teaching social justice

20 Chapter 2

the kinds of pictures on the bulletin ofboards, the racial (COmlpCJsitiiorn the school staff, and the fairness with which studeruts fro>m different racial, cultural, and ethnic groups are disciplined and susspemded. ]Multi­ cultural education reforms the total school environment so t:halt thte hid­ den curriculum sends the message that cultural and ethmic: diiversity is

valued and celebrated. 8. The counseling program. In an effective multicultural :sch1ooll,counse­

lors help students from diverse cultural, racial, and et:hnlic grolllpS to make effective career choices and to take the courses needed Ito pursue those career choices (Ponterotto, Casas, Suzuki, & Alexandeir, 1995; Sue, 1995). Multiculturally oriented counselors also help smdents to reach beyond their grasp, to dream, and to actualize their dreams.

Multicultural educators make the assumption that if the preceding eight variables within the school environment are reformed and restruc­ tured and the dimensions of multicultural education are implemented, students from diverse ethnic, cultural, and language groups and of both genders will attain higher levels of academic achievement and the inter­ group attitudes and beliefs of students from all groups will become more

democratic.

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3 CURRICULUM TRANSFORMATION

It is important to distinguish between curriculum infusion and curricu­ lum transformation. When the curriculum is infused with ethnic and gender content without curriculum transformation, the students view the experiences of ethnic groups and of women from the perspectives and conceptual frameworks of the traditional Western canon. Conse­ quently, groups such as Native Americans, Asian Americans, and Latinos are added to the curriculum, put their experiences are viewed from the perspective of mainstream historians and social scientists. When curric­ ulum infusion occurs without transformation, women are added to the curriculum but are viewed from the perspectives of mainstream males. Concepts such as "The Westward Movement," "The European Discovery of America, 11 and "Men and Their Families Went West" remain intact.

When curriculum transformation occurs, students and teachers make paradigm shifts and view the American and world experience from the perspectives of different racial, ethnic, cultural, and gender groups. Columbus's arrival in the Americas is no longer viewed as a "discovery" but as a cultural contact or encounterthat had very different consequences for the Tainos (Arawaks), Europeans, and Africans (Golden et al., 1991; Rouse, 1992; Stannard, 1992). In a transformed curriculum, the experi­ ences of women in the West are not viewed as an appendage to the expe­ rience of men but "through women's eyes" (Armitage, 1987; Limerick, 1987).

This chapter discusses the confusion over goals in multicultural edu­ cation, describes its goals and challenges, and states the rationale for a transformative multicultural curriculum. Important goals of multicul­ tural education are to help teachers and students transform their think­ ing about the nature and development of the United States arrd the

21

22 Chapter 3

world and also to develop a commitment to act in ways that will make the United States a more democratic and just nation.

CONFUSION OVER THE MEANING OF MULTICULTURAL EDUCATION

A great deal of confusion exists, among both educators and the general public, about the meaning of multicultural education. The meaning of multicultural education among these groups varies from education about people in other lands to educating African American students about their heritage but teaching them little about the Western heritage of the United States. The confusion over the meaning of multicultural education was indicated by a question the editor of a national education publication asked me: "What is the difference between multicultural education, ethnocentric education, and global education?" Later during the telephone interview, I realized that she had meant "Afrocentric edu­ cation" rather than "ethnocentric education." To her, these terms were synonymous.

THE MEANING AND GOALS OF MULTICULTURAL EDUCATION

Before we can solve the problem caused by the multiple meanings of multicultural education, we need to better understand the causes of the problem. One important cause of the confusion over the meaning of multicultural education is the multiple meanings of the concept in the professional literature itself. Sleeter and Grant (1987), in their compre­ hensive survey of the literature on multicultural education, found that the term has diverse meanings and that about the only commonality the various definitions share is reform designed to improve schooling for students of color.

