Teachers as models of social and racial integration

Abstract

Teachers are the driving force in the classroom (Low, Ng, Hui, & Cai, 2017), and help students to learn and progress in their studies. For this to be possible, the educational system and teachers should integrate everyone in the school and classroom, even ethnic and/or racial minorities. Integrating different cultures in the classroom has several benefits (Stuart Wells, Fox, & Cordova-Cobo, 2016). For example, as future citizens, children become more conscious and learn to integrate others from a young age. For this to occur, teachers should be models for the children in their own classroom (Lunenberg, Korthagen, & Swennen, 2007). During this study, I collected data from six teachers. A qualitative approach was adopted, conducting one-to-one semi-structured interviews. The collection of data yielded different aspects on the subject matter, mainly that teachers are doing their utmost to integrate all children in the classroom. The conclusion offers recommendations for teachers to integrate ethnically and/or racially diverse children in their classroom. Suggestions were further made on how the educational system can aid and provide teachers with knowledge and assistance in how they could integrate ethnic and/or racial minorities.