Multicultural Education, Purposes and Goals

Multicultural education emphasizes equalizing various dimensions of teaching and learning, such as curriculum content, instructional styles, classroom climates, student–teacher relationships, and assessment procedures. Since its inception, its ultimate goal and mission have remained constant, but how they are conceptualized and operationalized in practice have become more complex and expansive to include culture, social class, gender, language, immigration, ability, and sexual orientation, along with race and ethnicity. As [Page 1548]Gloria Ladson-Billings, Jonathan Kozol, and Tyrone C. Howard explain, ethnic and racial inequities continue to be of utmost importance because of their persistence and prominence in shaping the educational opportunities and social realities of underrepresented and powerless groups in the United States—as well as in other nations—as documented in the Routledge International Companion to Multicultural Education. This ...