John Rey Pades Velasco

BSE-English 3B

MULTICULTURALISM

Multiculturalism is a term used in both sociology and political philosophy. It is an ambiguous

term: it can mean a cultural pluralism in which the various ethnic groups collaborate and dialog
with one another without having to sacrifice their particular identities.

In sociology and everyday usage it is a synonym for pluralism with the two terms often used
interchangeably and refers to either specific mixed ethnic community areas where multiple
cultural traditions exist or a single country within which they do. Groups associated with an
aboriginal ethnic group and foreigner ethnic groups are most often the focus.

In reference to sociology, multiculturalism is the end state of either a natural or artificial process
(e.g. legally controlled immigration) and occurs on either a large national scale or a smaller scale
within a nation's communities. On a smaller scale this can occur artificially when a jurisdiction is
created or expanded by amalgamating areas with two or more different cultures (e.g. French
Canada and English Canada). On a large scale, it can occur as a result of either legal or illegal
immigration to and from different jurisdictions around the world.

Multiculturalism as a political philosophy involves ideologies and policies which vary widely,
ranging from the advocacy of equal respect to the various cultures in a society, to policies of
promoting the maintenance of cultural diversity, to policies in which people of
various ethnic and religious groups are addressed by the authorities as defined by the group to
which they belong.

Multiculturalism that promotes maintaining the distinctiveness of multiple cultures is often

contrasted to other settlement policies such as social integration, cultural assimilation and racial
segregation. Multiculturalism has been described as a "salad bowl" and "cultural mosaic"

Two different and seemingly inconsistent strategies have developed through different
government policies and strategies. The first focuses on interaction and communication between
different cultures; this approach is also often known as interculturalism. The second centers on
diversity and cultural uniqueness which can sometimes result in intercultural competition over
jobs among other things and may lead to ethnic conflict. Controversy surrounding the issue of
cultural isolation includes the ghettoization of a culture within a nation and the protection of the
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cultural attributes of an area or nation. Proponents of government policies often claim that
artificial, government guided protections also contribute to global cultural diversity. The second
approach to multiculturalist policy making maintains that they avoid presenting any specific
ethnic, religious, or cultural community values as central.

REFERENTS OF MULTICULTURALISM

Three interrelated, but nevertheless distinctive, referents of multiculturalism and its related
adjective multicultural which can be distinguished in public debate and discussion are:

The demographic-descriptive usage occurs where 'multicultural' is used to refer to the existence
of ethnically or racially diverse segments in the population of a society or State. It represents a
perception that such differences have some social significance-primarily because of perceived
cultural differences though these are frequently associated with forms of structural
differentiation. The precise ethnic groupings which exist in a State, the significance of ethnicity
for social participation in societal institutions and the processes through which ethnic
differentiation is constructed and maintained may vary considerably between individual States,
and over time.

In the programmatic-political usage 'multiculturalism' refers to specific types of programs and

policy initiatives designed to respond to and manage ethnic diversity. It was in this usage that
'multiculturalism' first gained currency after it was recommended in the 1965 Report of the
Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism. This Report recommended that
multiculturalism replace the bicultural policy based on the British and French Charter groups
around whom policies for ethnic diversity in Canadian society had been organised for over a
century. Since then, its usage has extended rapidly to encompass the demographic-descriptive'
and the 'ideological-normative' usage.

The ideological-normative usage of multiculturalism is that which generates the greatest level
of debate since it constitutes a slogan and model for political action based on sociological
theorising and ethical-philosophical consideration about the place of those with culturally
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distinct identities in contemporary society. Multiculturalism emphasises that acknowledging the
existence of ethnic diversity and ensuring the rights of individuals to retain their culture should
go hand in hand with enjoying full access to, participation in, and adherence to, constitutional
principles and commonly shared values prevailing in the society. By acknowledging the rights of
individuals and groups and ensuring their equitable access to society, advocates of
multiculturalism also maintain that such a policy benefits both individuals and the larger society
by reducing pressures for social conflict based on disadvantage and inequality. They also argue
that multiculturalism is an enrichment for the society as a whole. The close parallels between this
ideological-normative usage of multiculturalism and the United Nations' views on cultural
diversity are clear.

MULTICULTURAL EDUCATION

Multicultural education is a set of strategies and materials in education that were developed to
assist teachers when responding to the many issues created by the rapidly changing
demographics of their students. It provides students with knowledge about the histories, cultures,
and contributions of diverse groups; it assumes that the future society is pluralistic. It draws on
insights from a number of different fields, including ethnic studies and women studies, but also
reinterprets content from related academic disciplines.

