Multicultural Education: Development, Dimensions, and ...

[Pages:42]Multicultural Education: Development, Dimensions, and Challenges Author(s): James A. Banks Source: The Phi Delta Kappan, Vol. 75, No. 1 (Sep., 1993), pp. 22-28 Published by: Phi Delta Kappa International Stable URL: Accessed: 04-12-2015 01:07 UTC

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Multicultural Education

Developmnent Dimensions,

and Callenges

Mr. Banks focuses on the development and attainments Ofmulticultural education - a story that needs to be told, he says, afor the sake of balance, scholarly integrity, and accuracy."

BY JAMEs A. BANKS

THE BITTER debate over the

literary and historical canon

that has been carried on in

the popular press and in sev

eral widely reviewed books

4

has overshadowed the progress that has

been made inmulticultural education dur

ing the last two decades. The debate has

also perpetuated harmful muisconceptions

about theory and practice inmulticultur

al education. Consequently, it has height ened racial and ethnic tension and trivial

ized the field's remarkable accomplishments in theory, research, and curricu-

X r

lum. development. The truth about the de

velopment and attainments of multicul

tural education needs to be told for the

I1

sake of balance, scholarly integrity, and

accuracy. But if I am to reveal the truth

about multicultural education, Imust first

identify and debunk some of the wide

spread myths and misconceptions about '

it.

Multicultural

education is for the

others. One misconception about mul

ticultural education is that it is an en

titlement program and curricumluom

v

e-e

JAMES A. BANKS is a professor of educa-S

tion and director of the center for Multicul

tujral Education at the University of Washing

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ment forAfricanAmericans,Hispanics, largepartbecause intergroupeducators edge impliesaction.Consequently, dif

thepoor, women, and other victimized were never able topersuademainstream ferentconcepts, theories,andparadigms

groups.1 The major theorists and re educators to believe that the approach implydifferentkinds of actions.Multi

searchersinmulticulturaleducationagree was needed by and designed for all stu culturalists believe that, in order to have thatthemovement isdesigned to restruc dents. To its bitter but quiet end, main valid knowledge, informationabout the

ture educational institutionsso that all streameducatorsviewed intergroupedu social condition and experiences of the

students, includingmiddle-class white cation as something for schools with knower are essential.

males, will acquiretheknowledge, skills, racial problems and as something for A few critics of multicultural edu

andattitudesneededto functioneffective "them" and not for "us."

cation, such as John Leo and Dinesh

ly in a culturallyand ethnicallydiverse Multicultural education isopposed to D'Souza, claim thamt ulticulturaleduca

nation and world.2 Multicultural edu theWestern tradition. Another harm tionhas reducedor displaced the study

cation, as itsmajor architects have con fulmisconceptionaboutmulticulturaled of Western civilization in the nation's

ceived it during the last decade, is not an ucation has been repeated so often by its schools and colleges. However, asGer

ethnic-or gender-specificmovement. It critics that many people take it as self ald Graff points out in his welcome book

is amovement designed to empower all evident. This is the claim thatmulticul Beyond theCultureWars, this claim is

studentstobecome knowledgeable,car tural education is amovement that is op simply not true. Graff cites his own re

ing, and active citizens in a deeply trou posed to theWest and toWestern civiliza search at the college level and that of

bled andethnicallypolarizednation and tion.Multicultural education isnot anti ArthurApplebee at thehigh school level

world.

