Multicultural Education

LHINEVER T. GILHANG BSED 4-5

References:
Social Dimensions of Education
by Antonio I. Tamayao

Social Dimensions of Education

by Violeta A. Vega, et. al.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R3jpN3Zouko
FIX ME!
Cultural Assimilation
VS
Cultural Pluralism
Cultural Assimilation
VS
Cultural Pluralism
Cultural Assimilation
Cultural Assimilation

 this pushes for the “melting pot” concept to

address diversity issues by creating one
homogenous culture from the different
cultural groups;
 they use the metaphor of a melting pot to
explain the process of helping the minority
or ethnic groups to relinquish their native
language and culture and assimilate the
dominant culture of a society;
Cont. …
implies a fusing of cultural elements, lost of distinction of
cultural elements and individual identity;
 assimilationist ideology is also called monocultural
perspective;
 this perspective rests on the belief that one’s identification with
an ethnic group should be short-lived and temporary as it
presents an obstacle to an individual’s long-term interests and
needs (Banks, 1988);
Cont. …
 the goal of schooling in this ideology is to socialize
the culturally different children into the mainstream
or dominant culture, that is, to develop them in
ways of thinking, behaving, and valuing that will
help them fit harmoniously into the multiculturalist
culture.
Cultural Pluralism
Cultural Pluralism
 also called multicultural perspective;
 an idea which states that different ethnic cultures
have the right to maintain their own identity and
culture within the greater society;
Cont. …

 an idea that permits equal and healthy co-

existence despite differences in ethnicity, religion,
gender, class, geography , sexual orientation, and
racial variation within a given social space;
Cont. …
 cultural pluralists use the “salad
bowl” analogy in explaining their
arguments;
 such analogy propounds that in
order to have a rich salad (society), it
is essential to include a variety of
culture;
 it stresses that each culture is
distinct and when mixed, they
contribute to make a unique whole;
Cont. …
 it also asserts that rather than viewing
cultural differences as a weakening factor or
counter-development to society, it must be
viewed as an essential factor to strengthen
and nourish it; and
Cont. …
the goal of schooling under cultural pluralism is to
stress the importance and value of differences by
creating a curriculum that addresses the different
cultural needs, learning styles, patterns of
interaction, and cultural histories of students.
“Classroom teachers and educators must
provide students from all ethnic groups with
the education they deserve.”
- Geneva Gay
Multicultural
Education
Multicultural Education

