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How can educators be fair and include everyone?
Multicultural education is defined by Dr. Rod Farmer, PhD as being "the development of cultural self-awareness through the study of both human commonality and diversity, and it is the study of the thinking and valuing processes involved in the prejudiced and prejudice-free perspectives.
Multicultural education is learning about self as well as learning about others. Through multicultural education the students learns about how each individual, including the student, is influenced by others and other cultures. For multicultural education to be effective, it must be personal, reach the self.
One problem that most teachers encounter is the month of December. A lot of different holidays occur in that month. Teachers have to become sensitive to the feelings of the minority students and find programming for the holidays that will be fair to everyone. Sometimes it's difficult for teachers to confront their own attitudes and values, and think of ethnic backgrounds other than their own. One book that might be helpful is Religious Holidays in the Public Schools--No Easy Answers, by Elaine K. Hollander, Judyth R. Saypol and Meyer Eisenberg.
Some schools have begun to include workshops on teaching about multicultural events as part of their invoice training. They provide a forum to enable teachers to interact and share their experiences and ideas.
One final thought--the definition of prejudice-free education: "Helping students become free of the various prejudices they have toward others (racism, ethnocentrism, sexism, religious bigotry, socio-economic status, bias, ageism, prejudice toward the handicap, etc.)
Here is a list of really helpful books on Multicultural Education:
Some of the following resources were really helpful to us:
- Books--Resources and books, children's literature
- Hall of Multiculturalism--this is a classroom resource that gives information on African/African Americans, Cross Category Multicultural, Latino/Chicano/Hispano/Mexican Resources, Asian/Asian American, Indigenous people and Native Americans.
- Cultures--Information about different cultures
- Links Page--includes links for immigration, gender, minority, religion, social classes, etc.
- Ancient Worlds--Ancient cultures of our world
- Proteacher--Lesson plans for teachers
The following texts may come in handy for you as well:
- Bigelow, B.&Peterson, B. (1998). Rethinking Columbus: The next 500 years. Milwaukee, WI: Rethinking Schools.
- Erdrich, L. (1999). The Birchback House. New York: Hyperion
- Baker, G. (1994). Planning and Organizing for Multicultural Instruction. Menlo Park, CA: Addison Wesley Publishing Co.
- Banks, J.A. (1994). An Introduction to Multicultural Education. Boston: Allyn & Bacon
- Bigleow, B., Christensen, L., Karp, S., Miner, B., & Peterson, B. (Eds.) (1995). Rethinking Our Classrooms: Teaching for Equity and Justice. Milwaukee, WS: Rethinking Schools, Ltd.
- Kozol, J. (1991). Savage Inequalities. New York: Crown Publishers
- Loewen, J.W. (1996). Lies My Teacher Told Me. New York: Touchstone
- Mazer, A. (Ed.). (1993). America Street: A Multicultural Anthology of Stories. New York: Persea Books.
Children's Literature:
- Bruhac, J. & Dan Anderson (Illus). Eagle Song. New York: Puffin
- Dorris, M. (1994). Guests. New York: Hyperion Paperbacks
- Paton Walsh, J. (1998). The Green Book
- Pitts, P. (1988). Racing the Sun. New York: Avon Books
- Washington, D.L. & Taylor, S. (Illus) (1996) The Story of Kwanzaa
- Yolen, J. (1992). Encounter. New York: Harcourt Brace & Co.