High School Diversity Policy: Social Identity Making in a Suburban New York City High School

Abstract

Diversity policy has held that as globalization increases and the connections between social mores and ethnicity adapt organizational cultures, it is incumbent to develop a philosophy of inclusion. This paper argues that with the enforcement of diversity policy within organizations, people will under duress and the watchful eye of legal compliance and other human resource watchdogs frame their behavior appropriately whether they agree or not. However, in leisure time or unsupervised moments, people will draw into sub- groups based on people most like themselves ratifying the Aristotelian view that people like to be with people most like themselves . Using the case of a suburban New York City high school, this study shows how it is difficult for leaders to legislate human behavior in the workplace, school, public sphere, or other venue where unsupervised behavior takes place. Social schisms and divisions persist. However, the paper also demonstrates how through a long- term commitment to diversity teaching and modeling, students will assimilate a more eclectic worldview that engages positive cosmopolitan encounters.