3.- THE
CHALLENGE OF DEFINING "MULTICULTURAL EDUCATION"
By Paul C. Gorski
Since its earliest
conceptualizations in the 1960s, multicultural education has evolved both in
theory and in practice. It is rare that any two classroom teachers or education
scholars will share the same definition for multicultural education. As with
any dialogue on education, individuals tend to mold concepts to fit their
particular contexts and disciplines.
Some discuss multicultural
education as a shift in curriculum, perhaps as simple as adding new and diverse
materials and perspectives to be more inclusive of traditionally
underrepresented groups. Others talk about classroom climate issues or teaching
styles. Still others focus on institutional and systemic issues such as
tracking, standardized testing, or funding discrepancies. Some go farther
still, insisting on education change as part of a larger societal
transformation in which we more closely explore and criticize the oppressive
foundations of the world around us and how education serves to maintain the
status quo -- foundations such as white supremacy, global socioeconomic
conditions, and exploitation.
Despite differing
conceptualizations of multicultural education (some of which will be laid out
more fully below), several shared ideals provide a basis for its understanding.
While some focus on individual students or teachers, and others 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 competently participate in an increasingly intercultural society.
• Teachers
must be prepared to effectively facilitate learning for every individual
student, no matter how culturally
similar or different 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 reexamining all educational practices and how they
affect the learning of all students: assessment methods, pedagogies, school psychology and counseling
practices, educational materials and
textbooks, and so on.
While
it is important to develop a deeper understanding of the various models of multicultural education and where these
points fit into them, I feel it is equally important
that I, as the site author, equip the user with my own working definition.
II. A Working
Definition of Multicultural Education
Multicultural education is a
progressive approach for transforming education that holistically critiques and
responds to discriminatory policies and practices in education. It is grounded
in ideals of social justice, education equity, critical pedagogy, and a
dedication to providing educational experiences in which all students reach
their full potentials as learners and as socially aware and active beings,
locally, nationally, and globally. Multicultural education acknowledges that schools
are essential to laying the foundation for the transformation of society and
the elimination of injustice.
The underlying goal of
multicultural education is to affect social change. The pathway toward this
goal incorporates three strands of transformation:
1. The
transformation of self;
2. The
transformation of schools and schooling; and
3. The
transformation of society.
1. The
Transformation of Self
As an educator, I have a dual
responsibility to engage in a critical and continual process to examine how my
socializations and biases inform my teaching and thus affect the educational
experiences of my students. I have a responsibility to myself to examine the
lenses through which I understand the people and happenings around me. Only
when I have a sense for how my own perceptions are developed in relation to my
life experiences will I begin to understand the world and effectively navigate
my relationships with the people around me. I also have a responsibility to my
students to work toward eliminating my prejudices, examining who is (and is
not) being reached by my teaching, and relearning how my identity affects their
learning experiences. To be an effective multicultural educator I must be in a
constant process of self-examination and transformation.
2. The
Transformation of Schools and Schooling
Multicultural education calls for
a critical examination of all aspects of schooling. Aspects of multicultural
school transformation include the following:
A. Student-Centered Pedagogy
·
The
experiences of students must be brought to the fore in the classroom, making
learning active, interactive, relevant, and engaging.
·
Traditional
teaching approaches and pedagogical models must be deconstructed to examine how
they contribute to and support institutional systems of oppression.
·
Known
oppressive practices like tracking (even if informal) must be exposed and
critically examined.
·
All
aspects of teaching and learning in schools must be refocused on, and
rededicated to, the students themselves instead of standardized test scores and
school rankings.
·
Emphasis
should be placed on critical thinking, learning skills, and deep social
awareness as well as facts and figures.
·
Pedagogy
must provide all students with the opportunity to reach their potential as
learners.
B. Multicultural Curriculum
All
curricula must be analyzed for accuracy and completeness.
All
subjects must be presented from diverse perspectives -- this is related to
accuracy and completeness.
"Inclusive
curriculum" also means including the voices of the students in the
classroom.
Concepts
such as "the canon" and "classic literature" must be
interrogated, again with the
idea of accuracy and completeness, to debunk perceptions such as that the only "great literature" came from
the
C. Inclusive Educational Media and
Materials
Educational
materials should be inclusive of diverse voices and perspectives.
Students
must be encouraged to think critically about materials and media:
Whose
voices are they hearing? Whose voices are they not hearing? Why did that company produce that film? What is the bias
this author may bring to her or his writing?
D. Supportive
School and Classroom Climate
Teachers
must be better prepared to foster a positive classroom climate for all
students.
Overall
school cultures must be examined closely to determine how they might be cycling and supporting oppressive societal
conditions.
Administrative
hierarchies in schools must be examined to assess whether they produce positive teaching environments for all
teachers.
E. Continual Evaluation and Assessment
Educators and education
researchers must continue to examine the emphasis on standardized test scores
and develop more just alternatives for measuring student "achievement," "ability,"
or "potential."
Continuing evaluation must be in
place to measure the success of new and existing programs meant to provide more opportunities to groups traditionally
and presently underrepresented in
colleges and universities.
3. The
Transformation of Society
Ultimately, the goal of
multicultural education is to contribute to the transformation of society and
to the application and maintenance of social justice and equity. This stands to
reason, as the transformation of schools necessarily transforms a society that
puts so much stock in educational attainment, degrees, and test scores. In
fact, it is particularly this competitive, market-centric hegemony underlying
the dominant mentality of the
Educators, educational theorists,
researchers, activists, and everyone else must continue to practice and apply
multicultural teaching and learning principles both inside and out of the
classroom. We must not allow the knowledge that the vast majority of schools
are well-intentioned lead us to assume that our schools are immune to the
oppression and inequity of society. We must ask the unaskable questions. We
must explore and deconstruct structures of power and privilege that maintain
the status quo.
In a sense, multicultural
education uses the transformation of self and school as a metaphor and point of
departure for the transformation of society. Ultimately, social justice and
equity in schools can, and should, mean social justice and equity in society.
Only then will the purpose of multicultural education be fully achieved.
© Paul C. Gorski, 1995-2010