Cultural Content

Cultural content, used to promote diversity in education, involves the integration of examples, concepts, perspectives, and the lived practices of diverse cultural and ethnic groups into the mainstream curriculum and schooling processes. The identification and incorporation of accurate, authentic, and comprehensive cultural content from diverse cultural and ethnic groups goes beyond replicating static or normative models of culture to portray how people live culturally within their concrete social circumstance. Geneva Gay notes that cultural content in the school curriculum should involve both tangible and intangible aspects of culture and a variety of sources, including textbooks, literature, mass media, music, personal experiences, and social science research. This approach characterizes teachers as cultural learners who must continually work to develop a deep knowledge base and understanding of ...