Multicultural Education, Research Paper Example

Multicultural education focuses on the diverse needs of students based on their individual upbringing and cultural background. It is essential for educators to accommodate their students on this basis because children from different demographic backgrounds have different needs. Emphasis on this type of learning is based on the understanding that the United States is a multicultural society and that acknowledgement of diversity can be utilized in order to teach students in a targeted manner and can allow students to learn from one another. According to lead teachers, a multicultural education encompasses five dimensions, which include content integration, the knowledge construction process, prejudice reduction, an equity pedagogy, and an empowering school culture and social structure (Banks, 2008).

Ultimately, a multicultural education involves both a focus on what students from certain demographics need to learn the most in addition to methods that can be used to best teach them the material. For example, it may be beneficial for ESL learners to participate in lesson plans that focus on how words are pronounced and used in the English language. Understanding that learning English is essentialfor students to learn school subjects other than literature falls within the scope of this concept. It is interesting that many school systems expect ESL learners to learn subjects such as math and science as quickly as their peers, even though these subjects are taught in English. Multicultural education provides educators with the means to recognize these issues, and multicultural educators tend to reconcile these problems by focusing on English language education exclusively before allowing the students to continue to pursue additional subjects. By allowing these students to focus on language, they will be able to grasp their other school subjects more thoroughly when they are presented (Campbell, 2010).

In real situations, multicultural education can be used to create a productive classroom. In a sense, this involves not only teaching the students in a manner in which they will most benefit, but by educating students about the cultures that each student represents (Kincheloe & Steinberg, 1997). By doing so, each student will gain a more worldly point of view, which will contribute significantly to the ways in which they think and act in the classroom. It is important to value diversity because the students will be able to learn a lot from one another outside the scope of the classroom. In addition, social interactions that occur during class will mirror social interactions that occur in real life. When children are able to become more aware of one another early in life, they will understand how to interact with and respect the boundaries of others based on their unique culture and beliefs.

An additional application of multicultural education in real situations is that lessons can be tailored to the specific needs of students. An example of this would be oral learning to reinforce concepts that are read in-text. While some teachers prefer students to read on their own, it is beneficial for certain students to reinforce what is read aloud. Teachers can take advantage of this benefit by encouraging classroom discussion or creating group projects that revolve around the literature. Ultimately, this will help learners learn to speak the English language properly, which will improve their ability to read and understand words as well (Steinberg, 2001).

References

Banks, James. (2008). An Introduction to Multicultural Education, 4th edition. New York, NY: Pearson, Allyn/Bacon.

Campbell, Duane. (2010). Choosing Democracy: a practical guide to Multicultural Education, 4^th edition. New York, NY: Pearson, Allyn/Bacon.

Kincheloe, Joe, Steinberg S. (1997), Changing Multiculturalism. London: Open University Press.

Steinberg, Shirley. (2001). Multi/Intercultural Conversations. New York, NY: Peter Lang.