United States, Multicultural Education in

Overview

Although cultural, ethnic, and racial diversity have characterized U.S. society since before its inception, multicultural education has been a relatively new phenomenon. Since its inception, a major goal of multicultural education has been to improve educational outcomes for students marginalized because of racial, social, and cultural differences. Given the nation's ethnic and cultural diversity and the many historic clashes over race, culture, language, and other differences, it is no surprise that multicultural education first developed most strongly in the United States rather than in more homogeneous nations or in societies without a history of large-scale immigration and tensions around race and ethnicity.

From its origins in early African American intellectual thought, to the work of social scientists, to recent developments in feminism, critical race theory, postmodernism, and postcolonialism, multicultural education has undergone numerous changes in definition and approach. Throughout, it has remained true to its fundamental ideals of equity and equality for students of all backgrounds.

What we now call multicultural education in the United States began in earnest in the early 1970s. Multicultural education is similar to what in other countries is called intercultural education, antiracist education, and nonracial education, as well as to what in the United States is also called anti-oppressive education or social justice education. While there are both minor nuances and major differences among these variants throughout the globe, there is now general agreement on the premises of education for diversity.

James A. Banks, widely recognized as a leading scholar in the field as well as one of its founders, was among the first to define multicultural education, a definition that has remained remarkably stable over time. For Banks, multicultural education is

Notably, as early as 1973, when the field was just emerging, Banks asserted that decision making was at the heart of multicultural education. This [Page 2249]early stance inserted both teachers and students squarely within the democratic process that a multicultural education represents. Moreover, the insistence that multicultural education must be about more than what came to be known as “holidays and heroes” has had a pronounced influence in the field, most notably in its scholarship and theoretical constructs. It is widely agreed that changes in institutional policies and practices are needed if multicultural education is to be a true and lasting reform. In addition, an antiracist approach was articulated early on and has remained constant in the field.

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