To advance the field and to reduce the multiple meanings of multi­ cultural education, scholars neec to develop a higher level of consensus about what the concept means. Agreement about the meaning of multi­ cultural education is emerging among academics. A consensus is develop­ ing among scholars that an important goal of multicultural education is to increase educational equality for both gender groups, for students from diverse ethnic and cultural groups, and for exceptional students (Banks & Banks, 1997; Grant & Ladson-Billngs, 1997; Grant & Tate, 1995). A major assumption of multicultural education is that some groups of students­ because their cultural characteris:ics are more consistent with the culture,

Curriculum Transfo1mation 23

norms, and expectations of the school than are those of other groups of students-have greater opportunities for academic success than do students whose cultures are less consistent with the school culture. Low-income African American males, for example, tend to have more problems in schools than do middle-class Anglo males (Gibbs, 1988).

Because one of its goals is to increase educational equality for stu­ dents from diverse groups, school restructuring is essential to make mul­ ticultural education become a reality. To restructure schools in order to provide all students with an equal chance to learn, some of the major assumptions, beliefs, and structures within schools must be radically changed. These include tracking and the ways in which mental ability tests are interpreted and used (Mercer, 1989; Oakes, 1992). New para­ digms about the ways students learn, about human ability (Gardner, 1983; Gould, 1981), and about the nature of knowledge will have to be institutionalized in order to restructure schools and make multicultural education a reality. Teachers will have to believe that all students can learn, regardless of their social-class or ethnic-group membership, and that knowledge is a social construction that has social, political, and nor­ mative assumptions (Code, 1991; Collins, 1990; Harding, 1991). Imple­ menting multicultural education within a school is a continuous process that cannot be implemented within a few weeks or over several years. The implementation of multicultural education requires a long-term commitment to school improvement and restructuring.

Another important goal of multicultural education-on which there is wide consensus among authorities in the field but that is neither understood nor appreciated by many teachers, journalists, and the pub­ lic-is to help all students, including White mainstream students, to develop the knowledge, skills, and attitudes they will need to survive and function effectively in a future U.S. society in which one out of every three people will be a person of color. Our survival as a strong and democratic nation will be seriously imperiled if we do not help our stu­ dents attain the knowledge and skills they need to function in a cultur­ ally diverse future society and world. As Martin Luther King stated eloquently, "We will live together as brothers and sisters or die separate and apart as strangers" (King, 1987).

This goal of multicultural education is related to an important goal of global education. An important aim of global education is to help stu­ dents to develop cross-cultural competency in cultures beyond our national boundaries and the insights and understandings needed to understand how all peoples living on the earth have highly intercon­ nected fates (Becker, 1979). Citizens who have an understanding of and empathy for the cultures within their own nation are probably more likely to function effectively in cultures outside of their nation than are

24 Chapter 3

citizens who have little understanding of and empathy for cultures within their own society.

Although multicultural and global education share some important aims, in practice global education can hinder teaching about ethnic and cultural diversity in the United States. Some teachers are more comfortable teaching about Mexico than they are teaching about Mexican Americans who live within their own cities and states. Other teachers, as well as some publishers, do not distinguish between multicultural and global education. Although the goals of multicultural and global education are complemen­ tary, they need to be distinguished both conceptually and in practice.

MULTICULTURAL EDUCATION tS FOR ALL STUDENTS

We need to think seriously about why multicultural educators have not been more successful in conveying to teachers, journalists, and the gen­ eral public the idea that multicultural education is concerned not only with students of color and linguistically diverse students but also with White mainstream students. It is also not widely acknowledged that many of the reforms designed to increase the academic achievement of ethnic and linguistic minority students, such as a pedagogy that is sen­ sitive to student learning styles and cooperative learning techniques, will also help White mainstream students to increase their academic achievement and to develop more positive intergroup attitudes and val­ ues (Cohen & Lotan, 1997; Shade, 1989; Slavin, 1995).

It is important for multicultural education to be conceptualized as a strategy for all students for several important reasons. U.S. schools are not working as well as they should be to prepare all students to function in a highly technological, postindustrial society (Bell, 1973; Graham, 1992). Most students of color (with the important exception of some groups of Asian students such as Chinese and Japanese Americans) and low-income students are more dependent on the school for academic achievement than are White middle-class students for a variety of complex reasons. However, school restructuring is needed for all students because of the high level of literacy and skills needed by citizens in a knowledge society and because of the high expectations that the public has for today's schools. Public expectations for the public schools have increased tremen­ dously since the turn of the century, when many school leavers were able to get jobs in factories (Cremin, 1989; Graham, 1992). School restructur­ ing is an important and major aim of multicultural education.

