Dougherty Academy

Sociocultural Landscapes in Education: Intersectionality, Bias, and Arming

 

Teachers

 

How intersectionality, cultural socialization, and unconscious prejudice are incorporated

into educational environments affects how others, especially historically disadvantaged groups,

are allowed to express themselves.

Intersectionality: In education, intersectionality is valuable since people might belong to

multiple social categories. A student may face discrimination based on gender identity, social

class, or disability in addition to race (Forber-Pratt et al., 2021). Understanding intersectionality

entails seeing it as a complicated way multiple oppressions overlap and create educational

challenges for pupils.

Socialization: People, especially children, learn the values, habits, and practices of their

tribe or demographic group through cultural socialization. Students will be separated by identity

in schools. Students from ethnic groups underrepresented in education may struggle to adapt to a

system that disregards their cultural values and lives. Instilling pride in their cultures and

recognizing them in the curriculum can make education meaningful for marginalized pupils.

Unconscious Bias: One may not realize it, but educators, administrators, and peers'

attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors show conscious and unconscious prejudice in education.

Teachers may display implicit biases through biased thought processes, unfair treatment, and

evaluation of students. Teaching standards, class categorization, and resource distribution may be

biased. Marginalized kids may have poorer results.

The influence of these concepts on marginalized groups within educational spaces is

profound:

 

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a) Students of Color: Come up against systematic factors such as profiling based on

race, tracking into lower-level classes, and more severe sanctions (Ladson-

Billings, 2007)

b) Students from Low-Income Families: In most instances, they are deprived of

resources, encounter cultural alienation, and the stigma of being born of a poor

background.

c) Transgender, Intersex, and Gender-Bending Students: Getting tossed with

discrimination, harassment and lack of support for their gender identities also

gives birth to more bullying, and the rate of dropout becomes higher.

d) Immigrant Students: The language barriers, sociocultural differences and

discrimination, which often pose a challenge, delay academic development and

social inclusion.

e) Students with Disabilities: Fight physical and mental barriers, no available

catering, and stigmatized treatment through bad academic achievement and social

isolation.

Teachers should not be armed because it threatens impoverished pupils' safety, well-

being, and education. Weapons in teachers' hands will not solve school violence, and they will

reinforce educational prejudice. Minority and disabled students are often scrutinized and

punished more than regular students, which may further divide them. Above all, teachers

carrying weapons contradict the cultivated, harmonious, and peaceful way of life in America,

which presents a broader picture of a society that relies on punitive and militarized responses to

social problems and is already entrenched in American schools. In summary, arming teachers fits

 

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with a cultural paradigm of power-wielding, controlling, and prioritizing particular social

interests over the security of vulnerable people.

 

References

 

Forber-Pratt, A. J., Merrin, G. J., & Espelage, D. L. (2021). Exploring the intersections of

disability, race, and gender on student outcomes in high school. Remedial and Special

Education, 42(5), 290–303.

Ladson-Billings, G. (2007). Pushing Past the Achievement Gap: An Essay on the Language of

Deficit. The Journal of Negro Education, 76(3), 316–323.

https://www.jstor.org/stable/40034574