West, because most writers of color - to substantiatehis conclusion thatEuro

The claim thamt ulticulturaleducation such as Rudolfo Anaya, Paula Gunn Al pean and American male authors - such

is only for people of color and for the len, Maxine Hong Kingston, Maya An as ShakespeareD, ante, Chaucer,Twain,

disenfranchised is one of themost perni gelou, and Toni Morrison - areWest

and Hemingway - still dominate the re

cious anddamagingmisconceptionswith ernwriters.Multiculturaleducationitself quired reading lists in thenation'shigh

which themovement has had to cope. It isa thoroughWlyesternmovement.Itgrew schools and colleges.5Graff found that,

has caused intractable problems and has out of a civil rightsmovement grounded in the cases he examined, most of the

hauntedmulticulturaleducationsince its in such democratic ideals of theWest as books by authors of color were optional

inception. Despite all that has been writ freedom,justice, andequalityM. ulticul ratherthan requiredreading.Applebee

ten and spoken about multicultural edu tural education seeks to extend to all found that, of the 10 book-length works

cation being for all students, the image people the ideals thatwere meant only for most frequently required in the high

of multicultural education as an entitle an elite few at the nation's birth.

school grades, only one title was by a

ment program for the "others"remains Althoughmulticulturaleducationisnot female author (Harper Lee's To Kill a

strong and vivid in the public imagina opposed to theWest, its advocates do de Mockingbird), andnot a singleworkwas

tion, as well as in the hearts and minds mand that the truth about theWest be by a writer of color. Works by Shake

of many teachers and administrators. told, that its debt to people of color and speare, Steinbeck, andDickens headed

Teachers who teach in predominantly women be recognizedand includedin the the list.

white schools and districts often state curriculum,andthatthediscrepanciesbe Multicultural education will divide

that they don't have a program or plan tween the ideals of freedom and equality the nation. Many of its critics claim that

formulticulturaleducationbecause they and the realities of racism and sexism be multiculturaleducationwill divide thena

have few African American, Hispanic, or taught to students. Reflective action by tion and undercut its unity. Schlesinger

Asian American students.

citizens is also an integral part of multi underscores this view in the title of his

When educators view multicultural edu cultural theory.Multicultural education book, The Disuniting of America: Re cation as the study of the "others," it is views citizen action to improvesociety flectionson aMulticulturalSociety.This

marginalized and held apart from main

as an integral part of education in a de misconception is based partly on ques

streameducationreform.Several critics mocracy; it linksknowledge,values, em tionable assumptions about the nature of

of multicultural education, such asArthur powerment, and action. Multicultural U.S. society and partly on amistaken un

Schlesinger, John Leo, and Paul Gray, education is also postmodern in its as derstanding of multicultural education.

have perpetuatedthe idea thatmulticul sumptionsaboutknowledge andknowl The claim thatmulticultural education

tural education is the study of the "oth edge construction;itchallengespositiv will divide the nation assumes that the na

er" by defining it as synonymous with ist assumptions about the relationships tion is already united. While we are one

Afrocentriceducation.The historyof in between human values, knowledge, and nationpolitically, sociologicallyour na

tergroup education teaches us that only action.

tion is deeply divided along lines of race,

when education reform related to diver sity is viewed as essential for all students - and as promoting the broad public in

Positivists, who are the intellectual gender, and class. The current debate heirs of theEnlightenment,believe that about admitting gays into themilitary un it ispossible to structureknowledge that derscores another deep division in our so

terest - will ithave a reasonable chance is objective andbeyond the influenceof ciety. of becoming institutionalizedin thena humanvalues and interestsM. ulticultur Multicultural education is designed

tion's schools, colleges, and universi al theorists maintain that knowledge is to help unify a deeply divided nation rath

ties.4 The intergroup education move

positional, that it relates to the knower's er than to divide a highly cohesive one.

ment of the 1940s and 1950s failed in values andexperiences, and thatknowl Multicultural educationsupportstheno

SEPTEMBER 1993

23

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culture inwhich people frommany dif ticulturaleducation in its teachereduca

ferentcultures can interact, relate, and tioncurricula includingboth thegeneral

engage in civic talk and action. Anzal and professional studies components."

