Multicultural Education

1
Multicultural Education

• Dr. Mohamed Nur-Awaleh

2
Misconceptions about Multicultural Education

• Multicultural Education is for the Others
• Multicultural Education is Opposed to the Western
  Tradition
• Multicultural Education will Divide the Nation

3

• To promote alternative choices for people, with
  affirmation of their race, gender disability,
  sexual orientation, and social class background.
• To help all children achieve academic success.
• To promote social justice and equal opportunity
  for all.

4
James banks (19933) says that multicultural
education is 3 things

• An idea that all students-regardless of their
  background should have an equal opportunity to
  learn at school.
• MC is also an educational reform movement that is
  trying to change the schools and other
  educational institutions so that students from
  all social class, gender, racial, language. and
  other cultural groups will have an opportunity to
  learn
• MC education must viewed as an going process.

5

• Therefore, Multiculturalism denotes an approach
  to education, and a world that would move the
  curriculum, precepts, norms, and attitudes away
  from Anglo conformity and Eurocentric locus.
  Multiculturalism, in a pluralistic world, would
  create a conducive environment for "salad
  bowlism", instead of "melting potism".
• The question of attaining multicultural education
  remains perplexing.

6
Sources of Cultural Identity Cushner/M
cClelland/Safford, Human Diversity in Education
(Figure 3.2)
7
Socializing Agents that Transmit
Culture Cushner/McClelland/Safford, Human
Diversity in Education (Figure 3.3)
8
The Culture-Learning
Process Cushner/McClelland/Safford, Human
Diversity in Education (Figure 3.4)
9
Bankss Approach to Multicultural
Education Sadker/Sadker, Teachers, Schools, and
Society (Figure 4.3)
10

• There are theoretical differences in approach to
  multicultural education.
• McCarthy and Apple (1990), Mattai (1992 argue
  that multicultural education maintains the status
  quo without addressing the real problem, which is
  institutional racism.
• Other theorists such as Thomas, Famularo (1996),
  Diana Ravich (1988) D'Souza (1991)
  Schlesinger(1992) contends that multicultural
  education promotes divisiveness and ethnic
  polarization rather than national unity

11

• R. Mattai (1992) had this to say about nature of
  multicultural curriculum in U.S In most cases,
  however, attempts to introduce multiculturalism
  into the curriculum appear to be mere political
  responses, and efforts to infuse the American
  educational curriculum with multiculturalism are
  largely partisan activities engaging only those
  few who are committed to effecting significant
  educational and societal changes
  African-Americans, Latinos, and native Americans,
  many of whom presently raise serious questions
  about what the movement has done and, or failed
  to do for them"

12

• 2. (Cont.) Representative of (a) could be
  reading, writing, arithmetic (b) could be
  language, literature, social studies, history,
  geography and sciences (c) could be arts and
  craft, theatre, industrial design, technical
  drawing, music, health and sports. These
  categories are not mutually exclusive. For
  example, a writing project (a) could include
  reading of history (b) and could include
  recording of oral history and (c) dramatic
  interpretation of that history

13
(No Transcript)
14
Guidelines For Teaching Multicultural Content

• James Bank (2001241) offers the following
  guidelines in order to teach effectively in
  multicultural environments
• 1. You, the teacher (s) are extremely important
  variable in teaching of ethnic content. If you
  have the necessary knowledge, attitudes, and
  skills, when you encounter racist and sexist
  content in material or observe sexism and racism
  in the statement and behavior of students you can
  use these situations to teach important lessons
  about the experiences of ethnic groups in the
  United States. Two good sources in these areas
  are Gary Howard, We Can't Teach What We Don't
  Know White Teachers, Multiracial Schools. New
  York Teachers College Press, 1999. , Sadker and
  Sadker (1992), Sexuality and Sexism How Should
  Educators Be Prepared In S.S. Klein (Ed). Sex
  Equity and Sexuality in Education. Albany, NY
  SUNY Press.

15
Guidelines For Teaching Multicultural Content
(cont.)

• 2. Knowledge about ethnic groups is needed to
  teach ethnic content effectively. Read at least
  one major book that surveys the histories and
  cultures of U.S. ethnic groups. One book that
  includes historical overviews of U.S. ethnic
  groups is James A. Banks, Teaching Strategies for
  Ethnic Studies, 6th ed. (Boston Allyn and Bacon,
  1997).
• 3.Be sensitive to your own racial attitudes,
  behavior, and the statements you make about
  ethnic groups in the classroom. A statement such
  as "Sit like an Indian" stereotypes Native
  Americans.