Multicultural education should also be conceptualized as a strategy for all students because it will become institutionalized and supported

Curriculum Transfonnation 25

in the nation's schools, colleges, and universities only to the extent that it is perceived as universal and in the broad public interest. An ethnic­ specific notion of multicultural education stands little chance of success and implementation in the nation's educational institutions.

CHALLENGES TO THE MAINSTREAM CURRICULUM

Some readers might rightly claim that an ethnic-specific curriculum and education already exists in the nation's educational institutions and that it is Eurocentric and male dominated. I would agree with this claim but believe that the days for the primacy and dominance of the mainstream curriculum are limited. The curriculum that is institutionalized within our nation's schools, colleges, and universities is being seriously challenged today and will continue to be challenged until it is revised to more accu­ rately reflect the experiences, voices, and struggles of people of color, of women, and of other cultural and social-class groups in U.S. society. The curriculum within our nation's schools, colleges, and universities has changed substantially Within the last two decades. It is important that these changes be recognized and acknowledged. Students in today's educa­ tional institutions are learning much more content about ethnic, cultural, racial, and gender diversity than they learned two decades ago. The ethnic studies and women's studies movements have had a significant influence on the curriculum in the nation's schools, colleges, and universities.

The dominance of the mainstream curriculum is much less complete and tenacious than it was before the Civil Rights and Women's Rights Movements of the 1960s and 1970s. The historical, social, and economic factors are different today than they were when Anglo Americans estab­ lished control over the nation's major social, economic, and political institutions in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The economic, demographic, and ideological factors that led to the establishment of Anglo hegemony early in our nation's history are changing, even though Anglo Americans are still politically, economically, and culturally domi­ nant, as Supreme Court decisions that slowed the pace of affirmative action initiatives during the 1980s indicated.

Nevertheless, there are signs throughout U.S. society that Anglo dom­ inance and hegemony are being challenged and that groups such as Afri­ can Americans, Asian Americans, and Latinos are increasingly demanding full structural inclusion and a reformulation of the canon used to select content for the school, college, and university curriculum (Butler & Walter, 1991; Graff, 1992). It is also important to realize that many com­ passionate and informed Whites are joining people of color to support

26 Chapter 3

reforms in the nation's social, economic, political, and educational insti­ tutions. It would be a mistake to conceptualize or perceive the reform movements today as people of color versus Whites.

One pervasive myth within our society is that Whites are a mono­ lithic group. The word White conceals more than it reveals. Whites are a very diverse group in terms of ethnic and cultural characteristics, polit­ ical affiliations, and attitudes toward ethnic and cultural diversity. Many Whites today, as well as historically, have supported social movements to increase the rights of African Americans and other people of color (Branch, 1988). Reform-oriented White citizens who are pushing for a more equitable and just society are an important factor that will make it increasingly difficult for the Anglo-Saxon vision to continue to dom­ inate our educational institutions.

Whites today are playing an important role in social reform move­ ments and in the election of African American and Latino politicians. Many White students on university campuses are forming coalitions with students of color to demand that the university curriculum be reformed to include content about people of color and women. The student move­ ments that are demanding ethnic studies requirements on university campuses have experienced major victories (Hu-DeHart, 1995).

The Anglocentric curriculum will continue to be challenged until it is reformed to include the voices and experiences of a range of ethnic and cultural groups. The significant percentage of people of color, including African Americans and Latinos, who are in positions of leadership in educational institutions will continue to work to get the experiences of their people integrated into the school and university curriculum. These individuals include researchers, professors, administrators, and authors of textbooks. Students of color will continue to form coalitions with pro­ gressive White students and demand that the school and university cur­ riculum be reformed to reflect the ethnic and cultural reality of U.S. society. Demographers project that students of color will make up about 46 percent of the nation's school-age youths (ages O to 17) by 2020 (Pal­ las, Natri~llo, & McDill, 1989). Parents and community groups will con­ tinue to demand that the school and university curriculum be reformed to give voice to their experiences and struggles. African American par­ ents and community groups are the major agents pushing for a curricu­ lum that reflects African civilizations and experimental schools for Black males (Chmelynski, 1990; Lee, 1992).

