Culture Case – Multicultural Education
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B. Using your textbooks and other references, investigate academic research about culture and multicultural education. In an essay (suggested length of 1-2 pages):
1. Define culture.
2. Define multicultural education.
3. Explain how multicultural education could address cultural differences and cultural bias in an educational setting.
Culture is an essential part of every society and its a learned pattern of behavior that humans adopt from their family and their environment. Culture is important for the existence of a society because it links the people together. According to Anthropologist Edward B. Taylor, culture is “that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, law, morals, custom, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society” (Tylor, 1871). Every society has their culture where they share a particular language, behavior, traditions and beliefs. Culture gives people an identity, which in turns makes them unique from people of other cultures. Although every society may have a specific culture, but there are elements of culture that are universal. These elements better known as Cultural Universal are common to all human cultures on the planet. For example, some elements that may be considered universal are gender roles, marriage, art, music, cooking, language, religious and healing rituals etc.
Culture is important in order to establish discipline and order within a society. It is not just a means of communication between one another, but it generates a feeling of belonging among others within the society.
Multicultural education is a process that infuses every aspect of school policies, practices, and organization in order to establish the highest standards of academic achievements for all students. A Multicultural Education helps students to establish a positive self- concept by informing them of the histories, cultures, and the contributions of different social groups. According to the National Association for Multicultural Education, it prepares all students to work actively toward structural equality in organizations and institutions by providing the knowledge, dispositions, and skills for the redistribution of power and income among diverse groups (NAME, 2003). The school curriculum must address issues such as racism, religious intolerance, classism, sexism, ageism etc. The curriculum should include social and behavioral sciences such as psychology and sociology as well as ethnic studies in order to prepare every student on the human condition so they can interact within society in a unprejudiced and civil manner (Multicultural, 2010).
Multicultural education can address cultural differences and cultural bias in an educational setting by teaching students the concept of understanding and tolerance rather than disliking, distrusting, or hating others based on their cultural back ground. Although it is human to be afraid of the unknown and it is normal to express anger and show bias towards a culture that is misinterpreted. Research indicates that children come to school with many negative attitudes toward and misconceptions about different racial and ethnic groups (Phinney & Rotheram, 1987). A multicultural education will address this bias in an educational setting in order to talk about it and learn the correct facts about different cultures.
Different teaching strategies must be utilized in order influence a diverse group of learners. Research indicates that lessons, units, and teaching materials that include content about different racial and ethnic groups can help students to develop more positive intergroup attitudes (Banks, 1995b). It is important to integrate cross cultural communication topics and materials into the curriculum. Provide learning materials that will reflect the different cultures of students in the classroom such as books, posters, maps, games and videos. Encourage students to notice not only the differences between cultures, but also the similarities between them. Review and revise classroom exams in order to eliminate any cultural bias. Incorporating cooperative learning activities can help students to develop a more positive racial attitude. By arranging student with different abilities, race, and gender into group exercises allows students to work together in teams in order to pursue a common goal. Cooperative learning strategies help students build trust and understanding between one another, therefore helping to eliminate bias. Research suggest that cooperative groups produce more and better ideas than student working alone and has proven that it can increase retention and improve the problem solving ability of all students. Discussion aids learning as peers encourage each other (Adams, Carlson, & Hamm, 1990).
I feel that my preconceptions about cultural differences and cultural bias shown on my concept map aligns well with my research since I have already done some prior research on the subject of multicultural education. According to my concept map I believe there are several ways to respect