Definitions of Multicultural Education

Numerous definitions of multicultural education have been proposed or espoused by scholars,

researchers and organizations over the past 30 years. To assist researchers, teachers, educators, and
parents in understanding and implementing multicultural education, the National Association for
Multicultural Education defines multicultural education below.

Multicultural Education

Multicultural education is a philosophical concept built on the ideals of freedom, justice, equality,
equity, and human dignity as acknowledged in various documents, such as the U.S. Declaration of
Independence, constitutions of South Africa and the United States, and the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights adopted by the United Nations. It affirms our need to prepare students for their
responsibilities in an interdependent world. It recognizes the role schools can play in developing the
attitudes and values necessary for a democratic society. It values cultural differences and affirms the
pluralism that students, their communities, and teachers reflect. It challenges all forms of discrimination
in schools and society through the promotion of democratic principles of social justice.

Multicultural education is a process that permeates all aspects of school practices, policies and
organization as a means to ensure the highest levels of academic achievement for all students. It helps
students develop a positive self-concept by providing knowledge about the histories, cultures, and
contributions of diverse groups. It prepares all students to work actively toward structural equality in
organizations and institutions by providing the knowledge, dispositions, and skills for the redistribution
of power and income among diverse groups. Thus, school curriculum must directly address issues of
racism, sexism, classism, linguicism, ablism, ageism, heterosexism, religious intolerance, and
xenophobia.

Multicultural education advocates the belief that students and their life histories and experiences should
be placed at the center of the teaching and learning process and that pedagogy should occur in a
context that is familiar to students and that addresses multiple ways of thinking. In addition, teachers
and students must critically analyze oppression and power relations in their communities, society and
the world.

To accomplish these goals, multicultural education demands a school staff that is culturally competent,
and to the greatest extent possible racially, culturally, and linguistically diverse. Staff must be
multiculturally literate and capable of including and embracing families and communities to create an
environment that is supportive of multiple perspectives, experiences, and democracy. Multicultural
education requires comprehensive school reform as multicultural education must pervade all aspects of
the school community and organization.
Recognizing that equality and equity are not the same thing, multicultural education attempts to offer all
students an equitable educational opportunity, while at the same time, encouraging students to critique
society in the interest of social justice.

Multicultural Education

Multicultural education is a form of education that introduces students to various cultural backgrounds,
beliefs and values. Some instructors may adjust their curriculum to reflect the cultural diversity of the
students in a specific class. The goal of multicultural education is to foster educational equity in the
classroom by removing barriers for students of various cultural backgrounds.

Multicultural education refers to a type of educational model that celebrates diversity and equity. It
aims to serve all students, but especially those that have been historically underrepresented. Course
content may reference an array of cultural perspectives, while instructors may provide opportunities to
better understand students’ cultures and then align content to these backgrounds.

Multicultural Education: Goals and

Dimensions
Multicultural education is an idea, an educational reform movement, and a
process (Banks, 1997). As an idea, multicultural education seeks to create
equal educational opportunities for all students, including those from
different racial, ethnic, and social-class groups. Multicultural education tries
to create equal educational opportunities for all students by changing the
total school environment so that it will reflect the diverse cultures and
groups within a society and within the nation's classrooms. Multicultural
education is a process because its goals are ideals that teachers and
administrators should constantly strive to achieve.
The Dimensions of Multicultural Education
I have identified five dimensions of multicultural education. They are: content
integration, the knowledge construction process, prejudice reduction, an
equity pedagogy, and an empowering school culture and social structure
(Banks, 1995a). Content integration deals with the extent to which teachers
use examples and content from a variety of cultures and groups to illustrate
key concepts, generalizations, and issues within their subject areas or
disciplines. The knowledge construction process describes how teachers help
students to understand, investigate, and determine how the biases, frames
of reference, and perspectives within a discipline influence the ways in which
knowledge is constructed within it (Banks, 1996). Students also learn how to
build knowledge themselves in this dimension.

Prejudice reduction describes lessons and activities used by teachers to help

students to develop positive attitudes toward different racial, ethnic, and
cultural groups. Research indicates that children come to school with many
negative attitudes toward and misconceptions about different racial and
ethnic groups (Phinney & Rotheram, 1987). Research also indicates that
lessons, units, and teaching materials that include content about different
racial and ethnic groups can help students to develop more positive
intergroup attitudes if certain conditions exist in the teaching situation
(Banks, 1995b). These conditions include positive images of the ethnic groups
in the materials and the use of multiethnic materials in a consistent and
sequential way.