Feminists will continue to challenge the mainstream curriculum because many of them view it as male-centric, patriarchal, and sexist. Much of the new research in women's studies deals with the cultures of women of color (Anderson & Collins, 1992; Hine, King, & Reed, 1995; Jones, 1985). Women's studies and ethnic studies will continue to inter-

Curriculum Transfonnation 27

connect and challenge the dominant curriculum in the nation's schools, colleges, and universities.

CHALLENGES TO MULTICULTURAL EDUCATION

I have argued that an ethnic-specific version of multicultural education is not likely to become institutionalized within the nation's schools, col­ leges, and universities and that the days of Anglo hegemony in the U.S. curriculum are limited. This is admittedly a long view of our society and future. Multicultural education is now facing a strenuous and well­ orchestrated challenge from conservative groups and scholars (D'Souza, 1995; Schlesinger, 1991). This challenge will continue, will be fierce, and will at times become ugly and pernicious. It will take diverse forms, expressions, and shapes. I believe that part of the confused meanings of multicultural education results from the attempts by neoconservative scholars to portray multicultural education as a movement against West­ ern civilization, as anti-White, and by implication, as anti-American (Ravitch, 1990a; Sirkin, 1990). The popular press frequently calls the movement to infuse an African perspective into the curriculum Afrocen­ tric, and it has defined the term to mean an education that excludes Whites and Western civilization (Daley, 1990).

The term Afrocentric has different meanings to different people. Because of its diverse interpretations by various people and groups, neo­ conservative scholars have focused many of their criticisms of multicul­ tural education on this concept. Asante (1987) defines Afrocentricity as "placing African ideals at the center of any analysis that involves African culture and behavior" (p. 6). In other words, he defines Afrocentricity as looking at African and African American behavior from an African or African American perspective. His definition suggests that Black English, or Ebonics, cannot be understood unless it is viewed from the perspec­ tive of those who speak it. Afrocentricity, when Asante's definition is used, can describe the addition of an African American perspective to the school and university curriculum. When understood in this way, it is consistent with a multicultural curriculum because a multicultural curriculum helps students to view behavior, concepts, and issues from different ethnic and cultural perspectives.

THE CANON BATTLE: SPECIAL INTERESTS VERSUS THE PUBLIC INTEREST

The push by people of color and women to get their voices and experi­ ences institutionalized within the curriculum and the curriculum canon

28 Chapter3

transformed has evoked a strong reaction from neoconservative scholars. Consequently, a battle over the canon between people of color, feminist scholars, and neoconservative scholars is taking place. The neoconserva­ tives have founded two organizations to resist multicultural education: the Madison Center and the National Association of Scholars. The resis­ tance to multicultural education has been strongly expressed in a series of editorials and articles in popular and educational publications (Finn, 1990; McConnell & Breindel, 1990; Leo, 1990; Ravitch, 1990a, 1990b), as well as in several best-selling books (D'Souza, 1991; Schlesinger, 1991). The multiculturalists have founded two national organizations to defend and promote ethnic and cultural diversity in the nation's schools, col­ leges, and universities: Teachers for a Democratic Society and the National Association for Multicultural Education.

Many of the arguments in the editorials and articles written by the opponents of multicultural education are smoke screens for a conserva­ tive political agenda designed not to promote the common good of the nation but to reinforce the status quo and dominant group hegemony and to promote the interests of a small elite. A clever tactic of the neo­ conservative scholars is to define their own interests as universal and in the public good and the interests of women and people of color as special intereststhat are particularistic (Ravitch, 1990a). When a dominant elite describes its interests as the same as the public interests, it marginalizes the experiences of structurally excluded groups, such as women and peo-

ple of color. The term special interest implies an interest that is particularistic and

inconsistent with the overarching goals and needs of the nation-state or commonwealth. To be in the public good, interests must extend beyond the needs of a unique or particular group. An important issue is who formu­ lates the criteria for determining what is a special interest. It is the dominant group or groups in power tl:h.athave already shaped the curriculum, insti­ tutions, and structures in their images and interests. The dominant group views its interests not as spiecial but as identical with the common good. A special interest, in the vi1ew of those who control the curriculum and other institutions within society, is therefore any interest that challenges their power and dominant ideologies and paradigms, particularly if the interest group demands th.at the canon, assumptions, and values of the institutions and structures lbe transformed. History is replete with exam­ ples of dominant groups th;at defined their interests as the public interest.

