Multicultural education is an approach that helps students understand and appreciate different cultures and recognize accomplishments of different racial and ethnic groups worldwide. It is an approach that hopes to change ways in which teachers instruct students by giving equal attention and contributions to all groups. The concept of multiculturalism in education started back in the 1960s and 1970s in the civil rights movement of many different groups such as the African Americans. Community leaders and parents demanded a curriculum that was supportive and consistent with the culture and racial diversity in the United States. They insisted that aspects of education needed to be changed to create a multicultural environment in schools. These aspects included teachers’ attitudes, teaching methods, instruction materials and methods of assessing students’ school performances. This paper will explore the key elements and concepts of multicultural education, and strategies teachers can implement for multicultural education.
Characteristics of multicultural education
Multicultural education includes teaching students how to address issues relating to racism, discrimination and oppression in schools. It also advances the rights of students to participate in social activities, and the needs for students to gain social skills and intelligence to have a better understanding of multiculturalism. Multicultural education is a strategy that entails the development of people and education institutions to create good relationships with people in society. Also, it points out the less recognizable intangible factors of education such as students’ expectations, school environments, and learning preferences. Also, it allows students go beyond their experiences and gives them more understanding on issues they agree or disagree (Arslan & Rata, 2013).
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Approaches to multicultural education
One approach commonly used in multicultural education is the contributions approach. It involves ethnic heroes selected through criteria in the school curriculum. In this case, the primary curriculum (goals, objectives, and structure of school) remains unchanged. This approach is incorporated by choosing books and activities that talk about holiday celebrations, special events and heroes from different cultures. For example, many black schools read about Dr. Martin Luther King in the month of January, a practice that falls under the contribution approach. However, this approach has limitations such as students are not allowed to have a global view of the roles of different cultural groups in the United States (Banks &Banks, 2010).
Another approach to multicultural education is the ethnic additive. It allows teachers to put racial content to the school program without restructuring the curriculum. It involves including literature about people from different cultures into school curricula. For example, critically examining perspectives of Native Americans on Thanksgiving would be a method of practicing ethnic additive approach in schools (Banks &Banks, 2010).
The transformative approach is another multicultural education approach that allows students to view themes, issues, and problems from other ethnic groups. It involves the infusion of different perspectives, references, and content of various groups hence allowing students to have a better understanding of the nature and development of the society (Banks &Banks, 2010). For example, when students are studying various topics such as the Revolution of British Colonies, it is important for them to know the significance of this event to the U.S history. The social action approach works hand in hand with transformation approach to encourage for social change. In this approach, students understand the social problems in the society and also play a part in doing something important about the issues (Banks &Banks, 2010). For example, after students participate in class on a topic about Immigration in North America, the students may act by writing and sending letters to congresses and senators to express their opinions regarding new policies made.
Dimensions of multicultural education
There are five dimensions of multicultural education: content integration, Equity pedagogy, Prejudice Reduction, empowering school culture and the knowledge construction process Content integration is a movement that was started by one of the first African- American known as George Washington Williams (Vang, 2010). This approach requires teachers to use examples of information from different cultures to explain principles and theories in the subjects they teach. More opportunities exist for integrating ethical and cultural concept in subjects such as language arts, social studies, and music. However, there are small contents to use in other subjects such as mathematics and sciences. As a result, many school practitioners view content integration as a compromise to multicultural education (Vang, 2010).
The dimension of knowledge construction process focuses on illustrating teaching activities. Teachers use this dimension to help students have a better understanding of how different assumptions of culture can impact ways in which knowledge is built. It entails changing the methods used by teachers and students to communicate with each other to help them gain knowledge. This process also helps both students and teachers understand reasons why cultural identities and researchers’ positions should be considered when validating knowledge claims (Vang, 2010).
Prejudice reduction is a dimension that helps students to have positive racial attitudes. It helps students have a better understanding of how ethnic identity can influence education and beliefs of diverse cultural groups. Equity pedagogy dimension applies when teachers make changes in the way they teach to enable achievements of students from other racial and cultural groups. Some of these changes include teachers changing their styles and approaches that are correspondent with learning methods of other ethnic groups (Vang, 2010). Teachers use instruction materials that incorporate important aspects to the culture of their students. By doing this, teachers make the students’ learning experiences more effective and relevant to them.