16
Guidelines For Teaching Multicultural Content
(cont.)

• 4. Make sure that your classroom conveys
  positive images of various ethnic groups. You can
  do this by displaying bulletin boards, posters,
  and calendars that show the racial and ethnic
  diversity within U.S. society.
• 5. Be sensitive to the racial and ethnic
  attitudes of your students and do not accept the
  belief, which has been refuted by research, that
  "kids do not see colors." Avoiding the phenomenon
  of "colorblind" phenomenon. Walter Stephan,
  Reducing Prejudice and Stereotyping in Schools
  (New York Teachers College Press, 1999).

17
Guidelines For Teaching Multicultural Content
(cont.)

• 6. Be judicious in your choice and use of
  teaching materials. Some materials contain both
  subtle and blatant stereotypes of ethnic groups.
  Point out to the students when an ethnic group is
  stereotyped, omitted from, or described in
  materials from Anglocentric and Eurocentric
  points of view. A useful guide for teachers of
  young children is Louise Derman-Sparks and the A.
  B. C. Task Force (1989), Anti-Bias Curriculum,
  Tools for Empowering Young Children (Washington,
  DC National Association for the Education of
  Young Children).

18
Guidelines For Teaching Multicultural Content
(cont.)

• 7. Use trade books, films, videotapes, and
  recordings to supplement the textbook treatment
  of ethnic groups and to present the perspectives
  of ethnic groups to your students. Many of these
  sources contain rich and powerful images of the
  experience of being a person of color in the
  United States. A large collection of books and
  videotapes are annotated in James A. Banks,
  Teaching Strategies for Ethnic Studies, 6th ed.
  (Boston Allyn and Bacon, 1997).

19
Guidelines For Teaching Multicultural Content
(cont.)

• 8. Get in touch with your own cultural and ethnic
  heritage. Sharing your ethnic and cultural story
  with your students will create a climate for
  sharing in the classroom, will help motivate
  students to dig into their own ethnic and
  cultural roots, and will result in powerful
  learning for your students.
• 9.Be sensitive to the possible controversial
  nature of some ethnic studies materials. If you
  are clear about the teaching objectives you have
  in mind, you can often use a less controversial
  book or reading to attain the same objectives.

20
Guidelines For Teaching Multicultural Content
(cont.)

• 10. Be sensitive to the developmental levels of
  your students when you select concepts, content,
  and activities related to ethnic groups. Concepts
  and learning activities for students in
  kindergarten and the primary grades should be
  specific and concrete. Students in these grades
  should study such concepts as similarities,
  differences, prejudice, and discrimination rather
  than higher-level concepts such as racism and
  oppression. Fiction and biographies are excellent
  vehicles for introducing these concepts to
  students in kindergarten and the primary grades.
  As students progress through the grades, they can
  be introduced to more complex concepts, examples,
  and activities. (If you teach in a racially or
  ethnically integrated classroom or school you
  should keep the following guidelines in mind.)

21
Guidelines For Teaching Multicultural Content
(cont.)

• 11. View your students of color as winners. Many
  students of color have high academic and career
  goals. They need teachers who believe they can be
  successful and are willing to help them succeed.
  Both research and theory indicate that students
  are more likely to achieve highly when their
  teachers have high academic expectations for
  them.
• 12.Keep in mind that most parents of color are
  very interested in education and want their
  children to be successful academically even
  though the parents may be alienated from the
  school. Do not equate education with schooling.
  Many parents who want their children to succeed
  have mixed feelings about the schools. Try to
  gain the support of these parents and enlist them
  as partners in the education of their children.

22
Guidelines For Teaching Multicultural Content
(cont.)

• 13. Use cooperative learning techniques and group
  work to promote racial and ethnic integration in
  the school and classroom. Research indicates that
  when learning groups are racially integrated,
  students develop more friends from other racial
  groups, and race relations in the school improve.
  A helpful guide is Elizabeth G. Cohen's Designing
  Groupwork Strategies for the Heterogeneous
  Classroom, 2nd ed. (New York Teachers College
  Press, 1994).

23
Guidelines For Teaching Multicultural Content
(cont.)

• 14. Make sure that school plays, pageants,
  cheerleading squads, school publications, and
  other formal and informal groups are racially
  integrated. Also make sure that various ethnic
  and racial groups have equal status in school
  performances and presentations. In a multiracial
  school, if all of the leading roles in a school
  play are filled by White characters, an important
  message is sent to students and parents of color
  whether such a message was intended or not.

24
THANK YOU
Questions?