Multicultural Education

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Multicultural Education
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The United States is experiencing a rapid
cultural diversification which reverberates in
American schools. Between 1980 and 1990 the total
foreign born population grew by 40.

• (Waggoner, 1993)

3
The majority of recent immigrants come from
non-European,non-English-speaking countries.

• (Croninger, 1991)

4
In 1990, of the forty-five million school-age
children in the nation's public schools, some 9.9
million lived in households where a language
other than English is spoken.

• (Menchaca, 1996)

5
If current trends persist, by 2050 the total
number of Native Americans, Asian Americans,
African Americans, and Hispanics in our country
will surpass the number of White Anglo Americans.

• (Lee, 1995, Wise Gollnick, 1996)

6
In 1990, minorities already constituted between
24 and 96 of the total school enrollment in
eighteen states and the District of Columbia.

• (OERI, 1992)

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These children bring with them learning styles,
beliefs, interpersonal styles, and expectations
that create a different context for learning
and teaching.

• (Pond, 1996)

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Thus, the classroom teacher is thrust into a
cultural milieu that brings together the
learner's culture, the teacher's own cultural
background, and the computer culture.

• (Chisholm, 1995-96)

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To educate a population that differs widely in
income, ethnicity, language, and culture, schools
must implement strategies and programs that are
flexible, supportive, and equitable.
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Multicultural Education

• Since its earliest conceptualizations in the
  1960s, multicultural education has been
  transformed, refocused, reconceptualized, and in
  a constant state of evolution both in theory and
  in practice.
• It is rare that any two classroom teachers or
  education scholars will have the same definition
  for multicultural education. As with any dialogue
  on education, individuals tend to mold concepts
  to fit their particular focus.

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Some discuss multicultural education as

• a shift in curriculum, perhaps as simple as
  adding new and diverse materials and perspectives
  to be more inclusive of traditionally
  underrepresented groups.
• classroom climate issues or teaching styles that
  serve certain groups while presenting barriers
  for others.
• institutional and systemic issues such as
  tracking, standardized testing, or funding
  discrepancies.
• part of a larger societal transformation in which
  we more closely explore and criticize the
  oppressive foundations of society and how
  education serves to maintain the status quo --
  foundations such as white supremacy, capitalism,
  global socioeconomic situations, and exploitation.

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Multicultural education is a field of study and
an emerging discipline whose major aim is to
create equal educational opportunities for
students from diverse racial, ethnic,
social-class, and cultural groups. One of its
important goals is to help all students acquire
the knowledge, attitudes, and skills needed to
interact, negotiate, and communicate with people
from diverse groups in order to create a civic
and moral community that works for the common
good. (Banks 1995)
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Multicultural education is a progressive approach
for transforming education that holistically
critiques and addresses current shortcomings,
failings, and discriminatory practices in
education. It is grounded in ideals of social
justice, education equity, and a dedication to
facilitating educational experiences in which all
students reach their full potential as learners
and as socially aware and active beings, locally,
nationally, and globally. Multicultural education
acknowledges that schools are essential to laying
the foundation for the transformation of society
and the elimination of oppression and injustice.

• Paul Gorski (2000)

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Basic Tenets ofMulticultural Education

• Every student must have an equal opportunity to
  achieve to her or his full potential.
• Every student must be prepared to competently
  participate in an increasingly intercultural
  society.
• Teachers must be prepared to effectively
  facilitate learning for every individual student,
  no matter how culturally similar or different
  from her- or himself.
• Schools must be active participants in ending
  oppression of all types, first by ending
  oppression within their own walls, then by
  producing socially and critically active and
  aware students.

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Basic Tenets of Multicultural Education

• Education must become more fully student-centered
  and inclusive of the voices and experiences of
  the students.
• Educators, activists, and others must take a more
  active role in reexamining all educational
  practices and how they affect the learning of all
  students testing methods, teaching approaches,
  evaluation and assessment, school psychology and
  counseling, educational materials and textbooks,
  etc.

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Assumptions

• It is increasingly important for political,
  social, educational and economic reasons to
  recognize the US is a culturally diverse society.
• Multicultural education is for all students.
• Multicultural education is synonymous with
  effective teaching.
• Teaching is a cross cultural encounter.
• The educational system has not served all
  students equally well.
• Multicultural education is (should be) synonymous
  with educational innovation and reform.
• Next to parents (primary caregivers) teachers are
  the single most important factor in the lives of
  children.
• Classroom interaction between teachers and
  students constitutes the major part of the
  educational process for most students.
• from Hernandez, Multicultural education A
  teacher's guide to content and process, 1989.

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Goals of Multicultural Education

• To have every student achieve to his or her
  potential.
• To learn how to learn and to think critically.
• To encourage students to take an active role in
  their own education by bringing their stories and
  experiences into the learning scope.
• To address diverse learning styles.
• To appreciate the contributions of different
  groups who have contributed to our knowledge base.