Curriculumchanges

dua states that "borders are set up to de fine the places that are safe and unsafe,

Themarket for teachereducationtext books dealingwith multicultural educa

linkedwith issues

todistinguishus from them.A border is tion is now a substantial one. Most ma

a dividing line, a narrow strip along a jor publishers now have at least one text

steep edge. A borderland is a vague and in the field. Textbooks inother required

relatedto race evokeprimordial

undeterminedplace createdby the resi

due of an unnatural boundary. It is in a

constant stateof transition."6

courses, suchas educationalpsychology

and the foundations of education, fre quently have separate chapters or a sig nificant number of pages devoted to ex

feelingsandreflect the raciacl risis.

MULTICULTURAL EDUCATION HAS MADE PROGRESS

While it is still on the margins

rather

amining concepts and developments in multicultural education.

Some of the nation's leading colleges

anduniversities, such as theUniversity

than in the center of the curriculum in of California at Berkeley, the Universi

most schools and colleges, multicultural ty of Minnesota, and Stanford Universi

contenthasmade significantinroadsinto ty, have either revised their general core

both theschooland thecollege curricula curriculum to includeethnic content or

tion of e pluribus unum - out of many, within the last two decades. The truth have establishedan ethnic studiescourse

one. Themulticulturalistsand theWest lies somewherebetween theclaim thatno requirementT. he listof universitieswith

ern traditionalistsh, owever, often differ progress has beenmade in infusing the similar kinds of requirements grows

about how the unum can best be attained. school and college curriculawith multi longer each year. However, the trans

Traditionally,thelargerU.S. societyand ethnic content and the claim that such formation of the traditional canon on col

the schools tried to create unity by as content has replaced the European and lege and university campuses has often

similating students from diverse racial American classics.

been bitter and divisive. All changes in

and ethnic groups into amythical Anglo

In the elementary and high schools, curriculum come slowly and painfully

American culture that required them to much more ethnic content appears in so to university campuses, but curriculum

experience a process of self-alienation. cial studies and language arts textbooks changes that are linked with issues relat

However, evenwhen studentsof color today than was the case 20 years ago. ed to race evoke primordial feelings and

became culturallyassimilated, theywere In addition, some teachers assign works reflect the racial crisis inAmerican so

often structurallyexcluded frommain written by authors of color along with the ciety. For example, at the University of

stream institutions.

more standard American classics. In his Washington a bitter struggleendedwith

The multiculturalistsview e pluribus study of book-length works used in the the defeat of the ethnic studies require unum as an appropriate national goal, but high schools, Applebee concluded that ment.

they believe that the unum must be ne his most striking finding was how simi

Changes are also coming to elementary

gotiated, discussed, and restructuredto lar present reading lists are to past ones and high school textbooks, as Jesus Gar

reflect the nation's ethnic and cultural and how little change has occurred. How cia points out elsewhere in this special

diversity. The reformulation of what it ever, he did note thatmany teachers use section of theKappan. I believe that the

means to be united must be a process that anthologies as a mainstay of their litera

involves the participation of diverse ture programs and that 21% of the anthol

demographic imperative is themajor fac tor driving the changes in school text

groups within the nation, such as peo ogy selections were written by women books. The color of the nation's student

ple of color, women, straights, gays, the and 14% by authors of color.7

powerful, thepowerless, theyoung, and More classroom teachers today have the old. The reformulation must also in studiedtheconceptsofmulticulturaledu

body is changing rapidly. Nearly half (about 45.5%) of the nation's school-age youths will be young people of color by

volve power sharingandparticipationby cation than at any previous point in our 2020.9 Black parents and brown parents

people frommany differentcultureswho history. A significant percentage of to are demanding that their leaders, their

must reach beyond their cultural and eth day's classroom teachers took a required images, their pain, and their dreams be

nic borders in order to create a common teacher education course inmulticultural mirrored in the textbooks that their chil

civic culture thatreflectsandcontributes education when they were in college. The dren study in school.

to the well-being of all. This common multicultural education standard adopted

Textbooks have always reflected the

civic culture will extend beyond the cul by theNational Council for Accreditation myths, hopes, and dreams of people with

tural borders of any single group and con of Teacher Education in 1977, which be money and power. As African Ameri

stitute a civic "borderland"culture.

