What is Multicultural Education?

According to the Multicultural Pavilion, http://www.edchange.org/multicultural/initial.html (retrieved 9/7/2009) , 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 the 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.

I believe that multicultural education is the practice of providing education that allows all students to feel valued, accepted, and worthwhile with their individual cultural background and in our national culture. It provides students a safe place to learn about each other and form positive experiences with people who are different from them so that they may live together peacefully and with acceptance.

I had originally only thought of multicultural education as teaching immigrant students to function in our school system. When I had taken an ELL class during my undergraduate studies, we had created a curriculum of study where the focus was on the best ways to teach students who had limited or no knowledge of English. Of course, we discussed the obstacles that students face when they come here: language, culture shock, loss of community and family, etc. But the topic of changing the curriculum or how to incorporate multiculture into everyday curriculum was not discussed. But, upon reflection and reading, I see that it is a much deeper topic and consideration than just teaching them English.

According to Bennett (2007) in his book “Multicultural Education, Theory and Practice,” the ideology of multicultural education is “education based on visions of humans living in greater harmony with each other and with the earth.” (p.35) Everyday we see wars and cultural conflicts reported in the news. We have to be the idealist if we want to improve our world.

If we look at this as a global issue, it is our responsibility to help people understand each other so that we can help stop future conflicts. In Reilly’s article, “Political Engineering and Party Politics in Conflict-Prone Societies,” (2006, http://www.gsdrc.org/go/display&type=Document&id=2604 ) he states that “almost all recent civil wars have featured mono-ethnic political parties with ethnically exclusive agendas.”

We need to help our students understand each other, in order to help create the peaceful future we want our next generations to have.

Teachers have many concerns in the classroom: teaching the state curriculum, using the books provided by the school district, trying to bring students together who may not meet socially outside of school, and helping some parents understand that teaching diversity is a positive experience for their child.

Teachers don’t have a lot of time to recreate a curriculum. They are guided by the benchmarks and curriculum provided by the school district in which they work. To collect and create additions for the whole curriculum will take a lot of time. However, being able to draw on the parents or families for information may help and taking additional workshops and reading of different cultures would help. They may also contact their ESOL department in their district for ideas and resources. Teachers can build their additional resources over time.

Everyone comes to the classroom with their own biases, students and teachers. Teachers need to be aware of these biases and create situations where these students may interact positively. The teacher needs to create situations where the students get to know one another. These biases can often come from the students’ home or community. Teachers need to make the parents active partners in their child’s education; including, their multicultural education. There should be open and active communication on the part of the teacher with the parents, community, and the school administration to help build the support for multicultural learning.