Multicultural education, also viewed as a way of teaching, promotes principles such as inclusion,
diversity, democracy, skill acquisition, inquiry, critical thought, value of perspectives, and self-
reflection. It encourages students to bring aspects of their cultures into the classroom and thus,
allows teachers to support the childs intellectual and social/emotional growth.

Multicultural education was found to be effective in promoting educational achievements among

immigrants students.Thus, it is also attributed to the reform movement behind the transformation
of schools. Transformation in this context requires all variables of the school to be changed,
including policies, teachers' attitudes, instructional materials, assessment methods, counseling,
and teaching styles. Multicultural education is also concerned with the contribution of students
towards effective social action.
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FOUR APPROACHES OF MULTICULTURAL EDUCATION

Dr. James A. Banks, educator and author of over 20 books on multicultural education, has
identified four approaches that teachers can use for integrating multiculturalism into their
curriculum. Let's look at each approach, one at a time:

Contributions

Teachers using this approach provide examples of the relevant contributions and heroic
accomplishments of people from different races and cultures, without changing the lesson plan or
goals of the unit being taught. For example, in a science unit students could learn of the
contributions of scientists from different countries or American ethnicities.

Additive

This approach requires adding cultural realities that traditionally are left out of a curriculum that
focuses on a traditional holiday, like Independence Day or Thanksgiving. Providing stories about
how Native Americans were involved in the first Thanksgiving celebration would be one way to
add a multicultural element. The Additive approach does not change the overall curriculum.

Transformation

The transformation approach seeks to change the attitudes about cultural differences by using a
different curriculum, one that encourages students to view problems and concepts from the
perspective of different cultures. For example, if students were studying the American Indian
wars, they would consider the views of the settlers, soldiers, and also the native peoples.

Social Action

The social action approach uses the concepts from the transformation curriculum and takes it a
step further, where students take action for social change. After acquiring the necessary
knowledge about something in their community that needs change, students get involved in
activities that may effect that change, such as writing letters to senators or taking the time to
reach out and befriend students of different races or ethnic backgrounds.
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DIMENSIONS OF MULTICULTURAL EDUCATION

James A. Banks's Dimensions of Multicultural Education is used widely by school districts to

conceptualize and develop courses, programs, and projects in multicultural education. The five
dimensions are:(1) content integration; (2) the knowledge construction process; (3) prejudice
reduction; (4) an equity pedagogy; and (5) an empowering school culture and social structure.
Although each dimension is conceptually distinct, in practice they overlap and are interrelated.

Content integration. Content integration deals with the extent to which teachers use examples
and content from a variety of cultures and groups to illustrate key concepts, principles,
generalizations, and theories in their subject area or discipline. The infusion of ethnic and
cultural content into a subject area is logical and not contrived when this dimension is
implemented properly.

More opportunities exist for the integration of ethnic and cultural content in some subject areas
than in others. There are frequent and ample opportunities for teachers to use ethnic and cultural
content to illustrate concepts, themes, and principles in the social studies, the language arts, and
in music. Opportunities also exist to integrate multicultural content into math and science.
However, they are less ample than they are in social studies and the language arts. Content
integration is frequently mistaken by school practitioners as comprising the whole of
multicultural education, and is thus viewed as irrelevant to instruction in disciplines such as math
and science.

The knowledge construction process. The knowledge construction process describes teaching
activities that help students to understand, investigate, and determine how the implicit cultural
assumptions, frames of references, perspectives, and biases of researchers and textbook writers
influence the ways in which knowledge is constructed.

Multicultural teaching involves not only infusing ethnic content into the school curriculum, but
changing the structure and organization of school knowledge. It also includes changing the ways
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in which teachers and students view and interact with knowledge, helping them to become
knowledge producers, not merely the consumers of knowledge produced by others.

The knowledge construction process helps teachers and students to understand why the cultural
identities and social positions of researchers need to be taken into account when assessing the
validity of knowledge claims. Multicultural theories assert that the values, personal histories,
attitudes, and beliefs of researchers cannot be separated from the knowledge they create. They
consequently reject positivist claims of disinterested and distancing knowledge production. They
also reject the possibility of creating knowledge that is not influenced by the cultural
assumptions and social position of the knowledge producer.