came effective in 1979, was amajor fac cans, Hispanics, Asians, and women be

InBorderlands,GloriaAnzaldutacon tor that stimulated the growth of multicul

come more influential, textbooks will in

trasts cultural borders and borderlands tural education in teacher education pro creasingly reflect their hopes, dreams,

and calls for aweakening of the former grams. The standardstated:"The insti anddisappointmentsT.extbookswill have

in order to create a sharedborderland tutiongives evidenceof planningformul to survivein themarketplaceof abrowner

24

PHIDELTAKAPPAN

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America. Because textbooks still carry data, and information from a variety of Collins have done someof themost im

the curriculum in the nation's public culturesandgroups to illustratethekey portantwork related toknowledge con

schools, theywill remainan important concepts,principles,generalizationsa, nd struction."T1his ground-breakinwg ork,

focus formulticultural curriculum re theoriesintheirsubjectareaor discipline. although influentialamong scholarsand

formers.

Inmany school districts as well as in pop curriculumdevelopers, has been over

ularwriting, multicultural education is shadowed in the popularmedia by the

viewed almost solely as content integra heated debates about the canon. These

THE DIMENSIONS OF MULTICULTURAL EDUCATION

tion.This narrowconceptionofmulticul writers and researchershave seriously tural education is a major reason why challenged theclaimsmade by theposi

One of theproblems thatcontinues to many teachers in such subjects as biolo tiviststhatknowledge canbe value-free,

plague themulticulturaleducationmove gy, physics, andmathematicsrejectmul and they have described the ways in

ment, both fromwithin andwithout, is ticulturael ducationas irrelevantto them which knowledge claims are influenced

the tendencyof teachers,administrators, and their students.

by thegender andethnic characteristics

policy makers, and the public to oversim

In fact, thisdimensionofmulticultur of theknower.These-scholarsargue that

plify theconceptM. ulticulturaleducation al education probably has more relevance the human interestsand value assump

is a complex andmultidimensionalcon to social studies and language arts teach tions of those who create knowledge

cept, yet media commentators and edu ers than itdoes to physics andmath teach shouldbe identified,discussed, and ex

cators alike often focus on only one of ers. Physics and math teachers can insert amined. itsmany dimensions.Some teachersview multicultural content into their subjects Code states that the sex of the knower

it only as the inclusion of content about - e.g., by using biographies of physi is epistemologically significantbecause

ethnicgroups intothecurriculum;others cists andmathematicians of color and ex knowledge is both subjective and ob view it as an effort to reduce prejudice; amples from different culturalgroups. jective. Shemaintains thatboth aspects

still others view it as the celebration of However, these kinds of activities are shouldbe recognizedanddiscussed.Col

ethnic holidays and events. After Imade a presentation in a school inwhich I de

probablynot themost importanmt ulti lins, anAfrican American sociologist, cultural tasks that can be undertaken by extendsandenrichestheworks ofwriters

scribed the major goals of multicultural

science and math teachers. Activities re suchasCode andHarding by describing

education, a math teacher told me that latedto theotherdimensionsofmulticul theways inwhich race and gender inter

what I said was fine and appropriate for tural education, such as the knowledge act to influenceknowledgeconstruction.

language arts and social studies teachers constructionprocess, prejudice reduc Collins calls theperspectiveof African

but that it had nothing to do with him. tion, and an equity pedagogy, are prob Americanwomen theperspectiveof "the

After all, he said, math was math, re gardless of the color of the kids.

