Group items tagged

Although supporters of detracking believe that it leads to greater social equity, we must carefully examine the research, which suggests that tracking reform has potential dangers.

Just as there are several conceptualizations for multicultural education (see Defining Multicultural Education), there are several perceptions as to what constitutes multicultural curriculum transformation. Approaches for multicultural curriculum transformation range from slight curricular changes to a fully-revised social awareness and action conceptualizations. James Banks (1993), Peggy McIntosh (2000) and others have formulated continuums for curricular reform that help move transformation efforts from the former toward the latter. The following stages of curriculum transformation have been adapted from several existing models including those by Banks (1993) and McIntosh (2000).

This resource provides a brief overview of the four approaches to multicultural curriculum reform (Banks, 1999).

"Multicultural education means different things to different people. However, the differences are not as great, confusing, or contradictory as some critics and analysts claim. Many of these differences are more semantic than substantive, a reflection of the developmental level in the field and the disciplinary orientation of advocates. One should expect people who have been involved in a discipline or educational movement for a long time to understand and talk about it differently from those who are new to it. Similarly, educators who look at schooling from the vantage point of sociology, psychology, or economics will have differing views of the key concerns of schooling. Yet, these disparate analysts may agree on which issues are the most critical ones. Such differences over means coupled with widespread agreement on substance are naturally found in discussions of multicultural education. But this diversity should not be a problem, especially when we consider that multicultural education is all about plurality. The field includes educational scholars, researchers, and practitioners from a wide variety of personal, professional, philosophical, political, and pedagogical backgrounds. Therefore, we should expect that they will use different points of reference in discussing ethnic diversity and cultural pluralism. Yet, when allowances are made for these differences, a consensus on the substantive components of multicultural education quickly emerges. Such agreement is evident in areas such as the key content dimensions, value priorities, the justification for multicultural education, and its expected outcomes. Only when these fundamentals are articulated do variations emerge. Some advocates talk about expected outcomes, while others consider the major determining factor to be the group being studied; the arena of school action is the primary focus for one set of advocates, and still others are most concerned with distinctions between theory and practice. Some people

Rethinking Schools began as a local effort to address problems such as basal readers, standardized testing, and textbook-dominated curriculum. Since its founding, it has grown into a nationally prominent publisher of educational materials, with subscribers in all 50 states, all 10 Canadian provinces, and many other countries. While the scope and influence of Rethinking Schools has changed, its basic orientation has not. Most importantly, it remains firmly committed to equity and to the vision that public education is central to the creation of a humane, caring, multiracial democracy. While writing for a broad audience, Rethinking Schools emphasizes problems facing urban schools, particularly issues of race. Throughout its history, Rethinking Schools has tried to balance classroom practice and educational theory. It is an activist publication, with articles written by and for teachers, parents, and students. Yet it also addresses key policy issues, such as vouchers and marketplace-oriented reforms, funding equity, and school-to-work. Brazilian educator Paulo Freire wrote that teachers should attempt to "live part of their dreams within their educational space." Rethinking Schools believes that classrooms can be places of hope, where students and teachers gain glimpses of the kind of society we could live in and where students learn the academic and critical skills needed to make that vision a reality. Rethinking Schools attempts to be both visionary and practical: visionary because we need to be inspired by each other's vision of schooling; practical because for too long, teachers and parents have been preached at by theoreticians, far-removed from classrooms, who are long on jargon and short on specific examples.

"This toolkit is designed to help decision-makers, advocates, and elected officials get better results in their work by providing equitable opportunities for all. The toolkit presents a specific point of view on addressing unequal opportunities by race and offers simple, results-oriented steps to help you achieve your goals."

This resource gives you access to Chapter 1. Definitions of Multicultural Education from Reissman's (1994) book titled "Evolving Multicultural Classroom".

As state-defined standards of learning and standardized tests become more and more closely identified as measures of achievement, not only for students, but also for teachers, administrators, schools and school districts, teachers are feeling less empowered to employ creative means for make their curricula more inclusive and accessible to all students. Even as the Internet and other new educational media broaden classroom access to a virtually endless stream of new resources, perspectives, and interactive capabilities, most curricula are necessarily built around textbooks and standardized tests. These and other contextual factors highlight some of the formidable challenges to any process of curriculum transformation. An additional set of challenges emerges when one attempts to develop a process for curriculum transformation within a multicultural education paradigm. One such challenge is a set of critiques regarding multicultural education, usually coming from educational conservatives. (These critiques and responses to them are listed here.) A second challenge is a lack of training or preparation on the part of teachers for developing inclusive multicultural curricula, and a lack of training or preparation on the part of administrators to support teachers in such efforts. This section of the Multicultural Pavilion will serve as a starting point for teachers who, despite these challenges, are determined to create a more inclusive, multicultural curriculum for their students.