assignment 1
Philosophy of Multicultural Education
Ashley Bumpers
Strayer University
Dr. Shauna Mayo
EDU 512
What Is Multicultural Education?
- Multicultural Education emerged from the diverse courses, programs, and practices that educational institutions devised to respond to demands needs and aspirations of the various groups (Banks, J. A., McGhee Banks, C. A., 2012).
- Multicultural education is defined as a reform movement, ideas, and a process in education. It is believed that all students, all people have the ability, and/or equal opportunity to receive an education. The person’s social status, race, gender, culture, or ethnic backgrounds will not influence their educational opportunity (Banks, J. A., McGhee Banks, C. A., 2012).
Compare and Contrast
| Prejudice Reduction | All three involves helping students from diverse racial, ethnic and cultural backgrounds. | Teachers use activities and lessons to help students develop a more positive attitude. |
| Equity Pedagogy | All three involves helping students from diverse racial, ethnic and cultural backgrounds. | Modifying ways of teaching to ensure academic achievement of students from diverse backgrounds and social classes . |
| Empowering School Culture and Social Structure | All three involves helping students from diverse racial, ethnic and cultural backgrounds. | Transforms organization and culture of school to make sure that students of all backgrounds and genders experience equality and equal status |
| Theories | Compare | Contrast |
My personal experiences…….
Prejudice Reduction
While attending 6th grade there were many diverse students in my class. There were pictures, posters and other diverse materials. All of the materials were diverse in terms of race, age, family, gender, ethnicity, and even disabilities. There were always discussions about race and ethnicity. My teacher wanted everyone to understand that although we are all different in many ways we should all be treated equal as well as treat others equal.
I worked as a Kindergarten teacher for 3 years with the franklin county schools system. The school that I worked at was known as the satellite school. This means that any parent who wanted their child to attend the school was able to get permission from the board. This school was originally built to help even out the number of minority students who attended another elementary school. They ended up overloading the school with inner city “poor” African American and Hispanic children who lived in an area where most crime is committed. So in turn, they had to start sending middle class Caucasian children to the school to try and even in out. With a mixture of race culture and social-class groups I would have to modify my teaching style to accommodate all of my students and ensure their academic success.
Equity Pedagogy
Empowering School Culture and Social Structure
- I began work as a teacher assistant at a middle school. Middle school is a time when children began to try and find a identity. During my time at this school there were a great amount of students who were gay or as some staff wanted to call it “experimenting”. Of course because of religion and beliefs a lot of teachers were against those said students. In turn some students were beginning to pick with students or bully them. I want to ensure that each student no matter what gender or ethnicity felt comfortable and were treated equally. I spoke with the schools principal and she agreed that something needed to be done. We came up with some strategies and ideas to ensure that the entire environment of the school was changed as well as the beliefs and attitudes of all staff and students.
Diversity in Classrooms
Design A Unit
- My unit will be for grade 9
- I will begin my unit with the question “What is culture?”
- I will ask students to define they think culture is. After receiving answers I will then direct my students to brainstorm some examples of culture while I write the answer down on the board.
- I will also ask them what goes into culture. If a student struggles to answer I will give suggestions such as music, fashion, government etc..
- I will then give students a handout with a list of a variety of groups and have students circle the groups on the handout that they belong too.
Design A Unit continued……
- As a short group activity I will have students get into groups of 3-4 and compare their lists with their group members. They will then find at least 2 things that they have in common. Students will write down 3 name groups that they have in common and figure out what it is about the groups that they have in common for example:
Name
Beliefs
Rules
Why it exist
After giving them sometime each group will present to the class what they had in common.
Design A Unit continued……
- As a class activity I will ask my students who can define the following terms.
-homogeneous?
-heterogeneous?
- I will give two students the task of looking up the definition of each in the dictionary. We will then compare dictionary definition as a class to the definition given by students.
- As an individual activity I will give students a National geographic magazine and have them select any culture as long as it is not their own. Then they will list as ma y characteristics that their culture has in common with the culture that they chose. Lastly list as many cultural ideas that the culture has in common with their own
- To conclude I will ask my beginning question: “What is culture?” I will allow students to give answers to see if they have gained a better understanding of culture.
Resources to deliver this Unit
- Youtube
- Handouts
- National Geographic Magazine
- Dictionary (Different Versions)
- Questionaire
Three Strategies to Integrate Multicultural Techniques
- Create multicultural projects in which students have to choose and report on a culture other than their own.
- Supplement the curriculum by using news stories and currents events that are going on now, outside of the text book.
- Come up with a diverse reading list that demonstrates multiculturalism
- According to the ISTE Standards for Teachers, educators need to start personalizing learning activities to students' diverse learning styles, working strategies and abilities, and they need to give students a variety of formative and summative assessments.
Philosophy of Multicultural Education
Educational Philosophy Diagram
Diversity Inclusion
Inclusion
Multicultural
Education
Culturally Responsive Teaching
My Multicultural Education Philosophy
As an individual person I have had the experience of learning about my own background & culture. My belief is that everyone should have this experience to become aware of values from their ethnic group. As teachers, we should know how important it is for the generation to come to know the importance of being born in a state & country that is multicultural. In order to empower the new generation to have an open mind and respect for other individuals no matter what their color & race. Curriculum needs to be developed around what students are interested in. I believe that the main goal is to motivate and stimulate students so that they will have a interest in learning. As a teacher my main goal will be to guide my students' learning towards a direction that is significant to what they are interested in and want to learn about. To do this I will provide providing a curriculum that gives the opportunity for input and participation. Therefore, students can generate their own ideas as well as set objectives for consistent activity. Students may gain ownership in the curriculum, they are motivated to work hard & master the skills necessary to reach their goals, due to the potential influence of personal traits on teacher multicultural efficacy, it's important to determine how these variables might be related (Nadelson, L.S., Boham, 2012).
Evaluating Criteria
- To evaluate the effectiveness of curriculum for students I will:
Asses students to see what they have learned about cultural lessons
Give project based assignments so that students are able to explore and learn about different cultures and present to the class what they have learned.
Use assessment techniques in class
References
- Banks, J. A., & McGhee Banks, C. A. (Eds.). (2012). Multicultural Education: Issues and Perspectives(8th ed.). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.
- Nadelson, L. S., Boham, M. D., Conlon-Khan, L., Fuentealba, M. J., Hall, C. J., Hoetker, G. A., & ... Zenkert, A. J. (2012). A Shifting Paradigm: Preservice Teachers’ Multicultural Attitudes and Efficacy. Urban Education, 47(6), 1183. doi:10.1177/0042085912449750’
- http://www.teachhub.com/multicultural-education-your-classroom
- https://www.iste.org/docs/pdfs/20-14_ISTE_Standards-T_PDF.pdf