This reaction on the part of a respect

ably themost fruitful areas for themul outsiderwithin." She writes, "As out

ticultural involvement of science and siders within, Black women have a dis

math teachers.

tinctview of thecontradictionsbetween

ed teacher caused me to thinkmore deep

thedominantgroup'sactionsand ideolo

ly about the images of multicultural edu cation that had been created by the key actors in the field. I wondered whether we were partly responsible for this teach

er's narrow conceptionof multicultural

KNOWLEDGE CONSTRUCTION

gies."12

Curriculumtheoristsanddevelopers in

The knowledge constructionprocess multicultural educationare applying to

encompassestheproceduresbywhich so theclassroomthework beingdoneby the

cial, behavioral, and natural scientists feminist and ethnic studies epistemolo

educationasmerely content integration. createknowledge in theirdisciplines.A gists. InTransforminKg nowledge,Eliz

Itwas in response to such statements by multicultural focus on knowledge con abethMinnich, aprofessorof philosophy

classroom teachersthatIconceptualized structionincludesdiscussionof theways and women's studies, has analyzed the

the dimensions of multicultural educa inwhich the implicit cultural assump natureof knowledgeanddescribedhow

tion. Iwill use the following five dimen tions, framesof reference,perspectives, thedominanttradition,throughsuch log

sions to describe the field's major com andbiaseswithin a discipline influence ical errors as faultygeneralizationand ponents and to highlight important de the constructionof knowledge. An ex circularreasoning,has contributedto the

velopmentswithin the last twodecades: amination of the knowledge construction marginalizationof women.13

1) content integration,2) theknowledge process is an important part of multicul

I have identifiedfive typesof knowl

constructionprocess, 3) prejudicereduc turalteaching.Teachershelp studentsto edge anddescribedtheirimplicationsfor

tion, 4) an equity pedagogy, and 5) an understandhow knowledge iscreatedand multicultural teaching.14Teachers need

empowering school culture and social how it is influenced by factors of race, to be aware of the various types of knowl

structure.10 Iwill devote most of the rest ethnicity, gender, and social class.

edge so that they can structure a curric

of this article to the second of these Within the last decade, landmark work ulum thathelps students to understand

dimensions.

relatedto theconstructionof knowledge each type. Teachers also need to use their

has been done by feminist social scien own cultural knowledge and that of their

CONTENT INTEGRATION

tists and epistemologists, as well as by studentstoenrich teachingand learning. scholars in ethnic studies. Working in The typesof knowledge Ihave identified

Content integration deals with the philosophy and sociology, SandraHar anddescribed are: 1) personal/cultural, extent towhich teachersuse examples, ding, Lorraine Code, and Patricia Hill 2) popular, 3) mainstream academic, 4)

SEPTEMBER

1993

25

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transformative, and 5) school. (Iwill not Mainstream academicknowledge is es AfricanAmerican studies,which formed

discuss schoolknowledge in thisarticle.) tablishedwithinmainstreamprofession the academic roots of the current mul

Personal/culturalknowledge consists al associations, such as the American ticulturaleducationmovement when it

of theconcepts, explanations,and inter HistoricalAssociation and theAmerican emerged in the 1960s and 1970s, were

pretations thatstudentsderive fromper Psychological Association. It provides linked by several importantcharacter

sonal experiences in their homes, fami the interpretations that are taught inU. S. istics.Theirworks were transformative

lies, and community cultures. Cultural colleges and universities.

because they created data, interpreta

conflict occurs in the classroom because

The literary legacy of mainstream aca tions, and perspectives that challenged

much of thepersonal/culturakl nowledge demic knowledge includes suchwriters those thatwere established by white,

thatstudentsfromdiverseculturalgroups as Shakespeare, Dante, Chaucer, and Ar mainstreamscholarshipT. hework of the

bring to the classroom is inconsistent with istotle.Criticsofmulticulturaleducation, transformativescholarspresentedposi

schoolknowledge andwith the teacher's such as Schlesinger,D'Souza, andLeo, tive images of African Americans and

personal and cultural knowledge. For ex believe thamt ainstreamacademicknowl refuted stereotypes thatwere pervasive

ample, research indicates thatmany Afri edge in thecurriculumisbeingdisplaced within theestablishedscholarshipof their

can American andMexican American stu by the new knowledge and interpreta time.