An equity pedagogy exists when teachers modify their teaching in ways that
will facilitate the academic achievement of students from diverse racial,
cultural, and social-class groups (Banks & Banks, 1995). Research indicates
that the academic achievement of African American and Mexican American
students is increased when cooperative teaching activities and strategies,
rather than competitive ones, are used in instruction (Aronson & Gonzalez,
1988). Cooperative learning activities also help all students, including middle-
class White students, to develop more positive racial attitudes. However, to
attain these positive outcomes, cooperative learning activities must have
several important characteristics (Allport, 1954). The students from different
racial and ethnic groups must feel that they have equal status in intergroup
interactions, teachers and administrators must value and support cross-
racial interactions, and students from different racial groups must work
together in teams to pursue common goals.

An empowering school culture and social structure is created when the

culture and organization of the school are transformed in ways that enable
students from diverse racial, ethnic, and gender groups to experience
equality and equal status. The implementation of this dimension requires
that the total environment of the school be reformed, including the attitudes,
beliefs, and action of teachers and administrators, the curriculum and course
of study, assessment and testing procedures, and the styles and strategies
used by teachers.

To implement multicultural education effectively, teachers and

administrators must attend to each of the five dimensions of multicultural
education described above. They should use content from diverse groups
when teaching concepts and skills, help students to understand how
knowledge in the various disciplines is constructed, help students to develop
positive intergroup attitudes and behaviors, and modify their teaching
strategies so that students from different racial, cultural, and social-class
groups will experience equal educational opportunities. The total
environment and culture of the school must also be transformed so that
students from diverse ethnic and cultural groups will experience equal status
in the culture and life of the school.

Although the five dimensions of multicultural education are highly

interrelated, each requires deliberate attention and focus. The reminder of
this article focuses on two of the five dimensions described above: content
integration and the knowledge construction process. Readers can see Banks
(1995a) for more information about the other dimensions.

Content Integration
Teachers use several different approaches to integrate content about racial,
ethnic, and cultural groups into the curriculum. One of the most popular is
the Contributions Approach. When this approach is used, teachers insert
isolated facts about ethnic and cultural group heroes and heroines into the
curriculum without changing the structure of their lesson plans and units.
Often when this approach is used, lessons about ethnic minorities are limited
primarily to ethnic holidays and celebrations, such as Martin Luther King's
Birthday and Cinco de Mayo. The major problem with this approach is that it
reinforces the notion, already held by many students, that ethnic minorities
are not integral parts of mainstream U.S. society and that African American
history and Mexican American history are separate and apart from U.S.
history.

The Additive Approach is also frequently used by teachers to integrate

content about ethnic and cultural groups into the school curriculum. In this
approach, the organization and structure of the curriculum remains
unchanged. Special units on ethnic and cultural groups are added to the
curriculum, such as units on African Americans in the West, Indian Removal,
and the internment of the Japanese Americans. While an improvement over
the Contributions Approach, the Additive Approach is problematic because
ethnic and cultural groups remain on the margin of the mainstream
curriculum.

Knowledge Construction and Transformation

The Transformation Approach brings content about ethnic and cultural
groups from the margin to the center of the curriculum. It helps students to
understand how knowledge is constructed and how it reflects the
experiences, values, and perspectives of its creators. In this approach, the
structure, assumptions, and perspectives of the curriculum are changed so
that the concepts, events, and issues taught are viewed from the
perspectives and experiences of a range of racial, ethnic, and cultural groups.
The center of the curriculum no longer focuses on mainstream and
dominant groups, but on an event, issue, or concept that is viewed from
many different perspectives and points of view. This is done while at the
same time helping students to understand the nation's common heritage
and traditions. Teachers should help students to understand that while they
live in a diverse nation, all citizens of a nation-state share many cultural
traditions, values, and political ideals that cement the nation. Multicultural
education seeks to actualize the idea of e pluribus unum,  i.e. to create a
 society that recognizes and respects the cultures of its diverse peoples
united within a framework of democratic values that are shared by all.

