Beyond Celebrating Diversity: Exploring the Multicultural Curriculum

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Beyond Celebrating Diversity Exploring the
Multicultural Curriculum

• By Paul C. Gorski
• March 2008

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I. Introduction Who We Are

• Who is in the room?
• My background and lenses

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I. Introduction Agenda

• Introductory Blabber
• Starting Assumptions
• Warm-Up Activity
• Conceptualizing Multicultural Education
• Dimensions of Equity in a Learning Environment

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I. Introduction Agenda Contd

• Inclusion/Exclusion
• Intro. to Multicultural Curriculum
• Stages of Multicultural Curriculum Development

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I. Introduction Primary Arguments

• Multicultural education, at its heart, is about
  creating equitable and just learning environments
  for all people in a learning community
• It is about curriculum, and its about more than
  curriculum
• Being a multicultural educator involves shifts of
  consciousness that inform comprehensive shifts in
  practice

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I. Introduction Primary Arguments

• 4. Much of the work that goes into eliminating
  the achievement gap is misguided, and creates
  more inequity than equity
• 5. There is something we can do about it

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I. Introduction Objectives

• Develop deep understanding of the process of
  creating an equitable learning environment
  (multicultural education)
• Connect curriculum development to pedagogy,
  classroom climate, and context for a broad vision
  of equitable learning environment

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II. Starting Assumptions
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II. Starting Assumption 1

• All students deserve the best possible education
  we can provide, regardless of
• Socioeconomic status or class
• Gender
• Religion
• Citizenship status
• (Dis)ability
• Race or ethnicity
• Sexual Orientation
• Etc.

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II. Starting Assumption 2

• Multicultural education is deeper than simple
  curricular content
• Pedagogy
• Assessment
• Classroom/School Climate
• Distribution of Power

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II. Starting Assumption 3

• Education is NOT politically neutral
• We decide which readings and activities to use in
  class
• We decide how students are to be assessed
• We decide engage (or dont engage) students in
  the learning process
• And so on...

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II. Starting Assumption 4

• The problem of educational inequity is one of
  consciousness, not only one of practice
• Impossibility of implementing a multicultural
  education if one doesnt think and see
  multiculturally
• Even with a great curriculum, I cannot teach
  against racism if I am a racist

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II. Starting Assumption 5

• The achievement gap is not as much an
  achievement gap as an opportunity gap

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II. Starting Assumption 6

• A single teacher cannot undo systemic inequities
  in the school system or larger society.
• But at the very least we can make sure were not
  replicating those inequities in our own curricula
  and pedagogies.

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II. Starting Assumption 7

• I can teach multiculturally and still meet
  standards.

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II. Starting Assumption 8

• Gross inequities exist in our public schools
• And these inequities, and the resulting
  achievement gap, will not be eliminated by Taco
  Night, the International Fair, or other
  activities that, however fun, do not address
  racism, classism, sexism, heterosexism, and other
  oppressions in educational policy and practice.

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II. Starting Assumption 9 Gross Inequities

• Compared with low-poverty U.S. schools,
  high-poverty U.S. schools have
• More teachers teaching in areas outside their
  certification subjects
• More serious teacher turnover problems
• More teacher vacancies
• Larger numbers of substitute teachers
• More limited access to computers and the
  Internet
• Inadequate facilities (such as science labs)

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II. Starting Assumption 9 Gross Inequities
(references)

• Barton, P.E. (2004). Why does the gap persist?
  Educational Leadership 62(3), 8-13.
• Barton, P.E. (2003). Parsing the achievement gap
  Baselines for tracking progress. Princeton, NJ
  Educational Testing Service.
• Carey, K. (2005). The funding gap 2004 Many
  states still shortchange low-income and minority
  students. Washington, D.C. The Education Trust.
• National Commission on Teaching and Americas
  Future (2004). Fifty years after Brown v. Board
  of Education A two-tiered education system.
  Washington, D.C. Author.
• Rank, M.R. (2004). One nation, underprivileged
  Why American poverty affects us all. New York,
  NY Oxford University Press.

