Approaches to Multicultural Education Slides PDF

APPROACHES TO MULTICULTURAL EDUCATION INTRODUCTION This week's lesson focuses on approaches to multicultural education and how it is suggested that multicultural education can challenge discrimination based on race, gender, age, religion,...

APPROACHES TO MULTICULTURAL EDUCATION INTRODUCTION This week's lesson focuses on approaches to multicultural education and how it is suggested that multicultural education can challenge discrimination based on race, gender, age, religion, ability, or sexual orientation. We look at the four approaches as noted by Banks; contributions, additive, transformation, and social action, and how teachers can use these approaches to integrate multiculturalism into their curriculum LEARNING OBJECTIVES FOR THE WEEK At the end of the week, you should be able to: Describe the four approaches to multicultural education Analyse the strengths and weaknesses of each of the approach Apply the approaches to educational practices in South Africa THE MAINSTREAM-CENTRIC CURRICULUM The United States is made up of many different racial, ethnic, religious, language, and cultural groups. In the year 2000, people of color-such as African Americans, Latinos, and Asian Americans-made up 28 percent of the U.S. population. These groups are projected to make up 48 percent of the U.S. population by 2050 (Martin & Midgley, 1999). Despite the deepening ethnic texture within the United States, the U.S. school, college, and university mainstream curriculum is organized around concepts, paradigms, and events that reflect the experiences of mainstream Americans (Banks, 1996, 2004b) THE MAINSTREAM-CENTRIC CURRICULUM (CONT.) Progress has been made, and it should be acknowledged. However, the reforms have been neither as extensive nor as institutionalised as is needed, the process of curriculum transformation needs to continue. Curriculum transformation is a process that never ends because of the changes that are continuing within the United States and throughout the world (Banks, 2004a) THE MAINSTREAM-CENTRIC CURRICULUM (CONT.) A curriculum that focuses on the experiences of mainstream Americans and largely ignores the experiences, cultures, and histories of other ethnic, racial, cultural, language, and religious groups has negative consequences for both mainstream students and students of color. A mainstream-centric curriculum is one major way in which racism and ethnocentrism are reinforced and perpetuated in the schools, in colleges and universities, and in society at large. THE MAINSTREAM-CENTRIC CURRICULUM (CONT.) A mainstream-centric curriculum has negative consequences for mainstream students because it reinforces their false sense of superiority, gives them a misleading conception of their relationship with other racial and ethnic groups, and denies them the opportunity to benefit from the knowledge, perspectives, and frames of reference that can be gained from studying and experiencing other cultures and groups. A mainstream-centric curriculum also denies mainstream U.S. students the opportunity to view their culture from the perspectives of other cultures and groups THE MAINSTREAM-CENTRIC CURRICULUM (CONT.) When people view their culture from the point of view of another culture, they are able to understand their own culture more fully, to see how it is unique and distinct from other cultures, and to understand better how it relates to and interacts with other cultures. A mainstream-centric curriculum negatively influences students of colour, such as African Americans, Latinos, and Asian Americans. It marginalises their experiences and cultures and does not reflect their dreams, hopes, and perspectives. It does not provide them social equality within the school, an essential characteristic of democratic institutions (Gutmann, 2004). THE MAINSTREAM-CENTRIC CURRICULUM (CONT.) Students learn best and are more highly motivated when the school curriculum reflects their cultures, experiences, and perspectives. Many students of color are alienated in the school in part because they experience cultural conflict and discontinuities that result from the cultural differences between their school and community (Delpit & Dowdy, 2002). The school can help students of color mediate between their home and school cultures by implementing a curriculum that reflects the culture of their ethnic groups and communities. The school can and should make effective use of the community cultures of students of color when teaching them such subjects as writing, language arts, science, and mathematics (Delpit & Dowdy). DISCUSSION TASKS Do you think south Africa is implementing a Mainstream-centric curriculum ? Explain your answer giving examples from the South African Education System Are there alternatives that can be implemented to cater for the different ethnic groups in South Africa EFFORTS TO ESTABLISH A MULTICULTURAL CURRICULUM Since the civil rights movement of the 1960s, educators have been trylng, in various ways,to better integrate the school curriculum with multicultural content and to move away from a mainstream-centric and Eurocentric curriculum (Banks, 2002). These have proven to be difficult goals for schools to attain for many complex reasons. The strong assimilationist