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Multicultural Education

Dr. Tonja L. Root

Department of Early Childhood

and Reading Education

Valdosta State University

Valdosta, GA 31698

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Causes of Prejudice in Children

Natural tendency to evaluate & categorize people

Natural tendency to adopt the attitude of respected adults & other children

Relationship between personal identity & need for group membership

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The Statistics

By 2000 33% of children in school will be nonwhite.

By 2020 50% will be nonwhite.

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Multicultural Education Goals

To develop more positive attitudes toward different cultural, racial, & ethnic groups

To reduce prejudice: Must address cognitive, affective, and behavioral domains

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Related Goal: Critical Thinking

Open-mindednessFlexibilityRespect for other viewpoints

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Phase 1: Bombardment of Experiences

Students participate in variety of ethnic experiences: exposure to diversity.

Teacher reads aloud books focusing on children from diverse American cultures.

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Phase 1: Bombardment of Experiences (cont.)

Experiences: guest speakers, field trips, events for children, ethnic music

Shared book experience (page 253)

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Phase 2: Focusing through Guided & Individual Reading

1 Students decide on cultural group.

2 Teacher divides class into learning teams.

3 Teacher assigns 1-2 books/ team.

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Phase 2: Focusing through Guided & Individual Reading (cont.)

4 Each reads silently & individually.

5 Each conferences with teacher periodically to monitor comprehension.

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Phase 2: Focusing through Guided & Individual Reading+

6 When team finishes a book, teacher conducts reading conferences with that team:

Stage 1: View the character from outside. (Describe character.)

Stage 2: Compare oneself to the character. (List comparisons.)

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Phase 2: Focusing through Guided & Individual Reading+

Stage 3: Identify with the character. (How are lives are similar?)

Stage 4: Develop empathy. (Respond to hypothetical situations.)

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Phase 3: Point of View

Achieve goals:1 to facilitate a deeper

understanding of point of view

2 to discuss the concepts explicitly

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Phase 3: Point of View (cont.)

3 to move students from their own points of view to viewing life from the perspectives of people different from them-selves

(4 activities, p. 257-258)Provide meaning of “point of

view” & relate it back to char-acters in books read (Phase 2)

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Phase 4: Creating a Character through Language

Experience1 Ask questions to help students

imagine their own characters, visualize settings, & view world from characters’ perspectives.

(Questions, p. 259)2 Compile portfolio of character

data sheets (p. 260); drawings of character, family, friends; etc.

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Phase 4: Creating a Character through Language Experience+

3 Students meet in teams of characters’ cultural group to introduce them so that all team members & imagine each as a real person.

4 Students dictate their stories (LEA) & do process writing.

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Phase 4: Creating a Character through Language Experience +

Students share with class-mates; compile stories into book; & present them to parents, other students, & teachers.

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Extension: The Multicultural Community

1 Students decide which characters might live in same community (including a variety of cultural groups).

2 Arranged in community groups, students discuss & visualize community: setting, name, relationships, interactions.

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Extension: The Multicultural Community (cont.)

3 Students create group stories (LEA), revise, edit, & share.

4 Teacher conducts debriefing sessions in groups & with class. (questions, p. 262-263)

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Sequence Flexibility

Sequencing of the phases leads students in a gradual manner from viewing character from an external point of view to developing empathy & viewing world from character’s perspective.

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Sequence Flexibility (cont.)

This sequence need not be followed in a lockstep manner.

Students should grasp the concept of “point of view.”

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