One way in which pe•ople in power marginalize and disempower those who are structurally excluded from the mainstream is by calling their visions, histories, goals, and struggles special interests. This type of marginalization denies thte legitimacy and validity of groups that are excluded from full participation in society and its institutions.

Cuniculum Tra1.1sformation 29

Only a curriculum that reflects the experiences of a wide range of groups in the United States and the world, and the interests of these groups, is in the national interest and is consistent with the public good. Any other kind of curriculum reflects a special interest and is inconsis­ tent with the needs of a nation that must survive in a pluralistic and highly interdependent world. Special interest history and literature, such as history and literature that emphasize the primacy of the West and the history of European American males, is detrimental to the public good because it will not help students to acquire the knowledge, skills, and attitudes essential for survival in the twenty-first century.

The aim of the ethnic studies and women's studies movements are not to push for special interests but to reform the curriculum so that it will be more truthful and more inclusive and will reflect the histories and experiences of the diverse groups and cultures that make up U.S. society. Rather than being special interest reform movements, they con­ tribute to the democratization of the school and university curriculum. They contribute to the public good rather than to the strengthening of special interests.

We need to rethink concepts such as special interests, the national interest,and the public good and to identify which groups are using these terms and for what purposes, and also to evaluate the use of these terms in the context of a nation and world that is rapidly changing. Powerless and excluded groups accurately perceive efforts to label their visions and experiences special interests' as an attempt to marginalize them and to make their voices silent and their faces invisible.

SCHOOL KNOWLEDGE AND MULTICULTURAL LITERACY

Our concept of cultural literacy should be broader than the one pre­ sented by Hirsch (1987) in his widely reviewed book, Cultural Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know. Hirsch writes as if knowledge is neu­ tral and static. His book contains a list of important facts that he believes students should master in order to become culturally literate. Knowledge is dynamic, changing, and constructed within a social context rather than neutral and static, as Hirsch implies. Hirsch recommends transmit­ ting knowledge in a largely uncritical way. When we help students to attain knowledge, we should help them to recognize thilt knowledge reflects the social context in which it is created and that it has normative and value assumptions (Banks, 1996a).

I agree with Hirsch that there is a need for all U.S. citizens to have a common core of knowledge. However, the important questi::ms are: Who

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30

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Chapter 3

will participate in the formulations of that knowledge? and Whose interests will it serve? We need a broad level of participation in the identification, con­ struction, and formulation of the knowledge that we expect all of our cit­ izens to master. Such knowledge should reflect cultural democracy and serve the needs of all of the people. It should contribute to public virtue and the public good. Such knowledge should not serve the needs of dom­ inant and powerful groups, as much school and university knowledge does today. Rather, school knowledge should reflect the experiences of all of the nation's citizens, and it should empower all people to participate effectively in a democratic society. It should help to empower all citizens and encourage them to participate in civic discourse and citizen action.

A TRANSFORMED CURRICULUM AND MULTIPLE PERSPECTIVES

Educators use several approaches, summarized in Figure 3-1, to integrate cultural content into the school and university curriculum (Banks, 1988a, 1997a). These approaches include the contributions approach, in which content about ethnic and cultural groups are limited primarily to holidays and celebrations, such as Cinco de Mayo, Asian/Pacific Heritage Week, African American History Month, and Women's History Week. This approach is used often in the primary and elementary grades. Another frequently used approach to integrate cultural content into the curriculum is the additive approach. In this approach, cultural content, concepts, and themes are added to the curriculum without changing its basic structure, purposes, and characteristics. The additive approach is often accomplished by the addition of a book, a unit, or a course to the curriculum without changing its framework.

