Elementary teachers’ beliefs about multicultural education practices

As the diversity of American schools is increasing, teachers should understand the role culture plays in the classroom and employ teaching practices that accommodate students from diverse cultural backgrounds. However, while more is known about pre-service teachers’ beliefs about multicultural education, less is known about what practices in-service teachers endorse and what factors influence those beliefs about practices. Specifically, the aims of the study were to determine (a) how teachers define culture, (b) what multicultural practices they endorse, and (c) what school-level factors (i.e. racial/ethnic demographics of the school) and teacher-level factors (i.e. multicultural professional development/coursework, grade level taught, comfort level facilitating multicultural discussions, and definitions of culture) are associated with teachers’ endorsement of multicultural practices. A sample of 45 elementary teachers (grades kindergarten to fifth) in three elementary schools completed a custom-developed survey. Findings indicated that teachers defined culture broadly with infrequent mention of specific identities and did not show strong endorsement of recommended multicultural practices. Teachers’ definitions of culture and their school of employment were associated with teachers’ beliefs about practices. Directions for future and implications for targeted professional development will be discussed.     

Comparative study of “politeness” in multicultural communication

In daily life,everyone has to communicate with the medium of language.How to communicate effectively is a question bothering each of us through our lifetime.This thesis analyzes the situations of communication between Chinese people and foreigners from the perceptive of Levinson’s face theory and Gu Yueguo’s theory about politeness in Chinese culture in order to further find out the different cultural characteristics of communication in China and the West.     

Student teachers’ understanding of multicultural education in public schools

Abstract

As schools in South Africa become increasingly multicultural, pressure is being put on them to meet the needs of all learners. The South African Schools Act, No 84 of 1996, affirms the recognition of all forms of diversity in public schools. It seems clear from media reports, however, that diversity in schools is not readily accepted and that teachers are largely held accountable for racial prejudice in schools. This raises the question whether teachers fully understand multicultural education as a means to adequately manage diversity in schools. Against this background, a project was undertaken to establish what student teachers’ understanding of multicultural education is, and what they regard as the most important aims of multicultural education. Data were obtained by the use of semi-structured questions serving as a self-report instrument. The data collected were consolidated and categorised into themes. It became clear from the data that most respondents showed a seriously deficient conception of the nature, aims and material manifestations of multicultural education. It is therefore recommended that teacher education programmes should be scrutinised to ascertain whether they are providing the right kind of knowledge content to prepare student teachers to function competently in multicultural schools.     

‘Being’ a critical multicultural pedagogue in the art education classroom

Art educators continuously struggle to understand what multiculturalism ‘looks like’ in the art classroom. This has resulted in multicultural art education becoming superficial, in which art teachers guide students through art projects like creating African masks, Native American dream catchers, Aboriginal totems, and sand paintings, all without communicating the context of the art. This type of multiculturalism essentializes cultures, and builds Western, myopic narratives about groups of people, specifically about their ‘Art’. Critical multiculturalism is a power-focused upgrade of multiculturalism that calls for a critique of power and demands recognition that racism and other discriminations are enmeshed in the fabric of our social order. Teaching through a critical multiculturalism framework helps teachers dismantle Western, normalized narratives and produce counter-hegemonic curriculum that contextualizes culture and reveals its fluidity. In this article, the author shares a teacher action research study in which she describes what critical multiculturalism looks like in her art education classroom. The study focuses on ‘being’ a critically multicultural educator versus ‘doing’ critical multiculturalism. Such a position counters the idea that critical multiculturalism is a thing to complete, but instead is an ongoing process that rests on specific ways of thinking and considering the classroom, curriculum, and students.     

Confusion and frustration as catalysts for change: ‘rich points’ in multicultural education

ABSTRACT

Despite compelling need for transformational approaches to multiculturalism, the measures in place at many schools may be works in progress. Based on twelve months of fieldwork at the secondary-school level in El Ejido, Spain, and longitudinal interviews with key participants, this article examines conflicting articulations of race, racism, and civility shaping interactions in state mandated intercultural education courses. Interweaving analysis of in-class exchanges with attention to textual/audiovisual inputs and socio-historical contexts, this article employs a discourse-centred approach to untangle the tensions shaping local interpretations of race and racism, based particularly on the experiences of marginalised Moroccan immigrant youth. Drawing on Michael Agar’s notion of ethnographic ‘rich points’, or points of misunderstanding, I argue that the perspectives of diverse learners be leveraged to mindfully reconfigure top-down curricula through attention to distinctly local understandings of difference and inequality.     

