Teaching And Learning: Issues of Culture, Identity, and Inequality in Multicultural Education
Introduction
Students coming from multiple cultures, religions, ethnicity, gender, and transnationalism have changed the dynamics of the education industry to a great extent. It has complicated the concept of multicultural education as well as its implementation. It is important for teachers to realize this cultural diversity to integrate it into the education curriculum. There are certain challenges and issues attached to this process as providing every student with a fair education despite their religion or background must be a priority.
Multicultural Education
The institutes of today represent multiple faiths, nationalities and social classes in a single classroom. Some experts believe that putting students with such different backgrounds in a single room is unfair for minorities. It does not provide them with an equal chance to learn and become successful. It is why a multicultural education system is needed so that the educators can relate the study curriculum to the different levels of children that they are teaching.
Multicultural education is an approach towards establishing a school reform that practices equity, democracy, and social justice. The main objective is to discourage racism or biases that might prevail regarding any religion or culture in society. Teaching the students, who are later going to be major representatives of society, to think critically and not to get involved in any kind of prejudice is a very important step towards a non-segregated society. Schools must teach them how to function in a racially and ethnically diverse world.
The idea of multicultural education appeared in the civil right movements that took place around the 1960s. Ethnic groups demanded that they be included in schools’ and university curriculums. It also emerged in African-America studies movements whose primary goal was to change the negative image of the Black Americans. The idea of this education system is consistent with the U.S. Constitution that seeks to spread freedom, justice, equality, and democracy to all the different cultural, language and social groups.
For the creation of an inclusive environment in the schools, certain steps need to be taken. Teaching policies need to be changed to support the multicultural environment in classrooms. The environment should be such that it supports the culture of inclusion. It must ensure cultural participation. Courageous conversations should be encouraged, and students should feel safe while expressing their culture within the classrooms. Teachers should work on their teaching and learning abilities. They must understand and should be able to connect with students and their families who belong to different races or colors. All students must be encouraged to talk about certain differences between them and the prejudice that a student might keep about another student must be discouraged. School board policies must be racially sensitive. The students should be taught about maintaining healthy and positive interaction with people belonging to different cultures. The school curriculum must be pluralistic and adaptive towards change to meet the needs of the students of every race. It goes beyond fun, food, and festivities. The lives and the cultures of all students must be reflected in the curriculum. The teachers must accept and appreciate different opinions, ideas, and styles of learning. Teachers themselves must also belong to different ethnicities to ensure culturally responsive assessments of the students.
Conclusion
Multicultural education and its proper implementation have proven to be very effective. The future of democracy depends totally upon the ability of people to function across different cultures. The schools can play an important role in this cause. It can be made possible when students of diverse cultures can acquire similar knowledge and skills to establish a just and democratic society.