Empowering school culture is another dimension that entails the restructuring of the schools’ organization to promote equality of all students regardless of the ethnic backgrounds. Grouping practices, interacting with staff and students from different ethnic groups and sports participation are examples of reforms that can be made. To empower new school structures, schools need to create different relationships that are based on mutual respect among students with cultural differences (Vang, 2010).
Benefits of multicultural education
In the past years, schools have had cases where some students do not respect the cultures of other students in classrooms. Multiculturalism has incorporated positive racial attitude in the classroom. The introduction of multicultural education through administrative support, staff training, and social activities has helped reduce discrimination of students and teachers from diverse ethnic groups. It has helped bring together all people from different cultures with love and harmony. Embracing multicultural education in schools is important as it encourages understanding between two ethnic groups. More specifically, it helps students to relate well to one another in class thereby, creating cooperation (Marc, 2010). It also has help reduce ignorance by teachers by preparing them early enough on how to handle students from diverse ethnic groups.
Research shows that many students from different ethnic groups are poor and others get suspended from schools. As a result, these students fail to reach their potential. Multicultural education aims at providing education opportunities to students from different cultural groups and social class. It helps these students through the introduction of bursaries in schools to enable them access quality education. It is important also to note that multicultural education helps students have a positive attitude when negotiating, communicating and interacting with other individuals from other cultures to create a moral and civilized community (Marc, 2010).
Strategies future/current teachers can implement in multicultural education
Teachers can maintain high expectations for the diverse ethnic students because they play a vital role in helping them reach their academic goals. However, it is important for teachers to encourage their students to identify problems in a collaborative manner in class. By expressing high expectations for these students, they convey that their students can succeed in demanding tasks. Teachers should ask open-minded questions that will allow students to respond in ways that reflect their cultures and will enable other students in the class to have a better understanding. Including role-playing in class, for example, reciting poems during class sessions is another strategy that teachers can implement in teaching (Gay, 2010). Teachers should perform role-playing to give students a chance to express their opinions and thoughts in a more realistic way. This will allow the learners express their attitudes and feelings towards discrimination.
Another strategy that teachers can implement is introducing cooperative learning in classes. This strategy has substantial positive impacts on relationships with students from different cultures whereby group members become welcoming to classmates with different cultural backgrounds. Students should also interact with public speakers of other different languages where they can share values and ideas of different cultures. It is also important for teachers to provide fair opportunities such as speaking, reading, writing and listening activities for all students in the class (Gay, 2010).
Conclusion
Multicultural education is an approach that is based upon democratic values that bring together people from different cultures. It is a form of commitment to developing an understanding of ethnic groups and brings education equity. From the paper, it is clear that multicultural education involves giving students the chance to make decisions on significant social problems and appreciate democratic values. Multicultural education has brought forth major changes in the education system as students become adequately prepared to face the challenges and issues that may arise in a multicultural society. It is clear that multicultural education reduces discrimination among the oppressed groups and focuses on promoting equality regardless of cultural and ethnic background. Multicultural education has provided teachers with the opportunities to question their cultural and social perspective to enable them to develop the skills to work with and support students from diverse ethnic groups. For teachers to be successful in teaching students from different cultural groups, it is important for them to have a better understanding of diversity and multicultural education.
References
Arslan, H., & Rață, G. (2013). Multicultural education: From theory to practice . Newcastle Upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars.
Banks, J. A., & Banks, C. A. M. G. (2010). Multicultural education: Issues and perspectives. Hoboken, N.J: Wiley
Gay, G. (2010). Culturally responsive teaching: Theory, research, and practice .
Marc, A. (2010). Delivering services in multicultural societies . Washington, D.C: World Bank.
Vang, C. T. (2010). An educational psychology of methods in multicultural education. New York: Peter Lang.