Structuralism’s relevance in a post-structural era: Re-visiting research on multicultural curricular studies

At the current historical juncture in which differences and inequalities are surfacing greater than ever in the world, societies, and schools, the main goal of this essay is to revisit the aspects of structuralism that can potentially contribute productively to understanding the invisible structures and forces that everyone carries (mostly unknowingly) with them at all times and in all places including in multicultural curricular and social justice work. By doing so, this essay also attempts to dispute with liberal humanistic notions of the self (teachers and students) in multicultural curricular studies that continues to support the dominant framework of curriculum. This essay is grounded on the idea that progressive change is predicated on (although never guaranteed by) uncovering and understanding as fully as possible the social, political, and economic organization of the world, which is always mediated by individual selves who are located within the world in specific ways.     

Collaborative environmental projects in a multicultural society: working from within separate or mutual landscapes?

A multicultural socio-environmental project that is framed in the ideas of education for sustainability brought together Jew and Arab students was investigated to identify the participants’ views of the program’s objectives and their accomplishments. We investigated the project’s strengths and weaknesses according to the participants’ views and the way culturally diverse students addressed the main local socio-environmental conflict related to conservation versus development of a local creek. The participants agreed that the environmental objectives were properly attained, while the social objectives were accomplished to a limited extent. All the participants emphasized the importance of multicultural knowledge and expected to learn and work together. We found different views of the Jewish and the Arab participants regarding expectations, collaboration and overall satisfaction, with higher expectations of the Arab students and leaders. The students’ views of the local conflict varied but were not associated with their ethnic background. We suggest that the differences between the groups result from the different positions and needs of each community, and mainly as a consequence of the difficulties that the Arab minority faces in Israel. Overall, we found that the project allowed the expression of multiple voices of both groups, and suggested an applicable program for education for sustainability in a multicultural society.      

‘Private path,public route’: a multicultural group of teachers experiences Wiki-assisted learning

This qualitative study examined how a multicultural group of experienced teachers (nine Arabs, ten Jews) used Wiki as an alternative platform for the construction of a shared interpretive knowledge base. None of the participants had had any prior experience with Wiki as a learning environment. Data were derived from the Wiki platform, teachers’ oral and written feedback, and the lecturer’s log. Generally, teachers expressed positive attitude towards learning in a Wiki environment. However, cultural differences relating to language, habitual ways of studying and evaluating, and perceptions of teacher–student roles in classrooms affected participation. Different ways of using Wiki were observed along a continuum from teachers’ adaptation of Wiki to learners’ characteristics to learners’ adaptation of selves to Wiki characteristics. The findings may alert teacher educators to ways of integrating Wiki pedagogy into teachers’ curricular thinking: an explicit discussion of Wiki pedagogy attributes; more than one experience with long-term Wiki projects; supportive and sharing environment; attention to language barriers; a constant presence of the lecturer in the ‘discussion boards’ to guide and share concerns.     

‘Do they really do that in Korea?’: multicultural learning through Hallyu media

ABSTRACT

As new media spaces expand opportunities for engagement with geographically distant people and places, this article examines how communication practices within such spaces may construct cultural differences. The study’s data source was a website on which people posted, watched, and discussed Asian dramas. Qualitative data included writing, visual images, and interactions created within the site’s Korean dramas forum. Analyses of user-generated discussions revealed discourses about Korean distinctiveness. The forum functions as a virtual multicultural learning community where youth who lived outside of Korea imagined and negotiated an understanding of Korean culture. As these youth participated in Hallyu (the Korean Wave) through their engagements with its media, their discourses on Korean distinctiveness reinscribe Koreans as a global Other. Implications of this study include ways that online transnational engagements with Korean dramas in particular, and Hallyu media in general, shape current learning about Korea, as well as the possibilities and challenges of new media affordances for Internet-mediated multicultural learning.     

The third-order multiculturalism: civil rights,diversity, and equality in Korea’s multicultural education

This paper examines the politics of South Korea’s multicultural discourse and locates its recent development in the context of a broader analytical discussion about multiculturalism. Utilizing the historical experience of the USA, this paper identifies the three orders of multiculturalism. Up until the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s, the USA exhibited the first-order multiculturalism where diverse populations coexisted under discriminatory policies. The post-civil rights era exemplifies the second-order multiculturalism because it not only institutionalized the equality discourse in public spheres, but also provided legal protection against discriminatory practices. Both Korea and the USA, however, share the challenge of achieving the third-order multiculturalism that fosters inter-cultural understanding and addresses the socially embedded inequalities.     