In multicultural teaching and learning, paradigms, themes, and concepts that exclude or distort
the life experiences, histories, and contributions of marginalized groups are challenged.
Multicultural pedagogy seeks to reconceptualize and expand the Western canon, to make it more
representative and inclusive of the nation's diversity, and to reshape the frames of references,
perspectives, and concepts that make up school knowledge.

Prejudice reduction. The prejudice reduction dimension of multicultural education seeks to help
students develop positive and democratic racial attitudes. It also helps students to understand
how ethnic identity is influenced by the context of schooling and the attitudes and beliefs of
dominant social groups. The theory developed by Gordon Allport (1954) has significantly
influenced research and theory in intergroup relations. He hypothesized that prejudice can be
reduced by interracial contact if the contact situations have these characteristics: (1) they are
cooperative rather than competitive; (2) the individuals experience equal status; and (3) the
contact is sanctioned by authorities such as parents, principals and teachers.

An equity pedagogy. An equity pedagogy exists when teachers modify their teaching in ways
that will facilitate the academic achievement of students from diverse racial, cultural,
socioeconomic, and language groups. This includes using a variety of teaching styles and
approaches that are consistent with the range of learning styles within various cultural and ethnic
groups, such as being demanding but highly personalized when working with American Indian
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and Native Alaskan students. It also includes using cooperative learning techniques in math and
science instruction to enhance the academic achievement of students of color.

An equity pedagogy rejects the cultural deprivation paradigm that was developed in the early
1960s. This paradigm posited that the socialization experiences in the home and community of
low-income students prevented them from attaining the knowledge, skills, and attitudes needed
for academic success. Because the cultural practices of low-income students were viewed as
inadequate and inferior, cultural deprivation theorists focused on changing student behavior so
that it aligned more closely with mainstream school culture. An equity pedagogy assumes that
students from diverse cultures and groups come to school with many strengths.

Multicultural theorists describe how cultural identity, communicative styles, and the social
expectations of students from marginalized ethnic and racial groups often conflict with the
values, beliefs, and cultural assumptions of teachers. The middle-class mainstream culture of the
schools creates a cultural dissonance and disconnect that privileges students who have
internalized the school's cultural codes and communication styles.

Teachers practice culturally responsive teaching when an equity pedagogy is implemented. They
use instructional materials and practices that incorporate important aspects of the family and
community culture of their students. Culturally responsive teachers also use the "cultural
knowledge, prior experiences, frames of reference, and performance styles of ethnically diverse
students to make learning encounters more relevant to and effective for them"

An empowering school culture. This dimension involves restructuring the culture and
organization of the school so that students from diverse racial, ethnic, socioeconomic, and
language groups experience equality. Members of the school staff examine and change the
culture and social structure of the school. Grouping and labeling practices, sports participation,
gaps in achievement among groups, different rates of enrollment in gifted and special education
programs among groups, and the interaction of the staff and students across ethnic and racial
lines are important variables that are examined and reformed.

An empowering school structure requires the creation of qualitatively different relationships

among various groups within schools. Relationships are based on mutual and reciprocal respect
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for cultural differences that are reflected in school-wide goals, norms, and cultural practices. An
empowering school structure facilitates the practice of multicultural education by providing
teachers with opportunities for collective planning and instruction, and by creating democratic
structures that give teachers, parents, and school staff shared responsibility for school
governance.

THE GROWTH OF STUDENT SUBCULTURES

Subculture refers to cultural patterns that set apart some segment of society's population. It can
be based on age, ethnicity, residence, sexual preference, occupation, and many other factors.

MAIN TYPES OF SUBCULTURE

REACTIVE INDEPENDENT - the members of a particular sub-cultural group develop norms
and values that are both a response to and opposition against the prevailing norms and values that
exist in a predominantly middle-class or conventional culture. When members of the group hold
a set of norms and beliefs that are "self contained" and specific to the group.
1. In terms of a general sense of culture.
What it means to people, for example, to be English, French, American, etc.

FUNCTIONS OF SUBCULTURES

Permitting socialized activity

Identity in mass society
Cultural adaptation and change
Different is NOT "deficient"
COVERS AREAS RELATED TO:
Inclusive content in the curriculum that reflects the diversity of society.
Students' prior knowledge, including their culture and language.
The idea that culture is central to student learning because there is a strong evidence that cultural
practices thinking process.
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Culturally Responsive Teaching encompass elements such as:
Communication of high expectations
Active teaching methods that promote student engagement
Teacher as facilitator
Positive perspectives on parents and families of culturally and linguistically diverse students.
Cultural sensitivity
Reshaping the curriculum so that it is culturally responsive to the background of students.
Culturally mediated instruction that is characterized by the use of culturally mediated cognition,
culturally appropriate social situations for learning, and culturally valued knowledge in
curriculum content
Small group instruction and academically-related discourse
Culturally responsive teaching
acknowledges cultural diversity in classrooms and accommodates this diversity in instruction.
1. By recognizing and accepting student diversity, it communicates that all students are welcome
and valued as human beings.
2. By building on students' cultural backgrounds, culturally responsive teaching communicates
positive images about the students' home cultures.
3. By being responsive to different student learning styles, culturally responsive teaching builds
on students' strengths and uses these to help students learn.

