Conner 1

Trinity Conner

Humanities

Indira Hood-Esparza

March 7th 2018

Multicultural Education

“The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically.

Intelligence plus character- that is the goal of true education.” - Martin Luther King Jr. This kind

of education is not happening in United States public schools. The closest thing we have are the

Common Core State Standard which only focuses on creating a more equitable experience for

English language learners and students with disabilities. The Common Core State Standard is a

step in the right direction, but making education equitable for all requires more than just common

core. “Multicultural Education is a progressive approach for transforming education based on

educational equality and social justice. The components required in educating a multicultural

education are content integrations, prejudice reduction, empowering school culture and social

culture” (Lynch). Multicultural education is beneficial to every student and should be

implemented in schools because it teaches students about acceptance and diversity, creates

equitable educational opportunities and drives student growth and achievement.

Students are taught about acceptance and diversity through multicultural education by

being able to interact with and understand their peers of different backgrounds. “Another value

of multicultural education is that-especially when those otherwise underrepresented groups are

brought into texts and lessons- students are offered more opportunity to see positive

representations of themselves, leading students to ‘greater self-understanding, positive self-

concepts, and pride in one’s ethnic identity’” (“Diversity, Community and Achievement” 94).
 Conner 2

Multicultural education not only promotes the acceptance of other cultures different from your

own, but also helps people to better understand their own culture. It helps students to develop a

positive cultural identity, and step away from stereotypes they made have heard about their

culture which can impact what they believe their academic ability to be. “The intent of

multicultural education is to teach youths to respect ethnic pluralism, to realize that cultural

differences are not synonymous with deficiencies or inferiorities and to recognize that diversity

is an integral part of the human condition and U.S. life” (“Diversity, Community and

Achievement” 94). By teaching our youth about cross-culturalism in schools it will help them

interact with others and better prepare them for navigating the adult world where they may have

to deal with people from cultures they have never interacted with before, “Multicultural

education teaches students concrete techniques for interacting with people who are different from

themselves. This teaches many important skills such as understanding alternate points of view

and analyzing how cultural conditions affect values, attitudes, beliefs, preferences, expectations

and behaviors.” (“Diversity, Community and Achievement” 94). Students will be well versed in

empathy and critical thinking if multicultural education is implemented into schools, they will be

able to compare and think critically about their different peers how how their culture affects who

they are and what they believe. Understanding these differences and key factors that make up the

diverse range of people in America students can learn valuable life skills that will assist them in

real world interactions with people of different backgrounds.

Multicultural education makes for an equal learning experience for all because it gives

students a chance to learn about their history and different aspects of historical events that may

relate to them. It also promotes the same quality of education regardless of race or background.

“Multicultural education is a beginning step to shifting the balance of power and privilege within
 Conner 3

the education system” (Garcia). As opposed to students only learning the “European” perspective

of historical events they will learn history by comparing and contrasting multiple perspectives

which will promote critical thinking. Many middle class White children understand their history

fairly well because it is all that is focused on in school, many Latino or Black students may not

know how much people from their race contributed to American society in a positive way and

not just a negative way. “Textbook images and representations exclude, distort and marginalize

women, people of color, and people from lower socioeconomic echelons. A growing proportion

of textbooks do include diversity but their images and representations tend to be superficial and

incorrect” (Swartz 1992). Many students do not have access to textbooks, so the materials used

in class should be different books/articles/movies that depict history from multiple perspectives

so that all students get the same quality of education about the different cultures without the

textbook bias. “On the one hand, a teacher who views multicultural education as the ultimate

goal of his or her classroom might end the year with self-confident, culturally aware students

who cannot read. On the other hand a teacher who ignores the strategies and benefits of

multicultural education altogether could easily end the year not reaching the students reading

goals because students have not become as invested in the goals themselves as they would have

if the classroom had been more inclusive” (“Diversity, Community and Achievement” 96). The

best motivation for students to learn is for them to be interested in what their learning. For

example, a student may not finish a book if they find it boring or tedious, but if they really

connect to the characters and care about the topic their reading about they are more likely to

finish the book. Finding a balance between rigorous academics and keeping students interested is

key when implementing multicultural education, when you teach inclusiveness you give a voice
 Conner 4

and reach students who may not have ever met their potential without that voice that was given

to them.