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Warm-Up Activity

• Calisthenics

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III. Conceptualizing Multicultural Education

• Contextualizing Multicultural Curriculum

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III. Conceptualizing Multicultural Education

• Multicultural education is a movement and process
  for creating an equitable and just learning
  environment for all students
• Definitions vary, but five key principles are
  agreed upon across the literature

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III. Conceptualizing Multicultural Education

• Principle 1
• Multicultural education is a political
  movement that attempts to secure social justice
  for individuals and communities, regardless of
  race, ethnicity, gender, home language, sexual
  orientation, (dis)ability, religion,
  socioeconomic status, or any other individual or
  group identity.

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III. Conceptualizing Multicultural Education

• Principle 2
• Multicultural education recognizes that,
  while some individual classroom practices are
  consistent with multicultural education
  philosophies, social justice is an institutional
  matter, and as such, can be secured only through
  comprehensive reform.

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III. Conceptualizing Multicultural Education

• Principle 3
• Multicultural education insists that
  comprehensive reform can be achieved only through
  a critical analysis of systems of power and
  privilege.

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III. Conceptualizing Multicultural Education

• Principle 4
• The underlying goal of multicultural
  educationthe purpose of this critical
  analysisis to provide every student with an
  opportunity to achieve to her or his fullest
  capability.

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III. Conceptualizing Multicultural Education

• Principle 5
• Multicultural education is good education
  for all students.

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V. Critical Concepts
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V. Critical Concepts

• Hegemony
• Deficit Theory
• Systemic Inequities
• Cognitive Dissonance

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IV. Dimensions of Equitable Education
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IV. Dimensions of Equitable Education
Adapted from the work of Maurianne Adams and
Barbara J. Love (2006).
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IV. Dimensions of Equitable Education

• 1. What Students Bring to the Classroom
• Past educational experiences (its not always all
  about us)
• Complex identities, prejudices, biases
• Expectations about the roles of students and
  teachers
• Varying learning styles, intelligences, ways of
  illustrating learning

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IV. Dimensions of Equitable Education

• 2. What We Bring to the Classroom
• Complex socializations, identities, biases, and
  prejudices
• Notions about the purposes of education and our
  roles as teachers
• A teaching style, often related to our own
  preferred learning styles and how weve been
  taught

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IV. Dimensions of Equitable Education

• 3. Curriculum Content
• Course materials Whos represented in readings,
  examples, illustrations
• Perspective and worldview Whose voices are
  centered, whose are othered
• Is content, whenever possible, made relevant to
  the lives of the students?
• What is the hidden curriculum?
• Are multicultural issues addressed explicitly?

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IV. Dimensions of Equitable Education

• 4. Pedagogy
• Focus on critical, complex thinking and asking
  critical questions
• Paying attention to inequity in classroom
  processes
• Attending to sociopolitical relationships (power
  and privilege) in the classroom
• Acknowledging student knowledge through
  problem-posing, dialogue, and general
  student-centeredness
• Using authentic assessment techniques

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VI. How We Get There The Equitable Learning
Environment
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VI. The Equitable Learning Environment

• Part 1 What Your Students Bring to the Classroom

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VI. The Equitable Learning Environment

• 1. What Students Bring into the Classroom
• A. Find ways to challenge stereotypes (both in
  society and your own field)
• Example Albert Einstein as a white, male
  scientist who wrote very progressive essays about
  racism, imperialism, etc.

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VI. The Equitable Learning Environment

• 1. What Students Bring into the Classroom
• B. Watch for and challenge student behaviors and
  relationships that reflect stereotypical roles
• Example Men assuming the lead in lab activities,
  women being note-taker in small groups

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VI. The Equitable Learning Environment

• 1. What Students Bring into the Classroom
• C. Be thoughtful about how you create cooperative
  teams or small groups
• Example Avoid temptation to distribute people
  from under-represented groups (tokenism)

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VI. The Equitable Learning Environment

• 1. What Students Bring into the Classroom
• D. Understand students reactions to you and your
  social identities in context
• Example Even if you dont think much about your
  whiteness (for example), it may mean something
  significant to students of color who may only
  rarely not have white professors

