Why multicultural education

Teachers interested in implementing multicultural education techniques in their classrooms can pursue advanced degrees to understand how laws, policies, and leadership play a role in establishing curricula and coursework that positively impact students.

Throughout their coursework, they can train as a classroom teacher through placement in an actual school setting. Teachers interested in honing their skills as multicultural educators can pursue a Master of Education in Education Leadership at American University, choosing from courses including Education Program and Policy Implementation and Educational Leadership and Organizational Change.

The American University program prepares teachers to become leaders in education and gain insight into legal education policies and programs. They develop research skills to help organizations enact legal and economic policies. Educators can also further their academic journeys by earning a Master of Arts in Teaching, choosing from courses such as Effective Teaching for Diverse Students and Theories of Educational Psychology and Human Development.

They learn how to develop evidence-based coursework in order to help establish multicultural education classrooms. They learn how to create equitable and effective learning environments in which students from diverse backgrounds can flourish. EdD vs. Transformational Leadership in Education. What Is Multicultural Education? Four Ways Educators Can Implement Multicultural Education in the Classroom There are many ways educators can promote social justice and equity in schools, from working to hire a more diverse teacher workforce to mindfully selecting assigned readings that reflect broad cultural diversity.

Additionally, teachers promoting equal learning opportunities for students of all races, ethnicities, and backgrounds can implement multicultural education in the classroom in the following ways: Be Aware of Biases For educators to understand what multicultural education is and implement it in their classrooms, they need to be aware of potential biases.

Assign Multicultural Projects Teachers can emphasize the importance of different cultural backgrounds represented in their classrooms through lessons and assignments. From there, you can help them understand themselves and other cultures better.

As much as students are learning from you, they are also exposed to online content and eventually formulate their own beliefs or prejudices about different cultures. This is why the multicultural education content you teach needs to be accurate, relevant, and complete. It needs to be inclusive — expressing the perspectives and contributions of all groups.

It's the act of weaving content of under-represented groups i. Be mindful of how you address these under-represented groups as you teach. Remember to appeal to and celebrate the differences of all these under-represented groups during lessons and their importance in society. Ensure your multicultural education teaching practices cover the perspectives of all groups because student populations are just as diverse. This will help eradicate any kind of racism and foster empathy.

You need to examine your own values, cultural beliefs, and biases to fully grasp the importance of multiculturalism in the classroom. To effectively teach multicultural education, an educator needs to develop and adjust their lesson plans depending on the particular student group. The four key steps are concrete experience, reflective observation, abstract conceptualization, and active experimentation. Assignments are an excellent way to understand student cultures, backgrounds, perspectives, and so on.

Gorski and Gillian Parekh. Intercultural Education , This study looks at how college instructors teach multicultural education to students in the U. It finds that college instructors who teach a more conservative version of multicultural education perceive their higher education institution to be more supportive of their work.

The researchers analyze data collected from a survey of people who teach multicultural education to future teachers, conducted in and Researchers recruited participants by reaching out to instructors individually and by posting invitations on social media platforms used by instructors.

Instructors answered questions related to the ideological approach they took in their multicultural teacher education courses — whether they took a conservative, liberal and critical approach.

Teaching and Teacher Education , This study, which Gorski also authored, looks at course syllabi to see how U. Even though it is an older study, it offers insights into how colleges approached the issue at the time.

Gorski analyzed 45 class syllabi from college courses designed to train teachers in multicultural education. To other students — those who are mostly the majority — learning the music, the festivities, and belief systems of the cultures of their peers and what their backgrounds signify is a powerful tool in creating inclusiveness and promoting intercultural understanding. Hjerm et. And as Hanson et. This clearly suggests that multicultural education acts as a way for students from different cultural groups to communicate and interact with each other.

Students may distance themselves from other cultural groups because they do not know them well; they may not understand the background, histories, belief systems, or where differences and similarities exist.

Promoting multicultural education may clear up some of the misconceptions students have towards certain cultural groups and eradicate the stigma they put on these groups. In turn, it may lessen the amount of bullying cases that targets culturally different groups. Intercultural interaction can also be fostered with the guidance of teachers. They can incorporate group projects or discussions in class when teaching topics on multiculturalism.

This allows students to step out of their comfort zone and communicate with each other; inviting the culturally diverse students to speak of their festivities, music, food, and belief systems. The biggest takeaway from education for students should not only be restricted to textbook knowledge, but also how they can incorporate it to their own experiences and their current reality.

For instance, multicultural curriculum may include the history of African Americans, and what they had been through from slavery, to the civil rights movement of the s, to the present with the Black Lives Matter movement and the disproportionate incarceration of young black men.

Students can understand the historical continuum of social issues as they are still happening today. They may think about the significance of this and why the problem still exists after more than a century since the abolition of slavery was brought into legislation in Textbook knowledge may be essential in terms of examinations, graduation, and obtaining scholarships, but more importantly, information — regardless of its form — needs to transferred into schematised knowledge systems and applied to life so students can become change-agents, apply knowledge to reality to make a change in society.