dents are more likely to experience aca tions that have been created by scholars

Although theystrove forobjectivity in

demic success incooperativeratherthan working in women's studies and in eth their works and wanted to be considered

in competitive learningenvironments.15 nic studies.However, mainstream aca scientific researchers,these transforma

Yet the typical school culture is highly demic knowledge is not only threatened tive scholarsviewed knowledge and ac

competitive, and children of color may fromwithout but also fromwithin. Post tion as tightly linked and became in

experience failure if they do not figure modem scholars in organizations such as volved in socialactionandadministration

out the implicit rules of the school cul theAmericanHistoricalAssociation, the themselves. Du Bois was active in social

ture. 16

American SociologicalAssociation, and protest and for many years was the edi

The popularknowledge thatis institu theAmerican Political ScienceAssocia tor of Crisis, an official publication of the

tionalized by the mass media and other tion are challenging the dominant posi National Association for theAdvance

forces that shape the popular culture has tivist interpretationasndparadigmswith ment of Colored People.Woodson co

a strong influence on the values, percep

in theirdisciplines and creatingalterna founded theAssociation for the Study of

tions, and behavior of children and young tive explanationsand perspectives.

Negro (now Afro-American) Life and

people. The messages and images carried

Transformative academic knowledge History, founded and edited the Jour

by themedia, which Carlos Cortes calls challengesthefacts,concepts,paradigms, nal of Negro History, edited the Negro

the societalcurriculum,1o7ften reinforce themes, and explanations routinely accept History Bulletin for classroom teachers,

thestereotypesandmisconceptionsabout ed inmainstream academic knowledge. wrote school and college textbooks on

racial and ethnic groups that are institu Thosewho pursuetransformativaecademic Negro history, and founded Negro His

tionalizedwithin the larger society.

knowledge seek to expand and substan toryWeek (nowAfro-AmericanHisto

Of course, some films and other popu tiallyreviseestablishedcanons, theories, ryMonth).

larmedia forms do make positive contri explanations, and research methods. The

Transformative academic knowledge

butions to racialunderstandingD. ances transformative research methods and the has experienced a renaissance since the

with Wolves, Glory, and Malcolm X are ory that have been developed inwomen's 1970s. Only a few of themost important

examples. However, there are many ways studies and in ethnic studies since the works can be mentioned here because of

to view such films, and both positive and 1970s constitute, in my view, the most space. Martin Bernal, in an important

negative examples of popular culture need importandt evelopmentsin social science two-volume work, Black Athena, has

to become a part of classroom discourse

theory and research in the last 20 years. created new interpretations about the debt

and analysis. Like all human creations,

It is important for teachers and students that Greece owes to Egypt and Phoeni

even these positive films are imperfect.

to realize, however, that transformative

cia. Before Bernal, Ivan Van Sertima and

The multiculturally informed and sensi academic scholarship has a long history Cheikh Anta Diop also created novel in

tive teacher needs to help students view in the United States and that the cur terpretations of the debt thatEurope owes

these films, as well as other media pro rentethnic studiesmovement is directly to Africa. In two books, Indian Givers

ductions, from diverse cultural, ethnic, linked to an earlier ethnic studies move

and Native Roots, JackWeatherford de

and gender perspectives.

ment that emerged in the late 1800s.18 scribes Native American contributions

The concepts, theories, and explana GeorgeWashingtonWilliams published that have enriched the world.

tions that constitute traditional Western

volume 1 of the first history of African

Ronald Takaki, in several influential

centric knowledge in history and in the Americans in 1882 and the second vol books, such as Iron Cages: Race and

social and behavioral sciences constitute ume in 1883. Other important works pub Culture in 19th-Century America and

mainstream academic knowledge. Tradi lished by African American transforma Strangers from a Different Shore: A His

tional interpretations of U.S. history - tive scholars in times past included works tory of Asian Americans, has given us

embodied in such headings as "The Eu by W. E. B. Du Bois, Carter Woodson,

new ways to think about the ethnic ex

ropean Discovery of America" and "The Horace Mann Bond, and Charles Wes

WestwardMovement" -are centralcon ley.'19

perience in America. The literary con

tribution to transformativescholarship

cepts inmainstreamacademicknowledge. The works of these early scholars in has also been rich,as shownby Th1Seig