Personal, Social, and Civic Action

An important goal of multicultural education is to help students acquire the
knowledge and commitments needed to make reflective decisions and to
take personal, social, and civic action to promote democracy and democratic
living. Opportunities for action help students to develop a sense of personal
and civic efficacy, faith in their ability to make changes in the institutions in
which they live, and situations to apply the knowledge they have learned
(Banks, with Clegg, 1990).

Action activities and projects should be tuned to the cognitive and moral
developmental levels of students. Practicality and feasibility should also be
important considerations. Students in the primary grades can take action by
making a commitment to stop laughing at ethnic jokes that sting; students in
the early and middle grades can act by reading books about other racial,
ethnic, and cultural groups. Upper-elementary grade students can make
friends with students who are members of other racial and ethnic groups
and participate in cross-racial activities and projects with students who
attend a different school in the city. Upper-grade students can also
participate in projects that provide help and comfort to people in the
community with special needs. They can also participate in local political
activities such as school bond elections and elections on local initiatives.
Lewis (1991) has written a helpful guide about ways to plan and initiate social
action activities and projects for students.

When students learn content about the nation and the world from the perspectives of
the diverse groups that shaped historical and contemporary events, they will be better
able to participate in personal, social, and civic actions that are essential for citizens in a
democratic pluralistic society.

Multicultural Education
History, The Dimensions of Multicultural Education, Evidence of the Effectiveness of
Multicultural Education

Multicultural education is an idea, an approach to school reform, and a movement

for equity, social justice, and democracy. Specialists within multicultural education
emphasize different components and cultural groups. However, a significant degree
of consensus exists within the field regarding its major principles, concepts, and
goals. A major goal of multicultural education is to restructure schools so that all
students acquire the knowledge, attitudes, and skills needed to function in an
ethnically and racially diverse nation and world. Multicultural education seeks to
ensure educational equity for members of diverse racial, ethnic, cultural, and
socioeconomic groups, and to facilitate their participation as critical and reflective
citizens in an inclusive national civic culture.
Multicultural education tries to provide students with educational experiences that
enable them to maintain commitments to their community cultures as well as
acquire the knowledge, skills, and cultural capital needed to function in the national
civic culture and community. Multicultural theorists view academic knowledge and
skills as necessary but not sufficient for functioning in a diverse nation and world.
They regard skills in democratic living and the ability to function effectively within
and across diverse groups as essential goals of schooling.

Multicultural education is highly consistent with the ideals embodied in the U.S.
Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, and the Bill of Rights. It seeks to
extend the rights and privileges granted to the nation’s founding elites–the ideals of
freedom, equality, justice, and democracy–to all social, cultural and language groups.
Multicultural education addresses deep and persistent social divisions across
various groups, and seeks to create an inclusive and transformed mainstream
society. Multicultural educators view cultural difference as a national strength and
resource rather than as a problem to be overcome through assimilation.

History
Multicultural education emerged during the civil rights movement of the 1960s and
1970s. It grew out of the demands of ethnic groups for inclusion in the curricula of
schools, colleges, and universities. Although multicultural education is an outgrowth
of the ethnic studies movement of the 1960s, it has deep historical roots in the
African-American ethnic studies movement that emerged in the late nineteenth and
early twentieth centuries.

Initiated by scholars such as George Washington Williams, Carter G. Woodson, W. E.

B. DuBois, and Charles H. Wesley, the primary goal of the early ethnic studies
movement was to challenge the negative images and stereotypes of African
Americans prevalent in mainstream scholarship by creating accurate descriptions of
the life, history, and contributions of African Americans. These scholars had a
personal, professional, and enduring commitment to the uplift of African Americans.
They believed that creating positive self-images of African Americans was essential
to their collective identity and liberation. They also believed that stereotypes and
negative beliefs about African Americans could be effectively challenged by objective
historical research that was also capable of transforming mainstream academic
knowledge.

Carter G. Woodson–one of the leading scholars of the early ethnic studies

movement–helped found the Association for the Study of Negro (now Afro-
American) Life and History in 1915. The association played a key role in the
production and dissemination of African-American historical scholarship. In addition
to writing numerous scholarly works and editing the association’s publications,
Woodson initiated Negro History Week (now Black History Month) to focus attention
in the nation’s schools on the life and history of African Americans.

