0.4 Multicultural education  (Page 12/12)

Knowing the Community: Ethnicity Exercise

Name Stories

Sharing Ourselves:Who I Am Poem

Practical resources: looking within

Understanding Prejudice and Discrimination

Introduces concepts of prejudice and discrimination through self-reflection. Participants share stories regarding theirexperiences with prejudice or discrimination, as either victim or perpetrator.

Exploring Definitions

Considers language as a vital aspect of multicultural education and awareness. Participants discuss how they define words suchas prejudice, discrimination, racism, sexism, classism, and homophobia. Issues of power and institutional discrimination emerge.

Boy/Girl Pieces

Continues self-reflective processes as participants write and share short pieces about how their genderidentities were affected through childhood messages about what it meant to be a boy or a girl. This activity maintains a focus on talking about issuesfrom one's own experience instead of their perceptions of the experiences of "those people." (Adaptible for race, sexual orientation,socioeconomic class, religion, and other identifiers.)

Circles of My Multicultural Self

The Circles activity engages participants in a process of identifying what they consider to be the most importantdimensions of their own identity, while developing a deeper understanding of stereotypes as participants share stories about when they were proud tobe part of a particular group and when it was especially hurtful to be associated with a particular group.

PDF Files:

Understanding Prejudice and Discrimination

Exploring Definitions

Boy/Girl Pieces

Circles of My Multicultural Self

Assignment 6: reflection on concepts

To do this assignment, click on the Word icon below. When it appears, press "Save" so that you can work on this assignment"off-line."

Assignment 6: Reflection on Concepts

Please answer the following questions:

• Which concepts in this section on multicultural education fit with your current attitude towards and method of teaching? Explain.
• Are there concepts you disagree with in part or whole? Describe your reasons.
• Share your responses to questions 1 and 2 with your cohort.
• Have a dialogue with your cohort. What 3 or 4 new questions can your cohort come up with together to post on your learning circle's Question Wall? Who in your group will take responsibility for postingyour learning circle's multiculturalism questions?

The role of the archetype

What is an archetype?

An archetype is a mythic figure or image (either real, imagined, or historic) that can serve as a guide for you and your students inthinking about multiculturalism. For example, a teacher might introduce students to the life and work of Leonardo Da Vinci, a fifteenth-centuryItalian scientist, inventor, and artist. When he pondered a question or idea, Da Vinci rarely looked at it from a single perspective. In hisnotebooks, you see sketches of the same flower or a bird's wing drawn from several different points of view.

Da Vinci was an observer . Da Vinci was a recorder. Da Vinci asked questions. Da Vinci was curious . Da Vinci was a multi-dimensional learner in looking at things from several points of view.

This ability to look at things from multiple perspectives can serve as a guide when looking at and learning to appreciateand celebrate cultures. An image works just as well. For example, a quilt has distinctive panels (cultural identity), while at the same time thosepanels exist side-by side to make up an entire quilt (humanity).

Teachers and students can decide who or what will be the guiding mythic figure or image for exploring multiculturalism - either inadvance or during the course of study as it arises naturally.

TALK AT THE TWB LEARNING CAFE:

What mythic figure or image (either real, imagined, or historic) might serve as a guide for you and your students in their learning and thinking about cultural identity, dialogue, and multiculturalism? Read what others havesaid. Add your thoughts. Join your global colleagues in conversation at the TWB Learning Cafe.

HOW TO GET TO THE NEXT MODULE:

Usually, you just click "Next" to go to the next page. When you finish a section, however, (as you're about to do when you finishreading these two paragraphs), you need to click on the "Outline" button, which is on the bottom, right-hand side of the page. Look underneath the bluebar and click on the word "Outline."

When you click on "Outline," a screen will come up that will show you the outline for Course 4. Look for the next section to read andclick on the first topic in that next section. For example, when you get to the outline now, look under the next section called "To Know as We are Known" andlook for the first topic in black lettering called "Overview." Click on "Overview."