Employment Discrimination
Mock Scenario
Gwen, a Special Education teacher at Peach Middle School, has been seeking a promotion to Special Education Lead Teacher for three years. Each time she has applied, she has reached the interview phase, however she has never been selected for the role.
After the last round of interviews, Gwen calls the principal. As the principal and head of the interview committee, she would like some feedback on why she has not been given the opportunity to advance. The principal is very open with her in sharing that her current performance as a teacher, has raised some concerns regarding her readiness to advance. She is frequently late with submitting required paperwork and needs a lot of support to complete routine special education tasks. There is also concern regarding her knowledge of compliance, which is imperative to be a leader in this area. Upon receiving this feedback, Gwen becomes very defensive. She wants to know specific paperwork that was not submitted on time and when this occurred. She also wants to know why her "asking questions" is being used against her. Finally she wants to know who feels she is not well versed in compliance.
The principal moves to end the conversation, as she does not feel it is productive. Gwen then states, "I feel like I am being discriminated against. Only certain people get hired". This causes the principal immediate concern. Gwen is African-American, female, and over 40 years old. While the last three teachers hired to serve in the Lead Teacher role have been females, all have been Caucasian and all have been young.
Do you feel it was appropriate for the principal in this scenario to provide Gwen with such open feedback? Why or why not? How might this feedback be used against her?
If Gwen were to file a formal claim, would it have any merit? Why? Why not?
As a school leader, what ways could/ should the principal have protected herself and the school district as you worked with Gwen?
Do you feel the laws related to employment discrimination, as discussed in the text, are applicable to our contemporary schools/ school districts? Why? Why not?
Do you feel the laws related to employment discrimination, as discussed in the text, hinder employers? Why? Why not?
What (if any) changes would you recommend to these laws to address contemporary issues? Why would you recommend these changes?
Thusly the discoveries of this report can presume that, while expressions training was fairly elitist beforehand, the presentation of the Ebacc in 2010 made expressions schooling more elitist.
More noteworthy exertion should be made to guarantee that artistic expressions training, that is progressively restricted to the 'first class' in the public eye, is made accessible to all. Mediation at an instructive level is important to make a school system that gives all understudies fair and significant training in the craftsmanship branches of knowledge. There is an overall agreement that "Without instructive mediation we are at risk for permitting a two-level framework wherein the most advantaged in friendly and monetary terms are likewise the most advantaged in benefiting financially, socially and by and by from the full scope of social and imaginative encounters" (Warwick Commission Report, 2015).
Ways of guaranteeing that expressions schooling isn't held for the most financially special in the public eye incorporate the presentation of a new and updated English Baccalaureate. As expressed in the Warwick Commission Report, Improving England: Culture, Imagination and Development (2015), "There is an overall understanding inside the Social and Imaginative Enterprises and industry all the more extensively that the Public authority's emphasis on Science, Innovation, Designing and Maths (STEM) ought to incorporate Artistic expression (STEAM)". This overhauled English Baccalaureate, would prompt giving more noteworthy chances to schools and understudies to encounter a decent expressions instruction, while permitting the Ebacc to satisfy its actual aim of "keep[ing] youngsters' choices open for additional review and future professions" (Division for Training, 2010). The public authority likewise has an obligation to direct confidential foundations, and monetarily support understudies that go to them, in a work guarantee HE and FE offers similar open doors for every single youngster, paying little mind to pay. Government have an obligation, on both a public and nearby level, to make expressions schooling less elitist beyond the 'customary' instructive settings; giving chances to less advantaged youngsters to encounter craftsmanship training in a social setti