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VI. The Equitable Learning Environment

• 1. What Students Bring into the Classroom
• E. Help students un-learn the ways of being and
  seeing that lend themselves to prejudice
• Example Dichotomous thinking, competitive nature
  of learning (NOTE this also means WE have to
  un-learn)

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VI. The Equitable Learning Environment

• Part 2 What You Bring to the Classroom

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VI. The Equitable Learning Environment

• 2. What You Bring into the Classroom
• A. Identify and work to eliminate your biases,
  prejudices, and assumptions (yes, you do have
  them) about various groups of students
• Example Race/ethnicity, gender, religion, sexual
  orientation, religion, socioeconomic status,
  (dis)ability, first language, etc.

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VI. The Equitable Learning Environment

• 2. What You Bring into the Classroom
• B. Identify and work to broaden your teaching
  style (which, according to research, probably
  suits your learning style)
• Note Research shows that two elements most
  effect how somebody teaches (1) their preferred
  learning style, and (2) how they were taught what
  theyre teaching

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VI. The Equitable Learning Environment

• 2. What You Bring into the Classroom
• C. Identify and work on your hot buttons
• Question What are the issues that set you off to
  the point that you become an ineffective
  educator/facilitator?

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VI. The Equitable Learning Environment

• 2. What You Bring into the Classroom
• D. Provide students with periodic opportunities
  to share anonymous feedback
• Note Students already feeling disempowered and
  disconnected are not likely to approach you about
  your teaching or curriculum

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VI. The Equitable Learning Environment

• 2. What You Bring into the Classroom
• E. Share examples of when youve struggled to
  climb out of the box and to see the world and
  your field in their full complexity
• Note When we make ourselves vulnerable we make
  it easier for students to do the same

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VI. The Equitable Learning Environment

• 2. What You Bring into the Classroom
• F. Consider the significance of the
  professor/student power relationship and what
  this means re student learning
• Question What might it mean to be a white male
  computer science professor teaching a young
  African American woman in a field historically
  hostile to African American women?

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VI. The Equitable Learning Environment

• 2. What You Bring into the Classroom
• G. Identify the gaps in your knowledge about
  equity issues and pursue the information to fill
  those gaps
• Point I cannot teach anti-classism if Im
  unwilling to deal with my own classism

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VI. The Equitable Learning Environment

• 2. What You Bring into the Classroom
• H. Build the skills necessary to intervene
  effectively when equity issues arise
• Examples Racist joke or comment, sexual
  harassment, men talking over women

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VI. The Equitable Learning Environment

• 2. What You Bring into the Classroom
• I. Mind your compliments
• Point Research indicates that educators,
  regardless of gender, are most likely to
  compliment male students on their intelligence.
  Female students? On their appearance.

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VI. The Equitable Learning Environment

• Part 3 Curriculum Content

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VI. The Equitable Learning Environment

• 3. Curriculum Content
• A. Assign tasks that challenge traditional social
  roles
• Example Assign men to be note-takers, women to
  be group facilitators

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VI. The Equitable Learning Environment

• 3. Curriculum Content
• B. Try centering the sources you previously may
  have used as supplements
• Example Slave narratives as central history
  texts instead of supplements to a more
  Eurocentric framing of history

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VI. The Equitable Learning Environment

• 3. Curriculum Content
• C. Avoid other-ing weave diverse voices and
  sources seamlessly together instead of having
  separate sections or units
• Example No units on women poets or Latino
  voices, etc.

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VI. The Equitable Learning Environment

• 3. Curriculum Content
• D. Discuss ways people in your field have used
  (and continue to use) their scholarship and
  platforms to advocate for social justice
• Examples Leontyne Price, Howard Zinn, Stephen J.
  Gould, Ida B. Wells, Mark Twain

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VI. The Equitable Learning Environment

• 3. Curriculum Content
• E. Discuss ways people in your field have used
  (and continue to use) their scholarship and
  platforms to support inequity and injustice
• Examples Science eugenics journalists
  refusal to critique Bush foreign policy during
  war-time etc.