ideology embraced by most U.S. educators is one major reason (Banks, 2001). EFFORTS TO ESTABLISH A MULTICULTURAL CURRICULUM (cont.) The assimilationist ideology makes it difficult for educators to think differently about how U.S. society and culture developed and to acquire a commitment to make the curriculum multicultural. Individuals who have a strong assimilationist ideology believe that most important events and developments in U.S. society are related to the nation's British heritage and that the contributions of other ethnic and cultural groups are not very significant by comparison. When educators acquire a multicultural ideology and conception of U.S. culture, they are then able to view the experiences and contributions of a wide range of cultural, ethnic, language, and religious groups as significant to the development of the United States. EFFORTS TO ESTABLISH A MULTICULTURAL CURRICULUM (cont.) Ideological resistance is a major factor that has slowed and is still slowing the development of a multicultural curriculum, but other factors have also affected its growth and development. Political resistance to a multicultural curriculum is closely related to ideological resistance. Many people who resist a multicultural curriculum believe that knowledge is power and that a multicultural perspective on U.S. society challenges the existing power structure. They believe that the dominant mainstream-centric curriculum supports, reinforces, and justifies the existing social, economic, and political structure. Multicultural perspectives and points of view, in the opinion of many observers, legitimize and promote social change and social reconstruction. EFFORTS TO ESTABLISH A MULTICULTURAL CURRICULUM (cont.) During the 1980s and 1990s a heated debate occurred about how much the curriculum should be Western and European-centric or reflect the cultural, ethnic, and racial diversity in the United States. At least three major positions in this debate can be identified. The Western traditionalists argue that the West, as defined and conceptualized in the past, should be the focus in school and college curricula because of the major influence of Western civilization and culture in the United States and throughout the world (Ravitch, 1990;Schlesinger, 1991). Afrocentric scholars contend that the contributions of Africa and of African peoples should receive major emphasis in the curriculum (Asante, 1998; Asante &Ravitch, 1991). The multiculturalists argue that although the West should receive a major emphasis in the curriculum, the West should be reconceptualized so that it reflects the contributions that people of color have made to the West (Zinn & Krschner, 1995). LEVELS OF INTEGRATION OF MULTICULTURAL CONTENT Teachers need in-depth knowledge about ethnic cultures and experiences to integrate ethnic content, experiences, and points of view into the curriculum. Many teachers tell their students that Columbus discovered America, and that America is a "new world" because they know little about the diverse Native American cultures that existed in the Americas more than 40,000 years before the Europeans began to settle in the Americas in significant numbers in the sixteenth century. As Gary Howard (1999) states in the title of his cogent and informative book, We Can't Teach What We Don't Know LEVELS OF INTEGRATION OF MULTICULTURAL CONTENT Banks's Four Levels of Integration of Multicultural Content The contributions approach The Additive Approach The Transformation Approach The Social Action Approach THE CONTRIBUTIONS APPROACH The contributions approach to integration is frequently used when a school or district first attempts to integrate multicultural content into the mainstream curriculum. It is characterized by the insertion of ethnic heroes, heroines and discrete cultural artifacts into the curriculum, selected using criteria similar to those used to select mainstream heroes, heroines and cultural artifacts. An important characteristic of the contributions approach is that the mainstream curriculum remains unchanged in its basic structure, goals, and salient characteristics. Prerequisites for the implementation of this approach are minimal. They include basic knowledge about U.S. society and knowledge about ethnic heroes,heroines and their roles and contributions to U.S. society and culture. THE CONTRIBUTIONS APPROACH The contributions approach provides teachers with a way to integrate ethnic content into the curriculum quickly, thus giving some recognition to ethnic contributions to U.S. society and culture. Many teachers who are committed to integrating their curricula with ethnic content have little knowledge about ethnic groups and curriculum revision. Consequently, they use the contributions approach when teaching about ethnic groups. These teachers should be encouraged, supported, and pen the opportunity to acquire the knowledge and skills needed to reform their curricula by using one of the more effective approaches described later in this chapter. The contributions approach The contributions approach is also the easiest approach for teachers to use to integrate the curriculum with multicultural content. However, this approach has several serious limitations. When the integration of the curriculum is