The Implementation Of Affirmative Action And Its Influence On The Equity Of American Higher Education

It is known that America is a multinational country,and the percentages of social resources distributed to ethnic groups are disproportionate,especially in education,for historical reasons.At the same time,America is a country pursuing equity,so the problem of equity in higher education has become a focus most researchers pay attention to.In the1960 s,with the promotion of the Civil Rights Movement,America issued affirmative action aiming to compensate unequal treatments in education and employment.Undoubtedly,during the implementation of affirmative action,it has produced positive influences: not only endowing ethnic minorities' basic right to education,but also improving their social status.However,it cannot be ignored that affirmative action in the stage of preferential treatments generated a lot of controversies,even resulted in its abolition in some states.More dramatically,in the twenty-first century,the voice of restoring affirmative action reappeared.Thus all these induce the author's reflection: can affirmative action accelerate realization of equity in higher education? This paper,taking California as an example,analyses evolution of affirmative action in combination with specific cases,and affirmative action in equity of American higher education to answer this question.In the process of research,the author mainly adopts the methods of literature analysis and case study.The tentative thesis is that in the initial stage,affirmative action exerted positive influences on realization of equity in American higher education.However,since the late1970 s,its influence on equity of education gradually weakened and other similar preferential policies in the twenty-first century such as SCA-5 and AB-1726 will not help realize the alleged equity in higher education.In fact,it could be said to have formed another round of discrimination against Asian Americans in a sense.This paper is divided into six parts:The first chapter briefly introduces the following aspects: the purposes and significance of research,relevant key concepts,the research status at home and abroad and the basic structure of the paper.The second chapter is the part of theory,including different views of equity and Rawls' s principles of justice.The third chapter,taking California as an example,reviews the evolution of affirmative action from establishment to abolition in the twentieth century.This part firstly introduces the backgrounds of affirmative action.Then by studying the case of Bakke,the author presents challenges affirmative action faced.Finally,this part talks about the abolition of affirmative action by introducing Proposition 209.In the fourth chapter,SCA-5 and AB-1726 in California are chosen as the objects of my case study.The author firstly retrospects their backgrounds and contents,and then thinks about their deeper meanings.Finally the author makes a conclusion that SCA-5 and AB-1726 in the twenty-first century cannot achieve genuine equity.The fifth chapter analyzes affirmative action in equity of higher education.The author firstly talked about equity in American higher education based on affirmative action,and then outlines influences of affirmative action on higher education.In the end,this part concludes that affirmative action is reasonable in the beginning and can promote equity of higher education;while since the late 1970 s,its influence on equity of higher education began to weaken and the revival of affirmative action in the twenty-first century would cause a new round of racial discrimination.The sixth chapter summarizes the main arguments of this thesis.