James A.

Banks
 Banks is known for his ground breaking work in social
studies education and especially in the field of
multicultural education
Banks has written widely in the fields of multicultural education, citizenship
education, and social studies education. His books include:

 Global Migration, Diversity, and Civic Education: Improving Policy and

Practice.
 Encyclopedia of Diversity in Education

 Cultural Diversity and Education: Foundations, Curriculum, and Teaching (6th

edition)
 Multicultural Education: Issues and Perspectives (9th edition), co-editor
 Teaching Strategies for Ethnic Studies (8th edition)
 Educating Citizens in a Multicultural Society (2nd edition)
 Diversity and Citizenship Education: Global Perspectives
 Race, Culture, and Education: The Selected Works of James A. Banks

 Handbook of Research on Multicultural Education (2nd edition), editor

 Routledge International Companion to Multicultural Education, editor
 Citizenship Education and Global Migration: Implications for Theory,
Research and Teaching
 It is a process that permeates all aspects of school practices, policies and
organization as a means to ensure the highest levels of academic achievement for
all students. It helps students develop a positive self-concept by providing
knowledge about the histories, cultures, and contributions of diverse groups.

 It prepares all students to work actively toward structural equality in

organizations and institutions by providing the knowledge, dispositions, and skills
for the redistribution of power and income among diverse groups.

 Thus, school curriculum must directly address issues of racism, sexism, classism,
linguicism, ablism, ageism, heterosexism, religious intolerance, and xenophobia.
 Multicultural education advocates the belief that students and their life histories
and experiences should be placed at the center of the teaching and learning
process and that pedagogy should occur in a context that is familiar to students and
that addresses multiple ways of thinking. In addition, teachers and students must
critically analyze oppression and power relations in their communities, society and
the world.

 To accomplish these goals, multicultural education demands a school staff that is

culturally competent, and to the greatest extent possible racially, culturally, and
linguistically diverse. Staff must be multi-culturally literate and capable of
including and embracing families and communities to create an environment that
is supportive of multiple perspectives, experiences, and democracy.

.
 Multicultural education requires comprehensive school reform as
multicultural education must pervade all aspects of the school
community and organization.

 Recognizing that equality and equity are not the same thing,
multicultural education attempts to offer all students an equitable
educational opportunity, while at the same time, encouraging
students to critique society in the interest of social justice
 It is a concept in sociology in which an ethnic
minority adopts the beliefs, languages, and customs of
the dominant community, losing their own culture in
the process. This phenomenon usually occurs when
two or more communities come into contact with each
other, due to a shared geographical boundary, or
immigration. Once this happens, they cannot help but
affect each others culture.
 The world we live in is better connected today than ever before. Improved
transportation and communication systems, interlinked economies, and plain
technological improvements have ensured that more people travel across the
globe for the purpose of education and employment.

 This has not only increased awareness among distant cultures for each other, but
has even brought them closer together. Compared to the past, when the only
influence a society had was on its neighbor, all modern cultures share common
influences, resulting in the birth of a global society.

 As a result of such close interaction, it is obvious that different communities will

have an impact on each others customs. The phenomenon of cultural assimilation is
an example of such an interaction.
 Cultural pluralism believes that all ethnic and national minorities deserve the
freedom to follow their own cultures within a dominant society, while, at the same
time, contributing to society as a whole. Basically, this means that different cultures
should peacefully coexist with each other.

The melting pot theory advocates a blending of all cultures to form a resultant,
homogeneous culture, which is unique and different from all the original cultures.
 Cultural pluralism is often compared to a bowl of salad or a mosaic. Just like a
bowl of salad is not homogeneous, and each of its ingredients retains its character
despite contributing to the overall flavor, a pluralistic society shows the
contribution of different cultures, which maintain their individuality.

 A melting pot, like its name suggests, is compared to a metallurgical melting pot
or boiling stew. Just as meat and vegetables completely lose their identity after
boiling, and form a new substance called a stew, and different metals mix together
in a melting pot to form a completely new alloy, the melting pot model forms a
unique society from the mixture of all cultures, but is similar to none.
 Cultural pluralism takes place in the context of a region or society
having one dominant culture, along with other ethnic and national
minorities. Despite this, both, the majority and minority groups retain
their individuality without transgressing on each other.

While the melting pot model supports the formation of a unique

society, in reality, such blends usually show the dominant group
subordinating other cultures because of its prevalence in the region.
 Cultural pluralism is based on the principle that, one, each individual belongs to
an ethnic group which is not easy to give up, and two, such differences should be
respected because they contribute to a varied society.

The melting pot theory basically believes that a homogeneous culture is vital for
a healthy society, and any differences between cultures should be minimized for
their peaceful integration into the mainstream.
 Cultural pluralism is regarded as an ideal model for society in modernized
countries today which draw a huge number of immigrants from different racial,
ethnic, national, and religious groups.

