Multicultural Education
...aintain a ‘multicultural school environment’, all aspects of the school had to be examined and transformed, including policies, teachers’ attitudes, instructional materials, assessment methods, counseling, and teaching styles” (Mitchell,1996:110). By the middle and late 1980’s, other K-12 teachers-turned-scholars provided more scholarship in multicultural education, developing new, deeper frameworks that were grounded in the ideal of equal educational opportunity and a connection between school transformation and social change. Meanwhile, the cultural landscape of the United States continued to become less visibly white Christian and more visibly rich with cultural, racial, ethnic, and religious diversity, underscoring the necessity for everyone to develop a set of skills and knowledge that the present system was failing to provide all students. These included creative and critical thinking skills, intercultural competence, and social and global awareness. The education system was not only plagued by unequal treatment of traditionally oppressed groups, but was also ill-equipped to prepare even the most highly privileged students to competently participate in an increasingly diverse society. In the 21st century, at a time when it is reported that minority students already “outnumber white students in twenty-five of the nations twenty-six largest urban school systems” (Robson,1998:211), and when it is estimated that “minority groups, taken together, will outnumber the current white majority in the overall population by 2056” (Robson,1998:211), never has the discussion about multicultural education been more intense. At the same time, never has the necessity to address the Harris 3 needs of non-English speaking immigrant children been more imperative. In fact, according to Mitchell and Salsbury (1996) “the number of language-minority students in the United States was estimated at 9.9 million in 1994” (p.223-224). Current Issues: Students from racial and ethnic minority backgrounds are more likely to be disproportionately placed in special education programs and classes. Some groups of students are under-represented in special education and over-represented in programs for gifted and talented students. Such disproportionate representation of minority groups is an ongoing national problem. Disproportionate representation is a complex problem, and fixing it calls for pervasive strategies. Reducing over-representation of minority students in special education calls for creating a successful school environment for all students and accurately distinguishing disabilities from cultural differences. It is important to understand that the risk of low academic performance and challenging behaviors does not reside solely within the child or family. Instructional, classroom and school variables can and do contribute to academic problems. Educators need to be aware of the cultural influences on behavior. They may need training to develop their knowledge of cultural beliefs, values, behaviors and expectations, as well as their own attitudes, values and perspectives toward diversity. They should know how to use cross-cultural communication skills with students, families and community members and be able to develop, evaluate, and use multicultural curricula and interventions. Also, when a student's English proficiency is limited, it may be difficult for a teacher to tell if academic problems are due to a disability or a language difference. In such cases, the teacher must informally assess the student's English language proficiency. Enhancing traditional tests with other assessments such as classroom observations and performance measures can provide the information needed to develop appropriate lessons or identify alternative teaching strategies. For most children referred for evaluation, academic failure is related to problems in learning to read. It is crucial to emphasize reading and to have a strong array of alternate instructional strategies to address reading difficulties. Curricula should incorporate students' cultural backgrounds, be relevant to their lives, and build on their experiences. Multicultural Education and the Educator: Multicultural education helps Harris 4 students attain the skills and perceptions needed to function effectively within their own ethnic cultures, other ethnic cultures, and the common culture. It demands that cultural pluralism become an integral part of the educational process at every level. Educators must be trained to recognize, accept, and value the cultural differences of students. They must be taught to continue to search out the historical truths. They must teach all subjects from several ethnic or cultural perspectives with the Anglo-American perspective being only one of those groups rather than the dominant, superior group. Emphasis on intercultural acceptance among all groups is badly needed if we expect to enable new generations to reduce ethnocentrism and understand the world through the eyes of other people. Cognitive learning about the contributions of each other’s culture is only the first step. Acceptance, as a value, must pass beyond mere toleration of others and provide for internalization of such an effective value. In this way we can arrive at the stage of working and living together without the obstacles of scapegoating, stereotyping, discrimination, and prejudice that prevent effective human interrelationships (Gollnick & Klassen, 1976: 84). Multicultural teacher education not only should provide teachers with the competence to recognize, accept, and value the cultural and ethnic differences of students, but also provide an antidote to subtle racist communications and monocultural distortions of subject matter and curriculum materials. Approaches to Multicultural Education: Since the Civil Rights years, major controversies have ensued regarding the multicultural content of textbooks and curriculum materials. Many school districts have devised screening procedures in order to ensure that such materials ...