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PHIDELTAKAPPAN

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nifying Monkey: A Theory of African American Literary Criticism, by Henry Louis Gates, Jr.; Long Black Song: Es says in Black American Literature and Culture, by Houston Baker, Jr.; and Breaking Ice: An Anthology of Contem

poraryAfrican-AmericanFiction, edited

by Terry McMillan. A number of important works in the

transformative tradition that interrelate race and gender have also been published since the 1970s. Important works in this genre include Unequal Sisters: A Multi cultural Reader in U.S. Women's His tory, edited by Carol Ellen DuBois and Vicki Ruiz; Race, Gender, and Work: A Multicultural Economic History of Wom en in the United States, by Teresa Amott and Julie Matthaei; Labor of Love, La bor of Sorrow: Black Women, Work, and the Family from Slavery to the Present, by Jacqueline Jones; and The Forbidden Stitch: An Asian American Women's An thology, edited by Shirley Geok-lin Lim, Mayumi Tsutakawa, andMargarita Don

nelly.

THE OTHER DIMENSIONS

The "prejudice reduction" dimension of multicultural education focuses on the characteristics of children's racial atti tudes and on strategies that can be used to help students develop more positive ra cial and ethnic attitudes. Since the 1960s, social scientists have learned a great deal about how racial attitudes in children de velop and about ways inwhich educators can design interventions to help children acquire more positive feelings toward other racial groups. I have reviewed that

research in two recent publications and refer Kappan readers to them for a com prehensive discussion of this topic.20

This research tells us that by age 4 African American, white, and Mexican American children are aware of racial differences and show racial preferences favoring whites. Students can be helped to develop more positive racial attitudes if realistic images of ethnic and racial groups are included in teaching materi als in a consistent, natural, and integrat ed fashion. Involving students in vicari ous experiences and in cooperative learn

ing activities with students of other ra cial groups will also help them to devel op more positive racial attitudes and be

haviors.

An equity pedagogy exists when teach ers use techniques and teaching methods that facilitate the academic achievement of students from diverse racial and eth nic groups and from all social classes. Using teaching techniques that cater to the learning and cultural styles of diverse groups and using the techniques of co operative learning are some of the ways that teachers have found effective with students from diverse racial, ethnic, and language groups.21

An empowering school culture and so cial structure will require the restructur ing of the culture and organization of the school so that students from diverse ra cial, ethnic, and social-class groups will experience educational equality and a

senseof empowerment.This dimension

of multicultural education involves con ceptualizing the school as the unit of change and making structural changes

within theschoolenvironmentA. dopting

assessment techniques that are fair to all groups, doing away with tracking, and creating the belief among the staff mem bers that all students can learn are impor tant goals for schools that wish to create a school culture and social structure that are empowering and enhancing for a di

verse studentbody.

MULTICULTURAL EDUCATION AND THE FUTURE

The achievements of multicultural edu cation since the late Sixties and early

Seventies are noteworthy and should be acknowledged. Those who have shaped themovement during the intervening dec ades have been able to obtain wide agree ment on the goals of and approaches to

multiculturaleducation.Most multicul

turalists agree that the major goal of multicultural education is to restructure schools so that all students will acquire the knowledge, attitudes, and skills need ed to function in an ethnically and racial

ly diverse nation and world. As is the case with other interdisciplinary areas of study, debates within the field continue. These debates are consistent with the phi losophy of a field that values democracy and diversity. They are also a source of

strength.

