Multiculturalism - Is This a "Real" Issue in Education?

There are many different definitions of a multicultural education. Following are some of the definitions that I have gathered:

1. Learning about cultural diversity through revision of curriculum and textbooks
2. Making schools more culturally fair, accepting and balanced
3. Developing individual teacher definitions to fit specific needs instead of imposing a universal structure
4. Facilitating the teaching and learning of basic literacy skills of ethnically different students
5. Implementing a process of change in schools that will ultimately extend to society

The main goal of a multicultural education is to provide an equal chance for students from diverse racial, ethnic, social-class and cultural groups to achieve academic success. In order to do this, students need to acquire the knowledge, attitudes and skills needed to function effectively in society. A multicultural education also helps educators to fulfill the goals of maximizing human potential, meeting individual needs and teaching the whole child by enhancing feelings of personal worth, confidence, and competence.

The need for a multicultural education is demonstrated in certain statistics such as the current unemployment rates for the United States. The third quarter of 2009 averages demonstrate that the number of black or African Americans unemployed almost doubles the number of white Americans unemployed. The number of Hispanic or Latino Americans were 1.5 times the number of white Americans unemployed.

USA Today recently printed the article, “SAT scores show disparities by race, gender, family income”. While the average SAT score for white students in the class of 2009 was 1581, the average for Asian students was 1623, the average for African American students was 1276, the average for Latino students was 1364, the average for Mexican Americans was 1362, the average for students reporting family incomes of $200,000 or more was 1701 and the average for students reporting family incomes between $60,000 and $80,000 was 1506. These statistics may suggest that students of color and students of lower income families perform worse than white American students and students in higher income families. South Jersey Magazine stated that one reason for the disparity in test scores may be economic disparity. “The kids who can afford it are taking prep courses.”

There are widely divergent views on whether a problem actually exists. Teachers, depending on where they teach and their position within their school will define the issue differently. Some schools do not even appear to have a multicultural issue. But perhaps the issue is invisible to those not suffering from it! It appears to me that students’ suffering is not due to race but is due to poverty perhaps caused by or connected to their cultural differences.

Resources:

US Department of Labor/Bureau of Labor Statistics Unemployment Data
USA Today – 8/25/09 – SAT Scores
Youtube – Everyday Struggles over Race in K-12 Settings
“A Synthesis of Scholarship in Multicultural Education” by Geneva Gay