Canadian Race Relations Foundation

In writing on the topic of education for empowerment in diverse communities, the author argues argument that in order to obtain this system of empowerment, the schools must show a true commitment to this issue. Cummins points out that the only way that this goal can be achieved is if the schools recognize that the interaction between educators and minority students is representative of the historical patterns of disempowerment of minority communities, and actively work to challenge and change the institutionalized policies of disempowerment. However, Cummins also places a large degree of responsibility on individual teachers to change the power structure in their own classrooms to be a better representation of the type of society where everyone is valued equally.

Human relationships are at the heart of schooling. (Jim Cummins, p.1) Educators and students together can create, through their classroom interactions, a microcosm of the kind of society where everybody feels a strong sense of belonging regardless of race, gender, language, culture, creed or sexual orientation. (p.vii)