0.4 Multicultural education

The multicultural quilt

Imagine a quilt and the various cultures and individual identities of our students as the individual panels that make upthe quilt. Each panel stands on its own, yet, side by side there is a relationship; they play off of one another and create the larger design ofthe whole tapestry or quilt.

Multiculturalism is about recognizing and appreciating the individual panels, while at the same time seeing thelarger whole and how the whole and the parts inter-play or create a kind of dialogue with one another.

Meeting the other Panels

How can we meet the other "panels" and appreciate the entire quilt? This section will give you some tools to see, listen, "enterin", and dialogue with the rest of the quilt.

Some discuss multicultural education as a shift in curriculum, perhaps as simple as adding new and diverse materials andperspectives to be more inclusive of traditionally underrepresented groups. Others talk about classroom climate issues or teaching styles thatserve certain groups while presenting barriers for others. Still others focus on institutional and systemic issues such as tracking, standardizedtesting, or funding discrepancies. Some go farther still, insisting on education change as part of a larger societal transformation in which wemore closely explore and criticize the oppressive foundations of society and how education serves to maintain the status quo - foundations such aswhite supremacy, capitalism, global socioeconomic situations, and exploitation.

Despite a multitude of differing conceptualizations of multicultural education (some of which will be laid out more fullybelow), several shared ideals provide a basis for its understanding. While some focus on individual students or teachers, andothers are much more "macro" in scope, these ideals are all, at their roots, about transformation:

•Every student must have an equal opportunity to achieve to her or his full potential.

•Every student must be prepared to participate competently in an increasingly intercultural society.

Teachers must be prepared to effectively facilitate learning for every individual student, no matter how culturally similar ordifferent from her- or himself.

•Schools must be active participants in ending oppression of all types; first by ending oppression within their own walls,then by producing socially and critically active and aware students.

•Education must become more fully student-centered and inclusive of the voices and experiences of the students.

•Educators, activists, and others must take a more active role in re-examining all educational practices and how they affectthe learning of all students: testing methods, teaching approaches, evaluation and assessment, school psychology and counseling,educational materials and textbooks, etc.

(adapted from Defining Multicultural Education by Paul Gorski and Bob Covert 1996, 2000 www.edchange.org)