“Going the race way”: Biographical influences on multicultural and antiracist English curriculum practices

As curriculum standardization escalates, teachers’ agency in relation to teaching to student diversity takes on increasing importance. This article draws from an international study that investigated the multicultural and antiracist teaching practices of 15 English teachers in two racially diverse schools, one in the United States, the other in Canada. Analysis of in-depth interviews and curriculum-related documents found that teachers’ agency was related to biographical elements of professional preparation, prior experiences with diversity, and generational status. The article reports on data from the United States school and offers recommendations for professional development and teacher preparation.     

An ethnographic action research project: national curriculum,historical learning and a culturally diverse Melbourne primary school

ABSTRACT

This paper uses ethnographic action research to explore how the objectives of the Australian Curriculum Intercultural Understanding can be achieved in a culturally diverse Year 5/6 (ages 10–12) primary school class in Melbourne. It examines whether a history unit on migration, that uses a structured historical inquiry approach, encourages culturally diverse students to develop a more critical and reflexive understanding of multiculturalism. Using Banks’ multicultural framework and Bath’s approach to ethnographic action research, I argue that the oral history component of a Year 5/6 history unit supported students to develop their Intercultural Understanding. I suggest that ethnographic action research is an effective approach for investigating the implementation of new teaching initiatives.     

国外的多元文化教育研究及面临的问题

国外的多元文化教育在近半个世纪的发展历程中,逐渐成为西方社会的一种教育理念。西方国家多元文化教育的兴起,既有人口、教育上的因素,也有文化、政治方面的原因。为了实现多元文化教育的目标,多元文化教育的倡导者提出从师资、课程、教学以及评价等方面对学校教育全面加以改革。多元文化教育在倡导民主观念、种族平等、尊重文化差异等方面取得了一定的进展,使教育能更多地考虑到了不同文化背景的学生的实际情况,但是也有一些人对多元文化教育提出了异议,使其面临新的挑战。     

Mentoring Within the Field of Counseling: A Preliminary Study of Multicultural Perspectives

Although the concept of mentoring is receiving increasing attention in the counseling field, the intersection between multiculturalism and mentoring has not been formally addressed. This article explores mentoring relationships between faculty and students within counselor education from a multicultural perspective. Semi-structured interviews were used to explore African American, Asian American and Latina/o American counselor education graduate students’ perspectives on mentoring. Three similar themes (trust/comfort/honesty; respect; and teacher/student/guide) emerged for all three racial/ethnic groups as important key elements in the mentoring relationship, but with some distinctive culturally relevant variations in emphasis. Also, all three groups to some degree reported that having a mentor who was culturally competent and sensitive was helpful, adding further weight to the view that cultural issues play a role in mentoring relationships. Implications of the findings are discussed.     

Methods that matter in addressing cultural diversity with teacher candidates

Drawing on a combination of prior experience, theoretical stance, and intuition, along with pedagogical practices identified to be effective in addressing diversity with teacher candidates, a model for teaching multicultural education to teacher candidates was designed. This study examined how particular elements of this model were effective in developing teacher candidate’s cultural competence. The results indicate that teacher candidates gained substantial knowledge about and experiences with issues of diversity by the end of the course. Participants pointed to the multiple methods employed in the class; in particular the interactive strategies, group work, diverse cultural experiences, and opportunities to critically reflect on these experiences as accounting for their gains. Their sense of ownership and understanding has given them the ability to use these strategies in their own future work. Implications for research and teacher education are discussed.     

Group assessments: dilemmas facing lecturers in multicultural tertiary classrooms

‘Group is good, and group is good for curing all social ills’ was the cynical observation of one of the lecturers in this study. Her comment reflects the uneasiness of lecturers at tertiary institutions with the notion that the educational advantages of group assessments far outweigh the disadvantages, and that such an approach promotes the integration of minority groups in multicultural universities. The dilemmas facing lecturers in multicultural tertiary classrooms are reflected on in this paper, when they adopt group assessment as a means of evaluation and highlight those challenges that often jeopardize the successful implementation of this type of practice.     

多元智力理论与多元文化教育

多元智力理论关于智力具有文化性的观点为多元文化教育提供了新的理论依据;多元智力理论在追求平等、尊重差异和倡导合作3个方面为多元文化教育提供了新的实际支持;多元智力理论在5个方面为多元文化教育提供了新的设计思路,即创设体现不同文化特色的学校环境、将不同文化整合到课程之中、采用适合不同认知方式的教学方法、与社区合作丰富学生的学习经验、在真实的情境中评价学生的发展.     

世界英语对高校英语多元文化教学的启示

本文通过介绍世界英语理论和相关的英语文化教学理论,针对目前高校英语文化教学当中的主要问题,提出了几条建设性意见,以期能对培养大学生的跨文化交际能力提供一些启示.     

Undermining critical consciousness unconsciously: Restoring hope in the multicultural education idea

The main goal of multicultural education is to transform the structural factors in the educational system in order to redress inequalities and inequities for historically underprivileged populations (Banks 1997). This article addresses theories and practices that frame multicultural education in teaching and learning contexts. How do teachers interpret the purpose of multicultural education? I suggest that educators are more likely to interpret multicultural education using the functionalist meta-theoretical framework (Burell and Morgan 1979) and the positivistic epistemology (Turner 2006). Ironically this kind of interpretation subverts the original goals of multicultural education as a transformative movement. The process of transforming curriculum and instruction in learning contexts encounters what I would call a “double jeopardy.” On one hand, curriculum processes run into political impediments that are often pervasive, complex, and invisible, whereas on the other hand they encounter a positivistic epistemology that reduces complex phenomena to simplistic, neutral, objective, and universal standards. I make a case for a radical humanist paradigm that privileges the investigation of social and political relations of power and places critical consciousness at the center of educational structures and pedagogy. I attempt to make critical consciousness visible and to show how it can be employed to change schooling opportunities and the lives of those who fall in the “Other” category of social theory.     

Teaching English-Spanish cognate-recognition strategies through the Américas Book Award-winners and honor picture books

Cognates are words that are the same or nearly the same orthographically and semantically in English and Spanish. The majority of the more than 20,000 cognates are academic vocabulary words comprised of Latin and Greek roots and affixes. Several thousand cognates can be found in the picture books that have earned the Américas Book Award, which was established to honor quality multicultural books that portray Latino cultures in a positive light. The authors present lessons for teaching primary school Latino ELLs about cognates through the Américas Award picture books, as they educate their students about their rich Latino cultures.