For this project, I have chosen to focus on diversity in the education system and how public and private school screening processes may have an affect on this. For our unit 1 assignment, I had seen one of my classmates blog post about diversity in education and it really caught my interest. Diversifying the education system is a really important topic in organizational culture. I wanted to specifically look at screening and while I was doing the research, I noticed that it is a highly debated topic with many viewpoints and discussions surrounding this. After reading several articles about this, I have developed a couple questions to guide more of my research. One of them simply being why is diversity in education important? I have found that integrated classroom environments are essential in helping students learn to collaborate and work with people of different backgrounds and cultures. It then creates a safer and more connected workplace.
After reading several articles about this, another question arose which is why aren’t more schools integrating more diversity and does screening have anything to do with it? I want to use the information I find for these questions to really understand the process of screening and whether it ultimately hinders or helps diversify schools. I chose these questions because I was always interested in the process schools went to in order to accept incoming freshman into their schools. Growing up in NYC, I have had to apply to middle and high school and hope to be accepted. However I never really thought about the factors that go into this and how public and private schools may differ. I want to better understand these questions because education is so important in shaping our future, and the process behind it really interests me. Continuing my research, I will continue to looks at articles with authors in the field of education. So far, I have found exactly that and even some who specialize in the diversity programs at certain schools across the country. I am going to continue to look at SU libraries which so far has been successful for me. Primary sources seem to be a little more difficult but I am going to expand my searches in hopes to find one that will connect to the topic.
Lastly, I believe that the experiences and work I have done at previous programs, will help make a significant connection to my topic. For example, a few years ago I volunteered at the JCC who partnered with a school in upper Manhattan for one on one tutoring in both math and reading. The students were all in elementary school and predominantly African American. After my school ended, on Tuesdays I would take the train uptown to this school and see the student I was assigned to tutor. Immediately he saw me and the first thing he said was “oh you’re white.” He was accustomed to teachers of his race helping him through school and wasn’t used to anything different. The reason I gave this story is because even though we had a lot of similarities such as watching and playing basketball, he still found it hard to connect because he wasn’t used to it. I think it is important to have integrated schools so it helps young people how to collaborate and work with people who they may not be used to working with. I believe that screening can be helped to diversify schools if the right information is presented and therefore will allow students to work well with anyone no matter the circumstances.