CULTURAL DIMENSIONS OF LEARNING, TEACHING AND EDUCATIONAL

PROCESS
What is Culture?
Acquired knowledge that people use to interpret experience and generate social behavior. This
knowledge forms values, creates attitudes, and influences behavior.
So Cultural dimension means....
Any acquired knowledge that can be measurable. Also, it can be a process of developing prior
knowledge when associated to education.
a. Significant Learning Process
1) Foundation learning Understand and remember learning.
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b. Continuous Improvement
A process through which the instructor is continually looking for ways to improve teaching and
learning.
What is Dimension?
A measurable extent of some kind, such as length, breadth, depth, or height.
2) Application
Critical thinking, problem solving, decision making and creative thinking.
3) Integration
Making connections in finding interactions and similarities.
4) Human dimension
Learning about changing one's self.
5) Caring
Identifying/Changing one's feelings, interests, values.
6) Learning how to learn
A student will strive to be a better student, learning how to ask and answer questions, becoming
self-direct learner.
b. Learning Activities
Engaging students in active learning enhances their understanding and retention.
Active learning
A term designates a variety of effective teaching and learning activities.
These methodologies have at their core the engagement of students with content in ways that
develop competencies and building skills rather that emphasizing solely the acquisition of
knowledge.
3 Components of Active Learning
1) Getting Information.
Students gather information from a variety of resources like textbooks, videos, original source
documents, case studies and lectures.
2)Doing Experiences.
Students actively explore and apply what they are learning, like conduct an experiment, take
experience in election and work in a small group to make a market plan.
3)Reflection.
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Students enhance and reinforce their understanding when they reflect on their
learning activities and on their learning processes. Can be journals, group discussion or
discussion board.
c. Informative Assessment
On this assessment, learners are given the opportunities to demonstrate, apply and enhance their
learning in meaningful ways.
According to Fink, assessment serves two basic purposes:
1)Additive Assessment
It is the assessment that audits what students have learnedup to the point of the assessment.
2)Forward-Looking Learning Stimulating Assessment
These assessment are testing situations that guideand improve studentlearning, not just measure
it.Example of this type offeedback is the informationthat is returned likemultiple choice and
quizzes.
Characteristics of an effective strategy for the assessment of student learning
1) Achievement
Measures the extent to which the students have achieved thecourse learning goals.
2) Variety
Strategy should include manytypes of assessment likeprojects, papers, performances and exams.
3) Feedback
The assessment provide the learners with frequentinformative and meaningful
feedback.
d. Alignment
Achieve when there is congruence among the goals for student learning, the planned activities
that facilitate learning and the assessment to evaluate student learning. It has
3 components:
1) Significant learning goals
Effective learning goals are clearly defined with preciseaction verb that specify what students
will be able as a result of their learning experience.
2) Engaging Learning Activities
Engaging students to meaningful learning activities will lead them to master the concept and
skills defined in the course learning goals.
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3) Informative learning assessment
Effective assessment provide students with the opportunity to demonstrate and further develop
their knowledge and skills.
f. Significant Dimension of Teaching
Organization and management of Classroom using approachessupported by student
learning needs, research, best practices and expert opinions.

CULTURALLY RESPONSIVE TEACHING

Culture is central to learning. It plays a role not only in communicating and receiving
information, but also in shaping the thinking process of groups and individuals. A pedagogy that
acknowledges, responds to, and celebrates fundamental cultures offers full, equitable access to
education for students from all cultures.
Culturally Responsive Teaching is a pedagogy that recognizes the importance of including
students' cultural references in all aspects of learning (Ladson-Billings,1994).

Some of the characteristics of culturally responsive teaching are:

1. Positive perspectives on parents and families

2. Communication of high expectations
3. Learning within the context of culture
4. Student-centered instruction
5. Culturally mediated instruction
6. Reshaping the curriculum
7. Teacher as facilitator