Multicultural Approach in Education: M u l t i c u l t u r a l A p p r o a c h i n E d u c a t i o n ERNESTO D. YLASCO M.A. in Early Childhood Education Multiculturalism: Multiculturalism We are a nation of many people: many races, cultures, religions, classes, lifestyles, languages and histories. These differences pose an enormous challenge to all institutions, especially the school. In the face of all these pressures, everyone is asked: PowerPoint Presentation: “How do teachers honor their mandate to foster every child’s potential and to prepare them to function effectively as members of a democratic society?” The “Every Child” Statement: The “Every Child” Statement By “every child”, we mean every child – no exceptions. We emphasize that “every child” includes - learners of English as a second language and speakers of English as a first language; members of underrepresented ethnic groups and members of well-represented groups; students who are physically challenged and those who are not; males and females; students who live in poverty and those who do not; and students who have not been in school and those who have been successful in school. How Do Young Children Learn about Diversity?: How Do Young Children Learn about Diversity? Young children do not arrive in early childhood programs as blank slates on the subject of diversity. Rather, they bring a personalized data bank that includes observations of people’s characteristics, exposure to common biases about specific groups and self-constructed theories about the causes and implications of diversity. PowerPoint Presentation: Children absorb stereotypes and assumptions about a wide range of human dimensions including race, social class, culture, gender, sexual orientation and abilities/disabilities. Preschoolers are aware of and curios about differences and similarities among people. They ask questions, organized the information and construct theories about diversity. Multicultural Education: Goals and Dimensions: Multicultural Education: Goals and Dimensions An idea, educational reform and a process (Banks, 1997). As an idea, multicultural education seeks to create equal education opportunities for all students. As an educational reform, it tries to create equal educational opportunities to all students by changing the total school environment so that it will reflect the diverse cultures and groups within a society and within the nation’s classrooms. PowerPoint Presentation: Multicultural education also aims to ensure equitable individual participation in all aspects of society and to enable people to maintain their own culture while participating together to live in a common society. Dimensions of Multicultural Education: Dimensions of Multicultural Education Content integration – deals with the extent to which teachers use examples and content from a variety of cultures and groups to illustrate key concepts, generalizations and issues within their subject areas or disciplines. Knowledge Construction – students learn how to build knowledge themselves. PowerPoint Presentation: Prejudice Reduction – describes lessons and activities used by teachers to help students to develop positive attitudes toward different racial, ethnic and cultural groups. Equity Pedagogy – exists when teachers modify their teaching in ways that will facilitate the academic achievement of students from diverse racial. Cultural and social-class groups. PowerPoint Presentation: Empowering School Culture and Social Structure – created when the culture and organization of the school are transformed in ways that enable students from diverse racial, ethnic and gender groups to experience quality and equal status. Content Integration: Content Integration Teachers may use several different approaches to integrate content about racial, ethnic and cultural groups. One of the most popular is the Contributions Approach. Contributions Approach – teachers insert isolated facts about ethnic and cultural group heroes and heroines into the curriculum without changing the structure of their lesson plans and units. PowerPoint Presentation: Schools have a responsibility not only to teach children to respect themselves and create equitable relationships with a wide range of people but also to teach children how to work toward eliminating prejudice and discrimination. PowerPoint Presentation: “Acknowledging someone for doing what is appropriate is often more effective than reacting to inappropriate behavior.” PowerPoint Presentation: È Tutto, Grazie!