accomplished primarily through the infusion of ethnic heroes, heroines and contributions, students do not attain a global view of the role of ethnic and cultural groups in U.S. society. Rather, they see ethnic issues and events primarily as an addition to the curriculum and consequently as an appendage to the main story of the development of the nation and to the core curriculum in the language arts, the social studies, the arts, and other subject areas The Additive Approach Another important approach to the integration of ethnic content into the curriculum is the addition of content, concepts, themes, and perspectives to the curriculum without changing its basic structure, purposes, and characteristics. The additive approach is often accomplished by the addition of a book, a unit, or a course to the curriculum without changing it substantially. The additive approach allows the teacher to put ethnic content into the curriculum without restructuring it, a process that would take substantial time, effort, and training as well as a rethinking of the curriculum and its purposes, nature, and goals. The additive approach can be the first phase in a transformative curriculum reform effort designed to restructure the total curriculum and to integrate it with ethnic content, perspectives, and frames of reference. The Additive Approach (cont.) However, this approach shares several disadvantages with the contributions approach. Its most important shortcoming is that it usually results in the viewing of ethnic content from the perspectives of mainstream historians, writers, artists, and scientists because it does not involve a restructuring of the curriculum. The events, concepts, issues, and problems selected for study are selected using mainstream-centric and Eurocentric criteria and perspectives. The Transformation Approach The transformation approach differs fundamentally from the contributions and additive approaches. In those two approaches, ethnic content is added to the mainstream core curriculum without changng its basic assumptions, nature, and structure. The fundamental goals,structure, and perspectives of the curriculum are changed in the transformation approach. The Transformation Approach (cont.) The transformation approach changes the basic assumptions of the curriculum and enables students to view concepts, issues, themes, and problems from several ethnic perspectives and points of view. The mainstream-centric perspective is one of only several perspectives from which issues, problems, concepts, and issues are viewed. Richard White (1991), a historian of the American West, indicates how viewing the American West from a transformative perspective can provide new insights into U.S. history The Transformation Approach (cont.) It is neither possible nor desirable to view every issue, concept, event, or problem from the point of view of every U.S. ethnic and cultural group. Rather, the goal should be to enable students to view concepts and issues from more than one perspective and from the point of view of the cultural, ethnic, and racial groups that were the most active participants in, or were most cogently influenced by, the event, issue, or concept being studied. The Social Action Approach The social action approach includes all the elements of the transformation approach but adds components that require students to make decisions and take actions related to the concept, issue, or problem studied in the unit (Banks & Banks, Clegg, 1999). Major goals of instruction in this approach are to educate students for social criticism and social change and to teach them decision-making skills. To empower students and help them acquire political efficacy, the school must help them become reflective social critics and skilled participants in social change. The traditional goal of schooling has been to socialize students so they would accept unquestioningly the existing ideologies, institutions, and practices within society and the nation-state (Banks, 2004a; Hahn,1998). GUIDELINES FOR TEACHING MULTICULTURAL CONTENT The following guidelines are designed to help you better integrate content about racial, ethnic, cultural, and language groups into the school curriculum and to teach effectively in multicultural environments’ If you have the necessary knowledge, attitudes, and skills,when you encounter racist content in materials or observe racism in the statements and behavior of students, you can use these situations to teach important lessons about the experiences of ethnic, racial, and cultural groups GUIDELINES FOR TEACHING MULTICULTURAL CONTENT Knowledge about ethnic groups is needed to teach ethnic content effectively. Make sure that your classroom conveys positive and complex images of various ethnic groups. You can do this by displaying bulletin boards, posters, and calendars that show the racial, ethnic and religious diversity. Be judicious in your choice and use of teaching materials. Some materials contain both subtle and blatant stereotypes of groups. Point out to the students when an ethnic, racial, cultural, or language group is stereotyped, omitted from, or described in materials from Anglocentric and Eurocentric points of view (see more guidelines on page 259 to 260 of the chapter by BANKS ON MOODLE )