 one set of program that favors the pluralist

ideology;
 emerged in the aftermath of the civil rights in
United States of America In the 1960s.
Ornstein and Levine (1982)
-defined multicultural education as education
that advocates “differential instructional approaches
to teaching students with different ethnic and racial
backgrounds.”
Cushner et al. (2006)
-defined multicultural education as education as a
process of educational reform that ensures that all students
from all groups (racial, ethnic, socio-economic, ability,
gender, etc.) express educational quality, success, and
social ability.
Nieto (2002)
-defined multicultural education as a process of
comprehensive school reform and basic education for all students.
- she asserted that multicultural education permeates the
school’s curriculum and instructional strategies, as well as the
interactions among teachers, students, and families, and very way
that schools conceptualize the nature of teaching and learning.
Key Principles
of
Multicultural
Education
 Principle 1:
Multicultural education is
anti-racist education
• the purpose of multicultural education is to challenge and reject
racism, prejudices, biases, stereotyping, and all forms of
discrimination in schools and society, emanating from
differences in ethnic origin/background, religious beliefs, and
economic status.
• raising the consciousness of students about the unfair school
practices, hidden agenda in the curriculum, unjust sorting
policies, and oppressive teacher-student
relationship as an offshoot of cultural
differences.
 Hence, multicultural education exposes and
confronts discrimination of all kinds so that
students and teachers can ultimately assume
responsibility to change such conditions.
 Principle 2:
Multicultural education is
basic education
• By basic education, it means opening the
curriculum to a variety of cultural perspectives and
experiences of inclusion of more “voices” reflective
of multiple realities of many different peoples rather
than being biased toward the dominant group.
 Hence, multicultural education constitutes the
basic foundation of knowledge , skills, and values
for all students in which they use their own
experiences as the basis for further learning and
help them become critical and empowered citizens.
 Principle 3:
Multicultural education is a
political movement
• School is never free from any political intervention, ideology, and
philosophy. It happens because schools are basically established,
financed, and regulated by the state.
• In effect, it does not only embody political values or carry out political
purposes of the state, but is also influenced by the personal needs,
agenda, and interest of those in control of the government.
• This therefore reveals that education is not politically neutral,
which is then reflected in the power of teachers and school
administrators to play a dominant role in the teaching and
learning processes. They decide which readings and activities
to use in class; choose how students re to be assessed;
determine whether students engage in the learning process;
and so on.
 As a political movement, multicultural education is
transformative because it responds to the many problematic
factors leading to school underachievement and failure.
When implemented comprehensively, it can transform and
enrich the schooling of all young people, which will usher in
the production of critical and socially active members of
society.
 Principle 4:
Multicultural education is a
process of wide-ranging school reform
• It is not just a simple modification of curriculum or an add-on
program but a fully student-centered program that integrates all
the “voices” and experiences of the students.
• It is rather a movement which calls for overhauling of school
climate, physical environment, curriculum, and relationships
among teachers and students.
• It also urges for change in attitude, approach, and new
commitment to transform an unjust society.
 Multicultural education asserts the abolition
of social injustice, inequality, and oppression
through a logical critique of the system and
analysis of the mechanism used in domination,
as well as power and privilege.
 Principle 5:
Multicultural education is
critical pedagogy
• Multicultural education works on a basic assumption that a realistic and
wide-ranging reform can be accomplished only through analysing the
system of power and privilege in a given community or nation.
• It critically questions, for example: ‘Who dominates in school?”; “Whose
culture is favoured?”; and “Whose values are written and valued in the
school?”
• In a multicultural approach, critical thinking, reflection, and action are
valued and encouraged.
• It defies what Paulo Friere (1972) termed as
“domesticating education,” characterized by
passivity, acceptance, and submissiveness of students.
• Multicultural education also emphasizes the process of
“transforming action” rather than “transferring knowledge.”
• The purpose of this approach is critical analysis, that is, to
accord every learner with an opportunity to achieve his fullest
capability.
• This is emphasized by James Bank (1997) when he stressed
that the underlying goal of multicultural education is to help
students develop decision-making and social
action skills.
 By doing so, students learn to view events and
situations from a variety of perspectives or develop
the skill to see reality from multiple perspectives, not
only from the perspective of dominant groups. More
importantly, they realize that they can use various
lenses in seeing the world.
 Principle 6:
Multicultural education is
education for social justice
• Multicultural education is one approach to address the
problems that ethnic groups experience within the school
system.
• It is founded on the noble idea that all students deserve the
best possible education regardless of their differences.
• Multicultural education is important because it gives visibility
and voice to underrepresented student groups with in the
educational system.
• It is to be stressed, however, that a multicultural perspective
presumes that teachers should not simply allow critical
discussions that focus on social justice because social justice
becomes an empty concept in this situation. Merely allowing the
critical discourse is to incessantly welcome them inside the
classroom.
• These discussions should center on concerns that affect
culturally diverse communities, such as poverty,
marginalization, discrimination, and what
students can do to change them.
 Principle 7:
Multicultural education is
important for all students
• One misconception about multicultural education is the
widespread perception that it is only for culturally different or
disadvantaged students.
• The misconception spread because the primary objective of
multicultural education was to address the needs of students
who historically had been neglected or “miseducated” by
schools.
• However, multicultural education is for and about
all people, irrespective of their differences in
language, ethnicity, gender identity, sexual
orientation, religion, and the like.
• Multicultural education advocates positive change for persons
of all cultures.
• It does not only teaches the majority groups about their
minority counterparts, but also teaches the minority groups
about majority groups.
• Also, multicultural education is not only for the culturally
different or disadvantaged but also for the students from the
dominant culture because they are
generally the most miseducated about diversity.
 Goals
of
Multicultural
Education
