Texto 2

Multicultural Education in Your Classroom

By: E.K. Garcia

America has always been referred to as a melting pot, but ideally, it's a place where we strive to invite everyone to celebrate exactly who they are. As the US. population is becoming increasingly diverse and technology makes the world feel increasingly smaller, it is time to make every classroom a multicultural classroom.

Multicultural education is more than celebrating Cinco de Mayo with tacos and piñatas or reading the latest biography of Martin Luther King Jr. It is an educational movement built on basic American values such as freedom, justice, opportunity, and equality. It is a set of strategies aimed to address the diverse challenges experienced by rapidly changing U.S. demographics. And it is a beginning step to shifting the balance of power and privilege within the education system.

The goals of multicultural education include creating a safe, accepting and successful learning environment for all, increasing awareness of global issues, strengthening cultural consciousness, strengthening intercultural awareness, teaching students that there are multiple historical perspectives, encouraging critical thinking and preventing prejudice and discrimination.

According to the National Association for Multicultural Education (NAME.), the advantages of multicultural education are helping students develop positive self-image, offering students an equitable educational opportunity, allowing multiple perspectives and ways of thinking, combating stereotypes/prejudicial behavior and teaching students to critique society in the interest of social justice.

Contrary to popular belief, multicultural education is more than cultural awareness, but rather an initiative to encompass all under-represented groups (people of color, women, people with disabilities, etc.) and to ensure curriculum and content including such groups is accurate and complete.

Most curriculums focus more on North America and Europe than any other region. Most students have learned about genocide through stories of the Holocaust, but do they know that hundreds of thousands of people are being killed in places like Darfur and Rwanda? Despite our close proximity to Latin America, American schools typically spend little time reading Latin American literature or learning about the culture and history.

, multicultural education is most successful when implemented as a schoolwide approach with reconstruction of not only curriculum, but also organizational and institutional policy. Educators must be aware, responsive and embracing of the diverse beliefs, perspectives and experiences. They must also be willing and ready to address issues of controversy.

These issues include, but are not limited to, racism, sexism, religious intolerance, classism, ageism, etc.

(Adapted from http://www.teachhub.com/multiculturaleducation- your-classroom Accessed on 21 April 2016)

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