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The focus of
multicultural education
is centered on many aspects of education that seek to achieve an equal
and
optimal educational opportunity for all students who enter the
classroom. Human Relations courses that
many teacher
take during their undergraduate work, focuses on learning to treat each
child
in your classroom the same. It exposes
students to many stereotypes and barriers that they had and learned to
change
to make themselves better teachers for all their students.
However, taking multicultural education has
helped teacher learn how to focus on how as an administrator they can
help and
encourage their staff to optimize student learning based on many of the
strategies, concepts, and benefits of its implementation.
All students can greatly benefit from a
well-rounded curriculum that is centered around all cultures, races,
genders,
backgrounds, and many other factors that are characteristics of the
students in
the classroom.
One of the areas that was a focus of
the class in discussions and the book was reference to breaking down
our own
stereotypes and biases towards other people based on certain
characteristics. This is a very true
statement, because based on our own personal experiences and how our
parents
raised us; we may come into a setting where we may automatically label
a
certain group of people before we ever meet them in person. One particular example that sticks out is the
attacks on New York on September 11.
After that event, many individuals can remember seeing people of
Arab
decent on college campuses around the United States and how it crossed
many
people’s minds that there may be terrorists on their campus. This was obviously an inappropriate way for
people to think because, more than likely, they were not involved nor
did they
condone the acts that occurred in New York.
The point to make is that
many
Americans stereotype individuals based on certain experiences. Someone may think that all blacks are good
athletes or that they come from poor homes, or that Native Americans
are all
drunks and just live on government checks, or that disabled people are
not as
capable of performing tasks of those individuals who are not, or
assuming that
women or men can’t hold jobs more commonly held by the other gender. Once we learn to get passed these biases and
stereotypes that we hold within ourselves, only then can we open our
eyes and
see the importance that multicultural education plays in the role of
the educational
system as a whole and to the lives of our students.
Another primary focus of
multicultural education is that the process will only work when
everyone within
an educational system believe in its effort to contribute to the
overall
education of each student. Support
needs to start at the top and trickle down to all of the other areas it
affects. For example, having national
support, possibly within NCLB, would be powerful for schools to
implement
multicultural education in the classroom.
Once federal support is established, states can work to
encourage their
schools to implement multicultural opportunities that will benefit the
students
based on national standards. From
there, school districts must design and incorporate ideas for its
schools to
align themselves with national and state standards.
From the school board, it is the job of the administrator to
encourage
teacher participation in these programs and educate teachers on the
Who, What,
When, Where, and Why of multicultural education.
This will ensure that the teachers are well trained in
implementing its curriculum into their classrooms, and showing how
beneficial
the experience is for the students.
Next, the teachers need to make sure that students believe and
buy into
why what they are learning is beneficial to them. Once
the students have learned a great deal about multicultural
education in their classroom, then they can learn to be better
humanitarians
within their lives that will help them understand, appreciate, and
accept the
differences of others in a positive and non-discriminatory matter.
The world
would be a
better place if all of
our students learned to look at each person as an individual not based
on skin
color, culture, differences, and other factors that make people
different. It would be best that each
individual base
their judgments on the person’s character, instead of using many
stereotypes
that they assume in their minds to be true.
School principals have the power to encourage this type of
environment
without school board encouragement, but can also be an advocate to
promote the
idea of multicultural education and help to encourage other school
leaders
about its benefits to their schools.
Principals in general should want to have a school where all
their
students have a positive learning environment and learn to accept one
another
for who they are.
Lastly, this
will not
be an easy task for principals to accomplish.
Encouraging teachers and staff to implement these strategies may
meet
some resistance. Some teachers may not
be willing to implement these strategies and at the same time may not
change
their own feelings about students of a different race, color, culture,
disability, or other differences.
School leaders can do their best to have each educator report on
what
they are doing within their classroom to implement these strategies and
report
back to them on how their incorporation into the classroom succeeded or
did not
succeed. Then the staff and principal
can discuss what things can be changed to make their ideas and
strategies
work. It may also be difficult to
change the views that students hold, either based on stereotypes
influenced by
their peer groups or by the influence of their parents at home. Asking a student to ignore these influences
is extremely difficult, because these influences are very powerful in
their
life. The hope for the future is that
multicultural education will offer a perspective that will help many of
these
students break down the stereotypes that they hold and eventually, when
they
enter the working world or higher education classroom, that they will
have a
better understanding of multiculturalism and how they can be a better
person
because of what they learned about it in school, thus producing better
citizens.
Artifact 1: Current Event 1
Artifact 2: Current Event 2
Artifact 3: Current Event 3
Artifact 4: Current Event 4
Artifact 5: Islam Paper
Artifact 6: Pluralistic Paper
ArtifactArtifact 7: Race Slurs
Artifact 8: Journal Entries
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