In 1922 Woodson published a college textbook, The Negro in Our History, which was
used in many African-American schools and colleges. In response to public demand
for classroom materials, he wrote an elementary textbook, Negro Makers of History,
followed by The Story of the Negro Retold for senior high schools. Woodson also
wrote, edited, and published African-American children’s literature. In 1937 he began
publication of The Negro History Bulletin, a monthly magazine for teachers and
students featuring stories about exemplary teachers and curriculum projects,
historical narratives, and biographical sketches.

When the ethnic studies movement was revived in the 1960s, African Americans and
other marginalized ethnic groups refused assimilationist demands to renounce their
cultural identity and heritage. They insisted that their lives and histories be included
in the curriculum of schools, colleges, and universities. In challenging the dominant
paradigms and concepts taught in the schools and colleges, multicultural educators
sought to transform the Eurocentric perspective and incorporate multiple
perspectives into the curriculum.
By the late 1980s multicultural theorists recognized that ethnic studies was
insufficient to bring about school reforms capable of responding to the academic
needs of students of color. They consequently shifted their focus from the mere
inclusion of ethnic content to deep structural changes in schools. During these years,
multicultural educators also expanded from a primary focus on ethnic groups of
color to other group categories, such as social class, language and gender. Although
conceptually distinct, the key social categories of multicultural education–race, class,
gender, and culture–are interrelated. Multicultural theorists are concerned with how
these social variables interact in identity formation, and about the consequences of
multiple and contextual identities for teaching and learning.

During the 1970s a number of professional organizations–such as the National

Council for Social Studies, the National Council of Teachers of English, and the
American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education–issued policy statements
and publications that encouraged the integration of ethnic content into the school
and teacher education curriculum. In 1973 the title of the forty-third yearbook of the
National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS) was Teaching Ethnic Studies: Concepts
and Strategies. NCSS published Curriculum Guidelines for Multiethnic Education in
1976, which was revised and reissued in 1992 as Curriculum Guidelines for
Multicultural Education. A turning point in the development of multicultural
education occurred in 1977 when the National Council for the Accreditation of
Teacher Education (NCATE) issued standards for the accreditation of teacher
education. The standards required all NCATE member institutions (about 80% of the
teacher education programs in the United States) to implement components,
courses, and programs in multicultural education.
Over the past two decades more ethnic content has appeared in the textbooks used
in elementary and secondary schools in the United States. An increasing number of
teachers are using anthologies in literature programs that include selections written
by women and authors of color. In addition, the market for books dealing with
multicultural education has gown substantially, and some of the nation’s leading
colleges and universities, including the University of California at Berkeley and the
University of Minnesota, have either revised their core curriculum to include ethnic
content or have established ethnic studies course requirements.

The Dimensions of Multicultural Education

James A. Banks’s Dimensions of Multicultural Education is used widely by school

districts to conceptualize and develop courses, programs, and projects in
multicultural education. The five dimensions are1) content integration; (2) the
knowledge construction process; (3) prejudice reduction; (4) an equity pedagogy;
and (5) an empowering school culture and social structure. Although each dimension
is conceptually distinct, in practice they overlap and are interrelated.
Content integration. Content integration deals with the extent to which teachers use
examples and content from a variety of cultures and groups to illustrate key
concepts, principles, generalizations, and theories in their subject area or discipline.
The infusion of ethnic and cultural content into a subject area is logical and not
contrived when this dimension is implemented properly.

More opportunities exist for the integration of ethnic and cultural content in some
subject areas than in others. There are frequent and ample opportunities for
teachers to use ethnic and cultural content to illustrate concepts, themes, and
principles in the social studies, the language arts, and in music. Opportunities also
exist to integrate multicultural content into math and science. However, they are less
ample than they are in social studies and the language arts. Content integration is
frequently mistaken by school practitioners as comprising the whole of multicultural
education, and is thus viewed as irrelevant to instruction in disciplines such as math
and science.

The knowledge construction process. The knowledge construction process describes

teaching activities that help students to understand, investigate, and determine how
the implicit cultural assumptions, frames of references, perspectives, and biases of
researchers and textbook writers influence the ways in which knowledge is
constructed.
Multicultural teaching involves not only infusing ethnic content into the school
curriculum, but changing the structure and organization of school knowledge. It also
includes changing the ways in which teachers and students view and interact with
knowledge, helping them to become knowledge producers, not merely the
consumers of knowledge produced by others.

