Discrimination experiences and diversity attitudes of students at the rizal technological university

This study aimed to determine the University's cultural environment with respect to diversity of students and experiences on discrimination experiences or witnessed in Rizal Technological University (RTU), as well as attitudes pertaining to diversity and discrimination within and outside the classroom. Seven-hundred ninety-two students across colleges participated in the study. A descriptive-survey method was employed in this study and the findings revealed that RTU students have found to be diverse in terms of age, sexual orientation, religion, skin color, economic status among others.

All students of RTU experienced or have very often witnessed various forms of discrimination in school. This discrimination usually came from the students’ themselves including the security personnel and the faculty members. Primarily, discrimination was due to their sexual orientation or dialect. Though they regard themselves as liberal in general, they are still neutral in terms of diversity in religion. With this, it has been recommended that school personnel be oriented about the multiculturalism and include multicultural subject in the curriculum, attract more students of various race, culture to enroll in the university and increases participation of students in various activities that enhances their awareness and sensitivity towards discrimination. The findings of this study will lay grounds for further research on this subject which can be explored further and may in turn developed into a policy or application which can improve the quality of cultural environment in the University.

Multicultural Education is a field of study and an emerging discipline which aims to create equal educational opportunities for learners from various culture, race and social-class. Its goal is to help all students from diverse characteristics acquire knowledge, skills and attitudes needed for them to become effective citizens of the country. It helps students to interact and communicate with people from other groups. It facilitates the learners to understand and appreciate cultural similarities and differences from other race (Roxas, 2008).

Multicultural Education is an idea came from the West during the 1960’s and 1970’s, a period of profound social change when the people of the United States were forced to reexamine their cultural heritage. It emerged during 1990’s to address the educational needs of a society that continues to struggle with the realization that it is not monoculture but an amalgamation of different cultures. (Roxas, 2008).

In the Philippines, as to its geographical situation, is a nation of races, culture, traditions, religion and etc. Of its one thousand one hundred seven islands, people within speak different dialects, i.e. Tagalog; Ilocano; Ibanag; Ilonggo; Chavacano;, Also, Filipinos were noted to have various cultural practices and traditions, the same is true in terms of Religion were different sects have been noted i.e. Catholics, Iglesia ni Cristo, Born Again Christian and many others. Indeed, there is there is a diversity in the Philippines in terms of its race, ethnicity, religion, social-class and cultural groups.

The Philippine Education comprises students from different races. In an average, a classrooms with fifty students, several of which came from Tagalog regions, the Ilocano region and some from the Visayas and Mindanao regions/In this kind of class, fusion of different races takes place/The rich diversity of today's society is clearly evident in many classrooms today.

The objective of this study is to: determine RTU students ’profile; to describe diversity of the respondent; to determine various discrimination experienced by students in school; and reveal attitudes on diversity of students. The findings of this study will be a basis for further research on multicultural education and can be a raw data which can be used to generate intervention, policy or curriculum innovation for the improvement of social climate in the University as well as in the teaching and learning.

During the last three decades of the 20^th century, teacher preparation addressed diversity as a critical component in effective teacher interaction with students in an increasingly multicultural population. This is evident in their classroom activities such as cooperative learning, classroom management from a cultural perspective, cultivating caring, respectful relationships and teacher reflections, which have been already restructured as the full implementation of K-12 comes in. In the advent of the ASEAN 2015, the country has to be multicultural, as stated by Hackett (2003), teachers need to develop a “strong cultural identity *so as to be] responsible for teaching the whole child by teaching values, skills, knowledge for school success and participation in society, linking classroom teaching of out-of-school personal experiences and community situations”, especially if that learner is a foreigner. Furthermore, Gay (2003) said that “teachers must be multicultural themselves before they can effectively and authentically teach students to be multicultural” and proposed that “culturally responsive teachers…validate, facilitate, liberate and empower ethnically diverse students by simultaneously cultivating their cultural integrity, individual abilities, and academic success ”(Gay, 2000).