programs treat
the symptoms of the cultural conflict going on between students and teachers in school rather than the
root problem. The idea that Native students are "culturally disadvantaged" or "culturally deprived"
reflects an ethnocentric bias that should not continue. When schools do not recognize, value, and build
on what Native students learn at home, they are given a watered-down, spread out curriculum that is
meant to guarantee student learning but which often results in their education being slowed and their
being "bored out" of school. The "traditional school system" has failed dropouts rather than they having
failed the system.

Beyond correcting these problems to prevent future dropouts, more needs to be done to help current
dropouts through retrieval programs such as the Graduate Equivalency Diploma (GED) and community-
based drug prevention programs. In addition, the negative tinge of vocational programs needs to be
removed, and these programs opened to all students. In particular, vocational programs need to be tied
to real jobs through partnerships with business, labor unions, and government.

Dropout prevention starts with caring teachers who give students every chance for success in the
classroom through interactive and experiential teaching methodologies, relevant, and culturally
appropriate curriculum. At risk students need peer support through cooperative instructional
methodologies and peer counseling programs. Dropout prevention also includes support services
outside of the classroom from school administrators and counselors who work closely with parents.

If teachers and school administrators continue to not get appropriate training in colleges of education,
local training programs need to provide school staff with information both on what works in Native
education and information about the language, hi story, and culture of their Native students. Parents
and local school boards also need on-going training about what works in Native education and what
schools can accomplish. Head Start, elementary, and secondary schools need the support of tribal
education departments and tribal colleges to design and implement effective educational programs that
support rather than ignore Native heritages.

Dropout Prevention for American Indian and Alaska Native Students (nau.edu)

Discrimination is a key driver of the social exclusion of indigenous persons and members of ethnic
minorities. Many continue to face formal barriers to citizenship, voting and access to justice. As of 2006,
196 ethnic or religious minorities in 108 countries faced some type of formal legal discrimination
(University of Maryland, 2015).

Geographic isolation presents an obstacle to social protection coverage for indigenous peoples and
some ethnic minorities. Lack of information about programs and eligibility requirements also constitutes
an important barrier to the enrolment of indigenous persons and members of ethnic minorities
(Hossain, 2011; South African Social Security Agency and UNICEF, 2013). Lower rates of birth registration
and a lack of legal identification documents among them also hinder access to social protection by
indigenous persons and members of ethnic minorities, as well as to education, health services and
justice (Abouzahr and others, 2014; Errico, 2017). Discrimination has also played an important role in
maintaining exclusion of indigenous peoples and ethnic minorities from social protection. While many
discriminatory laws and policies have been repealed, prejudice and discriminatory practices continue to
affect access to social protection.

Social protection programmes have a role to play in reducing inequalities between ethnic minorities and
the ethnic majority and in improving the well-being of indigenous persons and members of ethnic
minorities. Universal, tax-financed social protection measures are needed to boost coverage for those
groups, but other barriers must also be addressed, including spatial disadvantage, the lack of legal
identification and discrimination. Countries have employed several strategies to improve coverage,
including geographic and categorical targeting. A large proportion of indigenous peoples and ethnic
minorities receive social assistance, but a rigorous assessment of the extent to which that reflects
improvements in coverage, or simply the fact that those groups more often live in poverty, remains to
be done.

Evaluations of conditional cash-transfer schemes in Latin America suggest that there have been modest
advances in addressing the ethnic poverty gap and ethnic disparities in education through tax-financed
social protection programmes. Questions remain as to whether they are sufficient and how effective
they are, as well as with regard to the quality and content of services linked to them. Demands arising
from conditionality are not matched by sufficient access to good-quality services, particularly in remote
and underserved areas where many indigenous peoples and ethnic minorities live. Criticism is therefore
levelled at such programmes for the enforcement of conditions that make no difference to the lives of
beneficiaries in the long term, such as compulsory attendance at schools where learning is compromised
by factors such as overcrowding and the lack of qualified teachers. The suitability of requiring
indigenous children to attend schools that fail to offer learning in their native languages and
acknowledge and promote their cultural heritage has also been called into question. The extent to which
social protection programmes benefit indigenous peoples and ethnic minorities depends on whether
they address the needs of and challenges faced by these groups. Involving their representatives in the
design and implementation of programmes is one way of ensuring that they better address the needs of
indigenous peoples and ethnic minorities and reflect the reality in which they liv

Chapter-VIIIndigenous-peoples-and-ethnic-minorities.pdf (un.org)

A diverse range of minorities and Indigenous Peoples exist across the world,
and one thing they all have in common is that they often face discrimination,
marginalisation and exclusion.
International human rights law, underpinned by the principle of equality,
guarantees the right to education of everyone. And yet, minorities and
Indigenous Peoples are likely to be denied their right to education.
According to Minority Rights Group International (2009, p.13), the majority
of children who are out of school worldwide are minority and indigenous
children. Minority and indigenous children are also regularly deprived of
access to quality education that is relevant and responsive to their specific
context and needs.  
To this end, international human rights law identifies a number of individual
and collective dimensions of the right to education. This includes the
recognition that minorities and Indigenous Peoples require special measures
vis-à-vis the realisation of their right to education. However, in order for the
protections guaranteed by international law to be engaged, minorities and
Indigenous Peoples must be able to claim minority or indigenous status.
Minorities and Indigenous Peoples | Right to Education Initiative (right-to-education.org)
Barriers to realizing the right to indigenous education

A 2009 UN study on the challenges of the right to indigenous education identified a

number of serious concerns and barriers to realizing the right to indigenous education. It
found that indigenous people felt a lack of control over educational initiatives aimed at
their children – they weren’t being consulted when these programmes and services
were being designed and implemented. As a result, they found that the programmes put
in place were not being delivered by indigenous people themselves, were not available
in their languages, and did not respect their history, traditional knowledge or culture.

The report demonstrates that designing education programmes for indigenous children,
especially women and girls, must recognize and consider their particular needs and the
barriers they face in accessing quality education. The report also shows why indigenous
students cannot be forced into mainstream education systems which do not integrate
their culture or which use a single model of education for all students regardless of who
they are, without having adverse impacts on their human rights.

In 2014, a White House report on the state of education for Native American students
reached similar conclusions, asserting that “Native youth – and Native education – are
in a state of emergency”. Bilingual education programming, inclusion of elders and other
respected teachers in the community, and inclusion of culturally appropriate curriculum
were suggested as a way to address this. The same prescription for change could apply
to numerous other countries around the world.

Quality education for all: a plan

Education is recognized as both a human right in itself and an indispensable means of

realizing other human rights and fundamental freedoms. It is the gateway by which
economically and socially marginalized peoples can lift themselves out of poverty and
obtain the means to participate fully in their communities.

Education is increasingly recognized as one of the best long-term financial and social
investments countries can make. Appropriate education enables indigenous children
and adult learners to exercise and enjoy economic, social and cultural rights. It also
strengthens their ability to exercise their civil rights so they can influence political policy
processes for enhanced protection of their human rights. Education is therefore a vital
means for the enjoyment, maintenance and transmission of indigenous cultures,
languages, traditions and traditional knowledge, as well as a vehicle for individual
empowerment and agency.
Within international law, indigenous peoples are recognized not simply as stakeholders,
but rights holders. This means they must participate in decisions that affect them,
including the right to development and education on their own terms and in line with
their values, priorities and needs.

Indigenous peoples have a right to quality education. But so far, we’ve failed them | World Economic
Forum (weforum.org)