The knowledge construction process helps teachers and students to understand

why the cultural identities and social positions of researchers need to be taken into
account when assessing the validity of knowledge claims. Multicultural theories
assert that the values, personal histories, attitudes, and beliefs of researchers
cannot be separated from the knowledge they create. They consequently reject
positivist claims of disinterested and distancing knowledge production. They also
reject the possibility of creating knowledge that is not influenced by the cultural
assumptions and social position of the knowledge producer.

In multicultural teaching and learning, paradigms, themes, and concepts that

exclude or distort the life experiences, histories, and contributions of marginalized
groups are challenged. Multicultural pedagogy seeks to reconceptualize and expand
the Western canon, to make it more representative and inclusive of the nation’s
diversity, and to reshape the frames of references, perspectives, and concepts that
make up school knowledge.

Prejudice reduction. The prejudice reduction dimension of multicultural education

seeks to help students develop positive and democratic racial attitudes. It also helps
students to understand how ethnic identity is influenced by the context of schooling
and the attitudes and beliefs of dominant social groups. The theory developed by
Gordon Allport (1954) has significantly influenced research and theory in intergroup
relations. He hypothesized that prejudice can be reduced by interracial contact if the
contact situations have these characteristics: (1) they are cooperative rather than
competitive; (2) the individuals experience equal status; and (3) the contact is
sanctioned by authorities such as parents, principals and teachers.

An equity pedagogy. An equity pedagogy exists when teachers modify their teaching
in ways that will facilitate the academic achievement of students from diverse racial,
cultural, socioeconomic, and language groups. This includes using a variety of
teaching styles and approaches that are consistent with the range of learning styles
within various cultural and ethnic groups, such as being demanding but highly
personalized when working with American Indian and Native Alaskan students. It
also includes using cooperative learning techniques in math and science instruction
to enhance the academic achievement of students of color.
An equity pedagogy rejects the cultural deprivation paradigm that was developed in
the early 1960s. This paradigm posited that the socialization experiences in the
home and community of low-income students prevented them from attaining the
knowledge, skills, and attitudes needed for academic success. Because the cultural
practices of low-income students were viewed as inadequate and inferior, cultural
deprivation theorists focused on changing student behavior so that it aligned more
closely with mainstream school culture. An equity pedagogy assumes that students
from diverse cultures and groups come to school with many strengths.

Multicultural theorists describe how cultural identity, communicative styles, and the
social expectations of students from marginalized ethnic and racial groups often
conflict with the values, beliefs, and cultural assumptions of teachers. The middle-
class mainstream culture of the schools creates a cultural dissonance and
disconnect that privileges students who have internalized the school’s cultural codes
and communication styles.

Teachers practice culturally responsive teaching when an equity pedagogy is

implemented. They use instructional materials and practices that incorporate
important aspects of the family and community culture of their students. Culturally
responsive teachers also use the “cultural knowledge, prior experiences, frames of
reference, and performance styles of ethnically diverse students to make learning
encounters more relevant to and effective for them” (Gay, p. 29).

An empowering school culture. This dimension involves restructuring the culture

and organization of the school so that students from diverse racial, ethnic,
socioeconomic, and language groups experience equality. Members of the school
staff examine and change the culture and social structure of the school. Grouping
and labeling practices, sports participation, gaps in achievement among groups,
different rates of enrollment in gifted and special education programs among
groups, and the interaction of the staff and students across ethnic and racial lines
are important variables that are examined and reformed.

An empowering school structure requires the creation of qualitatively different

relationships among various groups within schools. Relationships are based on
mutual and reciprocal respect for cultural differences that are reflected in school-
wide goals, norms, and cultural practices. An empowering school structure facilitates
the practice of multicultural education by providing teachers with opportunities for
collective planning and instruction, and by creating democratic structures that give
teachers, parents, and school staff shared responsibility for school governance.
Evidence of the Effectiveness of Multicultural Education

The Handbook of Research of Multicultural Education comprehensively reviews the

research on multicultural education and the effectiveness of various kinds of
multicultural curricular interventions. At least three categories of research that
describe the effectiveness of multicultural education can be identified: (1) research
that describes the effectiveness of multicultural curriculum interventions such as
Banks’s 2001 research review; (2) research on the effects of cooperative learning and
interracial contact, such as Robert Slavin’s 2001 research review; and (3) research on
how culturally responsive teaching influences student learning, such as Carol Lee’s
1993 study and Gloria Ladson-Billings’s 2001 work. An extended discussion of
studies in the first genre is presented in this entry. Research reviews of the other
two genres are found in the Handbook of Research on Multicultural Education.

