Multicultural Education, Purposes and Goals

Definition

Although the definitions of multiculturalism given by scholars vary somewhat for a variety of reasons, there is a high level of consensus about some of the fundamental purposes and core features of multiculturalism. Among these are its commitment to educational equity for underachieving students from underrepresented racial and ethnic groups; its comprehensive focus that encompasses many different intervention strategies and aspects of the educational enterprise; and the centrality of culture and racial inequities in understanding and improving teaching and learning for ethnically diverse students. Because of these emphases, Geneva Gay defines multicultural education as the policies, programs, and practices used in schools to respect and promote ethnic, racial, and cultural diversity within particular geopolitical contexts. It involves both teaching about cultural diversity and using cultural diversity to teach other subjects, skills, and values. It is based on the premises that diversity is a reality of and a valuable resource for human development on personal, social, civic, national, and global levels.

Young Pai, Susan A. Adler, and Linda Shadiow; Gay; James A. Banks; and other scholars also point out that while some conceptual aspects of multicultural education may transcend national boundaries—such as the fact that all cultures have some common components like values, beliefs, customs, traditions, institutions, languages, and taboos that are dynamic and have internal variability—how these are manifested in actual behaviors is strongly influenced by the sociopolitical and historical conditions of the different countries in which they occur. When implemented in school programs, multicultural education deals simultaneously with similarities and differences among various social, ethnic, racial, and cultural groups both within and across national boundaries. Therefore, students in the United States may study similarities and differences among peoples of African ancestry within the United States in different time periods, conditions of arrival, and may also study peoples of African ancestry in other countries, such as North, South, and Central America and Europe.

The definition of multicultural education mentioned above also has some other implications for practice worthy of note. Scholars such as Gay, James A. Banks, Cherry A. McGee Banks, and Christine Bennett identify one of these characteristics as the mandate for holism and inclusivity in dealing with ethnic, racial, and cultural diversity in the educational enterprise. Contrary to the mistaken notion expressed by some educators that multicultural education is appropriate only for inclusion in selected subjects, such as social studies, humanities, language arts, and the fine arts, and only in certain settings, such as with students who are underrepresented or with oppressed groups or where racial hostilities exist, the inverse is true. Multicultural education theorists consider it necessary for all aspects of education, for all students, and at all times, albeit for different reasons and in different ways. This means that information about and responsiveness to ethnic, racial, and cultural diversity should be as much a part of school policy guidelines, administrative leadership, and the allocation of fiscal and personnel resources as they are of curriculum designs, classroom instruction, counseling, and the performance appraisal of students, teachers, and educational institutions. The need for inclusivity also acknowledges that classroom teachers cannot accomplish multicultural education alone; instead, it is a systemic endeavor that obligates all aspects of the educational enterprise to contribute to it in ways that are appropriate to their task and positional responsibilities.

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