SPSE 6810 - Multicultural Education

Multicultural Education

My own working definition ......

Multicultural Education is a style of teaching that requires a wide range of complex and different teaching strategies, ideas, outsourcing and supplemental material. It requires each child to be given the ideal learning situation regardless of race, gender, ethnicity, or background. The educator must focus on other cultures beside the mainstream culture in order to eliminate prejudice. This method of teaching must also continually change, improve, and be updated on a frequent basis.

My initial, personal, and reflective thoughts regarding the challenge of defining multicultural education ....

Initially, the term "multicultural education" makes me think solely of different races. I think this type of thinking could be a major challenge when defining multicultural education. Although multicultural education should include the traditions, ideas, and culture of other races, it is not limited to just this aspect of different races.

After taking the equity quiz, my eyes were opened to many other aspects of multicultural education. Although I figured I would be surprised by some of the correct answers to the quiz, I had no idea just how many of them I would miss! A couple of examples I'd like to share:

*SAT scores were highly based on family income

* The massive size of the US military budget

* There is no educational difference when a child is raised by a single parent or both parents

* The high percentage of homophobic remarks from teachers

* 2% of the world assesses the Internet

The above examples are also main points that make up the definition of multicultural education. After reading the material provided on this topic, I also found that the definition may also include teaching styles, different materials used inside of the classroom, different perspectives, and the implementation of outside resources such as counseling, therapy, and interpreters.

Challenges facing classroom teachers as they strive to implement multicultural practices in their classroom...

There are numerous challenges teachers must face when dealing with this topic. According to Paul C. Gorski's website, most curricula are necessarily built around textbooks and standardized tests. This obviously makes it difficult for a teacher to incorporate multicultural education. It will require a teacher to do additional work and research to try to "fit in" multicultural education. There is also a lack of training and preparation for developing multicultural curricula. A quick example I read about was the fact that there is not much material available on the Muslim culture. This leaves most students with the only information they have heard, which would be from the terrorist attack on 9-11.
A language barrier can also be a major hurdle a teacher may need to overcome. The blog posting from Louise Rocha McCarthy is a prime example. She discusses a situation where a student was "translating" to his mother that he was on the honor roll, when he was actually failing.
Kelly Wickham also blogged that teachers must become students themselves in order to become more educated on multiculturalism. I know this will be a challenge, because not all teachers are self motivated enough to go out and educate themselves.
I believe this topic will always be under debate and the definition will constantly be changing. It is important for educators to be researching and evaluating multicultural education on a regular basis.
I know in my personal teaching experiences, I have always done my best to bring outside sources into the classroom. I have taught abroad in three different countries, and while I try not to limit my knowledge to these three cultures, I always share my stories and travels with my students.After all, most teachers became teachers to educate young minds and to do so in the best manner possible. It might take extra work to fully understand and implement multicultural education, but it seems like something that is crucial to the educational world.

Michelle Samoray