Slavin’s 2001 research review and Cohen and Lotan’s 1995 research on cooperative
learning and interracial contact activities indicate that these interventions–if they are
consistent with Allport’s theory of intergroup contact–help students to develop more
positive racial attitudes, to make more cross-racial friendships, and have positive
effects on the academic achievement of Latino and African-American students. Lee’s
1993 research on culturally responsive teaching indicates that when teachers use
the cultural characteristics of students in their teaching the academic achievement
of students from diverse groups can be enhanced.
Research on curriculum materials and interventions. Research indicates that the use
of multicultural textbooks, other teaching materials, television, and simulations can
help students from different racial and ethnic groups to develop more democratic
racial attitudes and perceptions of other groups. Since the 1940s a number of
curriculum interventions studies have been conducted to determine the effects of
teaching units and lessons, multicultural textbooks and materials, role playing, and
simulation on the racial attitudes and perceptions of students.

These studies provide guidelines that can help teachers to improve intergroup
relations in their classrooms and schools. One of the earliest curriculum studies was
conducted by Helen Trager and Marion Yarrow (1952). They found that a democratic,
multicultural curriculum had positive effects on the racial attitudes of teachers and
on those of first- and second-grade students. John Litcher and David Johnson (1969)
found that white, second-grade children developed more positive racial attitudes
after using multiethnic readers. Gerry Bogatz and Samuel Ball (1971) found that
Sesame Street, PBS’s multicultural television program, had a positive effect on the
racial attitudes of children who watched it for long periods. In a study by Michael
Weiner and Frances Wright (1973), children who themselves experienced
discrimination in a simulation developed less prejudiced beliefs and attitudes
toward others. Multicultural social studies materials and related experiences had a
positive effect on the racial attitudes of African-American four-year-old children in a
study conducted by Thomas Yawkey and Jacqueline Blackwell (1974).
Research indicates that curriculum interventions such as plays, folk dances, music,
role playing, and simulations can have positive effects on the racial attitudes of
students. A curriculum intervention that consisted of folk dances, music, crafts, and
role playing positively influenced the racial attitudes of elementary students in a
study conducted by M. Ahmed Ijaz and I. Helene Ijaz (1981). Four plays about African
Americans, Chinese Americans, Jews, and Puerto Ricans increased racial acceptance
and cultural knowledge among fourth-, fifth-, and sixth-grade students in a study
conducted by Beverly Gimmestad and Edith De Chiara (1982).

Jossette McGregor (1993) used meta-analysis to integrate findings and to examine

the effects of role playing and antiracist teaching on reducing prejudice in students.
Twenty-six studies were located and examined. McGregor concluded that role
playing and antiracist teaching “significantly reduce racial prejudice, and do not
differ from each other in their effectiveness” (p. 215).

Demographic Trends and Issues

The ethnic, cultural, and language diversity within the United States and its schools is
increasing. The U.S. Bureau of the Census projects that 47 percent of the U.S.
population will consist of ethnic groups of color by 2050. Between 1991 and 1998,
7.6 million immigrants entered the United States, mostly from nations in Asia and
Latin America. The U.S. Census estimates that more than one million immigrants will
enter the United States every year for the fore-seeable future. Thirty-five percent of
students enrolled in U.S. schools in 1995 were students of color. If current
demographic trends continue, students of color will comprise approximately 46
percent of the student population in 2020. The increasing ethnic and cultural
diversity of the U.S. student population stands in sharp contrast to a teaching force
that was 90.7 percent white, middle-class, and three-fourths female in 1996. Many of
the students entering U.S. schools speak a first language other than English. The
1990 census indicated that 14 percent of the nation’s school-age youth lived in
homes where the primary language was not English.

