Addressing Inequalities in The Learning Institution Through Focusing on Curriculum Implementation (Essay Sample)

Addressing Inequalities in The Learning Institution Through Focusing on Curriculum Implementation Name Institutional affiliation Course Instructor Date Addressing Inequalities in The Learning Institution Through Focusing on Curriculum Implementation Inequalities in the education system are one of the contemporary issues that is increasingly becoming a pressing issue in the learning institution. The inequities impede the learning process and hence affect the students' performance. The inequalities may result in an imbalance in the distribution of learning resources hence affecting the teacher interaction method that leads to infective learning experience. It is escalated by various factors which include the curriculum design, pedagogical approaches, education policies, and schooling practices. The curriculum plays a significant role in shaping the student's learning experience, opportunities, and outcome. The research curriculum outlines the curricular content, mode of teaching, and the aim and objective to be achieved. According to Santoro (2012), teaching does not depend only on what the teacher has been subjected to through the training by also on the insights and experience they have from their cultural background. That implies that indigeneity has a significant influence on the curriculum design. Indigeneity refers to the rights and the cultural identity of people who are initially inhabitants of a given region (Guenther et al., 2006). These people share common languages, beliefs, and cultures and, therefore, seek recognition of their identity. In designing a curriculum, it is vital to ensure that the content is built based on the ideas and insights from all the cultural representations in the given region or nation. Teachers must recognize the existence of learners from different cultural identities in the classroom and adopt teaching mechanisms that are suitable to them all. When the teachers share their experiences and also recognize experiences from other cultures in the classroom, learning becomes more interesting. The essay is structured to examine how the curriculum can contribute to the inequalities in the learning institution by examining its implications for students, teachers, and schools through the lens of theoretical concepts from the course work. Curriculum as a source of equity The curriculum serves as a guideline for what is taught in the learning institution. According to Gregersen-Hermans (2021), the curriculum covers diverse areas which include the subject matter, values, beliefs, and perspectives that are embedded within education. It recognises the existence of indigeneity and its influence on learning. However, in many circumstances, the curriculum has failed to uphold equality due to the inability of the implementor to incorporate the knowledge of indigeneity in the development process. Adopting an instruction method that only focuses on the dominant cultural identity diminishes the existence of the marginalised cultural group. Neo-Marxist theorists have highlighted how the traditional curriculum perpetuates hegemonic ideologies and promotes social inequalities (Rahman, 2012). For instance, history curricula prioritise matters that give glory to the colonial conquest and ignore all the negative, such as human oppression and the harassment that human beings were subjected to during the colonial error. This creates an imbalance as the attention is only given to one side of the story. The critical race theory argues that the curriculum may focus only on what was contributed by the white male authors, hence neglecting voices from diverse cultural backgrounds (Ford, 2013). Such omission promotes a monoculture view of knowledge, hence affecting students from cultures that are not reflected in the curriculum. A curriculum that does not recognise ideas from all the Indigenous groups, regardless of their size, does not offer an inclusive learning experience. Implication for students The impact of the inequitable curriculum is very severe on the students. According to Gürsoy & Kara (2023), inequitable curriculum influences students' sense of belonging, academic achievement, and socioemotional development. Students from marginalised communities whose culture is ignored in the curriculum may lose interest in learning other curricula. When a student loses the morale to concentrate on their learning, their performance is greatly affected. According to Gregersen-Hermans (2021 students from marginalised communities may experience challenges with access to culturally relevant resources and opportunities for enriching their academic performance. Forcing them to learn new cultures where their own culture has not been recognised makes the learning experience difficult for them. According to Eden et al. (2024), learners may develop feelings of invisibility and cultural dissonance when they come across curricula that do not value their own cultural identity. This may affect their interaction with other students as they would not feel proud to share their cultural ideas and experiences when it is not recognised and represented in the curriculum. According to Watkins (2015), the postcolonialism theory of culture identifies an individual as part of a specific community or nationality. Omitting their cultural values may result in the student losing track of their culture, hence affecting their social-emotional development. Therefore, the concepts of indigeneity are very significant in curriculum implementation; the implemented curriculum must equally reflect all diverse identities that learners in the classroom represent. Implication for teachers Teachers serve as the mediators between the implanted curricula and the students. Teachers play a significant role in shaping how the curriculum is interpreted and implemented in the classroom (Gürsoy & Kara, 2023). They need to ensure that the concept of indigeneity is given attention in the curriculum design and implementation. In other words, the curriculum should be included in that it should capture content from all the cultural representations. According to ‌Harrison & Greenfield (2011), quality learning depends on the teacher's ability to use language and also to understand the cultural background of each student. Teacher, therefore, need at least to familiarise themselves with the culture of various Indigenous communities for their classroom instruction method to be more inclusive. According to ‌Gürsoy & Kara (2023), teachers are also prime contributors to the curriculum inequalities in the learning institution as the majority of them lack appropriate training and the skills to address the inequalities effectively. Teachers should be trained on the concept of indigeneity for them to effectively adopt responsive teaching practices that suit learners representing various cultural identities. The cultural training would help them understand and review the implemented curriculum and evaluate how effective various cultures are featured. Teachers who are unaware of their own biases or insensitive to students' cultural backgrounds may also contribute to the inequalities through their instructional methods. Such teachers, for instance, may use teaching methodology that does not incorporate diverse perspectives in classroom learning. Most of their instructional strategies may focus on or privilege students from the dominant culture and ignore the existence of students from marginalised communities. According to Gürsoy & Kara (2023), teachers who are not equipped with appropriate training on the significance of indigence in curriculum implementation are at high risk of perpetuating stereotypes, reinforcing cultural hegemony, and alienating marginalised students. This would result in the reinforcement of the teaching curriculum that does not favour all students from diverse cultures. The pressure to adhere to standardised testing and curriculum mandates can further constrain teachers' autonomy and creativity in addressing inequities. The teacher's assessments are primarily based on memorization of the primary information that helps students pass the examinations, putting minimal emphasis on the concept of indignity. According to ‌Harrison & Greenfield (2011), tests that are culturally inappropriate and do not include indigenous languages contribute to poor performance. The majority of the teachers may focus on teaching the content with no interest in interacting with students from diverse cultural backgrounds. Therefore, indignity has a significant impact on the teacher’s instructional methods. Adopting a teaching mechanism that recognizes the existence of students from diverse cultural identities is very impactful in learning. Implication for school. The school as a learning institution also plays a significant role in influencing how curriculum inequities are perpetuated or challenged within the educational system. According to Naylor & Mifsud (2019), the school policies or the organisations’ culture has a significant influence on the promotion of inequalities. For instance, a school that does not emphasize heavily the essence of indigeneity in learning may not take adequate measures to ensure teachers' instructional methods are culturally inclusive. Similarly, such schools may locate learning resources by only focusing on the dominant teaching methodology that reflects the dominant Indigenous group, hence neglecting the needs of students from the marginalized group. This perpetuates the teachers' ability to make classroom teaching diverse by incorporating ideas and knowledge from diverse cultural backgrounds. (Eden et al., 2024). As a result, the cultural insights from the marginalized community may not be incorporated in the curriculum hence diminishing the morale of students from the same culture. The main goals of the curriculum should remain that it should offer teaching approaches that attend to th...