Multicultural Education

Multicultural education is an instructional and pedagogical paradigm that integrates the history, cultural traditions, social norms, life experiences, and learned contributions that members of nondominant groups have made to all aspects of society, especially those aspects that are typically codified in prekindergarten through 12th-grade (Pre-K-12) and higher education courses of study. Multicultural education scholar Sonia Nieto defines multicultural education as a process of comprehensive school reform and basic education for all students that challenges and rejects racism and other forms of discrimination in schools and society, and accepts and affirms the pluralism (ethnic, linguistic, religious, economic, and gender, among others) that students, their communities, and teachers represent.

According to Nieto, while multicultural education permeates the curriculum and instructional strategies used in schools, it must also pervade the interactions among teachers, students, and parents and the very way that schools conceptualize the nature of teaching and learning. Because it uses critical pedagogy as its underlying philosophy and focuses on knowledge, reflection, and action (praxis) as the basis for social change, Nieto contends that multicultural education promotes the democratic principles of social justice.

Multicultural education is predated by two primary diversity-related educational movements, generally referred to as ethnic studies and intercultural education. Though the early strands of both ethnic studies and intercultural education precede and are relevant to multicultural education, multicultural education's intellectual and political roots are grounded in the ethnic studies tradition.

Since its inception, multicultural education has been conceptualized in a number of different ways, all of which share common key elements. Despite ongoing debates among multicultural educators about which elements should be emphasized and in what ways, and despite various manifestations of resistance to the field as a whole, multicultural education theory and practice traverse a more than 40-year history.