In addition to increasing ethnic, language, and cultural diversity, a significant and

growing percentage of children in the United States, especially children of color, are
being raised in poverty. The number of children living in poverty rose from 16.2
percent in 1979 to 18.7 percent in 1998. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, of the
12.7 percent of the United States population living in poverty in 1997,8.6 percent
were non-Hispanic whites, 26.0 percent African Americans, and 27.1 percent
Hispanics.
 Multicultural education theorists believe that the nation’s schools should respond to
its increasing racial, ethnic, and language diversity. However, they have different
views about how to define the field’s boundaries and about which social groups
should be included under its umbrella. Some theorists are concerned that as the
field expands to include an increasing number of cultural groups, its initial focus on
institutionalized racism and the achievement of students of color might wane. The
discussions and debates within multicultural education reflect the vitality and
growth of an emerging discipline.

An increasingly low-income and linguistically and culturally diverse student

population requires a transformation of the deep structure of schooling in order to
experience educational equity and cultural empowerment in the nation’s schools.
Multicultural education is a process of comprehensive school reform that challenges
racism and prejudice by transforming the curriculum and instructional practices of
schools, and by changing the relationships among teachers, students, and parents.

A major goal of multicultural education is to help students from diverse cultures learn
how to transcend cultural borders and to engage in dialog and civic action in a diverse,
democratic society. Multicultural education tries to actualize cultural democracy, and
to include the dreams, hopes, and experiences of diverse groups in school knowledge
and in a reconstructed and inclusive national identity. The future of democracy in the
United States depends on the willingness and ability of citizens to function within and
across cultures. The schools can play a major role in helping students to develop the
knowledge and skills needed to cross cultural borders and to perpetuate a democratic
and just society.

What Is Multicultural Education? Advantages And Disadvantages

An education method that fuses the stories, writings, qualities, beliefs, and points of
view of every individual from several social foundations is known as Multicultural
Education. The main purpose of implementing it in classrooms is to enable educators
to adjust or join exercises to highlight diversity and social variety. In this article, we will
discuss various disadvantages and advantages of the education method.

The key aspects involved in multicultural education are race, civilization, nationality,
language, religion, class, etc. By adapting it in schools and colleges students can be
made aware of histories, beliefs, and the significance of various assemblies. Moreover,
it promotes the principles of enclosure, democracy, diversity, critical thought, sense of
togetherness, inquiry, values of perspectives, and many more positive traits. This
strategy for teaching is seen as successful in advancing educational accomplishments
among foreigner’s students and, it is along these lines that it is credited to be a
contributor to the reform movement in schools.
Many believe that the objectives and goals of multicultural education are to maintain
minority groups culture, by encouraging youngsters to think broad and familiarize
them with new thoughts and critical thinking. All this helps students in deduction all
the more basically, just as, wish them to have an increasingly open viewpoint. As a
result, students are furnished with knowledge, values, and skills necessary to take part
in social changes, resulting in justice for otherwise victimized and excluded ethnic
groups.

Just like any other education method Multicultural Education has a few advantages
and disadvantages. The pros and cons are listed below.

Advantages of Multicultural Education

1. Multicultural Education exposures students to the different cultural values and
beliefs, and helps to create understanding and acceptance of differences between
people.

2. It implants tolerance and acceptance in individuals.

3. Since, it promotes cultural relevance, anti-bias classroom, challenges students to

think critically without jumping to categorizes, social skills and social action are
shaped resulting in civically engaged people.
4. The method encourages students to participate while keeping their culture and
values intact and, this makes them feel a sense of inclusion.

5. By being culturally conscious teachers, without any bias, can help students
assimilate without having to compromise their cultural identity.

6. It promotes celebrating a students culture and that helps in keeping a sense of

pride and confidence in the students.

Disadvantages of Multicultural Education

1. Since in a multicultural classroom, students from various ethnic, language and
social backgrounds study together from the same prospectus, making everyone
understand the subject is difficult.

2. There is a chance that teachers may struggle to figure out how thoroughly the
students are understanding the material.

3. Since not all students hail from the same background this builds a language
barrier.
4. People from other cultures may be non-confrontational, submissive or otherwise
indirect.

5. Teachers in multicultural classrooms must be prepared to handle the conflicts

and miscommunications that tend to arise among the students from different
cultures have different values, beliefs, traditions, assumptions, behavioral patterns,
etc.