Multicultural Education

Much has changed since multicultural education first became a “hot topic” for researchers, educators, and parents. What we know today about multicultural education is very different from what we knew in the past. The United States, as well as many other countries, has evolved into a country rich with diversity among its people, their cultures, and their backgrounds. Students in today's schools come from homes of different economic, linguistic, religious, and ethnic traditions. The National Center for Educational Statistics reported that in 2000 39% of the students in U.S. schools were considered part of a minority group, and in many parts of the country the percentages were much higher. Conditions of poverty, community violence and crime, societal and individual prejudice, and racism continue to create additional challenges for students trying to learn. While the diversity of the U.S. school population is growing, many students from these backgrounds are being left behind academically. In addition, the reliance on high-stakes tests, such as state standards tests, widens the gaps in academic achievement for diverse groups. This is one of the key reasons that applying multicultural education in schools is so important.

Multicultural educators and researchers have long debated the definitions, meanings, goals and approaches of multicultural education. Banks and Banks (2001) and Sleeter and Grant (1999) have written much about multicultural education. The works of these authors are described here because they offer useful definitions, descriptions of different understandings and approaches, and discussion of their relative strengths and shortcomings as the approaches are used in schools.

Banks and Banks (2001), two of the leading figures in the field of multicultural education, propose that multicultural education is at least three things: an idea or concept, an educational reform movement, and a process. They say that multicultural education incorporates the belief that all students, regardless of gender, social class, ethnicity, or culture, should have an equal opportunity to learn. Korn and Bursztyn (2002) add that multicultural education is a way to fill the gap between the cultures of home and school with multicultural curricula. Sleeter and Grant (1999) use the term multicultural education to encompass educational practices directed toward issues of race, culture, language, social class, gender, disability, racism, classism, and sexism.

Much like the definition of multicultural education, there is a debate about its goal(s). The consensus among most scholars and researchers appears to be that the major goal of multicultural education is to address the inequality in education by promoting an understanding and appreciation of cultural diversity (Davidman & Davidman, 1994).