Neither the contributions nor the additive approach challenges the basic structure or canon of the curriculum. Cultural celebrations, activi­ ties, and content are inserted into the curriculum within the existing curriculum framework and assumptions. When these approaches are used to integrate cultural content into the curriculum, people, events, and interpretations related to ethnic groups and women often reflect the norms and values of the dominant culture rather than those of cultural communities. Consequently, most of the ethnic groups and women added to the curriculum have values and roles consistent with those of the dominant culture. Men and women who challenged the status quo and dominant institutions are less likely to be selected for inclusion into the curriculum. Thus, Sacajawea is more likely to be chosen for inclusion than is Geronimo because she helped Whites to conquer Indian lands. Geronimo resisted the takeover of Indian lands by Whites.

Curriculum Transformation 31

Level 4 The Social Action Approach

Students make decisions on impor­ tant social issues and take actions to help solve them.

Level3 The Transformation Approach The structure of the curriculum is changed to enable students to view concepts, issues, events, and themes from the perspective of diverse ethnic and cultural groups.

Level 2 The Additive Approach

Content, concepts, themes, and per­ spectives are added to the curriculum without changing its structure.

Level 1 The Contributions Approach

Focuses on heroes, holidays, and discrete cultural elements.

FIGURE 3-1 Approaches to Multicultural Curriculum Reform

The transformation approach differs fundamentally from the contribu­ tions and additive approaches. It changes the canon, paradigms, and basic assumptions of the curriculum and enables students to view concepts, issues, themes, and problems from different perspectives and points of view. Major goals of this approach include helping students to understand concepts, events, and people from diverse ethnic and cultural perspectives

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32 Chapter 3

and to understand knowledge as a social construction. In this approaach, students are able to read and listen to the voices of the victors and I the vanquished. They are also helped to analyze the teacher's perspective'. on events and situations and are given the opportunity to formulate .and justify their own versions of events and situations. Important aimss of the transformation approach are to teach students to think critically .and to develop the skills to formulate, document, and justify their cornclu-

sions and generalizations. When teaching a unit such as the "Westward Movement" usirng a

transformation approach, the teacher would assign appropriate readtngs and then ask the students such questions as: What do you think the "Westward Movement" means? Who was moving West-the Whites or the Native Americans? What region in the United States was referred to as the West? Why? The aim of these questions is to help students to understand that the Westward Movement is a Eurocentric term because the Lakota Sioux were already living in the West and consequently were not moving. This phrase is used to refer to the movement of the Euro­ pean Americans who were headed in the direction of the Pacific Ocean. The Sioux did not consider their homeland "the West" but the center of the universe. The teacher could also ask the students to describe the Westward Movement from the point of view of the Sioux. The students might use such words as The End, The Age of Doom, or The Coming of the People Who Took Our Land. The teacher could also ask the studenti to give the unit a name that is more neutral than "The Westward Move­ ment." They might name the unit "The Meeting of Two Cultures."

The decision-making and social action approach extends the transform.a­ tive curriculum by enabling students to pursue projects and activities '.hat allow them to take personal, social, and civic actions related to the con­ cepts, problems, and issues they have studied. After they have studiedthe unit on different perspectives on the Westward Movement, the stud~nts might decide that they want to learn more about Native Americans ind to take actions that will enable the school to depict and perpetuate nore accurate and positive views of America's first inhabitants. The stud!nts might compile a list of books written by Native Americans for the sclool librarian to order and present a pageant for the school's morning exe:cise on "The Westward Movement: A View from the Other Side."

TEACHING STUDENTS TO KNOW, TO CARE, AND TO ACT

Major goals of a transformative curriculum that fosters multiculturalit­ eracy should be to help students to know, to care, and to act in ways hat

Cuniculum Transformation 33

will develop and foster a democratic and just society in which all groups experience cultural democracy and cultural empowerment. Knowledge is an essential part of multicultural literacy, but it is not sufficient. Knowl­ edge alone will not help students to develop an empathetic, caring commitment to humane and democratic change. An essential goal of a multicultural curriculum is to help students to develop empathy and caring. To help our nation and world become more culturally demo­ cratic, students must also develop a commitment to personal, social, and civic action, and the knowledge and skills needed to participate in effec­ tive civic action.

Although knowledge, caring, and action are conceptually distinct, in the classroom they are highly interrelated. In my multicultural classes for teacher education students, I use historical and sociological knowl­ edge about the experiences of different ethnic and racial groups to inform as well as to enable the students to examine and clarify their per­ sonal attitudes about ethnic diversity. These knowledge experiences are also a vehicle that enables the students to think of action they can take to actualize their feelings and moral commitments.