1. The supreme aim of multicultural
education is to assist learners obtain better
self-understanding by looking at themselves
from the standpoint of other cultures.
As the beneficiaries of this new approach to education, the students are
expected to gain many things. They include, among others:
1. changing their experiences about themselves,
others, and their world although different from
others;
2. appreciating their uniqueness;
3. celebrating their differences and ensuring respect
and tolerance of these differences; and
4. developing the capacity to understand and
challenge broader societal issues or social ills, like
inequality, injustice, prejudices, and oppressions.
2. Multicultural education presupposes that
with proper orientation and understanding
of diversity, respect may follow.
• A person exposed to different cultures through multicultural education
may recognize that previous mindset or beliefs about a particular
ethnic group or a specific kind of behaviour may be inaccurate,
inappropriate, or without foundation.
• In such case, individuals may develop respect for others and
experience personal change, that is, they alter the way they perceive
others, and themselves, as well as how they process those
perceptions.
• They may also handle more culturally complex
stimuli, to be more accurate in their interpretations
of other’s behaviour and thus deal more effectively
with the differences they encounter
3. To provide students with cultural
and ethnic alternatives.
• Those who promote multicultural education believe that education should
strike more of a balance of all cultures (equal presentation) and that
attention should be given to developing curriculum and materials that
reflect students’ histories, cultures, and experiences.
• To do this, a multiculturally sensitive education does not just solely
subscribe to mainstream ways of knowing; instead, teachers craft
authentic knowledge regarding different ethnic groups and make them
accessible to students.
• It also takes into account the cultures, languages,
and experiences of all students and uses them
as instruments to empower them for productive and
meaningful lives.
4. To afford all learners with the essential
knowledge, skills, and values needed to function
within their ethnic culture, within mainstream
culture, and within and across other ethnic
cultures.
• All good education needs to take into account the diversity of students in school.
• Although every student in school is unique with different cultural backgrounds,
they could possibly all fit together and healthily co-exist to form one unit and still
keep their own identity, language, belief system, and so on.
• Multicultural education is a good pedagogy for such pluralist composition of
students.
• By incorporating a multicultural dimension to their curricula, teachers can assist
learners understand how each individual fits into the big picture of society.
• It also allows every student to see a reflection of
him within the school curriculum and understand
his role in the changing world.
5. To lessen the pain and inequality that members
of some ethnic and racial groups experience
because of their unique physical, ethnic, racial,
and cultural characteristics.
• The core teaching of multicultural education is about
making equitable, healthy, and fair learning environments
for all students in a learning community.
• It develops deep understanding of the process of creating
an unbiased learning environment.
• It also connects curriculum development to pedagogy,
classroom climate, and context for a broad vision of
“equitable learning environment.”
Dimensions
of
Multicultural
Education
Banks and Banks (1993) presented five key dimensions of
multicultural education. The integration and interrelationship
of these five dimensions are the means to reach the goal of
multicultural education. These key dimensions are:
1. Content Integration
2. Knowledge Construction
3. Prejudice Reduction
4. Equity Pedagogy
5. Empowering School Culture
1. Content Integration
• This dimension is concerned with the extent to which
educators present multiple perspectives on issues, concept,
and problems to their students.
• To do this, educators must use examples, data, and
information from a variety of culture and groups to illustrate
key concepts, principles, generalizations, and theories in
their subject area or discipline.
2. Knowledge Construction
• In this dimension, educators help children understand how knowledge is created and
influenced by racial, ethnic, and social class to build knowledge for themselves
through critical thinking skills.
• It is consistent with the basic idea that knowledge is generated socially and culturally.
• A very important concept in this dimension is the ability of educators to assist
learners to explore, to prove, and to determine how stereotypes and previously held
beliefs of a discipline or subject area influence.
• The ways in which knowledge is constructed. For instance, indigenous knowledge is
set aside or becomes “subjugated knowledge” because of the supremacy of science
and technology in explaining realities in life.
• This is vividly seen in school practice, emphasizing the use
of experimentation and empirical observation in explaining
all human concerns and issues.
3. Prejudice Reduction
• As one of the key dimensions, this component look into the extent to
which teachers utilize teaching and learning approaches that will allow
students to develop more democratic attitudes and values.
• Educators oath to use lessons and activities to help students develop
positive attitudes towards differences and to reduce prejudices.
• It also involves the development of positive relationship among children
of diversity.
• Interestingly, students can be assisted to nurture more positive ethnic
or racial attitudes of realistic image about this
ethnic and racial groups are incorporated
in teaching material in reliable, natural, integrated fashion.
4. Equity Pedagogy
• This dimension focuses on the extent to which teachers use methods
and approaches to enhance the academic success of all students from
different backgrounds 9ethnic, gender, race, etc.)
• In this dimension, educators should modify their instruction to facilitate
academic achievement of all minorities or subgroups.
• Teaching techniques that are found to be effective with students from
diverse racial, ethnic, and language groups are cooperative learning
techniques and other teaching strategies that build on learner curiosity,
individual learning styles, and learner’s conceptual
schemes.
5. Empowering School Culture
• This dimension examines the extent to which the culture of a school is
remodelled so that culturally different students may experience genuine
educational equality.
• It requires practices in school organization to be conducive to the growth
of children in all aspects of life.
• It necessitates the conceptualization of curricular reforms in school or
making structural changes in the school environment.
• The purpose of curricular reforms and structural changes is to give equal
opportunities to minorities, which is a prerequisite
for successful studying.
 To implement these five dimensions of multicultural education,
however, Banks (2002) asserted that schools and other educational
institutions must be reformed so that students from all cultural
groups will have equal opportunities to learn and experience cultural
empowerment. Teachers should also help students develop more
democratic values and beliefs as well as the knowledge, skills, and
attitudes needed to function cross-culturally.