Education for Cultural and Linguistic Diversity in the United States in Hard Times

• In Event: Education for Cultural Diversity: Changing Policy and Curriculum Priorities in Volatile International Contexts

Abstract

The cultural and language diversity in the United States demonstrates this world phenomenon. In 2010, the foreign-born population represented 12.9 % of the total U. S. population (308.7 million). Latin America and the Caribbean represented 53.1 %, Asia 28.2%, Europe 12.1 %, and other areas of the world 6.5 % of the foreign-born population (U. S. Census Bureau, 2010). By 2010, the Hispanic population made up 16% of the total U.S. population, while the Black or African-American population totaled 38.9 million representing 13% of the total population and the Asian population (including the Middle East) totaled 14.7 million people representing 5% of the total population which became the largest source of immigrants between 2006 and 2011 while immigration from Africa, the Caribbean, and Central and South America also increased. In addition, over 22 million people were domestic migrants who changed their state of residence between 1995 and 2000 (US Census Bureau, 2012). By 2060, the U. S. foreign-born population would reach nearly 19% of the total population (417 million). People of color will increase from 37.3% in 2012 to 57% in 2060 of the US total population. Immigration and migration have brought cultural and language diversity to areas of the United States, such as the Midwest and rural South, that have not historically experienced this phenomenon (Pipher, 2002; Yeo, 1999).
The immigration and migration diversify cultures and languages in locales and, inevitably, schools. The number of immigrant children between the ages of 5 to 20 living in the United States grew from 3.5 to 8.6 million from 1970 to 1995, and increased to 9 million in 2010 representing 22% of the school-aged population. The enrollment of newcomer students in elementary and secondary schools has grown sevenfold since 2006, marked 21.6% increase between 2014 and 2015. It is projected that students of color will make up 54% of the U. S. school-age children by 2025 (Musu-Gillette, de Brey, McFarland, Hussar, Sonnenberg, & Wilkinson-Flicker, 2017). This cultural and linguistic diversity in the United States complicates challenges and possibilities.
In this paper, we share our perspectives on the education for cultural and linguistic diversity in the United States in an era of intolerance, hatred, fear, and injustice. We begin with an overview of the landscape of education for cultural and linguistic diversity in the United States. We discuss the complexities, challenges, and possibilities for education for cultural and linguistic diversity with a particular focus on tensions pervading socio-political, cultural and linguistic contexts. We call for educational researchers to work with other researchers, educators, teachers, administrators, parents, students, community workers, policy makers, and other educational workers to “hope radically, imagine creatively, and act inspirationally” (2018 AERA Call for Submission, p.2) to invent a landscape of education for cultural and linguistic diversity where “creative, harmonious, associative, joyful, and worthwhile” (p. 36, He, 2016; also Goulah & He, 2015; Schubert, 2009) learning, teaching, and living are possible for all in a highly contested and impossible world.

Authors

• Ming Fang He, Georgia Southern University

• Min Yu, Wayne State University