Despite being promoted in the past, the melting pot theory is widely criticized
today for its notions of racial and cultural bias.

The United States is sometimes called a 'melting pot' of cultures, and, on other
occasions, a 'pluralistic' society. Whatever be the pros and cons of both these
models, it is widely believed that both have played a role in shaping the country's
modern society.
 PURPOSE
 The purpose of Multicultural Education is to challenge and reject racism,
prejudices, biases, stereotyping, and all forms of discrimination in schools and
society

 Professional development programs should help teachers understand the

complex characteristics of ethnic groups within the society and the ways in which
race, ethnicity, language, and social class interact to influence student behaviour
 Multicultural education is basic education

 Schools should ensure that all students have equitable opportunities to learn and to
meet high standards and it is as important as developing competence in reading,
writing, arithmetic skills, social skills, and computer literacy. It means opening a
variety of cultural perspectives and experiences or inclusion.

Multicultural education is a process of wide ranging school reform

 Schools should provide all students with opportunities to participate in extra- and
cocurricular activities that develop knowledge, skills, and attitudes that increase
academic achievement and foster positive interracial relationships.

Multicultural education is a political movement

 The curriculum should help students understand that knowledge is socially
constructed and reflects researchers' personal experiences as well as the social,
political, and economic contexts in which they live and work.
 Multicultural education is a critical pedagogy
Schools should create or make salient superordinate crosscutting group
memberships in order to improve intergroup relations.

Multicultural education is a education for social justice

Students should learn about stereotyping and other related biases that have negative
effects on racial and ethnic relations.

Multicultural education is important for all students

Students should learn about the values shared by virtually all cultural groups (e.g.,
justice, equality, freedom, peace, compassion, and charity).
Content integration,
Knowledge construction process
Prejudice reduction,
Equity pedagogy,
Empowering school culture and social structure
 Content integration deals with the extent to which
teachers use examples and content from a variety of
cultures and groups to illustrate key concepts,
generalizations, and issues within their subject areas
or disciplines.
The knowledge construction process describes how
teachers help students to understand, investigate,
and determine how the biases, frames of reference,
and perspectives within a discipline influence the
ways in which knowledge is constructed within it.
Students also learn how to build knowledge
themselves in this dimension.
 Prejudice reduction describes lessons and activities used
by teachers to help students to develop positive attitudes
toward different racial, ethnic, and cultural groups.
Research indicates that children come to school with many
negative attitudes toward and misconceptions about
different racial and ethnic groups.
 Research also indicates that lessons, units, and teaching
materials that include content about different racial and
ethnic groups can help students to develop more positive
intergroup attitudes if certain conditions exist in the
teaching situation
 These conditions include positive images of the ethnic
groups in the materials and the use of multiethnic materials
in a consistent and sequential way.
 An equity pedagogy exists when teachers modify their
teaching in ways that will facilitate the academic
achievement of students from diverse racial, cultural, and
social-class groups. The students from different racial and
ethnic groups must feel that they have equal status in
intergroup interactions, teachers and administrators must
value and support cross-racial interactions, and students
from different racial groups must work together in teams to
pursue common goals.
 An empowering school culture and social structure is created when the culture and
organization of the school are transformed in ways that enable students from diverse
racial, ethnic, and gender groups to experience equality and equal status. The
implementation of this dimension requires that the total environment of the school be
reformed, including the attitudes, beliefs, and action of teachers and administrators,
the curriculum and course of study, assessment and testing procedures, and the
styles and strategies used by teachers.

To implement multicultural education effectively, teachers and administrators must

attend to each of the five dimensions of multicultural education described above.
They should use content from diverse groups when teaching concepts and skills,
help students to understand how knowledge in the various disciplines is
constructed, help students to develop positive intergroup attitudes and behaviours,
and modify their teaching strategies so that students from different racial, cultural,
and social-class groups will experience equal educational opportunities
 The Contributions Approach
 This approach reflects the least amount of involvement in multicultural education
approaches. This is incorporated by selecting books and activities that celebrate
holidays, heroes, and special events from various cultures

The Additive Approach

In this approach content, concepts, themes, and perspectives are added to the
curriculum without changing its basic structure. This involves incorporating
literature by and about people from diverse cultures into the mainstream curriculum
without changing the curriculum

The Transformation Approach

This approach actually changes the structure of the curriculum and encourages
students to view concepts, issues, themes, and problems from several ethnic
perspectives and points of view
 Decision-Making and Social Action Approach
 This approach combines the transformation approach with
activities to strive for social change. Students are not only
instructed to understand and question social issues, but to
also do something about important about it.