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Goals of Multicultural Education

• To develop positive attitudes about groups of
  people who are different from ourselves.
• To become good citizens of the school, the
  community, the country and the world community.
• To learn how to evaluate knowledge from different
  perspectives.
• To develop an ethnic, national and global
  identity.
• To provide decision making skills and critical
  analysis skills so the students can make better
  choices in their everyday lives.

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Principles of Multicultural Education

• The selection of subject matter content should be
  culturally inclusive, based on up-to-date
  scholarship. This inclusivity should incorporate
  opposing opinions and divergent interpretations.
• The subject matter content selected for inclusion
  should represent diversity and unity within and
  across groups.
• The subject matter selected for inclusion should
  be set within the context of its time and place.
• The subject matter selected for inclusion should
  give priority to depth over breadth.

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Principles of Multicultural Education

• Multicultural perspectives should infuse the
  entire curriculum, pre K-12.
• The subject matter content should be treated as
  socially constructed and therefore tentative --
  as is all knowledge.
• The teaching of all subjects should draw and
  build on the experience and knowledge that the
  students bring to the classroom.
• Pedagogy should incorporate a range of
  interactive modes of teaching and learning in
  order to foster understanding (rather than rote
  learning), examination of controversy, and mutual
  learning.
• from Gordon and Roberts, Report of social studies
  syllabus review and development committee, 1991

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Steps Toward Multicultural Curriculum
Transformation

• (Gorski 2000)

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Stage 1 Curriculum of the Mainstream

• The curriculum of the mainstream is Eurocentric
  and male-centric. It fully ignores the
  experiences, voices, contributions, and
  perspectives of non-dominant individuals and
  groups in all subject areas. All educational
  materials including textbooks, films, and other
  teaching and learning tools present information
  in a purely Eurocentric, male-centric format.
  This stage is harmful for both students who
  identify with mainstream culture as well as
  individuals from non-dominant groups.

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Stage 2 Heroes and Holidays

• Teachers at this stage "celebrate" difference by
  integrating information or resources about famous
  people and the cultural artifacts of various
  groups into the mainstream curriculum. Bulletin
  boards may contain pictures of Martin Luther
  King, Jr. or W.E.B. DuBois, and teachers may plan
  special celebrations for Black History Month or
  Women's History Month. Learning about "other
  cultures" focuses on costumes, foods, music, and
  other tangible cultural items.

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Stage 3 Integration

• At the Integration stage, teachers move beyond
  heroes and holidays to add substantial materials
  and knowledge about non-dominant groups to the
  curriculum. The teacher may add to her or his
  collection of books those by authors of color or
  by women. She or he may add a unit which covers,
  for example, the role of women in World War I. A
  music teacher may add slave hymns or songs from
  Africa to her or his repertoire. At the school
  level, a course on African American History may
  be added to an overall curriculum.

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Stage 4 Structural Reform

• New materials, perspectives, and voices are
  woven seamlessly with current frameworks of
  knowledge to provide new levels of understanding
  from a more complete and accurate curriculum. The
  teacher dedicates herself or himself to
  continuously expanding her or his knowledge base
  through the exploration of various sources from
  various perspectives, and sharing that knowledge
  with her or his students. Students learn to view
  events, concepts, and facts through various
  lenses. "American History" includes African
  American History, Women's History, Asian American
  History, Latino American History, and all other
  previously differentiated fields of knowledge.

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Stage 5 Multicultural, Social Action and
Awareness

• In addition to the changes made in the
  Structural Reform stage, important social issues
  including racism, sexism, and classism are
  directly addressed in the curriculum. The voices,
  ideas, and perspectives of the students regarding
  these and all other topics are brought to the
  fore in the learning experience - the students
  themselves becoming yet another multicultural
  classroom resource. The textbook is viewed as a
  single perspective among many, and the relevance
  of its limitations, along with those of other
  educational media, are explored and discussed.

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Adding to the complexity of teaching in a
multicultural classroom environment are the
cultural properties inherent to computers.
Computers, as cultural artifacts, connote the
values, preferences, and cognitive schema of
their creators (Chisholm, 1995-96). Hence, they
are not culturally neutral, but, rather,
culturally bound. Thus, if schools are to provide
a high quality education for all children,
teachers must apply equitable and culturally
responsive strategies to the use of computers in
culturally diverse classrooms. These strategies
will benefit all students by meeting a variety of
needs and differences.
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What, then, constitutes equitable and culturally
appropriate strategies for educational computer
use? There are a multiplicity of factors
associated with culturally responsive teaching.
Some aspects of culturally appropriate teaching
are overt, such as using software with graphics
that portray a variety of racial and ethnic
people some are covert, such as valuing
interdependence and collaboration during computer
activities.
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Equitable and culturally appropriate strategies
do not require the impossible task of
incorporating every aspect of cultural
differences. Nor do they imply that educational
goals and expectations in culturally diverse
classrooms should be inferior or more limited
than in traditional classrooms. Rather,
culturally responsive teaching calls for the
incorporation of some features of the child's own
culture (Au Kawakami, 1991).
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Furthermore, equitable and culturally appropriate
strategies in educational computing must be broad
enough to be inclusive of diverse learners, yet
specific enough to be valuable as a guide to
multicultural teaching. Such strategies should
not be so prescriptive as to squelch individual
creativity or personal differences in teaching
and learning. In addition, such teaching
strategies must be grounded in sound pedagogical
practices. In short, equitable and culturally
appropriate use of technology must be good
teaching for all students.
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Six elements for integrating technology in
culturally diverse classrooms

• cultural awareness
• instructional relevance
• classroom environment
• equitable access
• instructional flexibility
• technology integration

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Cultural Awareness

• Cultural awareness, refers to instruction and
  learning activities that demonstrate support for
  differences in learning preferences and language.
  
