What is multicultural education?

Multicultural education is designed to develop citizens in democratic society-by considering the needs of all students.  It makes explicit how issues of race, ethnicity, culture, language, religion, gender, and abilities/disabilities are intertwined with educational process and content.

Why do we need a multicultural curricululm?

• Prepare students for diverse workplaces and multicultural environment
• Exposes biases, stereotypes, and policies that can restrict achievement
• Content is fair accurate, and inclusive
• Accomodates for diverse teaching and learning styles of teachers and students
• Helps students, faculty, and staff to become advocates for multicultural awareness

What does a multicultural curriculum look like?

Curriculum from any subject area may be altered to include multicultural content. This can be accomplished by:

1) inclusion of a variety of perspectives,

2) discussions of social contexts, including issues of equity and justice, and/or

3) activities that foster critical thinking and the development of self-awareness.

 

Expanding curriculum to include a variety of perspectives not only allows educators to discuss views and ideas that are less common or underrepresented, but it also provides students a more holistic understanding of the subject area. Furthermore, positive role models from a variety of different backgrounds and cultural groups can be provided.

 

Discussion of social issues is another way to reform curriculum. Fostering an environment where students can ponder ideas such as what it means to be an active citizen, how discrimination and prejudice negatively affect democratic society, or how they can become more sensitive and respectful to social differences are examples of how educators can transform their classroom.

 

Multicultural lesson plans should encourage students to develop critical thinking skills, as well as increase their self-understanding. Educators can best encourage this development by modeling critical thinking skills. Encouraging students to recognize their values, feelings, privileges, and biases can facilitate development of self-awareness.

 

How to transform curriculum to be more multicultural

 

Multicultural curriculum reform may be said to have five stages (see source by Paul C. Gorski).  As educators examine these stages, they should compare the stages to their current practices, and consider way to improve their curriculum. Higher stages represent greater multicultural competence.

The process of transforming a multiculutural curriculm may include participation in a multicultural seminar or workshops, examination of current course content, support from your colleagues, and may necessitate personal examination and alterations.

 

Stage 1 - Recognition

 

Educators must first recognize that the traditional curriculum is not the only possible content to be taught. Specifically, mainstream curriculum does not include ideas and experiences representative of contemporary diverse society.

It is essential that educators strive to recognize their own biases, prejudices, and assumptions that may affect their teaching and ultimately will have an influence on the students.  Educators should work towards eliminating these biases to be more effective in teaching, having amore multicultural curriculum, and reaching all students.  The process of recognizing biases and working to eradicate them is ongoing.

 

Stage 2 - Heroes and Holidays

 

After recognizing the need for curriculum reform, educators may make an initial effort to integrate other perspectives into their curriculum by celebrating cultural holidays and highlighting famous individuals from non-dominant groups. Although these activities do draw attention to the fact that society is shaped by multiple perspectives, effective educators should not stop at this point of integration.

Stage 3 - Integration

 

To move beyond superficial integration of multicultural content, educators seek to integrate information about non-dominant groups across several areas of the curriculum. A daily lesson plan may incorporate a special lesson, book, or film that highlights members of non-dominant groups. Because much of the new materials and units incorporated at this stage are only used as secondary sources, it is important that educators continue to progress to the next stage.

Step 4 - Structural Reform

 

During this stage educators refine their curriculum to weld together their traditional curriculum with diverse perspectives and multicultural materials. This combination is done seamlessly so as to ensure that one source of information is not seen as primary or more accurate than the other.

Step 5 - Social Action and Awareness

 

The final stage of this model of curriculum reform involves integrating social issues into curriculum. At this stage educators incorporate discussions and activities that address such social issues as equity, democracy, overcoming discrimination/prejudice based on differences in access to power, accommodations for persons with disabilities, etc. Educators can encourage students to develop their own views and understanding of these concepts based on experiences and increased self-awareness.

Links

Multiculturalism/Diversity Curriculum

• Produced by the National Council for the Social Studies, this site includes a list of 23 guidelines for educators to follow when transforming their curriculum.

 Multicultural Curriculum Transformation

• Answering basic questions about multicultural curriculum transformation, this site provides educators with ideas for their own curriculum transformation. The questioned answered by this site include: What is a multicultural curriculum? Is diversity same as muliculturalism? Why transform a curriculum multiculturally? What is invoveld in transforming a curriculum multiculturally?

 Advice of Effective Curriculum Transformation

• This website provides educators quick tips and a list of things to remember when transforming curriculum.

Center for Research on Education, Diversity & Excellence

• CREDE has developed many resources for professionals and students, including 5 standards for Effective Pedagogy.