0.4 Multicultural education  (Page 6/12)

After encouraging the participants to convince you that "the Symbolic" is the most important category, refer them back to the lists.Several questions will lead to interesting conversations: When you meet somebody, which of those items (under any of the categories) do you use to understand them culturally? Is your attempt tounderstand others culturally consistent with how you want to be viewed and understood? What forces in our society might contribute to oursimplification of the culture of others, even though we don't want to be defined simplistically ourselves?

6. Alternative Consistency in Conceptualization for Groups of Educators . After recording how many participants define themselves most closely with the three categories, and facilitating the"why" discussion described above, turn to a conversation about education. Which of these categories do you, as an educator, focus on when you are tryingto teach multiculturally? (This question will provide an "aha" moment for a lot of participants. Allow a few moments for that to happen.) How haseducation generally tried to be "multicultural"? What are the aspects or dimensions of culture that we focus on in our classrooms when trying to be"multicultural"? Is this consistent with how we know people want to be defined?

This is especially powerful if you know that a certain school is stuck in the "additive" or "heroes and holidays" stage ofmulticultural development. Many schools have a multicultural festival or fair, and refer to that as "multicultural education."

7. Wrapping Up . To wrap up this exercise, you can lead a discussion on how the participants might try to make theirconceptualizations more consistent. Point out that this exercise is not meant to indict anyone, but rather to highlight how forces ranging from themedia to our own education can sometimes move us backward when we think we are experiencing progress in self and social development. The conversationsthat happen as a result of this activity can last 10 minutes or over an hour, depending on what questions you ask and what direction you take.

Notes for mentors

As with the rest of these activities, it is vital in both the short run and the long run to validate the views of the participants. Ifthey prefer to define themselves at the Concrete or the Behavioral level, do not challenge them directly about that. (This may happen with some youngerparticipant groups.) This activity can make some participants feel vulnerable, and it is important not to intensify that to the point that theyare no longer participating.

This activity has been especially valuable and successful with groups of pre-service or active teachers because it helpsto clarify multicultural education. Remember, there are a multitude of books on multicultural education out there that still present it as anadditive approach or multicultural festival. This activity challenges educators to rethink such a simplification and their own "multicultural"teaching practices.