The Free Schools “Riddle”: Between traditional social democratic,neo‐liberal and multicultural tenets

The question of what role free schools should perform in the Swedish educational system has been a contested subject between three ideological, theoretical, political and policy tenets. The first, “contribution to pedagogical diversity in a controlled school market” reflects a traditional social democratic view. The second, “contribution to a better education on a competitive school market” reflects a neo‐liberal approach. The third tenet, “contribution to the maintenance of groups' and individuals' cultural and religious identity” reflects a multicultural view insisting on the thesis that a family's cultural and religious identity should be a steering motive for the school choice. The aim of this article is to take a closer look at what the three tenets that constitute the “riddle” contain—including their claims, responses to critics, arguments and empirical evidence—and to discuss some of their practical impacts on the shaping of educational policy.     

Multiculturalism’s narratives in Singapore and Canada: exploring a model for comparative multiculturalism and multicultural education

This paper examines the diverse nature of multiculturalism. Although there is no lack of literature on multiculturalism, it is dominated by a Western paradigm and perspectives. This paper offers a model that takes a pluralistic perspective on diversity by locating multiculturalism within the imaginings of the nation. This model uses the concept of narratives with its ideological bases to invite dialogue among various multiculturalisms and to examine the processes by which particular multicultural narratives emerge within their socio‐political and historical locations. The Canadian and Singaporean multicultural narratives are explored to tease out some of the nuances of this model.     

Thinking multicultural education ‘otherwise’ – from a secularist construction towards a plurality of epistemologies and worldviews

This article examines educational, political and philosophical perspectives on the concepts of worldview and religion in the context of multicultural education. Using a postcolonial and post-structural approach combined with theories that analyse the politics of secularism, we attempt to pinpoint key perspectives in the recognition of worldviews in the current discourse on liberal multiculturalism. We suggest that the liberal-secular foundation of multicultural education is blind to practices, which, while supposedly based on political neutrality, are discriminating and ‘Othering’ towards religions and non-Western worldviews. Through theoretical and contextual analysis, we aim to deconstruct the ‘Otherness’ of religious worldviews at the epistemic level.     

“The voice of every Black person”?: Bringing authentic minority voices into the multicultural dialogue

Multicultural education courses in US teacher training programmes attempt to prepare (mostly and increasingly white) trainee teachers to work effectively with children from racial and ethnic backgrounds different from their own. In this article, I discuss the promise and challenge of fostering critical pedagogical dialogue in these settings, focusing on the particularly complex difficulties faced by ethnic and racial minority students who find themselves present in very small numbers. The challenge for university instructors is to create a safe dialogic space in a setting where minority voices can be both extremely valuable as well as dangerously marginalised and essentialised.     

Characteristics,issues, and future directions in Chinese multicultural education: a review of selected research 2000–2018

Asia Pacific Education Review - Multicultural education has aroused extensive international attention and has been promoted by a large body of advocates due to its significance for the achievement...     

Korean and foreign students’ perceptions of the teacher’s role in a multicultural online learning environment in Korea

This study investigated Korean and foreign students’ perception of the teacher’s role in multicultural online learning environments in Korea. On the basis of a literature review, a survey questionnaire was developed and piloted with 248 university students in Korea. The questionnaire was subsequently modified on the basis of the results of the pilot study, and a final 20-item questionnaire was constructed. Three hundred and eighty-four university students participated in the main study. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) were used for statistical analyses. The results indicated that students have a particular perception of the teacher’s role in a multicultural online learning environment. Five different types of teacher’s roles—pedagogical, managerial, technical, affective, and differentiating—were identified. The teacher’s affective and differentiating roles, which were not identified as crucial in previous research, were found to be significant roles for both Korean and foreign students.     

Should teachers be colorblind? How multicultural and egalitarian beliefs differentially relate to aspects of teachers' professional competence for teaching in diverse classrooms

This study uses the framework of professional competence to investigate the relationship between two cultural beliefs, multiculturalism and colorblindness, and different aspects of professional competence for teaching immigrant students. Results from path model analyses with 433 beginning teachers showed that participants with multicultural beliefs reported higher motivational orientations (self-efficacy and enthusiasm for teaching, and more integrative career motives), more positive values (lower agreement with negative stereotypes), and more reported willingness to adapt their teaching. Colorblind beliefs showed no relationships to the former constructs and were negatively related to reported willingness to adapt teaching to culturally diverse students.