Diversity and Opportunity Gaps

In chapter one, Milner illustrates a framework that covers five unified areas that he believes can help educator’s connection diversity gaps in the classroom. He begins with color blindness, because of his past experiences he feels that many educators struggle the most in understanding the relevance of race and the role the teacher has on student learning. Many times white teachers do not recognize that their educational background was privileged and were given many more opportunities than other races. Most white educators feel uncomfortable and have a mentality that acknowledging an ethnic background or race of a student or themselves may look as though they are racist. Consequently, with that mentality teachers will begin to teach narrow-minded lesson and will then avoid the consideration of how racially diverse students experience the world inside the classroom and in society. It is our job as educator to overcome our fears and insecurities in order to support diverse students in class with similar feelings. Putting up a wall will not only make students feel more diverse then they already do, but once barriers are broken students are able to connect at a deeper level. This is when you know that there is growth and achievement in racially diverse classrooms.

In this chapter, Milner is trying to bridge the gaps between the students and teacher backgrounds. Currently, I am reading another book titled “Holler If You Hear Me by Gregory Michie,” which closely relates to this first chapter on diversity. Michie is a white male, a first year teacher who decided to teach in the CPS school in the south side of Chicago. Much of the book relates to being a white teacher coming from a privileged background and teaching in a school that is primarily black and Hispanics. At the beginning he illustrates the frustration and challenges of working at a school so diverse, but later Michie achieves successes of students learning once he began to develop deeper connections between himself and the students.

Milner, R.H. (2010). Start Where You Are, But Don’t Stay There: Understanding diversity, opportunity gaps, and teaching in today’s classroom. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard Education Press, c2010