Multicultural Education

My working definition...

     When I think about multicultural education, I think about teaching, learning, understanding and appreciating other cultures. I am sure that my definition will change throughout this semester to incorporate all of the new things that I will learn regarding it. I don't remember learning about multicultural issues in elementary, middle or even high school. It was not until about a year ago that I realized how important it is to integrate other cultures into education. I have heard that America is referred to as a 'salad-bowl' in terms of diversity. We each make up a certain component of the salad, however we are all tossed together. I think that this accurately describes most of our school settings as well.

      I grew up in Clarksville, Tennessee which is located directly outside of Fort Campbell Army Base. Diversity was very common in our classrooms. When I was in fourth grade, we had a new student come from Korea. She had only been in America for six days when she started school and only knew one English word: Hi. I think when you are that young, you don't realize what those students are going through. As an adult, I often think back and wonder how hard it was for her. I try to carry this with me to remind myself of the struggles that everyone has when it comes to diversity.

Paul Gorski

      I completely agree with Gorski in terms of needing multicultural education reform. I don't think that enough is done to really embrace other cultures in our classrooms, regardless if we have students from that culture or not. I believe that there is so much more that we as teachers can do to integrate diversity into our curriculum. Gorski has a wonderful five stage model that breaks down various ways that we can integrate different cultures into our curriculum, and most with minimal resources.

     In the very first stage, Gorski describes an ongoing process that many of us struggle with: recognition. We all have different ideas, views, and working definitions about multicultural education. I don't think that it is necessarily a bad thing, as long as the need for integrating multicultural education is acknowledged and pursued.

What We Need...

      As teachers, we need to be open minded. We need to be accepting, patient and understanding of the various, wonderful cultures that surround us. We need to teach our students to have an appreciation for different cultures. And I believe that it starts with us: If we don't show an interest or appreciation for other cultures, what makes us think that our students will? We need to do our homework, meaning that we need to research and study about different cultures so that we can effectively incorporate them into our curriculum. We need to show our students how to love and appreciate all of the components of this wonderful, tasty 'salad'.