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What Is Multicultural Education

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What is a multicultural classroom? First and foremost it is a classroom, characterized by an ethos of caring and equity. The pedagogy supports active participation through role-plays, simulations, and hands-on activities. Students learn, through their own experiences, that people's actions make a difference.
Education that is multicultural is a continuous, integrated, multiethnic, multidisciplinary process for educating all students about diversity. Diversity factors include but are not limited to race, ethnicity, region, religion, gender, language, socioeconomic status, age, and individuals with disabilities. It encompasses curricular infusion and instructional strategies in all subject areas. Education that is multicultural prepares …show more content…

Within each of these categories, consider the stereotypes children are most typically exposed to and look for images, which emphasize all cultures' humanity. For example, children are currently exposed to stereotypical images of Arabs, which impact their attitudes about the Middle East and toward Arab Americans. To address this, include pictures in your collection of Arabs in all walks of life-with family members, shopping, worshiping, and at work. Include in every collection images of students, their families, and the school staff. This tells children that they and their families are an integral part of the school's instructional base. It also keeps children's attention. Most importantly, it demonstrates that students and teachers are part of the diversity, not outside of it.
Linguistically diverse students often face special difficulties in their daily lives. This can easily lead to frustration. Teachers need to find ways to keep students hopeful. Traditional textbooks can make students (and teachers) feel pretty small compared to the heroes that "made history." As teachers and as linguistically diverse students, we are pushed to the margins of the textbooks. Multicultural education seeks to present a larger and more social history of this country. Multicultural texts bring out the stories of women, working people, and people of color who have traditionally been ignored. Share stories of how events in

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