preview

Multicultural Education Essay

Satisfactory Essays

The global perspective of multicultural education is that minorities no longer needed to give up their culture, but also become exposed to the dominant culture in society. It is important to recognize that American society is an on-going melting pot of cultures and it is essential that this is reflected in the educational system as well. The move towards recognizing the need for cultural diversity in learning was not only a problem in the U.S, but in many other countries as well. In 1961, the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) was established to “provide a setting where governments” all over the world “can compare policy experiences, seek answers to common problems, identify good practice and coordinate domestic …show more content…

In their summary the OECD makes it clear to state that “educational challenges posed by family background, socio-economic context and migration status are not only strongly linked to student performance, they determined students performance over and above the schools influence” (OECD 20). The organization came to the conclusion that it was imperative to provide help for these students and essentially the responsibility fell on the teacher. The publication also looks at the role that in-service teachers have in determining how well students achieve in the classroom. When students feel comfortable and are able to adapt in the classroom, the environment provides a more conducive learning opportunity. The teachers became the deciding factor in student’s achievement in the classroom.
Teachers and Multicultural Education In the beginning, in-service teachers seemed to be one of the difficult hurdles in adapting multicultural education in the classroom. Many of the teachers had already developed a certain environment in the classroom and felt that the reform was a distraction to what they had created. Some teachers resisted changing their curriculum to truly following the ideals of multicultural education. Those who were not resistant to the change

Get Access