Knowledge experiences that I use to help students to examine their value commitments and to think of ways to act include the reading of Balm in Gilead: Journey of a Healer, Sara Lawrence Lightfoot's (1988) pow­ erful biography of her mother, one of the nation's first African American child psychiatrists; the historical overviews of various U.S. ethnic groups in my book, Teaching Strategies for Ethnic Studies (Banks, 1997a); and sev­ eral video and film presentations, including selected segments from Eyes on the Prize II, the award-winning history of the Civil Rights Movement produced by Henry Hampton, and Eye of the Beholder, a powerful video­ tape that uses simulation to show the cogent effects of discrimination on adults. The videotape features Jane Elliott, who attained fame for her well-known experiment in which she discriminated against children on the basis of eye color to teach them about discrimination (Peters, 1987).

To enable the students to analyze and clarify their values regarding these readings and video experiences, I ask them questions such as: How did the boo],<, film, or videotape make you feel? Why do you think you feel that way? To enable them to think about ways to act on their feel­ ings, I ask such questions as: How interracial are your own personal experiences? Would you like to live a more interracial life? What are some books that you can read or popular films that you can see that will enable you to act on your commitment to live a more racially and eth­ nically integrated life? The power of these kinds of experiences is often revealed in student papers, as is illustrated by this excerpt from a paper written by a student after he had viewed several segments of Eyes on the Prize II (Muir, 1990):

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34 Chapter 3

I feel that my teaching will now necessarily be a little bit different forever simply because I myself have changed . ... I am no longer quite the same person I was before I viewed the presentations-my horizons are a little wider, perspectives a little broader, insights a little deeper. That is what I gained from Eyes on the Prize.

The most meaningful and effective way to prepare teachers to involve students in multicultural experiences that will enable students to know, to care, and to participate in democratic action is to involve teachers in multicultural experiences that focus on these goals. When teachers have gained knowledge about cultural and ethnic diversity themselves, looked at that knowledge from different ethnic and cultural perspectives, and taken action to make their own lives and communities more culturally sensitive and diverse, they will have the knowledge and skills needed to help transform the curriculum canon as well the hearts and minds of their students. Only when the curriculum canon is trans­ formed to reflect cultural diversity will students in our schools and col­ leges be able to attain the knowledge, skills, and perspectives needed to participate effectively in the global society of the next century.

MULTICULTURAL EDUCATION AND NATIONAL SURVIVAL

Multicultural education is needed to help all of the nation's future citi­ zens to acquire the knowledge, attitudes, and skills needed to survive in the twenty-first century. Nothing less than the nation's survival is at stake. The rapid growth in the nation's population of people of color, the escalating importance of non-White nations such as China and Japan, and the widening gap between the rich and the poor make it essential for our future citizens to have multicultural literacy and cross­ cultural skills. In the twenty-first century, a nation whose citizens can­ not negotiate on the world's multicultural global stage will be tremen­ dously disadvantaged, and its very survival may be imperiled.

4 SCHOOL REFORM AND

INTERGROUP EDUCATION

Teachers and administrators for schools of today and tomorrow should acquire the knowledge, attitudes, and skills needed to work with students from diverse cultural groups and to help all students develop more pos­ itive racial attitudes. Teachers and administrators also need to restructure schools so that they will be able to deal effectively with the nation's grow­ ing diversity and to pr~pare future citizens who will be able to compete in a global world economy that will be knowledge and service oriented.

The first part of this chapter describes the demographic trends and developments related to the nation's changing ethnic texture and future work force, states why school restructuring is essential in order to pre­ pare the work force needed for tomorrow, and describes the major vari­ ables of multicultural school reform.

The second part describes the characteristics of children's racial atti­ tudes and guidelines for helping students to acquire more positive racial attitudes, values, beliefs, and actions. This knowledge is essential for the preparation of teachers and administrators who will practice in twenty­ first century schools.

DEMOGRAPHIC TRENDS AND THE CHANGING WORK FORCE

The U.S. work force faces several major problems as we enter the twenty­ first century that have important implications for the professional work

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35