Multicultural+Education

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What is Multicultural Education?
Multicultural education relates to education and instruction designed for the cultures of several different races in an educational system. This approach to teaching and learning is based upon consensus building, respect, and fostering cultural pluralism within racial societies. Multiculturalism acknowledges and incorporates postitive racial idiosyncrasies into classroom atmospheres.



What Does Multicultural Education Mean to Teachers?
The cultural composition of American classrooms is changing (Woolfolk, 2010). Teachers need to change with the classroom composition and not expect students from other cultures to change their ways. Teachers need to be aware of the rules, traditions, beliefs, values, skills, and knowledge of the cultures represented in their classrooms (Woolfolk, 2010). First, teachers need to have an understanding of the difference between ethnicity and race. Anita Woolfolk (2010) defines the terms for us.
 * Ethnicity - A cultural heritage shared by a group of people.
 * Race - a socially constructed category based on appearances and ancestry.

Teachers need to teach students and possibly themselves not to be prejudice of any ethnicity or race. Woolfolk (2010) states by age 6, over half the White children in the United States have significant pro-White, anti-Black issues. Discrimination and sterotyping is something many school students face today. Educators need to develop classrooms free of discrimination, stereotyping, and hopefully prejudice. Woolfolk (2010) has accepted James Banks's five dimensions of multicultural education. Bank's believes to make education appropriate for all students schools must take five dimensions into consideration. The five dimensions are as follows:
 * 1) **Content Integration** - Using examples and content from a variety of cultures when teaching a subject.
 * 2) **The Knowledge Construction Process**- Helping students understand how the cultural assumptions within a discipline influence the ways that knowledge is constructed within it.
 * 3) **Prejudice Reduction**- Identifying the characteristics of students' racial attitudes and determining how they can be modified by teaching.
 * 4) **An Empowering School Culture and Social Structure**- Examining group and labeling practices, sports participation, and the interaction of the staff and the students across ethnic and racial lines to create a school culture that empowers students from all groups.
 * 5) **An Equity Pedagogy** - Matching teaching styles to students' learning styles in order to facilitate the academic achievement of students from diverse reacial, cultural, and social class groups.

(Bennett, 1995)
 * 1) Create a learning environment that supports positive interracial contact.
 * 2) Implement a multicultural curriculum.
 * 3) Exhibit positive teacher expectations.
 * 4) Attend teacher training workshops on multicultural education

Content Integration Ideas
> (Hylton & Durnett, 1986)
 * Collect articles from newspapers and magazines that deal with one or more culturally groups.
 * Collect relevant pictures, books, music, and poems.
 * Perform plays about various cultures.
 * Keep a journal based on one or more themes, such as money around the world or holidays around the world.
 * Develop a multicultural calendar.
 * Learn a song in a different language.
 * Make maps showing origins of different cultures and groups.

People Holding Hands has developed a presentation on Multicultural Education: Diversity Issues in the Classroom. View the video here and visit their website at [|www.peopleholdinghands.com] media type="youtube" key="lSPjQsmMqhk" height="349" width="425" More great sites to find ideas and information on multicultural education [|Diversity Council.org]- offers many free diversity activities for elemenatary schools. [|Scholastic] offers teachers in grades K-8 ideas for multicultural lessons. [|ESL Kids Lab] offers many resources for ELL learners. Site includes picture flashcards, worksheets, teaching tips, songs, and much more. [|Lesson Planet]has over 2500 multicultural lesson plans. The plans are reviewed and rated by teachers. It is a pay site but you can create an account and have ten days for free. My suggestion is to use the ten free days and download as much as you can.

Here is a sample of a video you could make in your classroom to help students with diversity. media type="youtube" key="_BBEJYpumLU" height="349" width="425" align="center"

"Respect for Diversity is the Hallmark of Democracy." //Asa G. Hilliard III//

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Bennett, C. (1995). Comprehensive multicultural education: Theory and practcice (3rd ed.). Massachusetts: Allen &Bacon. Hylton, V.W., & Durnett, L. (1986). Multiethnic/multicultural materials. Richmond: Virginia State Department of Education, Division of Technical Assistance for Equity in Education. (ED 272 440). Retrieved from Ericdigests. Woolfolk, A. (2010). Educational psychology (11th edition). Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Merrill.