Multicultural education is being imple mented widely in the nation's schools, colleges, and universities. The large number of national conferences, school district workshops, and teacher education courses in multicultural education are evidence of its success and perceived im portance. Although the process of inte gration of content is slow and often con tentious, multicultural content is increas

ingly becoming a part of core courses in schools and colleges. Textbook publish ers are also integrating ethnic and cultural content into their books, and the pace of such integration is increasing.

Despite its impressive successes, how ever, multicultural education faces seri ous challenges as we move toward the next century. One of the most serious of

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9KA,1909W.95thStreet,ChicagoL60643.

........

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thesechallenges is thehighly organized,

well-financed attack by theWestern tradi tionalists who fear thatmulticultural edu cation will transform America in ways that will result in their own disempower ment. Ironically, the successes thatmul ticultural education has experienced dur ing the last decade have played a major role in provoking the attacks.

The debate over the canon and the

well-orchestrated attackonmulticultur

al education reflect an identity crisis in

American society. The American iden

tity is being reshaped, as groups on the

margins of society begin to participate

in the mainstream and to demand that their visions be reflected in a transformed America. In the future, the sharing of power and the transformation of identity required to achieve lasting racial peace in America may be valued rather than feared, for only in this way will we achieve national salvation.

in Linda Darling-Hammond,

ed., Review

search in Education, vol. 19 (Washington,

American Educational Research Association,

of Re D.C:

1993),

pp. 3-49.

11. Sandra Harding, Whose Science, Whose Knowl

edge? Thinking from Women's Lives (Ithaca, N.Y.:

Cornell University Press, 1991); Lorraine Code,

What Can She Know? Feminist Theory and the Con

struction of Knowledge

(Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell

University Press, 1991); and Patricia Hill Collins,

Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Conscious

ness, and the Politics of Empowerment (New York:

Routledge, 1990). 12. Collins, p. 11.

13. Elizabeth K. Minnich, Transforming Knowledge

(Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1990).

14. James A. Banks, "The Canon Debate, Knowl

edge Construction, and Multicultural Education," Educational Researcher, June/July 1993, pp. 4-14.

15. Robert E. Slavin, Cooperative York: Longman, 1983).

Learning

(New

16. Lisa D. Delpit, "The Silenced Dialogue: Pow er and Pedagogy in Educating Other People's Chil dren," Harvard Educational Review, vol. 58, 1988,

pp. 280-98.

17. Carlos E. Cort?s, "The Societal Curriculum:

Implications for Multiethnic Education," in James

A. Banks, ed., Education in the '80s: Multiethnic

Education (Washington, D.C.: National Education

Association,

1981), pp. 24-32.

18. James A. Banks, "African American Scholar

ship and the Evolution of Multicultural Education," Journal of Negro Education, Summer 1992, pp. 273-86.

19. A bibliography that lists these and other more recent works of transformative scholarship appears at the end of this article.

20. James A. Banks, "Multicultural Education: Its Effects on Students' Racial and Gender Role Atti

tudes," in James P. Shaver, ed., Handbook of Re

search on Social Studies Teaching and Learning

(New York: Macmillan,

1991), pp. 459-69; and

idem, "Multicultural Education for Young Children:

Racial and Ethnic Attitudes and Their Modifica

tion," in Bernard Spodek, ed., Handbook

search on the Education of Young Children

York: Macmillan,

1993), pp. 236-50.

of Re (New

21. Barbara J. R. Shade, ed., Culture, Style, and the Educative Process (Springfield, 111.:Charles C Thomas, 1989). IS

Bibliography

1. Nathan Glazer, "InDefense of Multiculturalisme New Republic, 2 September 1991, pp. 18-22; and Dinesh D'Souza, "Illiberal Education," Atlantic,

March 1991, pp. 51-79.

2. James A. Banks, Multiethnic Education: Theory

and Practice, 3rd ed. (Boston: Allyn and Bacon,

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Perspectives, 2nd ed. (Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 1993); and Christine E. Sleeter and Carl A. Grant,

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