Multicultural Literacy

“Multicultural education is an essential component of school reform. Nevertheless, when it is mentioned, many people first think of lessons in human relations and sensitivity training, units about ethnic holidays, education in inner-city schools, or food festivals. If multicultural education is limited to these issues, the potential for substantive change in schools is severely diminished” (Nieto, 2012, pp. 40).

When I first started this class I was aware of multicultural curriculum but I was not aware of how important it was in a classroom setting. As the weeks have gone by in this class, I have learned that multicultural curriculum is important because it 's a way for teachers to include all children from diverse backgrounds. As we 've have progressed in the study of multicultural curriculum we have learned to address important topics such as biases, social justice, stereotypes, the development of identity and how to communicate with parents.

In their paper, “Heightening Awareness about the Importance of Using Multicultural Literature,” the authors, Susan A. Colby and Anna F. Lyon, express the importance of how teachers should provide multicultural literature in today’s classrooms, and how the role of literature of this type plays an essential role in the lives of children.

According to Sonia Nieto, the definition of multicultural education is defined in sociopolitical context and relates to comprehension of school reform. Namely, the multicultural education works in reforming schools and providing an equal and excellent education for everyone. Likewise, the author gave a definition of multicultural education based on her experience surrounding education environment. She divides multicultural education into seven basic characteristics: antiracist education, basic education, important for all students, pervasive, education for social justice, a process, and critical pedagogy (Nieto & Bode, 2012).

I found the subject in this paper to be very fascinating. The subject of this particular paper is multicultural education. According to book,” multicultural education is defined as a process of educational reforms that assures that students from all groups (racial, ethnic, socioeconomic, gender, etc) experience educational equality, success, and social mobility (Cushner, K. pg.22).” In my finding of the little community of Gatesville was not very much cultural diversity.

For many decades now there has been a scope of definition for what “literacy” incorporates and those are the basics skills like reading, writing, and a variety of social and intellectual practices which involve basic communication skills, and hand and eye coordination. However, with the world of technology continually growing, and the level of diversity in the student population becoming vaster it has become necessary to also include speaking, listening, viewing, and visually aspects to the curriculum. One of the best ways to address a wide range of literacy is to pair the categories with each other based upon their connections in the real world. The categories include written language (reading & writing), spoken communication (listening & speaking), and visual language (viewing & visually representing). (Standards for the English Language Arts p. 6) Many of these can be done with a range of creative activities such as students being able to choose what they write about, share their own personal experiences in their writings, and then read them together; this helps the students stay engaged in the work they’re doing, and also increases their level of retention of the material. The importance of a student being engaged is best explained in the article “Adolescent Literacy: A Policy Brief” with, “The number of students who are not engaged with or motivated by school learning grows at

We are obliged to make sure that every child gets a healthy start in life. With all of our wealth and capacity, we just can’t stand by idly.

Reading and writing is crucial for increasing achievement among people of all ethnicities. For many young kids, books are their primary source of learning how to read and write besides the parameter of the classroom. However, there is a significant decrease in the literacy rate found in African-American communities. There is a need for stronger literacy education for this particular group of the population. A huge problem associated with that can be attributed the failure of the public school system to effectively educate the youth. According to the 2009 NAEP data, only 33 percent of 4th graders and 32 percent of 8th graders in the U.S performed at or above proficiency in reading on national tests. These results are very discouraging, in the African-American community, but the results are even worse because only 16 percent of African American 4th graders and 14 percent of African American 8th graders performed at or above the grade proficiency level in 2009.

The American population is becoming more and more diverse due to the rapid growth in immigration and the birth rates between diverse groups in the United States. The continued growth in the numbers of individuals and families from diverse backgrounds challenges counselors’ ability to meet the needs of a growing and diverse society. Multicultural competence is a key factor in enabling counselors to be effective with clients from different cultures. Multicultural competence means to approach the counseling process from the context of the personal culture of the client (Sue, Arrendondo & McDavis, 1994; Sue & Sue, 2007). In order to be effective when working with people with diverse cultural backgrounds, the American Counseling Association has

To understand more about school dropout I continue to search for more articles in academic search premier, and then I ran into article written by Azzam, Amy M. The author states that, a “Divers youth, ages 16-25, who had failed to complete high school.” The author discovered that approximately “About one-third of all high school students in the United Sates fail to graduate” (91). Based on this article, the dropout rates vary among the races. The dropout rate among Black and Hispanic are fifty percent. She describes that the reasons for students dropping out from high school are including, “Students were bored, missed too many days, spent time with people who weren’t interested in school, had too much freedom, and not supervision.”

The multicultural curriculum has its roots in the history of multicultural education which follows the history of the US civil rights movement (Fillion, n.d). The desegregation practices during the 1950s were established in order to provide equal education for all individuals, regardless of race or any other demographic considerations. The 1960s and 1970s, desegregation practices expanded to include application in seeking equity of all students in terms of their human rights (Banks, 2000). With the focus on human rights, multicultural concerns in education were considered, recognizing the importance of establishing awareness in a culturally diverse community. The changes in the teaching curriculum came under the collective heading of multiculturalism. These changes were also apparent in Britain and in Australia just as they were unfolding in the US (Lynch, 1983). The educational authorities recognized the fact that the curriculum must come from the social and the ethical concepts being seen in the multicultural setting. Various references to the inherent value of all human beings were also highlighted, and this attached value was also seen in the human rights movement in the 1960s and 1970s (Lynch, 1983). In these states, the focus was on acknowledging the need for the multicultural curriculum and for teachers to support and promote such a program. Research was then carried out and workshops with teachers implemented. Such actions were able to establish that even as

In this essay, I will be exploring the implication of assessing culturally diverse students, and the challenges that an assessor may experience during the assessment process. It will then look at how I have been empowered through researching information and enriching my knowledge of the assessment process and the pedagogy of the group of students that I work with, through three modules that I have studied this year with the support of Chester University.

The United States serves as a culturally rich country who opens its arms to individuals from many different ethnicities, backgrounds, and life experiences. It seeks to be the melting pot of a blended group of people, providing opportunity and equity for all. Consequently, our educational system is the cornerstone for providing equal opportunity for all persons. Therefore, as the United States continues to be immersed with individuals from various cultures, the educational system must consistently seek to assure that educational opportunities are equally distributed to our students. In order for this task to be accomplished, developing a well-defined illustration of what multicultural education is necessary.

As travel and communication have become faster and easier, interaction between people of different cultures has become more and more common. It was once the case that different cultures remained mostly separate from each other, whether due to war, geographic reasons, or beliefs in keeping ethnic purity. Trade and immigration have brought together people of diverse cultures and backgrounds, making communication between people of different cultures unavoidable.

and curriculum. The discussion of the historical and philosophical background of multicultural education teaches educators how race and culture influence educational policy and programs. Multicultural teaching and curriculum is also crucial for the development of equitable education for diverse students. The author asserts that multicultural education can lessen biases while also furthering democratic beliefs and practices among students. The text’s discussion of multicultural education is significant to the field of multicultural education as it demonstrates how multicultural educational practices help students become culturally literate and prepared for today’s diverse and globalized world.