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VI. The Equitable Learning Environment

• 3. Curriculum Content
• F. Discuss the history of oppression and
  exclusion in your field and how this has affected
  knowledge bases in your field
• Examples Women and STEM fields (and law,
  business, etc.)

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VI. The Equitable Learning Environment

• 3. Curriculum Content
• G. Vary your instructional materials as a way to
  draw in students with various learning styles
• Suggestion Consider visual, tactile, aural, and
  other dimensions of your instructional materials
• Note Doesnt mean every lesson must include all
  of these, but that theyre distributed over the
  course of the semester

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VI. The Equitable Learning Environment

• 3. Curriculum Content
• H. Encourage students to raise critical
  questions, not only about the content itself, but
  about how the content is presented in educational
  materials
• Example Use of male anatomy as standard
  differentiation between American literature and
  African American literature (and misuse of the
  term American)

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VI. The Equitable Learning Environment

• Part 4 Pedagogy

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VI. The Equitable Learning Environment

• 4. Pedagogy
• A. Be very clear about how you expect students to
  participate (open discussion, raised hands, etc.)
• Related suggestion Avoid first-hand-up,
  first-called-on approach

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VI. The Equitable Learning Environment

• 4. Pedagogy
• B. Never, under any circumstance, invalidate or
  allow other students to invalidate concerns of
  inequity raised by students from disenfranchised
  groups

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VI. The Equitable Learning Environment

• 4. Pedagogy
• C. Avoid putting students from disenfranchised
  groups in positions to have to teach people from
  privileged groups about their privilege

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VI. The Equitable Learning Environment

• 4. Pedagogy
• D. Develop your facilitation skills so that you
  can effectively facilitate difficult dialogues
  about racism, sexism, classism, heterosexism,
  etc.
• Note When these dialogues happen, be comfortable
  advocating for equity

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VI. The Equitable Learning Environment

• 4. Pedagogy
• E. Design assignments that encourage students to
  apply what theyre learning to a human rights
  issue

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VI. The Equitable Learning Environment

• 4. Pedagogy
• F. Allow students, when possible, to choose how
  they will be assessed (as people dont
  demonstrate understanding and application in the
  same ways)
• Example Choice between an essay or an
  application project

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VI. The Equitable Learning Environment

• 4. Pedagogy
• G. Invite a colleague to observe your teaching
  and provide feedback on a variety of concerns

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VI. The Equitable Learning Environment

• 4. Pedagogy
• H. Use peer teaching, peer feedback, and other
  peer interactions to provide students an
  opportunity to learn content through a variety of
  lenses

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VII. Shifts of Consciousness for Multicultural
Educators
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VI. Shifts of Consciousness

• Shift 1
• I must be willing to think critically about the
  things about which Ive been discouraged from
  thinking critically
• Capitalism, Consumer Culture, Globalization
• Two-party political system v. democracy
• Etc.

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VI. Shifts of Consciousness

• Shift 2
• I must acknowledge that multicultural education
  is about creating equitable learning environments
  for all students, so I must be against all
  inequity

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VI. Shifts of Consciousness

• Shift 3
• I must understand inequities as systemic and not
  just individual acts (and what this means in the
  context of my classroom)

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VI. Shifts of Consciousness

• Shift 4
• I must transcend the idea of multicultural
  education as learning about other cultures and
  celebrating diversity

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VI. Shifts of Consciousness

• Shift 5
• I must be willing to discomfort and unsettle
  myself and my students
• Institutional likeability

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VI. Shifts of Consciousness

• Shift 6
• I must shift from an equality orientation toward
  multiculturalism to an equity orientation

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VI. Shifts of Consciousness

• Shift 7
• I must move beyond the objective facilitator
  role and actively advocate for equity and justice
• Multicultural education is not about validating
  all perspectives

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VI. Shifts of Consciousness

• Shift 8
• I must understand multicultural education as a
  comprehensive approach, not additional activities
  or slight shifts in an otherwise monocultural
  curriculum

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Closing Reflection

• Humility is the ability to see.
• -Terry Tempest Williams

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Thank you.

• Paul C. Gorski
• gorski_at_edchange.org
• http//www.edchange.org