Student growth and achievement is greatly impacted by the more diverse learning

techniques used in multicultural education as opposed to the traditional way of learning

implemented now. These techniques result in higher teacher effectiveness. “By creating an

atmosphere or achievement that is inclusive of all cultures and perspectives, a teacher helps

students overcome some of the challenges to hard work and learning (lack of motivation, low

expectations, low self-esteem) that may hold them back” (“Diversity, Community and

Achievement” 95). If the topics matter to students they are more likely to be passionate about

them. If students see people they can relate to in the materials their learning with it can boost

their self esteem which can help them to achieve their goals. “Multicultural education can

improve mastery of reading writing and mathematical skills such as problem solving, critical

thinking, and conflict resolution by providing content and techniques that are more meaningful to

the lives and frames of reference of ethnically different students” (Web). They can use these

skills and knowledge to develop ways to interact with others. This is important because positive

interactions between races helps promote inclusion and acceptance, being able to interact with

others in a positive way is a necessity for living in America. “Research suggests that

multicultural education leads to greater learning because it creates a more comfortable, inclusive,

supportive environment where students feel validated, and where their race, ethnicity, gender and

other identities are respected and valued” (“Diversity, Community and Achievement” 95).

Students feel more comfortable sharing their own experiences and values in a safe space where

they are not the minority. By being taught about things that they can actually relate to and mean

something to them, students are more eager to learn and in turn more successful in the classroom.
 Conner 5

Many educators believe that for multicultural education to be successful we need teachers

that want it to be successful. This new type of curriculum requires teachers to know a lot more

about cultures other than their own, and many teachers claim that because they teach at an all

white school, diversity in what they teach is not relevant or needed. It is not uncommon for

White people to grow up without talking about racism, consequently, they often do not see

multicultural education as relevant to themselves (“Relevant in an all-White School?”). Teachers

should want to teach their students about different cultures to help them have a well rounded

view of the world and their own racial identity. In Dave Lehman’s review of We Can’t Teach

What We Don’t Know White Teachers, Multiracial Schools by Gary Howard he quotes, “There is

a positive and healing privilege gained through our connection and collaboration with colleagues

and students from other racial, ethnic, and cultural groups. And there is joy in knowing that we

have chosen to be in this struggle, that we are apart of a movement to dismantle the foundation

of our own past and present dominance. The reward for transformative white educators is that we

have a vision worthy of a lifetime of work.” Multicultural education is important for every

student to experience because it teaches students about other cultures and how to interact with

them, makes education equal for all and motivates students to learn, including White students.

The book review also states, “By demystifying the cultural complexity of people classified as

White, and the hierarchy of groups created by racism, multicultural education will help White

students understand their own history, as well as the fact that the current social discourses against

diverse racial/ethnic gaps are very similar to the discriminatory discourses and practices that

their ancestors experienced in the past. This knowledge should help students become conscious

of the social and economic hardships non-white members of the student’s community face today,
 Conner 6

and discriminative social structures that suppress full participation of racially/ethnic different

others in society.”

We can implement multicultural education in every classroom regardless of the racial

makeup of students in that class. We should not stop striving for better education for the students

in the United States public schools. Every student deserves to learn and to be able to relate to his

or her culture and to feel comfortable discussing and sharing their culture with their peers and

their teachers.

Works Cited

Ascd. The Diverse Challenges of Multiculturalism,

 Conner 7

www.ascd.org/publications/newsletters/education-update/mar01/vol43/num02/The-

Diverse-Challenges-of-Multiculturalism.aspx.

Grant, Carl A. Research and Multicultural Education: from the Margins to the Mainstream.

Falmer Press, 1992.

Lehman, Dave. Review of We Can’t Teach What We Don’t Know White Teachers, Multiracial

Schools, NSRF Connections, Summer, 2012, p. 10-12.

“Multicultural Education Definition.” The Glossary of Education Reform, 30 Aug. 2013,

www.edglossary.org/multicultural-education/.

“Multicultural Education in Your Classroom.” TeachHUB, www.teachhub.com/multicultural-

education-your-classroom.

Multicultural Education in Elementary and Secondary Schools. ERIC Clearinghouse on Urban

Education, 1990.

“The National Association for Multicultural Education.” Relevant in an All-White School? -

NAME Learn, www.nameorg.org/learn/relevant_in_an_all-white_schoo.php.

“Redefining Leadership Through Multiculturalism.” Leadership in a Diverse and Multicultural

Environment: Developing Awareness, Knowledge, and Skills, pp. 151–164.,

doi:10.4135/9781483328966.n9.

“Teaching As Leadership.” Teaching As Leadership, www.teachingasleadership.org/.

“The Challenges of Multicultural Education.” Educational Research Newsletter and Webinars,

www.ernweb.com/educational-research-articles/the-challenges-of-multicultural-education/