In today’s increasingly diverse and globalized society, it is essential that individuals are equipped with the knowledge, skills and attitudes necessary to interact effectively with people from different cultural backgrounds. It’s my belief that multicultural education remains one of the most effective approaches to helping students understand and appreciate cultural diversity, which can help foster empathy and respect between individuals and communities.
As a substitute teacher this past year, I have been privy to many different cultures in the classroom. Much like a traveler to a new place, understanding the culture of our school helps us define the values, beliefs and behaviors of our students and our role in helping to shape it. Of the many “wicked problems” teachers encounter regularly, the inclusion of multicultural education and diverse perspectives in the curriculum remains a challenge. For starters, the term culture is so hard to define. Culture is unique to human behavior and manifests itself through language, ideas, beliefs, customs, dress, institutions, tools, food, works of art, rituals and more. So when it comes to integrating multicultural education into our curriculum, where does one start?
I became more informed about our district’s instructional mandates last year when Illinois was the first state to pass the Teaching Equitable Asian American Community History (TEAACH) Act; an instructional mandate requiring that Asian American history be taught in K-12 public schools. As an Asian American educator, this was an exciting step towards the inclusion of diverse perspectives and narratives that have long been invisible in our curriculum. However, what I discovered was that the summary of requirements for Asian American history were vague and resource and materials scarce. Was this also the case for all multicultural mandates? Was this a barrier for the lack of inclusion of multicultural perspectives in our curriculum? To find some answers, I chose to survey teachers at my elementary school and jr. high about how they enact multicultural education.
Though my survey was sent to approximately 100 teachers, I only received 15 responses. I’d like to think the main reason for the extremely low response is due to timing as I had to contend with state testing and two district-wide surveys occurring the same week I submitted my survey. Regardless, the responses I did receive helped shed some light on the attitudes and barriers to implementing multicultural education in the classroom.
As with any dialogue on education, individuals tend to mold concepts to fit their particular contexts and disciplines. Multicultural education has typically been siloed within literacy and social studies, however 93% of those surveyed felt it was relevant in subject areas like math, science, music and health.
If 93% felt that multicultural education was relevant to their practice then what might be some of the barriers teachers are facing in incorporating it into their pedagogy? 60% of my survey respondents confirmed some of the challenges I had experienced which was time constraints and sourcing quality materials that were culturally authentic. They also highlighted a fear of retaliation from parents or community members as a large concern. This last point about fear is something I want to call out because I think it’s in part at the heart of multicultural education.
Learning to speak up about diversity is uncomfortable, but it is critical if we’re to build inclusive classrooms and communities. I believe in order for us to get over our fears, we need to ask better questions to promote trust, continue to read up on books and other resources that will help us better understand marginalized groups, and learn to embrace the discomfort of talking about and tackling tough issues.
For a more in depth look at my project on Implementing Multicultural Perspectives in the Classroom, you can watch my video here:
Or view my slideshow at your leisure.
References:
Yen, K. (2024, April 21). Implementing Multicultural Perspectives in the Classroom [Video].
