This critique is based off the following article below:

http://primary-school-culture.suite101.com/article.cfm/multicultural_education

The article asks questions and looks into how teachers can teach values of multiculturalism and foster productive conversations about racial identity in the classroom.

The article defines multi ethnicity as relating to, reflecting, or adapting to diverse ethnicities, based on the Merriam Webster Dictionary. Based on the idea that all people are multicultural, the writer believes that it is essential that students be able to have a substantial level of relating to the attributes of people/cultures they that make up their own individual heritage and of people they interact with. Where the writer gets the idea or premise that all people are multicultural in essence is a mystery and the idea is debatable, but it is important for people to be able to relate to cultures outside of their own personal makeup as well as within. This will make the social fabric of a multiethnic society much more cohesive.

According to Francis Wardle of the Center for the Study of Biracial Children, and author of the 2008 essay Multicultural and Multilingual Education in Early Childhood Programs, For teachers of young children to be able to respond appropriately to a child’s racial and ethnic identity, it is crucial they have a clear understanding of the complex process of racial identity development in children, beginning in infancy,” Wardle makes a good point that educators should significantly inform themselves regarding racial identity and the intricate details of the development of racial identity in children. Arming themselves with this information can be a useful tool in dealing with the personalities and other issues regarding young multiracial/multicultural individuals.

The article discusses education al institutions that look into racial and ethnic diversity, but avoid the subject matter of racial mixture, and states that this can be gravely detrimental to students made up of all ethnic backgrounds that need to be turned away from their experiences in rigid racial categories. The author feels that in a multiracial society the concept of racial mix should be addressed when it comes to ethnic diversity in class room. It is beneficial to address multicultural/racial in regards to diversity because individuals with such backgrounds can provide keen insight on interaction between cultures and races.

Various ways of obtaining different perspectives on multiculturalism in the classroom are looked at in this writing. Older generations came up with a “heroes and holidays” concept with holidays like Cinqo de Mayo, Chinese New Year, and Thanksgiving. And the quandary with this style of multicultural education is that the racial were only covered in a superficial way, and many times reinforced racial stereotypes due to the one dimensional view of these cultures under the limited context of holidays. This can be counterproductive to community and/or classroom cohesiveness when it comes to multicultural/multiethnic interactions and developing a type of discourse community among individuals in a multicultural setting.

According to James Banks, who is a proponent of multicultural education, in a 2006 book Multicultural Education: Issues and Perspectives [Wiley, John Sons Incorporated], he points out the ethnic additive approach; when content from different ethnic groups is added to the pre-existing curriculum. Native Americans are included in the discussion of Manifest Destiny; perspectives of slaves are added to the discussion on slavery. This conversation still takes place in a traditional curriculum. Although understandable, this approach is still against the back drop of the perspective of an ethnic majority. In regards to history there should be an analysis and reconstruct of perspectives as well as context with various ethnic perspectives involved in developing such a curriculum in order to provide better authenticity and a more accurate portrayal of the varying points of view. The author states that students should be encouraged to respect and embrace different cultures represented in those around them. The classroom should be a place where all culturally and linguistically diverse individuals can feel welcomed. The article also points out that a major step in effectively employing a multicultural curriculum is that the student should be able to develop “a positive, knowledgeable and confident self-identity within a cultural context.” Preferably, students will observe and partake in being and activist against a societal injustice, discrimination or prejudice. Eventually, students will be able to defend themselves- and for one another- when confronted with bias and therefore overturn stereotypes and prejudice. Reinforcing these attributes under such circumstances will seem to have a positive impact in multicultural classrooms.

The article points out that an educator should encourage the student’s use of a home language that is different than the school’s primary language, and also amalgamate that language into classroom activities. Examples of a lot of schools that follow this method teach interchangeably between English and Spanish, giving students non-verbal cues on classroom instruction. There is no blueprint for sustaining a multicultural classroom atmosphere. Although historically, multicultural education has improved significantly in the last few decades. These days there are dozens approaches to multicultural education. These methods continue to develop to properly accommodate to the needs of a constantly transforming society.

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