Multicultural Education

ED 590
Xiaoqiong Si
 Definition by Sonia Nieto
“Multicultural education is a process of comprehensive social reform and basic education
for all students. It challenges and rejects racism and other forms of discrimination in
schools and society and accepts and affirms the pluralism (ethnic, racial, linguistic,
religious, economic, gender, and sexual orientation, among others) that students, their
communities, and teachers reflect. Multicultural education permeates the school’s
curriculum and instructional strategies as well as the interactions among teachers,
students, and families and the very way that schools conceptualize the nature of
teaching and learning. Because it uses critical pedagogy as its underlying philosophy
and focuses on knowledge, reflection, and action (praxis) as the basis for social change,
multicultural education promotes democratic principles of social justice.”
(Sonia Nieto, p. 42)
 Multicultural education is antiracist
education.
 Antidiscrimination & stereotypes
 Being mindful and sensitive
 Inclusiveness and balance
 Confronting & Curriculum development / instruction
 School polices, attitudes and behaviors
 Move beyond guilt or remorse to a state of invigorated awareness
and informed confidence
 Everyone works actively for social justice
 Multicultural education is basic education.
 Multicultural literacy is just as indispensable for living in today’s
world as reading, writing, arithmetic, and computer literacy.
 Difference from monocultural education
 Race is a social construction: a racial group is socially and not
biologically determined.
 Racism and segregated schools / a wide diversity of people
 Curriculum and content need to be changed
 Multicultural education is important for all
students.
 Education is biased in curriculum and extracurricular activities.
 Issues: ethnicity, ability, social class, language, sexual orientation,
religion, gender, race or other differences.
 Education is about all people and for all people.
 A real curriculum multicultural is needed for all students.
 Multicultural education is pervasive.
 It permeates everything: the school climate, physical environment,
curriculum, and relationships among teachers and students and
community.
 It is a philosophy, a way of looking at the world.
 Its relationship with school reform
 There are new changes in schools: curriculum, instruction topics,
international meals and others.
 Multicultural education is education for social
justice.
 It invites students and teachers to put their learning into action for
social justice.
 Multicultural education with a social justice perspective means
learning to question power structures and the status quo.
 It helps young people to learn their rights and responsibilities in a
democracy.
 Multicultural education is a process.
 Dynamic  Constantly review
 Changing  Content knowledge and
 Complex pedagogy skills
 Work collaboratively
 Slow but steady  Curricula change
 Differences and pluralism  Cross-cultural
 Social transform communication
 Multicultural education is critical pedagogy.
 A multicultural approach values diversity and encourages critical
thinking, reflection, and action.
 Critical pedagogy is an exploder of myths.
 Examples of the content of the curriculum
 Critical pedagogy in action
 Multicultural education is
simply good pedagogy and
is more effective education
for a changing world.