• Awareness of cultural and individual learning
  preferences and behaviors is essential for
  culturally responsive technology use.
• This awareness grows out of a knowledge of
  multiple intelligences and learning styles, as
  well as from knowing one's students through
  careful observation, conversations with parents,
  and direct communication with students.

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Instructional Relevance

• Instructional relevance exists where educational
  technology, topics, activities, programs, and
  resources relate to the children's background,
  prior experiences, current knowledge, and
  personal interests.
• Instructional relevance induces students to
  become actively engaged in their own learning.
  When learning makes sense and is important to
  children, intrinsic motivation emerges
  (Wlodkowski Ginsberg, 1995).

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Classroom Environment

• The culturally responsive environment is
  inclusive and demanding.
• There is an expectation for higher level thinking
  and academic success from all students.
• Activities provide for differences in learning
  preferences and afford opportunities for both
  individual and collaborative work.
• It is a safe, accepting environment in which
  individuals genuinely respect all forms of
  diversity. Therefore, the student's family and
  culture are part of the learning experiences.

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Equitable Access

• Equitable access to technology, refers not only
  to the students' access to the hardware, but also
  to varied software.
• Equitable access means that children can use the
  programs that best meet their own needs.
  Consequently children may not all use the same
  programs or in the same ways.
• However, equitable access does not mean that less
  knowledgeable students or those with learning
  needs should be relegated exclusively to drill
  and practice programs. Though they may use and
  benefit from such programs, equitable access
  means that they also use other more challenging
  and interesting programs.

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• Moreover, equitable access provides for
  language differences. Though provision for a
  child's dominant language may take the form of
  dual language or native language software, there
  are other types of language support. These
  alternative forms of support include peer
  facilitation and adaptive instructional
  strategies.

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Instructional Flexibility

• Instructional flexibility, supports differences
  through varied modes of instructional delivery
  and evaluation.
• There is instructional flexibility when teachers
  present instruction and assess learning in ways
  that support multiple intelligences, varied
  learning preferences, and differences in
  linguistic ability.
• Culturally supportive classrooms give student
  choices in content, learning modes, and
  assessment methods.
• In using technology, students select programs and
  media, choose topics, and pick the partners with
  whom they work.

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Technology Integration

• Technology integration, refers to the degree to
  which technology becomes an integral part of
  student productivity and information gathering
  for all learners across a variety of academic
  disciplines.
• Tutorials and drill-and-practice applications are
  not generally productivity-focused programs.
  Their purpose is to provide practice on specific
  content or skills. Although they can be useful
  for their specific purpose, they limit
  creativity, problem-solving, and thinking.

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Technology integration goes beyond such program
uses to the application of computers for
purposeful, productive, and challenging
educational endeavors. Technology becomes an
essential part of the curriculum and learning
activities. Therefore, learning with computers
becomes meaningful and practical.
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References

• Au, K. H., Kawakami, A. J. (1991). Culture and
  ownership Schooling of minority students.
  Childhood Education, 67(5), 280-284.
• Chisholm, I. M. (1995-96). Computer use in a
  multicultural classroom. Journal of Research on
  Computing in Education, 28(2), 162-174.
• Croninger, B. (1991). The social context of
  schooling What research and theory can tell us.
  Intercultural Development Research Association
  Newsletter, 18(5), 10-14.
• Lee, C. C. (Ed.). (1995). Counseling for
  diversity A guide for school counselors and
  related professionals. Needham Heights, MA Allyn
  Bacon.
• Menchaca, V. D. (Fall 1996). Multicultural
  education The missing link in teacher education
  programs. The Journal of Educational Issues of
  Language Minority Students, 17, 1-9.
• OERI. (1992). Digest of Educational Statistics.
  Washington, DC U.S. Government Printing Office.
  (NCES No. 92-097).
• Pond, W. K. (Fall 1996). Educational challenges
  unique to culturally and linguistically diverse
  students A description and suggestions for
  pedagogical models. Journal of Educational Issues
  of Language Minority Students, 17, 121-138.
• Waggoner, D. (1993). 1990 Census shows dramatic
  change in the foreign-born population in the U.S.
  NABE News, 16(7), 1, 18-19.
• Wise, A. E., Gollnick, D. M. (April 1996).
  America in Demographic Denial. Quality Teaching,
  5(2), 4-5.
• Wlodkowski, R. J. Ginsberg, M. B. (1995). A
  framework for culturally responsive teaching.
  Educational Leadership, 53(1), 17-21.